Devil's Backbone, Alpacas & REST

Ok, so get ready for blog-o-rama! We had such an amazing trip to Colorado, and ended up with 831 pictures to show for it (and I even forgot my camera). So I've narrowed it down as best as I can, and I'm going to try to get the posts done quickly! And here's the first...

We decided to leave for our trip on Friday afternoon, when Josh got off work (4:00) and drive straight through to CO. It would make for a long night, but we figured we could sleep in Saturday, but still have most of the day to play. And it worked out pretty well... minus the part where Josh got sick from too much coffee, the altitude, and a lot of time behind the wheel! But everything else went pretty well, and we made it to Jess & Mike's house around 4:00. Just enough time to collapse into bed!

Uncle "Charla" and Laney stopping for dinner in Topeka. One thing about riding with a baby, you can't just drive through for dinner. So the trip took a little longer than advertised (13 hours). But, oh well!

It did work out as planned for Saturday, though, because we still had time to do some fun stuff- like climb Devil's Backbone and visit the alpaca farm! Devil's Backbone is a really long trail (like 18 miles), but we obviously didn't hike the whole thing! The part we hiked was actually a pretty easy trail, with a really neat overlook at the end. We tried to bring the carrying backpack for Laney, but she's a little too independent to be carried around when she has perfectly good legs (no idea where she got that independence). So our pace was pretty slow, and we didn't get to do the whole loop. But everybody had a good time anyway, and the views were pretty awesome.

The Looten family, just starting out. You can tell it's just the beginning of the hike, because Laney is still in the carrier. Didn't last long...

The reason it's called "Devil's Backbone." I'm kind of a closet geologist- that is, I don't know gobs about them, but I think rocks are really cool. So I though all of the different rock formations were amazing.

Something we saw a lot of while hiking: Charlie, wandering off on his own!

After the hike, we headed to a friend of Jessica's, who has an alpaca farm not far from Devil's Backbone. Jess visited once just for fun, and knew that Laney would love it, since she's such an animal lover! And, Jess was right; Laney LOVED the alpacas. In all honesty, we all thought they were pretty hilarious! I was amazed at how thick their wool is. They looked all big and fat, but when you actually put your fingers down to where the wool ended, they were really skinny. I can't imagine what they look like when they're freshly sheared... pretty silly, I'd think!

My favorite alpacas. I just thought the coloring on these two were really neat. They were the "gentlemen" and were kept in a separate pen. So they were also very puffed up, trying to be manly. As if you can be manly when you look like a giant puffball. But they tried! :)

Laney kept telling the alpacas to "shh" (that's what she's doing here, I realize it looks like she's picking her nose, but, trust me, she's shushing the alpacas). She only did it to the ones in this pen, though. One of them had abnormally poufy hair that covered her eyes, and I think Laney thought that alpaca was sleeping, so she was telling the others to be quiet. Whatever her reasoning, it was pretty funny!

A farm girl at heart: gotta have a walking stick!

And Laney even learned a new word!

Since we'd all been a little short on sleep, after a brief break for ice cream for us and the dogs, we headed home for some relaxing...

Vegging for the boys:

Visiting for the girls:

And a bath for Laney! She loved Aunt Jess's huge tub!

To finish the night, a beautiful sunset... and a reminder that every time we looked out the windows, we saw MOUNTAINS! Colorado is pretty awesome!

So, those are the events of day one (and two, kind of) in Ft. Collins, CO! Stay tuned for more...