Summer Vacation ~ Colorful Colorado ~

In late July we vacationed in Colorado for a family get-together with the Anderson clan. It was my brother's turn to plan the family get-together this year and kept the plans a big "secret" - to the point that we didn't even know where in Colorado we would be meeting. He instructed us where we were to stay the first night and told us instructions for the next day would be waiting at our hotel. Our family stayed in Amarillo the first night (Thursday), and learned that we would be going to a "campground" outside of Chromo, Colorado. Chromo is about 30 miles south of Pagosa Springs, near the New Mexico border. On Friday, we left Amarillo and drove through scenic northern New Mexico. We made it to Chromo and started off on the dirt road to our "campground". When we arrived at the "campground" we found that it was hardly a campground, but instead a large beautiful mountain cabin. The cabin could easily sleep 22 of us, plus more if needed. It had a jacuzzi, sauna, pond, 4-wheelers, ping pong table and lots of beautiful views of the S. Colorado mountains. My brother indicated that he had rented the home. We were all surprised that someone would rent a home like this as it appeared to have been recently constructed. Within a couple of hours we learned that it was not a rental, but instead was my sister's cabin. They had purchased the land several years earlier and had spent 3 years building their vacation mountain cabin. She was trying to find a way to surprise us and used my brother to pull off her surprise.

The six families (22 people) came together from 2 states, 3 families from Utah and 3 families from Texas. It had been 3 years since our last get-together and we got some updated group pictures.

              

               Nick & Michon Higginson                                          The Ortler Family

                                                                                       John, Melanie, Jake, Dylan & Ryan

 

                  The Zohner Family                                             Karl & Linda Anderson

            Dave, Monica, Zach, Raegan, Sam & Cody

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

 

             The Wahlstrom Family                                         Julian & Faye Anderson 

          Paul, Brenda, Sydney, Tyler & Tanner

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The last day we went into Pagosa Springs where some of the men golfed, and a large group of us went horseback riding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The family was together for 4 days and we all had a great time!

 

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We all planned to leave the morning of the 5th day (Tuesday), except for Brenda's family who would be staying at their cabin for another week. We got up early that morning to drive to Brian Head, Utah to visit John's dad. However, we had some radiator trouble and decided to stop at a service garage to have it checked out. We found out that our radiator was cracked and the part would take 36 hours to get in...with a worst-case-scenario of 48 hours to get in. After all we were reminded by the mechanic "this is Pagosa Springs, nothing happens fast in Pagosa Springs". We called Brenda up at her cabin and she graciously came down to Pagosa Springs to pick us & our luggage up to take us back to her cabin. True to the mechanics word, nothing did happen fast and we spent another 2 days in Colorado. The boys had a blast up at the cabin riding 4-wheelers with their cousins and John spent lots of time helping Paul clear trees & brush from his property. With so much leftover steaks, hot dogs & hamburgers from the family get-together we didn't even have to cook! It was a great two days and we laughed that two families who live an hour apart in Texas have to come all the way to Colorado to spend time together :)

Finally on Thursday at noon we were able to pickup our van in Pagosa Springs and be on our way to Utah. Our week in Colorado was spectacular!