A Trip to Colorado

We left on our trip to Colorado, at 7:10 (after a stop at Quick Trip of course to fill our selves up with food and drink), on July 23, 2011.  Though we were entertained by the back seat full of teenage girls, Kansas is such a LONG state to drive across, so you can imagine how happy we were to actually make it to our destination state of Colorado.  Here we are at the Welcome Center, (thanks to the helpful worker there who asked to take the picture so I could also be in it).

We were headed to Cheyenne Mountain State Park to spend the night, on the way to Andy's Family Reunion in Vallecito Lake, CO, near Durango, CO .  

 I love the mountains, I was so excited to get the first glimpse of them as we headed towards Colorado Springs.  I am sure the people who live there are bored of them, hardly giving them a second glance in their day to day lives but, they are nothing but amazing to me.  I even love this shot through the windshield....

Here is where we camped the first night, at the base of Cheyenne Mountain.  How beautiful!

 We drove through rain, but it had stopped and was dry by the time we got to the camp site, but we were treated  a part of a rainbow. 

I got my first too close contact with nature when I was taking pictures of this flower, and I saw a flower  that was I thought was better, I was getting ready to move there when Andy (who had come up beside me) jumped back, because he saw a SNAKE half out of its hole right where I was getting ready to step in my flip flops.  Needless to say, I immediately changed shoes and watched where I stepped from then on. 

Below is a picture of Amanda and the cousins on a fence, with Colorado Springs in the background, at the camp ground. 

The morning sun rise was equally nice....

And here is a shot of the mountain in the morning light.