Family Vacation to Breckenridge, CO (June 2023)

This past week, Katie’s brother Andy and his wife Haley invited Dad and us to join them and their boys at a lovely home in Breckenridge, CO. What a fun and exciting adventure we had!

On our drive out, we opted for the scenic southerly route: Hwy 50 west to Hwy 9 north at Canon City, CO. It was a lovely drive until we hit mile marker 42 (approximately) on Hwy 9 and a deer or pronghorn antelope that came bounding up the embankment–and basically T-boned us. It was terrifying and incredibly sad, but we were grateful to come away from the accident with just cosmetic damage to the Camry. We were shaken up but okay, and the car was still drivable.     

And prior to that, we ran into storms and took cover at a Sonic in Rocky Ford, CO.

At the house, we loved spending time with family, telling stories, laughing, playing games, and reading with the boys. Parker and Grayson were especially excited to learn how to play Mexican Train Dominoes and requested to play it every night. 

We had some amazing hikes with the family, including Hoosier Pass, which we explored until we ran into snowpack on the trail, a little over a mile into the hike.

We enjoyed walking around Breckenridge with its picturesque parks and streams.

We also took a tour of South Park City in Fairplay, CO, with Dad, while the Ellis Family explored the sand dunes down south.

On our last day, while the Ellis Family went off-roading and Dad began his journey home, we rented mountain bikes at Mountain Wave and rode 11 miles north to Frisco and back (22 miles total). It was glorious, and we wish we’d decided to go 5 miles further to Copper Mountain before turning around. 

We also did some trail runs to prepare us for our triathlon this weekend!

In Breckenridge, we had pizza at Giampietros, Thai food at Bangkok Happy Bowl Thai Bistro, BBQ at Whiskey Star Smokehouse, and Mexican food at Mi Casa. It was all delicious. We only remembered to take photos of the brisket and burnt ends + macaroni and cheese at the smokehouse. Yum! (We also stopped for dinner at Carriage Crossing in Yoder on the drive back. You can never go wrong with their chicken fried steak dinner.)

What a fun way to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly after we missed the trip with the Ellis Family last June when we both caught COVID. We are grateful to have made these memories together with family, and we look forward to making more memories in Seattle with Matt’s brother Shain very soon (another trip that was delayed by COVID).