Team Bolen

Last weekend Team Bolen loaded up the pick-up and drove 1100ish miles to Colorado for a Bolen Family Reunion. It was the first time since our wedding that all the siblings have been together. It was a ton of fun for me to see the original Bolen crew and to imagine what their house must have been like when they were all younger. That all of the siblings now had their own kiddos made the weekend even more fun.

We rented a house near Estes Park, CO, up in the Rockies. Oh my goodness, it was just beautiful. It was exactly the climate, landscape, area, etc that J.E.B. and I would love to live in permanently. Have the snow-covered mountains visible from our house in the winter, be able to hike those mountains in the summer/fall, have lots of trees to surround our house up on the mountain, maybe even a creek or pond on our land. Yup, exactly where and what we want!

The house we all stayed in was about 8500ft up the mountain (the mountain was 14,500ish ft) and was surrounded by Aspen and various pine trees. This never-ending winter has affected CO too and there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground when we got there Thursday night. It then continued to snow/sleet/rain/hail on and off for the next two days. The temp did rise enough to make the last two days pleasant--sunny, 60s, clear sky--so we toured the town of Estes Park which sat at about 7500ft on the mountain. Estes Park is a tourist town because of the Rocky Mountain National Park there, so there were tons of fudge shops, cookie shops, pubs, t-shirt stores, etc. Still fun to walk around though and with a creek (or small river) running through the town, it was a wonderful sight to my dust and desert-soaked Yuma eyes!

Not everyone was able to make the reunion, but there were still 16 of us in the house, plus Atlas. It was actually spacious enough for all of us. The great room had a fireplace which Jack had going almost every night and the kitchen was large enough that a few people could be in it at once and not step on each other. The kids, of course, had the run of the place and they all seemed to enjoy it also. V was very curious about the other kiddos but is in the stranger danger stage so she was a bit clingy when the adults other than Mom or Dad came near.

I really didn't take many pictures because Sheila loves to take pictures. Emphasis on the word love! By the day before we left, she had already taken over 1100 pictures (Amanda helped take some too) and we still had the family picture and others left to take! I learned quickly that Momma will take pictures, no question about that, and she takes really great pictures, so we all just wait for her to make copies and send them to us. In fact, we didn't hire a professional photographer at our wedding since we knew Momma would take a zillion pictures anyway and that plus the other pictures taken, why spend the money for a professional to come and snap more of the same poses?!

So here are some of my camera shots of the weekend. The last few are of our drive home. We took a different route home, through west Colorado, into Utah and then south to Arizona. It was beautiful. Both J.E.B. and I remarked on how we each felt a bit of disappointment that we were leaving the pretty green landscape with 60 degree weather and heading back to the land of brown and 100 degrees in Yuma. C'est la vie!

Brode and V are only a few weeks apart but he is so much bigger than our little Peanut!

Having fun in front of the fire

The driveway to our place was just up the road. Gorgeous view!

Aunt Shelly with Knox and V

The creek (river?) flowing through Estes Park. I never found out the name of it

The communal birthday party!

Wayne laid next to Atlas like this a number of times. Such a cutie!

She definitely loved the cake, frosting and ice cream! Must get it from me!

I was surprised at how many curvy mountain roads did NOT have guard rails! It made me a little nervous one trip down the mountain into town when it was sleeting!