Westcliffe '07

This weekend we went to Westcliffe, CO with the Wilson family. You may remember last October when Mike and Dwayne went to Westcliffe to work on the cabin Dwayne was building for his parents. The cabin is finally finished enough to use for vacation!

We made it to the cabin around 1:30 am (mountain time) on Friday morning. It was a HUGE relief to make it there as we had spent 6 of the last 8 hours listening to Brody cry about having to stay in his car seat. All 9 of us fit in the Tahoe Dwayne borrowed from his parents...so everyone had the joy of listening to Brody cry. I was glad that the Wilson kids didn't seem to notice and slept thru the major screaming!

When we woke up Friday morning I looked out the window and saw a gorgeous view of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Dwayne made pancakes for the hungry crew.
Then we headed outside! (I'm sure you'll notice Brody's nose. Apparently he fell down at the nursery at church on Wednesday night and got a nice rug burn on his nose! It scabbed up nicely by the time we arrived in Colorado).
The main task of the morning was to finish a tree house for the kids that Dwayne had started on a previous trip. Everyone got to help. Sydney, Taya, and Tyus all used the hand saw to cut boards to size (with Mike's help). Cedric was trying to help Dwayne nail them together. I took pictures (of course) while Brody played with the pine cones.
Isn't this the coolest tree house you've ever seen!!! (Notice how Sydney and Taya were starting to decorate with pine cones they had collected.)
Friday afternoon, Mike and Dwayne worked on a deck on the back of the cabin while Rene and I kept an eye on all the kids. When they got the deck finished, Mike and I took Brody on a walk while Dwayne and Rene played cards with their kids. The weather was gorgeous (in the 50's) and Brody enjoyed riding on Mike's shoulders.

The wind died down around sunset on Friday night which enabled us to have a fire and roast marshmallows! The kids were soooo excited to have smores (so were the adults)!
Saturday morning Mike and Dwayne went to Brush Creek to fish. The weather was much nicer than last year and they caught over 30 fish between the two of them! While they were gone Ben, Julie, and Malachi arrived at the cabin. The kids spent the day playing outside. Rene, Julie, Ben, and I sat outside watching them and talking for awhile...then we went inside to play cards.

When Mike and Dwayne got back to the cabin we loaded up the kids and went to Westcliffe to go bowling. For a SMALL town...they have a HUGE bowling alley!

We played guys vs. girls. Dwayne had 6 strikes. Nuf said! The guys easily beat the girls! The kids had lots of fun playing...but after one game we were all ready for dinner!
Ben, Julie, & Malachi at the bowling alley.

Saturday night we put the kids to bed and then Dwayne, Rene, Ben, Julie, Mike, and I stayed up late playing cards and laughing/talking. I'll just say that Dwayne was much better at bowling than he was a cards ;) We were in bed by 11:30 pm. That's where the fun ended!!!

Brody was awake and crying (hard) by midnight. By 1:30 am Dwayne and Rene had joined us downstairs in the living room. Brody was awake and playing like it was the middle of the day! We decided to just pack up the car (which took 2 hours) and head for home. By 4:00 am (mountain time) we had all the kids loaded up and were headed for Kansas. As we pulled onto the highway...it started snowing! It made us a little sad that we wouldn't get to see the cabin in the snow.

We made it home by 1:30 pm (CST) and by 2:30 Brody was taking a nap. He woke up from his nap and wouldn't stop crying! He was pulling on his ear...so we think he has an ear infection. I'm staying home from work with him today to try to let him get well. He has a low grade fever this morning...but he's not screaming crying right now (just won't let me out of his sight and wants me to carry him around the house without putting him down). If he gets worse this morning, I'm sure we'll be making a trip to the doctor.