The Chappell Family Blog: August 2007

We’re back from our little vacation to Colorado, and we had a great time! Colorado is just beautiful and has always been one of my favorite states to visit. Vacationing with a tube-fed child who has to eat every 3 hours isn’t easy, but we managed to organize our activities between feedings and it all worked out well. Bryce, Parker, and I all ended up coming down with colds while we were there (what’s up with this summer??) but they ended up being mild enough that we were able to continue with our plans. Unfortunately I can't get all of our pictures to upload from our camera. I think there's a short in our cord or something. So anyway, I'll post what pictures I can now and I'll put the other pics on later when I can.

Most of the day on Sunday we were driving there. We checked into our motel in Montrose and had dinner, then just relaxed the rest of the night.

On Monday we decided to spend the day in Montrose. That morning we visited the Montrose County Historical Museum. The boys had a lot of fun going through the museum. They especially like the old caboose that we were able to walk through.

This was an old Caboose from an 1800's train.

Playing on the caboose.

They had a lot of old farming equipment from the pioneer days and even some old dentistry equipment that was interesting to see. The old clothing and toys were fun to see as well. They also had some furnished homesteader cabins that were fun to look through.

Isaac & Parker in one of the old cabins.

Parker, Josh, & Isaac by an old outhouse. *LOL*

Bryce was actually there with us. : ) He was just in his stroller.

Our motel did not have a swimming pool, so after lunch we decided to go to the city aquatic center to swim. We bought the boys some floaties and they all had a blast! Bryce wasn’t thrilled about being splashed in the face, but otherwise did well for his first time in a pool. However, we were only able to swim for about 15 or 20 minutes and then they had to close the pool because of lightning! Oh well, we had fun while it lasted. After that we went out to the Ute Indian Museum which was great. They had a bunch of tepees set up all around the museum and inside we learned about the Ute Indian chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta. The boys had a blast playing in the tepees!

Isaac & Parker running to see the tepees.

More tepees.

They also had a botanical garden that was really beautiful and a boardwalk that went down to the river.

The Botanical Garden

Parker & Isaac on the bridge at the Botanical Garden

Another pretty pic I took at the garden

Afterwards we went out to dinner and then back to the hotel. That night Bryce got a really high fever! I was sure it was the end of our vacation, but Josh gave him a blessing and within 5 minutes the fever was completely gone and never came back! Bryce was a little fussy and sported a runny nose the remainder of the trip, but mostly did well.

All tuckered-out

Tuesday was probably my favorite day of the vacation because we went to Ouray that day which was the whole purpose of our vacation. We left early that morning for Ouray and headed for Box Canyon Falls. On our way we passed over the Uncompahgre Gorge. Wow, was that gorge DEEP!! It was a little unnerving to look over the edge of the bridge into the gorge, but it was beautiful! The pictures really don’t do it justice and really don’t show the true depth.

The Uncompahgre Gorge

The Box Canyon Waterfall hike was probably one of our favorite activities. We hiked down into a huge ravine to the falls. It was amazing. At the end up the hike we had to descend a HUGE staircase to get to the bottom of the canyon. The staircase is made so that you can see right through it to the river below. I am petrified of heights, so this was really SCARY for me!! I was literally shaking all the way down and my muscles were sore afterward from gripping the railings all the way down! LOL The boys did really well. Isaac would get a little shiver every time he looked down through the staircase, but he was really brave and never stopped. It was worth it in the end to see the waterfall though. It was really beautiful.

Box Canyon Waterfall

Isaac, Josh, & Parker at the river near the base of the waterfall

The boys and me in the cave near the base of the waterfall

THE staircase. Yikes!

Isaac & Parker holding hands & walking back from the falls...aww. : )

After the falls, we ate lunch and went on to another hike. We hiked to a place called Baby Bathtubs. It was a place in the Portland Creek where the water had hollowed out rock formations that looked like little “bathtubs”. They boys had tons of fun wading in the streambed.

Baby Bathtubs

After we got back from this hike we headed into town. Ouray is a little old mining town and is nicknamed “America’s Switzerland”. It’s really fun just to tour through all the unique stores. As we were walking the street though, a huge thunderstorm came. The thunder was SO loud as it echoed through the surrounding mountains. Parker’s jaw literally dropped when he heard the thunder. It was hilarious. Of course we also go soaked, and had to run back to the van to wait it out, but eventually we were able to go back out.

Ouray, Colorado

At the candy store in Ouray

We ate dinner then headed south to look for a ghost town. However we were unable to find the one we were looking for and it was getting late, so we ended up heading back to Montrose.

On Wednesday morning we checked out of our motel and went to the Museum of the Mountain West. This is one of the most amazing museums I’ve ever been to! It had SO many cool artifacts that the owner had been collecting since he was four. He had recreated several stores and offices from the 1800s to early 1900s and had the details down to the smell! It was amazing. They also had a bunch of old original buildings like a schoolhouse, a church and a carriage house.

An old carriage house at the Museum of the Mountain West

This is a machine that will actually play a violin -
kind of like a player piano, but for a violin. It was cool!

This is an old restored drug store at the museum.
It even smelled like a drug store!

The general store

After the museum, we went into town and bought some little souvenirs then headed home! We all had so much fun and wished we could have stayed longer.

This happened a few of weeks ago, but I wanted to post about the reunion we had with Josh's family. Josh's siblings Melissa and Brandon were in charge this year and they held the reunion at Strawberry Reservoir on July 16 - 18. They rented a little cabin up there, and everyone had a lot of fun. We did a little fishing & crawfish catching. We had a scavenger hunt for the kids & made rock necklaces. It was great to have a chance for everyone to spend some time together. Everyone was able to make it to the reunion this year except Josh's brother Daniel.

These are a few pics we took from the reunion. To see all of our pics, go to: Reunion '07 Pictures. Once you're there either click on "view all" or "view as a slideshow".