The next day, Saturday, we were supposed to be meeting Donna, Aaron, and the kids up at their very remote mountain property to ride ATVs. I was concerned about a) infecting innocent people, b) Nathanael making a mess of himself (one end or the other) somewhere we were unable to clean him up, and c) the poor kid just not feeling good the whole time. But riding ATVs was something we were all looking forward to and I knew was something he would enjoy the most. So, we made the decision to drag him along even though he was begging to just stay home.
He was a total trooper, bless his heart. Aaron led us on a long ride and we had a blast. It was my first time ever riding or driving an ATV, so I was pretty hesitant to drive Claire. Paul drove Sam, Nathanael chose to ride with Aaron, and I asked Donna to drive Claire. Claire giggled and chatted, holding on tight to the handlebars, through the whole drive out. But by the time we turned around to head back, the exertion of holding on and the bouncing motion put her right to sleep and Donna was having a hard time driving with Claire sleeping in front of her. She was falling far behind and we got a little concerned. I felt comfortable driving by that point, so we took my sweatshirt and used it to tie her against me. I still ended up having to steer one-handed as I used my other arm to support her little bobbling head the whole way back.
When we got back to the property, Aaron decided he had a special adventure trail he wanted to take just me and Paul on. We said we would take Nathanael, too, because we felt a bit nervous about him getting into trouble with Aaron's sons while we weren't there to watch. So the four of us set out and at first it was great until we rode directly over a sign forbidding motor vehicles beyond that point. Aaron flew along the mountain side, leading us right through bushes and to our certain death. I was terrified. I could feel that I wasn't in total control of that ATV, that I wasn't experienced enough nor strong enough to drive it on such wild, steep terrain. At one point, I couldn't keep it from heading straight down the mountain, and Aaron had to come pull my back to flat ground. A bit further along, I could feel the darn machine wanting to flip and I was beyond scared. Paul, now riding behind me, could tell it wasn't going well for me and I freaked him out too. We stopped and made the call that we wouldn't go any further, and asked Aaron to get the ATVs turned around and back to flat ground for us. Even after getting turned around, I had one more terrifying episode of fighting the ATV from going straight down the mountain. I'm pretty sure Paul thought I was a goner. I thought so too. I was beyond relieved to finally get back to the property and get off that ATV. The views on that "special" trail (there was NO trail) were absolutely breathtaking....but the journey to get there was the kind of breathtaking I don't care to experience again.
In the image below, the ATVs sit at the point where we aborted the expedition, the spot on the ridge where I felt I couldn't keep it from rolling right over the side.
The next day, July 10, we just took it a bit easier. We spent some time walking around the resort at Keystone. As I mentioned, it's very family friendly, so there are lots of games and kid-friendly things set up for their entertainment.
On the way back to Keystone, we stopped at a reservoir we had spotted off the highway the day before and hiked a short trail to an old mine.
July 11, our last full day in Keystone, we took a bit of a drive to hike to St. Mary's Glacier. It was pretty remote and parking wasn't completely entirely convenient to the trail head, plus the trail was pretty rocky and Claire pooped out pretty quickly, requiring Paul to tote her on his shoulders. There might have been some grumbling about whether or not this had been the best idea. But as soon as we came upon this, it was completely clear that, yes, it had been the best idea:
It was so cold when we reached the lake. It was still a good little stretch to the glacier, so Dad stayed with Claire at the lake while I took the boys until we reached the base of the glacier.
That night, the resort was having another family fun night. This time it was Wild West night. They provided s'mores at a campfire, $5 pony rides, and a couple games (lassoing and bean bag toss). There was also supposed to be a western movie outside, but I think it ended up being Finding Nemo or some other Disney movie which we did not partake of. The kids sure enjoyed the s'mores and pony rides though (2 rides each for Nate and Claire). It was a perfect ending to our stay at Keystone.
On our final day in Colorado, we packed up mid-morning in Keystone and headed back for Denver. We were ready to go home. Nathanael had battled that stomach bug on and off for the past few days, feeling mostly ok, but having bouts of upset stomach. That final day in Colorado we felt displaced and as though we were spending 24 hours just waiting on our flight. We were spending the final night back at Donna and Aaron's house and that night they had a house full of their blended family. Though we felt very welcomed there, it was going to be very crowded with our additional family of 5, so we didn't want to arrive too early in the day. We took our time getting to Denver, ate a picnic in a park, let the kids play on the playground a bit. Paul wanted to stop by an old church building he spent lots of time at on his mission. It was unlocked, so we went inside and chatted a few minutes with some sister missionaries who were inside. We ate dinner at Jason's Deli, which really wasn't the greatest meal in the world, but the kids raved over it as if it was.
Very, very early the next morning, before a soul in the household had awakened, we headed off for the airport. We had an excellent vacation, despite the challenges of a stomach virus. But it felt SO good to be headed back home.
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