We made it to Breckenridge!  Many things are the same as back in 1997 when I had my 20 months here as a 22 year old.  My friends that still live here tell me about all the change- I can see how much more development there is but it still feels like the same place to me.  Ah- the joys of being a tourist and only see the rosy picture!

First, though, I have some fun photos to share of our trip across the country.   We drove 1549.21 miles in three days and it really wasn’t all that bad.  We drove the furthest, all the way to St. Louis, on the first day.  My husband booked a hotel in historic St Charles which was totally beautiful! This might be the first time we have ever fallen into such a wonderful location.  he said “I saw historic and right off the highway and I thought it might be nice!”  St Charles was one of the stops by Lewis and Clark and was a trading town for the explorers and pioneers.  It is right along the Missouri river.  It has been swallowed up by St. Louis but is still a beautiful little town in its own right.  Here is a pic early in the morning before we left.  It was 4 degrees!

Below is another photo from that very chilly morning.  The Missouri river has frosty fog coming off it.  This must be a wonderful place to spend time when its warm!!The next day we traveled through Missouri, met old friends for lunch in Kansas City and then made our way to Salina, KS to stay the night.  The drive to Salina was very flat and exactly what you would think Kansas would look like.  We did see some beautiful preserved prairie along I-70.  In Salina we went to have burgers at the famous Cozy Inn (OK- I didn’t realize it was famous until I looked up someplace to eat on Trip Advisor).   Apparently this place has been on all sorts of burger joint shows, etc.  It was really fun and felt like a throw back in time.  This photo below is from Kansas Travel since it was dark and we couldn’t get one ourselves.  They serve small burgers which you order by the dozen!

  The last day of our trip was spent driving through the rest of Kansas and into Colorado.   I could not get over the wind mills in Kansas and then also in Colorado.  They were so huge and I must have seen 1000 of them!

When we finally got to Colorado, at first it seemed even flatter than Kansas.  We kept telling the kids to watch for the mountains.  The sight of the Rocky Mountains coming up out of those flat plains never ceases to amaze…

Then getting closer on such a beautiful blue sky day had us all ohhh ing and ahh ing for the last hour and half of the trip.  This did not mean that the kids did not complain and bicker on the last leg since they were totally exhausted!

We finally arrived in town and found our little condo.  We walked down to town and had a great dinner and all that exhaustion from the car trip disappeared.  These 2 below are all smiles…

This morning we rode the free gondola from town up to the mountain.  It was so cool!  And right now the big kids are out skiing with my husband.  Making their way to the BLUE slopes was the goal today!

So, things are going well!  Yes- I am already missing my home and my routine.  Yes- we have already had some frustration about learning math.  Yes,  I am working hard not to totally blow my budget and not freak out about how expensive everything is.  Yes,  I still lose my patience and the kids still argue with each other.  But, I think its all worth the adventure!  More soon…

By the way, I forgot my nice camera 🙁  so all photos are with my iPhone.