Chasing the Sunshine

Apparently Summer weather in Colorado is not as predictable as I thought. Cooler in the mountains with lots of sunshine and an afternoon rain-shower that clears as quickly as it comes on... at least that has been our typical experience over the years. Not so this year! We had LOTS of rain/slushy-snow/hail and it wasn't fleeting. I don't think I'm stretching to say it lasted about 48 hours, and the temperatures didn't get above 49 degrees on those wet days! It is June, but at about 10,000 feet altitude there are no guarantees. We didn't mind the cool weather, we packed sweaters, coats and pants (and honestly I savor the relief from our heat and humidity)... but we were fighting cabin camper-fever! The forest ranger station intern became our own personal weather man. I'm not sure if that made him feel like he was realizing the height of his potential as a forest ranger, but he was the best access we had to a current weather report and radar. We needed some dry-time, some sunshine, where in Colorado would we need to go to get some? More on that later, we've got some fun pictures to share too.

Here's our little mountain-girl.

This is the driveway coming onto my parent's property, outside of Fairplay. You can see the clouds were gathering.

Our first afternoon there we had sunshine, it didn't last very long. I'm thankful we did get a walk in that evening, even though it was cut short by the storms rolling in.

That is Mt. Silverheels behind us, (notice there isn't much snow left on the mountain).

Hmm... should we go inside now?

No not yet, we've got a few minutes.

We love it here.

And then the rain came...

The next day, the weather man forest ranger said that Breckenridge looked clear for the afternoon, so that's where we went. We had lunch at the "Motherlode Tavern" and "Annie's Mountain Cookies" for dessert.

YUM.

We played at the toy store and made a new friend, (Elly the Elephant).

Evie is giving the camera the stink-eye.

Evie's up to a three-cups a day coffee habit.

Just kidding... the mug had a couple drops left from daddy's coffee, but it really looks like she enjoyed those drops! I won't be surprised if Evie is predisposed to loving coffee, I was pregnant with her while I worked at Starbucks.

Look at how much snow fell during our time in the hills! (Compare Silverheels in this pic with the previous one)

We decided to chase the sunshine into the Springs and go somewhere that wasn't wet.

A stop at Wilkerson Pass to wander around, soak up some sun.

Evie gave us a Colorado history lesson,

showed daddy how to climb rocks,

and got to stretch her legs.

I didn't realize it, but the grass needed it's "hair" combed.

And so did daddy, he was sporting longer hair than he's had in a decade!

And this is a sneak peek of what we did in Colorado Springs. I took so many pictures there that it will have to be a separate post.