Where In the World Are James, Maija, Elin and Anikka?: Fall fun

As usual, I’m way behind on my blog. But I want keep our travel “journal” up to date (somewhat) and I always love going back to read about our adventures. So here are the trips we have done August - November 2022.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Park

August 14, 2022

You know I call myself a “National Parks Nerd”, right? Because Anikka had a free 4th grade pass this year we were able to go to 15 National Parks. Her pass was only good through August so the girls and I took a day trip to one last park before the pass expired. It was only a couple hour drive from our house.

Here is the picture of her with her pass when we got it in June at Trunk Bay USVI and her last visit with the pass in August in Florissant CO.

Aspen, Colorado

October 14-15, 2022

We wanted to see the Colorado fall colors so we took a quick overnight trip to Aspen. We stopped for a picnic lunch before driving over Independance pass.

It was a beautiful drive coming into Aspen. It's hard to capture the real beauty in a picture.

We got to Aspen with just enough time to catch the shuttle to Maroon Bells. It was mid afternoon by the time we got there. My pictures were not great with the location of the sun....

So I borrowed this one from the internet. It was very beautiful in person.

We walked around the lake, I remember that it smelled good ( like Aspen leaves) and was very peaceful.

We had dinner in Aspen and looked around town.

We stayed the night in Snowmass where we found delicious breakfast crepes and so many beautiful colors.

We stopped by Buttermilk, because Corinne and Gwynn (the AG dolls) are from Aspen and they ski at Buttermilk...

then a stop in Idaho Springs at our favorite pizza place, Beau Jo’s, before heading home.

Vail, Colorado

November 11-13, 2022

This year James and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary (on Nov 10th) so we took an anniversary weekend trip to Vail. My sister, Leina, flew into town to take care of the girls for the weekend. James and I had a very relaxing and lovely time in Vail. I didn't take many pictures, just enjoyed our time together.

The girls had an AMAZING time with Aunt Leina.

Denver, Colorado

November 20 - 21, 2022

To kick off Thanksgiving break and the Christmas season, we got tickets to see Pentatonix Christmas (one of their their favorite bands). It was the first "real" concert for our girls. Since the concert was going to be late, we stayed overnight in Denver at a hotel near the venue. This also required dinner at our favorite restaurant True Food.

The show was amazing and the girls LOVED it, except they got a little tired about half way through. Thank heavens for the hotel just across the street instead of a 1.5 hour drive home.