Visitors + Glenwood Springs + Aspen = FUN!

Hold on, this is going to be a long post! We've had a busy, exciting week. Olivia's Mamaw and Papaw (Michael's parents) visited this week. While they were here, we traveled to Glenwood Springs, which is about 2.5 hours west of Denver. We also hit Aspen on the way back. More on that later!
We picked them up at the airport Monday and spent the evening at home. Olivia did pretty well, letting them hold her and playing with them. We left Tuesday morning for our adventure. Now, if you don't live in Colorado, you aren't aware of the rapidly changing weather. It was in the high 70's Monday and in the low 50's when we left Tuesday and pretty much stayed there the entire drive, along with some rain. Olivia had a cough and runny nose, which we blamed on allergies. She did pretty well on the drive.
We got to our hotel and took her to the indoor waterpark (waterpark is stretching it, but she liked it) for an hour or two, then went to dinner. Meals are a toss up with her right now. Sometimes she's fine, sometimes we have to take turns taking her outside. During this meal, we had outside time. :)
I love to travel and research wherever we're going for fun, interesting things to do. Glenwood Springs is most well known for the hot springs, but I also found out Doc Holliday (you know, he was in the shoot out at the OK Corral in Arizona with Wyatt Earp? A few movies about him, too.) died there and is buried in the local cemetary. We asked around and got directions. The trail was closed for construction, but gave directions to the back entrance. We followed the directions and came across 2 locals walking their dogs. They told us it was an easy walk, maybe a quarter of a mile. Great! We got out and started on a slightly inclined path. The elevation isn't much higher than Denver, but we were all a little winded when we rounded a corner and saw this:



Call me crazy, but that's waaaaay more than a quarter of a mile and I don't call straight uphill "an easy walk." Geez. However, we decided to press on, since we had made it that far. We were all winded (except for Olivia, who was riding snugly in her Hotsling) and started walking 10 steps, resting 10 minutes. There were some nice views.





We finally make it to the top and find this:



I'm glad we went, but it was comical to read this after our hike! Locals say there was a flood and many markers were washed away, so they're not sure which grave is Doc's. Oh, well!



On the way down:



We decided we deserved ice cream after that hike and I found a new idea to get weight on Olivia:



The next day (Wednesday), we headed up to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. You have to ride this tram to get there:



Pretty neat to have an amusement park built on top of a mountain! Pretty views at the top, too:



We went on a cave tour, which was really neat. Livi did good, except for wanting to touch all the rocks, after the guide specifically asked us not to... whoops.
Waiting for the tour:



In the caverns:




This is part of the tour. It's called Exclamation Point.




There are a few more rides at the park, but a storm was rolling in, so we headed back down the mountain. We let Olivia rest for a little bit, while we waited for the storm to pass, then we headed over to the hot springs.




The springs have been visited by many famous people over the years. The Ute Indians that discovered the springs, believed they had healing powers. The current pools were built in the early 1900's and refinished in the 1950's. There are 2 pools- a "therapy" pool that is kept around 104 degrees and the regular pool that is kept at 90 degrees. The springs are piped directly into the pools. They are the biggest hot springs pools in the world, at 2 blocks long. It was amazing! If I haven't convinced you of how relaxing the hot springs are, take this picture for example:



That's Olivia. Asleep. In the pool. She stayed like that for at least 30 minutes, maybe longer. The water was very salty tasting, which she discovered when she woke up and contentedly sucked on her fingers.
After the springs, we grabbed a quick meal and headed in for the night.
The next day (Thursday), we checked out of our hotel and headed south to Aspen. Aspen is 45 miles south of Glenwood Springs, which means it's also 45 miles off Interstate 70 (the main interstate through CO). Since we were only going to be there a few hours, I looked up the one thing most people would recommend to see (gotta love Trip Advisor!). Many people recommended the tour of the Rich and Famous, where you drive by all the famous people's houses, but at $90/person, we nixed that idea. Maroon Bells was a close second. It's the most photographed area of the Rocky Mountains, for good reason. It's not far from downtown Aspen, so we headed there first.
This is the sign at the gate to the park:



Once again, a storm was blowing in, so it was windy and we didn't have very good lighting for pictures, but it was still breathtaking:





Love the different colors in the water:



Just a beautiful, peaceful place. The lake was formed by glaciers. The water was crystal clear! More pics:





This is what Maroon Bells looks like on a sunny spring day:



We next wandered around downtown Aspen and ate lunch:



Olivia was feeling a little under the weather, so we decided to head home. Now, I mentioned before that Aspen is 45 miles from the interstate. If we wanted to drive interstate the whole way home, we would have to back track to Glenwood Springs. OR, we could continue on Highway 82 through Independence Pass, which is only open Memorial Day through Labor Day and is supposed to be one of the scariest roads in Colorado. Guess what we did? Yep, not big on back-tracking here! The road really wasn't that bad. Either that or we've been on the road to Pike's Peak so many times that we're immune. It does climb pretty high in elevation and crosses the Continental Divide:



Wasn't prepared for snow when I got dressed that morning!



Nice views, again:



Colorado is a beautiful state! There was plenty of snow on the road:



We made it home safe and sound! Olivia still sounded bad to me the next morning, so we took her to the doctor. He listened to her chest and asked about her symptoms. Turns out she has croup! Poor baby. She's feeling better, we just have to watch, because it can turn into a sinus infection pretty quickly. He went ahead and checked her iron levels and they were normal! The supplement is working. The weight is another issue. 13 lbs, 11 ounces. She's up 1 ounce since her 9 month appointment (a month ago). Since her iron was normal, he pushed back her appointment on June 19th to July 10th to give me a little more time to get some weight on her. She absolutely refuses a bottle and will only drink water out of a sippy. I'm thinking he might put her on whole milk a little early, but we'll see. I just don't think she's going to gain the pound and a half he wants her to by July 10th.
It was our company's last day, so we headed to the zoo for a little while (are you noticing a trend here? We have a membership to the zoo, so I get in free and I can bring a guest for free. If you visit us, there's a good chance you'll go to the zoo. Livi loves it!).
So, that was our exciting week! She's feeling much better now. Is there anything cuter than a baby in a halter top?




She's getting really fast at crawling!



One more thing! Olivia's Pappy (my dad) is in the hospital. If you could send him some good thoughts and prayers, I'd appreciate it!



Hope you're having a good week! Told you this was going to be a long post! :)