As I was on the computer searching for a couple of small day trips to occupy this time, I found myself googling the length of the drive from our home to my brother's new home in the suburbs of Denver, CO. A 24 hour drive..........I let this information sit around in my head for a few days before I mentioned it to anyone.
"What do you think about driving to Tommy's house?" I asked Bob one day as he walked in the door from work. "How long does it take?" "It's a 24 hour drive." This quick conversation was responded with a "Sure!" from Bob. I'm not even sure that this was the answer that I really wanted. I also let this sit in Bob's head for a couple of more days before we discussed it further.
Bob didn't change his mind, he was up for the challenge. "We have to rent a van" was his only request. I called my mom, if we were to take this drive without her, well, I'm pretty sure that she would have been upset with us for an extremely long time. She was literally screaming in my ear during the phone call. "Calm down, I still have to talk with Tom."
To say that my brother was excited during our phone conversation is an underestimation!! The poor man was jumping for joy. The only problem for him was waiting for the next few weeks to drag by so that he could see his family again that he has been missing for almost two years!!!
We were discussing plans while my mom and aunt were visiting, I asked my aunt if she wanted to go too. After all, we had an extra seat, my mom decided that she would rent a van as her gift to the trip. My aunt Mimi, my mom's sister, said yes, she would like to go too! Plan made!! A full van of family on a cross country road trip to Denver, CO. Oh no, let the worrying begin......what if Bobby doesn't want any of this!! What if we have to turn around and head home? What if????? What if???? What if??
The time to leave came quickly for me, as I knew it would, because Bobby still had summer school, his therapy, swimming at Krepps and Stepping Stones and I had a trip to plan! We loaded up the van, which by the way, I loved more than I had ever anticipated!! We were off on the first leg of our 24 hour drive.
Bobby did AWESOME!!!! This kid totally gets the award for best kid car tripper ever!!! He loved watching the world go by from the back row of the mini van!! He watched his iPad, Elmo movies on the van's DVD player, listed to Laurie Berkner CDs, and had a grand old time!
We didn't know that a kid could be such a wonderful car rider!! He was more than happy to get out at each stop we made and go potty and get something to eat.
And, to the states that put playgrounds at their rest areas/welcome centers....Thank You!! What a great thing! He could go run around the playground for 15 minutes and get some energy out and really stretch his legs. He also loved the hotels. He didn't want the pools as I had anticipated, he seemed to just want to stretch out in bed and watch Jeopardy if at all possible.
We arrived on Sunday evening. As Sunday went on, we decided to not drag the road trip out another day, just do it and get the driving done in two days instead of the three day plan. Day two of the drive was BORING. Driving through Kansas was brutal!! Flat corn fields and windmills for hour after hour after hour. Funny thing about driving through Colorado to Denver, it is flat as a pancake. It is so flat that you don't even realize that you are driving at a slight incline the entire distance. The elevation change is felt in your need to drink water. We all drank a lot of water the first couple of days, which made it very hard to be too far away from a bathroom!!!!!!
On our first full day in Colorado, Tom took us to Red Rocks Amphitheater. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Someone looked at this place one day and said, "this would be a great place for musical concerts" and they put in a stage, some seating and big name acts love to come here to play. Not sure where they all park!! LOL!!! The views at Red Rocks are just spectacular!!
Hey, wait a second, that isn't the happy couple.......well, really they were a pretty happy couple throughout our entire trip!!! LOL!!!
We pulled over to the side of the road to get out for a few pictures, I didn't get Bobby out of the car for this photo session since we were right on the road.
Probably my favorite picture from the trip, Uncle Tom with Grandma Carolyn
Bob and Me
Grandma Carolyn with her beloved selfie stick!!
Mimi
Bobby was excited to get out of the car and wasn't the least bit afraid. He actually wanted to get onto the other side of the barrier wall!! Let's talk altitude.....WOW!! We were all yawning and felt worn out. Walking to the bathroom was a total chore!! Chewing our lunch was also a chore!!
ELK!!
The boys trying to get Bobby to put his feet in the ice cold water!! It was a 96 degree day at Tom's house, but in the mid-50s in the mountains. What a difference!!!
On our first full day in Colorado, Tom took us to Red Rocks Amphitheater. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Bob and Bobby holding up a rock!!
My beloved husband, Bob
Uncle Tom and Bobby
Yoga day at the Red Rocks.......with a large tourist audience!
Uncle Tom and Bobby
Bobby and Daddy
Mimi with her photobombing nephew, Tom
Grandma Carolyn and Mimi
Tom, Mimi and Grandma Carolyn
My brother and me!!
Tom gave us a quick driving tour of Denver before heading home for the rest of the day to just relax and get adjusted to the new altitude and wait for Tiffani, Tom's long time girlfriend, to get home from work. Bobby quickly fell in love with the sliding glass door in their new home. His second favorite place in the house was the unfinished basement. Bobby would go downstairs to the basement, cool off, and get away from the crowd. He also played with Jack, Tom and Tiffani's dog, who by the way, looks extremely similar to our own Zoi!!
Tuesday, August, 4, our second full day in Colorado, was my wedding anniversary. To celebrate, Grandma Carolyn and Mimi watched Bobby so that Bob and I could go out for dinner in Denver with Tom and Tiffani. Shockingly, I have zero pictures of the dinner, but we did have a pre-date photo session!!
That's more like it!! Happy Anniversary!!!
If you are ever in Denver and searching for a great place to eat, the Cherry Creek Grill was incredible!! On Wednesday, we took another sight seeing trip while Tiffani went to work. The destination this time.....Rocky Mountain National Park. Yes, we were going higher into the mountains!!
Me with my brother and my mom!
We drove further up the mountain, man was the altitude getting to us!!! We pulled off into a parking lot to get some more picture, use the facilities and eat some lunch.
After lunch we went higher into the mountains!! The highest elevation paved road in the United States. The yawns were getting huge!! I couldn't have worked a math problem to save my life!! My brother, who is used to the high altitude, was also struggling at 11,000 feet up. My poor mom was suffering the most. Bob had to help her to the car following a bathroom break and she finally just layed her seat back to rest in the car.
For some unknown reason, there was a traffic jam at the top elevation. We have no idea if there was a wreck, road work....we just don't know. Someone who was coming the other way said that there was an hour wait. My brother turned the van around on a two lane road with no guardrails and a MAJOR dropoff!! There were screams from the back of the van, but he turned it around perfectly and we started back down the mountain. Clapping from everyone in the van on a job well done!! We were all ready to get down to just 6,000 feet elevation!! Amazing how much better we all felt the lower we went in the mountain. We stopped close to the bottom for another potty break (the entire trip in the mountain was a few hours). We were happily surprised to find this stop to be the Junior Ranger Station. Fun!!!
Such a beautiful day and amazing scenery!!!! Time to go back home and rest!! Luckily for Bobby, there was a small playground 6 houses away from Uncle Tom's house. Bobby loved this little playground. Just enough room to jump around, slide, and get some energy out away from the crowd of the house.
The big plan for Thursday????? My niece, Tom's daughter, Ashley arrived!! She flew in Thursday morning, Tiffani took the rest of the week off of work (Tom works from home), and there was a big party planned at the house for Tom and Tiffani's families to finally meet!!
I guess I probably should mention, just in case you missed this fact along the way, Bobby is on the more severe end of the autism spectrum and doesn't tend to do too well with crowds, especially of new people. I was happy that Bobby loved the basement of the house and was sure that he would spend a lot of his time during the party down there away from the crowd. However he surprised all of us and stayed close. When he needed to get away, he ventured into the master bedroom, which is right off of the main living area, and he was away from the crowd but at the same time could still see what was going on at party time.
Bobby also spent a lot of the party time in the back yard, laughing and jumping and really enjoying it all! He really liked when the rest of the kids were all outside too!!
Tom's mom and Tiffani's dad......see any resemblance???!!!!
HOW SWEET!! All of the kids, including Jack the dog, picture perfect. One of the little girls at the party, thought that my niece Ashley, holding Bobby's hand, was one of the Disney Frozen Princesses. She was sure that the princess was in the house and never left her side!!
A super fun, perfect party evening!!
My other niece, Tom's daughter Kaitlin, was supposed to fly in on Thursday but got stuck at work and didn't get to come to Denver. Boo hiss....the only bad thing that happened during this trip!!
The next big plan for our vacation, go to Winter Park, CO and spend a couple of days at Tiffani's dad's mountain home.
The drive to Winter Park was beautiful, until we were stopped for road construction and one of our riders had to pee in the worst way!!!
First time that we had to take 2 cars, Tom, Bob, and Jack were leading the way.
Finally, bathroom success!!!!
We visited the cutest little Colorado town, Grand Lakes and did some sight seeing and shopping.
Then back to the house for some dinner and a walk around the neighborhood.
We started up the hill at the end of our driveway.
Such beautiful houses in the neighborhood!!!!!!
Then we went out to the super beautiful open field........PERFECT for family pictures!!!!!!!!
First up.....Jack!
Good boy!!
We continued our walk. I wanted to change clothes before more family pictures.
We went back to the house for the evening played some games and opened some gifts. All of the girls got an Alex and Ani initial bracelet to commemorate the occasion.
The next morning, we got ready and went back to the open field for some family picture time.
We then went to the Winter Park Resort. Such an absolutely beautiful resort. Worth the trip just to see their flower arrangements in the park. There were mountain bikers going up chair lifts as well as their bikes to ride down the mountain trails. People were also going up the chair lifts to ride the Alpine sleds down the mountain....this is where, unfortunately my camera battery died and I have zero pictures of my family riding the sleds.....so unlike me!!! Bobby could be found in the bouncy house in the middle of all of the fun!!!
After all of the fun at the resort, we were off to The Library for dinner. Bobby went into the restaurant, where were got a table for 8, sat extremely well while we waited for over 30 minutes for our meals and he even sat and ate his food extremely well. So proud of his behavior!!
It was time to leave Winter Park, go back to Tom's for the night and get up bright and early for the next part of our trip. We decided to leave on Sunday morning so that Tom, Tiffani and Ashley could have the day to do something fun while we headed north 7 hours to stop off and see Mount Rushmore. The closer we got to South Dakota, it became apparent that the Sturgis Motorcycle Festival was going on......motorcycles everywhere!!! We made it to Mount Rushmore with no problem!!
From Mount Rushmore, we turned the van east and drove towards West Virginia!!! Amazingly, we were gone for 11 days and had less than an hour of rain the entire time we were gone. We didn't get lost once!!! Zero car problems, zero hotel problems, extremely little traffic issues. This trip honestly couldn't have gone any better. We were all just so proud of Bobby's behavior and his handling of all of this break from his normal routine. He seemed to love the travel and all of he new experiences!!!
Now, I feel like I need a vacation to rest up from this family trip!!!!!!!!!!!
The next big plan for our vacation, go to Winter Park, CO and spend a couple of days at Tiffani's dad's mountain home.
Tom and Tiffani
Tom, Tiffani and Jack........soooo cute!
Good bye Denver!!!
Now, I feel like I need a vacation to rest up from this family trip!!!!!!!!!!!
