The Settlemeyers: South Fork, Colorado

A week after the bay trip, we loaded up and hit the road to South Fork, Colorado! Josh and his best friend, Chris Ostermann, both turned 40 the same week. So for their 40th, they wanted to have a family trip to the mountains with lots of fishing!

Drew thought he was giving a thumbs up!

We bought him new headphones (which only lasted about 1 minute!) But isn't he the cutest?!?

We stopped in Lubbock and I was able to get together with a friend of mine whom I have known since the age of 5! We went to school kindergarten-12th grade together. And my mom was his 2nd grade teacher, and his mom was my 3rd grade teacher. It was such a great visit!

His daughter Hallie with my three (I think they liked each other!)

The next day we drove to New Mexico. We saw signs of Billy the Kid's grave so we had to stop and take a look!

Drew took his shoes off and played in the dirt and rocks!

Stopping for lunch on Route 66 (but I would not recommend this place. Yuck)

We then went to the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM. It was really pretty, but really cold!!

Josh and Connor jumped from the cliff!

Reid and Drew dipped their feet in the water.

We crossed paths with the Ostermanns and the kids all got to swim together.

That evening, we stopped in Taos. Dede took a picture of the sky not realizing Drew and I were down below!

Back at the restaurant, these wild ones were having fun together!

Up the next morning, ready for Colorado!!

We stopped off at the Royal Gorge bridge. It was scary but beautiful!!!!

We made it to South Fork!!!!

We rented a house for a week, and this was the view from the living room.

The front of the house

The back of the house with the Rio Grande river running right behind

Drew playing peek-a-boo!

Connor didn't waste any time getting out the fishing pole

The kids loved playing in the cold water!

The big, serious fishermen

But the highlight came when Connor caught this big trout bare handed!!!!!

He was SOOO proud (as were his daddy and Chris!!)

He didn't want to put the fish away. He left it in his lap like a pet!!!

Helping Josh cook the fish

And it was delish!!!

We then made brownies for the new 40 year olds!

Lordy, Lordy...

One of my favorite things about Colorado is going on hikes & long walks.

This was the road that led to our house

We were met with horses nearby

We enjoyed playing games too!

We rode the Silverton/Durango train

We took the bus up, and the train back down

Choo Choo!

Striking a pose

There was a bath and body shop in Silverton that had a bubble machine so Drew had fun there!

The kids mining for gold!

Ostermanns and Settlemeyers

On the train ready to go!

So here's the backstory. We left our house at 5:45am because we were booked to take the train up at 8:00am, then bus back at noon. Unfortunately, about 30 minutes outside of Durango, we came up a fatal accident and the road was completely shut down. We didn't get to Durango until around 8:45. Luckily, we got the last seats on the bus going up and the train going back. The only catch was that we had 2.5 hours to kill in Silverton (and there's not much to do there! In fact, there's not even a stop light!) It was hot, everyone was tired. So this is what happened on the train ride back to Durango:

It took Drew approximately 60 seconds to fall asleep

Notice Will asleep in the background too!

Reid still holding onto his cheetos

Connor

Audrey

While they napped, I took pictures of beautiful scenery

We finally had to wake up our 3 kids!

When we got back to the station we noticed a forest fire outside of Durango. After we ate and drove 2 hours through the mountains, we finally returned home around midnight. It was a long day!

Drew doing his "crazy eyes"

The next evening we roasted s'mores! Sadly it didn't last long because we were getting attacked by hundreds of mosquitos (and bug repellent didn't work!)