Final Adventure as a Family of Three!

Last weekend we decided to take a break from the house projects to enjoy one last adventure as a family of three. We decided to head out west on 285 to avoid the hustle and a bustle traffic of I-70, or so we thought. We ended up getting stuck in major traffic on 285 due to a merging lane. The traffic in Colorado in to the mountains drives me CRAZY!! You can never seem to catch a break. But we finally made it to Conifer and headed south on Colorado 126 through Buffalo Creek where we found some dispersed camping just before reaching the Buffalo Creek campgrounds. There were quite a few camp spots, and unfortunately for us a lot of them were already claimed by the time we rolled in at 6:30pm. Another crazy, small world we drove right past the gate to some to some of my relatives cabin. We have only been once before and didn't know we'd be so close. We even thought to ourselves we should give them a call and see if we could camp on their land since our luck seemed to be running out of finding a spot. But luck was on our side and we found ourselves a spot.

Poor Reid had to do most of the work setting up camp as I was a very pregnant 36 weeks and 5 days! But he got a fire going and I started on dinner while he then got the tent set up. And much to my surprise my non-meat eater son grabbed a chicken sausage and ate the whole thing while walking around the campsite! He even went for seconds :) Carson did great at the campsite, other than standing in the campfire smoke then crying when it burned his eyes. Silly boy! Our campsite wasn't remote, but it was far enough away from the neighboring sites to be comfortable. The parking area for our site was up a hill, and we pitched out tent about 50-100 yards down the small hill. Well just as we were wrapping up dinner someone decided they wanted to pitch a tent on our grounds up by the cars. They ended up playing R&B music, not quietly, and their conversations grew louder and louder as the alcohol was consumed. We were nervous it would last all night, but thankfully they quieted down at a decent hour. It only ruined Reid and I relaxing by the fire and enjoying some country music from the neighbors site.

Carson went to bed an hour or so before us. This was our first time camping with him without the pack n play so we were not sure how well it would go. He also doesn't sleep under covers, so I was a little nervous about him getting too cold. We weren't at high enough elevation for the temps to drop a lot, but enough I thought for not having a blanket. Well this kid did great! We put him in the tent and just let him wrestle around til he was tired enough to fall asleep. And this happened to be laying on all the pillows we brought to keep us, mostly me, comfortable. We had Carson laying on some sleeping pads and unzipped his sleeping bag for a cover, I ended up laying on Snyder's dog bed because inflatable pad had a hole, and Reid snuggled with Snyder to keep him warm. Well even though Carson slept all night long, he slept very restlessly and was all over the place. He eventually took over the dog bed and slept with no covers...but it didn't seem to bother him. Even though we didn't go far, we still had a great time escaping the projects at home and enjoying time as a family.

Another reason we picked this spot for camping (aside from it being less than an hour from Denver) was we knew there were some trails nearby for us to hike a little the next morning. We set out on the Colorado Trail where we hiked about 2 miles roundtrip. Mama can't do much hiking these days! But we were able to make it to a spot to see some snowy peaks and let Carson roam a bit himself. All in all it was a good trip and we can't wait to take baby 2 out now!