Glenwood Springs Lodge and Hot Springs

For our getaway last weekend we decided to stay at Glenwood Springs Lodge for a few reasons.   1. Its literally right next to the hot springs, which we knew we were going to be visiting frequently. 2. Included in our stay at Glenwood Springs, we got daily unlimited access to the hot springs which is normally $15/person (cheaper for kids) which is obviously not cheap! But we went Friday, Saturday And Sunday, and if we had stayed anywhere else that would have cost us almost $150 just to go sit in the hot springs, instead we got in free very time!. 3. Major bonus for staying at the Lodge, we got free AMAZING continental breakfast! And I'm talking Real, hot break fasts. They have a huge menu to choose from, you just order what you want, how many times you want and eat eat eat! We ate so much each breakfast we were stuffed till early afternoon. A billion times better than a stale bagel and some cold coffee, right?  So basically, this is the place to stay.  Like I mentioned, we went to the hot springs each day we were there (twice on Saturday!) and it was probably the hi lite of the trip if I have to pick just one. It was beyond anything I've ever experienced.  The kids fell asleep on the way up to the mountains at 6 (I know, right?) so by the time we got there at 8 they were ready to go swimming! They are normally in bed before 8 (T always is) so it was extra special for them also to be up and outside when it was dark, but not only that, they got to go swimming! In a hot spring! If I had to use one word to describe this experience, it would be magical. Straight out of a fairy tale, sitting in the 'healing' hot water, with mist and fog all around and just a few dim lights. Magical. 

We had the most fantastic weekend in Glendwood Springs and are already discussing when we can go next, I'm thinking early summer! Only one side of the hot spring is super hot (104 degrees) the other side was in the low 90's, so perfect for  dip on a cool summer evening in the mountains. Weekends like these make me so incredibly grateful to live in Denver, where weekends like these are a possibility with just a short drive. 

Collegien Slippers: Giveaway!

Happy Friday! You are in for a treat. Remember these amazing slippers? I'm so sad Jasper outgrew them, but he did get a good two years out of them! And now one of you lovelies gets a gift card from Collegien to pick out a pair of gorgeous slippers! These are such amazing quality, and perfect for winter. They would make the perfect Christmas present for pretty much anyone in your life! How ridiculously adorable are these?

 And these?

 Or these!

A little about Collegien, they were founded in France in 1947. In 2006 they developed a new slipper concept; slippers as thin as a sock but with a breathable and flexible sole! They even offer them in adult sizes! I think it's my turn to get a pair since the kiddos each have had a pair now!  And now for the GIVEAWAY! Lots of different ways to enter, just make sure you comment once for EACH entry you complete for it to count! Open to international readers as well!  Visit Collegien and leave a comment letting me know your favorite pair
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Tweet about the giveaway linking back here! Mention the giveaway in a blog post linking back here! Instagram about the giveaway, linking back here!  (These can be done daily for extra daily entries!)
Good luck! Giveaway ends in two weeks! 
There's also some fabulous give aways coming up next week so make sure you check back then also!

Thursday morning randoms. Sorry it's all over the place I haven't finished my coffee yet.

I wasn't feeling particularly thankful this morning when I woke up. My baby (toddler?!?) woke me up at an ungodly hour, over an hour before the ungodly hour I have my alarm set for. And I stayed up way too late last night, so three hrs of sleep doesn't leave me feeling super grateful. 
It's been a rough couple of weeks, and I was grouchy. Jasper even told me I was grouchy. Ouch. 
And then I sat down with my coffee after I walked Jasper to school and read an article about a teenager who has been in TWO plane crashes. One which killed his mother, sister and brother but not him and his father. And then 8 years later another one, this one killed his father and step mother. I mean, are you kidding me? TWO plane crashes that kills his entire family, and the kid is still pursing his dreams and sounds like he's a pretty gracious guy. And I'm grouchy and ungrateful over lousy sleep, a hyperactive toddler and some illnesses? Pathetic. 
So this morning I'm choosing to be thankful. Because I have so much to be thankful for. Even if the only thing I have to be grateful for (and it's not, I have such a list) is that my family is still here and well, that's more than enough. 
An appropriate time to choose to be thankful since we are headed to have Thanksgiving lunch with Jaspers class in an hour. 

I thought you were getting a brand new mini van? Seems weird to brag about getting a brand new mini van and then get a used suburban. - Anonymous

Not that it is Really any of your business, but since I did say I wanted a mini van I guess I can explain. One, I don't think saying I wanted a mini van and preferably a newer one is 'bragging' by any means. So the reason we didn't get a new minivan OR a brand new suburban (and you are right it's not new it's  5 years old) is because we were going to be paying cash (did pay cash) so we wouldn't have an extra big payment a month. Turns out new mini vans or even ones that are are a year or two old are 35K, and a new suburban like the one we got would be 55-65K and we didn't have that. We had 30K budgeted from selling our house to put towards a new (to us) bigger vehicle.  So we had 30 we wanted to spend, and then a situation came up where we found out about an orphanage that my husbands boss founded in Nicaragua were in desperate need of a bus. The children who were strong enough/able were walking 4-5 miles one way to go to school. After Drew found out about that he brought it up and we talked about it we decided to take the 10 thousand needed to buy the orphanage a bus out of our car budget. We feel like we didn't really NEED a new car (even though I really really wanted one) and one that was a few years old would be just fine with us if it meant these kids were going to get to ride a bus to school. So that's where our new car went. Satisfied?  And the reason we went with the suburban was mainly Drew. He Really really didn't want a mini van. And after I test drove the suburban I was sold on it as well. Though sliding doors would have been really nice. Oh well. I'm happy with the suburban, and if I ever get pissed about not having a brand new mini van, I'm sure it will help to visual the kids getting a ride to school instead of walking on a supposedly super dangerous, curvy road.  Drew's boss is heading down to the orphanage in December and is promising to bring back pictures of the kids on the bus, so I'm looking forward to actually seeing where the money went!  And sorry if this sounds snarky. I spent nap time watching a really intense Swedish/Portugal soccer game that didn't have the outcome I wanted. Plus, I have only had one cup of coffee today. 

Our newest addition to the family.

Meet Big Mamma (named appropriately by Jasper)

We went for Dunkin Donuts and to just look at a minivan and come home with this beast instead. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little afraid of driving it..it's going to take a while to get used to it, so if you see me on the road, make sure you give me some space! 

Merry Fluffy Christmas GRAND PRIZE Packages Announcement! #FluffyXmas

You guys all know my love of cloth diapers by now, and I'm so excited join in and be apart of Merry Fluffy Christmas and it starts in only two weeks!! This is seriously the BIGGEST cloth diapering event of the season so make sure you come back then to check out all of the amazing prizes on each of the 45 different participating blogs!! This year, we have decided to do something a bit different and have two HUGE Grand Prize packages, on both of the host blogs, And Then There Were 5 and Mommy's Favorite Things! Here is the first peek at what will be offered during the event! The Grand Prize Package on And Then There Were 5… contains amazing products from these incredible companies:

• Irresistibly Green = $100 gift certificate
• Glow Bug Cloth Diapers = $75 diaper package
• Buttons Cloth Diapers = $90 diaper package
• Zookaboo = $56 diaper package
• Tooshas = $75 store gift certificate
• Grovia AIO diaper (self-sponsored) = $24

The Grand Prize Package on Mommy's Favorite Things includes some more amazing brands and products as well:

• KRaz Couture (Starter kit, Diaper of choice, wipes, lovey, wet bag and $15 certificate) $78
• Imagine (fitted, cover and wet/dry bag) $47
• Bummis (OS Cover, 6 prefolds and Biosoft liners) $40.95-$52.95
• Rarpz (2 Boo! Nappies) $66
• Gone Green Mama (2 Hybrid Fitteds of choice) $60-$70
• Moraki (Frosty and Christmas Tree Diapers) $66
• Fancy Cloth (Diaper, Bum Balm, Cloth Wipes) $50

Are you excited yet?!

Come back on December 1st to enter to win these amazing prizes and SO many more!

Life lately: Iphone addition.

Because when ya don't have much to write, you share pictures. 

1. T waiting for the pizza delivery last friday night. Naked. Because why not? 2. Saturday morning horse back riding at King Soopers. Jealous?  3. Blogger brunch date, at Snooze with the lovely Kym, Sami and Hannah, can we talk for half a second how much fun meeting other bloggers are? They just get It. The it being the weird world of blogging of course. 4. Friends brought this over last weekend, and I sort of fell in love and Drew went out and bought me more. He's good like that. I think I'll keep him. 5 .Fall.  6.7.8. Early weekend Dunkin Donut trip. Denver finallyyyyyy has one! 9. Back to back photo shoots in Wash Park! So, SO much fun.  10 .60 one day, 30 the next day. Welcome to Denver in the fall. 11.Walk in Wash Park with Kym and Brutus. Tindra fell in love.  12. The most delicious cheeser burger, fries and deep fat fried mushroom were consumed in Glenwood Springs after our ridiculous Hanging Lake Hike. We felt like we earned it. I've been thinking about that cheeseburger ever since.  13. 14.15. My friend Sarah and a couple of her bloggy friends threw a great party last night at Snooze to college turkey's and canned goods for Denver Rescue Mission to feet those in need this Holiday season. Bloggers, (and blog readers!) amazing food and benefiting those in need? Doesn't get much better than that! And I felt wearing a Stitch Fix top to a blogger meet up was sort of a must. 
Happy weekend friends! We have hopefully an Ikea trip for a bed board and possibly mini van shopping this weekend, So I guess we are officially grown ups? 

Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake deserves a post of it's own. I mean it really probably deserves like 10 posts of it's own since it was That amazing, but I wont drag this out that much. I'll just post 1 billion pictures in this post, kay? Kay. So we were warned ahead of time by several people that it was a difficult hike, but Jasper is such a great little hiker we thought, eh how difficult could it be? Well turns out, when people tell you a hike is difficult, and several signs at the beginning of the hike warn you of a 'difficult hike' you should probably listen. Or not because then you would miss out on some magical views.  The hike up to Hanging Lake is only about 1.3 miles, but takes on average 1-2 hrs to get there, that should tell you something about the difficult level. It was steep, rocky and the hardest part about it, very icy and slipper in spots. The way down was almost as hard, if not harder because of those slipper spots!  So my advice is, don't go in the late fall or winter! And if you go, find a walking stick or something.  We kept having people stop us on their way down warning us of the 'hard' spots seeing we had a 6 year old and a baby in a back pack and even one older gentleman tell us it would be best to turn around but at that point we were so close and there was absolutely no way we were turning back after an hour of that!  And honestly, Jasper did the best out of all of us. He is one amazing little boy that one. Drew and I kept having to stop for water, and for Drew to sit down for a second with Tindra on his back and Jasper kept asking us why we were stopping, he didn't get the whole 'we can't breathe' thing since his lungs were perfectly fine! After about an hour and ten minutes we made it to the top, and let me tell ya, we forgot completely about our sore legs and burning lungs. Words don't do this place justice. Pictures don't even do it justice. I'll share some with you, but basically you need to find a way to make it here yourself some day. 

Time seemed to stop at the top. It was completely silent minus some crazy bright blue birds and the sounds of the waterfall.  We ended up being up there for an hour, enjoying our picnic before heading back down, but really I could have stayed up there all day.  After some slipper spots at the top getting back down (I fell on my ass and slid like 8-10 feet before grabbing onto a sharp rock with my bare hands to stop me sliding down the mountain) Jasper and I rushed ahead while Drew took it slow with Tindra. We were trying to get her to fall asleep in the kelty (hiking back pack) but every time she would see me she would reach for me and yell 'down' so we bolted ahead. Plus Jasper had to go to the bathroom. So yeah we needed to hurry! He was getting pretty  tired by the end and his hands were freezing from grabbing onto blocks of ice at the top to keep from falling (guys, he's a smart/creative one) so we were pretending we were on Amazing Race to keep his mind off of the ridiculously steep climb down. We kept looking for more clues, and before we knew it we were in the warm rest area waiting for Drew and T (for at least 25 minutes.) Afterwards Drew and I were talking about how the hike was about a billion times harder than we expected it to be, but a billion times more breathtakingly beautiful. And even though our asses are still sore three days later, it was beyond worth it. I can't recommend this enough! If a hike can be life changing, this one is it. 

And I've just got to brag about this little guy some more, everyone we know who has done the hike just couldn't believe Jasper did it, and this time of year! He's seriously impressive. End mom brag.