Home Sweet Colorado, Pt. 1: Hail Yes!

As many of you know, our family spent the last few weeks traveling to cooler climes--specifically, to Colorado and then to Utah. It was a wonderful chance to see family members and revisit places near & dear to Nathan and myself (we both grew up in Colorado and later went to college in Utah). As you can imagine, there will be a few vacation-related blogs upcoming. Also, with Nate & I blogging on separate things, you can guess that not all this information is chronological. Anyway, on with the pictures!!

Actually, much of the trip was spent relaxing at my parents' (Ray & Lori Nash's) home. I purposefully kept our schedule light; I wanted to rest a little bit on this vacation!! Grandma & Grandpa were a big help to me; they watched over the kids & gave them lots of new toys & games to goof off with. Much of the playtime was spent in their beautiful backyard, like this "race" with Grandma...

 Getting wet was also a priority; whether it was spraying everyone with the lawn sprinkler...

...or goofing off in the jumbo inflatable pool...

...or visiting a nearby splash park on a whim (as you can tell by the lack of swimsuit)...

...it was great to beat the heat  in a variety of ways.

Of course, this being Colorado, I knew the weather would change drastically if I waited around long enough, and sure enough...after a 100-degree day, I was surprised 24 hours later with a chilly hailstorm...something I've rarely if ever faced in AZ. I was a little nervous that our NEW VAN would suffer hail damage, but everything turned out okay.

As you can see, the hailstones weren't too big this time. However, they did a number on my parents' prized hibiscus bushes...

Unsurprisingly, the girls were fascinated by the little white pellets (although Lorelai was scared of them at first). As soon as the hail calmed down, they put on their jackets and hurried outside to collect them. Hooray! I knew I packed the jackets for a reason (this was the only time they wore them this trip).

The first thing Celeste did upon picking up a hailstone off my parents' lawn? She popped it in her mouth...eew. My dad told me that he'd just fertilized the lawn a couple of days before, too...double "eew." Plus, these hailstones had dark flecks & even bits of hair in them! TRIPLE "eew." Oh, well, Celeste is still alive & kicking, so no harm done, I guess.

More on Colorful Colorado next time!