I finally have a moment to try and recap the events from our First Annual Sister Trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. All 5 Snyder sisters managed to find the time in our hectic lives to head west (or at least a little further west...) for some adventure.I figure the easiest way to do it is go day-by-day. And here we go...
Wednesday, July 30
Matt and Eli saw Kristi and I off from the Tallahassee Airport about the same time Lindsey took off from Atlanta to meet Theresa and Susanna in Denver. We got in late (for us EST folks...) so it was a quick sisterly visit before heading to bed.Thursday, July 31
After a slow-moving morning, a trip to see Susanna's new place, & a yummy lunch, we headed to Steamboat Springs. On the drive, we sang our hearts out...harmonizing all the way to the Indigo Girls. We got to our AMAZING condo that overlooked the ski mountain. Way to go T & Z for picking such a great place! We had a low-key evening, grilling on our balcony and watching a flick...resting up for the first of our adventures....
________________Friday, August 1
Kayaking the Yampa River! We loved our guide who challenged us and was impressed with our skills. He wished he had his video camera so he 
could film us for their next promotional video! We had SO MUCH FUN refreshing our skills, bouncing off rocks in the shallow rapids, ferrying, catching eddys, and even surfing a bit.
An "easy" afternoon hike to Upper Fish Creek Falls that turned out to not be so easy after all! Quite intense gain of 2,400 feet to about 9,800 ft, but it was worth it!
Cleaned up for a nice dinner with a yummy bottle of wine. (Thanks, Matt!)
Then off to bed to ready ourselves for another full day of fun!
_________________Saturday, August 2
Rock climbing with another great leader. We felt lucky to get such great guides each day! She encouraged us and had us climbing 5 different climbs. I, unfortunately, struggled a lot with the 3rd climb...psyching me out for the rest. I still had a great time.Headed "home" to clean up for the Wine Festival. We kinda lucked into a wine festival happening during our visit and decided to take advantage of it. 300 wines to try...didn't try them all, but we tasted a LOT of great ones.
Then back to the condo for a relaxing evening full of bonding sister talks and reading.Sunday, August 3
Got geared up for another hike. This time, we tackled Rabbit Ears Peak. It was very enjoyable as we spent
most of the hike in a spectacular flowerland, gradually climbing to 10,654 feet. It got steep and rocky as we neared the top. We ended up running down due to an approaching storm with lightning. Being in an open field, we felt vulnerable...so we made our descent quickly.To rest our weary bones, we went to Strawberry Park Hot Springs. A natural hot spring nestled in the mountains. You really had to "warm" up and work your way up the the hottest pool. It did our muscles good!
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Our last evening was spent at a happy hour with $1 tapas and amazing dinners to celebrate Susanna's birthday a little early. It was much better than our mega expensive dinner the other night!Monday, August 4
After checking out of our condo, we headed to downtown Steamboat to wander the shops and grab some souvenirs. Drove back to Denver after stopping briefly at the outlets. We grilled some 'kabobs at Theresa and Ricky's for our final dinner together before heading in different directions.Tuesday, August 5
Departure day! Tropical Storm Edouard made it extremely challenging for Kristi and I to fly home...through Houston...where the storm hit! It wasn't a bad storm, but it was bad enough to delay and cancel flights. A long story short...we flew out of Denver earlier than intended only to have our connecting flight to Tally cancelled after MANY hours of waiting in Houston. Ended up flying into Jax on a split-second decision, renting a car, and getting home after 2 a.m. Whew!What a wonderful vacation!
And Eli and Matt did great while I was gone. Eli did well each day with his wonderful babysitter. Over the weekend, they went down to see Matt's parents and had a quick visit there. It was so sweet when I got to go up and get Eli as he woke up Wednesday morning. When he saw me, he kept pointing at me and saying, "Mama!" as if to say, "She's here! Can you believe it?" So sweet!
Glad to be home despite the laundry and readjusting that followed. I'm already looking forward to the next vacation... whenever, wherever it may be!
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