^^She did so good on the flight! Travel tips post coming soon!

^^Drive to Vail is gorgeous 

^^Yummy treats each night!

^^She was off running any time we got her out of the stroller or carrier!

^^Coffee was two blocks away = lifesaver 

^^Happy in her ride 🙂 Child Carrier

We flew to Denver and then drove to Vail (about a 2 hour drive) and rented a condo through Vacasa Rentals. Our condo was in Vail Village and was 2 blocks away from the main shopping area in Vail. It was great having a a big place for all 5 of us to hang out in and we ended up eating most of our meals at home.

Prior to leaving, we made a list of activities we thought would be fun to do on our trip. A lot of our ideas came from the Vail.nethttp://vail.net website. Everyone got to pick one thing and this helped us prioritize what we would all fit in. 

Hudson chose hiking – this was top of my list too. We started up the mountain with great ambitions, but after climbing up for 30 minutes with 3 kids, we thought it may be better to find a hike with less of an incline 😉 We then rode the gondola up (the kids’ favorite!) and hiked across the mountain to the other gondola which we rode down. The hike was quintessential Colorado and I was so glad we were able to do this as a family. We were all so excited when we got to the final part of the hike and I was so proud of how well the kids did. The child carrier worked great for Harper and it even had a shade that popped up – since she is very against hats right now.

Elle chose horseback riding – and at their age, pony riding is the closest we got on vacation 😉 We went to Vail Stables and were able to lead the kids on a pony ride up part of the mountain. The view at the top was amazing and the kids had a blast.

Aaron had picked miniature golf – it was a pretty funny adventure with Harper chasing the balls and the other two trying to avoid knocking each other out with their clubs. 

I chose the Vail Farmer’s Market as my activity. It was so much fun looking at the little stands and eating lots of yummy food. We bought a lot of food to make at the condo and the kids talked us in to lots of treats 🙂 

Harper chose (well I chose for her) the botanical gardens. While the gardens were absolutely beautiful, the hit was the giant playground. We had to drag the kids away after almost 2 hours of playing there. It was huge and there was a separate play area for toddlers. 

Another fun thing we really enjoyed was walking along the little creek that runs the length of Vail. It was across the street from our condo and we went there daily to go throw rocks or tiptoe in the cold water. 

On our last night there Aaron and I discussed how happy we were to have made this trip with our little family. While difficult at times, we love traveling with our kids. And while they may not remember some of their travels when they were so young, Aaron and I will have these great memories. We both felt really recharged after this trip and it is so helpful to have fun travels to look forward to (especially on chemo weeks!).  We have our next trip coming up this weekend!!!