Colorado: You won us over

What: Summertime in Colorado 2018

Where: About a week in Frisco, a week in Winter Park, about 10 days in Keystone, and a few days here and there in Broomfield. In the middle, in late June, we also headed to Wyoming for Matt and Jeff to run the Bighorn 100 mile race. A slight detour to Sheridan, WY, that was a really fun (and you guessed it, tiring) weekend.

When: May 26th – July 3, 2018

Why: To spend some summer time in Colorado and around Matt’s brother Jeff and his wife Erin and their 2 year old daughter, Elliot. Matt and Jeff were both training for the Bighorn 100 in Wyoming, so also for good running and mountain training.

Big Takeaways:

  • We like Colorado
  • We like all the sun
  • So many memories about the Continental Divide Trail in 2013 and the Colorado Trail in 2012. Both trails went right through Copper Mountain and Breckenridge.
  • The high altitude is no joke for breathing, running, sun exposure and dry skin. More liquids, please!
  • Colorado does playgrounds very well – not only in quality and quantity, but also cleanliness. And tons of kids use them!
  • Colorado does running trails well, whether it’s bike paths or mountain trails
  • We liked the Frisco and Keystone areas the best since it’s lots of little towns all close to each other, like Frisco, Breckenridge, Keystone, Dillon and Silverthorne. Winter Park was a great town to visit, but it is quite small and feels much more isolated, and that was even in the summer when roads are all open, accessible, and snow free
  • So many great kids events going on throughout the summer – Keystone had daily events for kids, put on by Kidtopia. We went to a Kidzfest over the weekend, a presentation on winter rescue dogs, a tour of the Keystone horse stables, and even a Strider bike race!
  • Only stuff kinda missing is stuff that big cities like Denver have – zoos, aquariums and science museums. We’re closer to that stuff in Boulder, but still a good drive away. While in the area, we did hit up the science center and Paavo loved it. Definitely worth a repeat.
  • Lots of friends want to visit Colorado! We had several people come to visit us and we visited those friends we already have in Colorado, including Alan, Teddy, David, Sarah, Andrew, and many more we didn’t fit into the trip (we’ll see you soon, Karla!)

Conclusion:

We liked Colorado so much that we moved here, so that says a lot! We now call Boulder home and completely switched our residency to Colorado, so we went all in. After calling the Pacific Northwest home for 11 years, it was time for a change and for less rain and more sun. And it ain’t too bad being just 20 minutes from Matt’s brother Jeff, and his family. We know we like Colorado in the summer and now we’re super curious to see how we do in the winter and snow. Matt and Paavo already have their ski passes for the winter and Paavo’s doing indoor ski lessons until they head outside, where Matt and Paavo both will take more lessons. Julie will be on hot chocolate duty 🙂

Some Pictures:

keystone hiking

Atop the gondola in Keystone

breckenridge train park

Checking out the stream by the train park in Breckenridge

breckenridge train park

Playing at the train park in Breckenridge

frisco bike path

A view from my run on the bike path in Frisco

Potty training day #1 in Winter Park. Thankfully we succeeded.

playground winter park

Awesome playground near the hockey rink in Winter Park

rainbow park silverthorne

Matt can’t help but play too

rainbow park silverthorne

Loving the Rainbow Playground in Silverthorne

train park breckenridge

More train park in Breckenridge

next page books frisco

Hanging in Next Page Books in Frisco, one of our favorite book stores

Paavo taking full advantage of Elliot’s toys

CDT berthoud pass

His first hike on the CDT

berthoud pass colorado

Still snow at Berthoud Pass!

winter park playground

Matt still playing in Winter Park

dillon reservoir bike path

The running/biking path along the Dillon Reservoir

keystone horse stables

Just checking on the horses in Keystone

keystone horse stables

Checking out the draft horses in Keystone

dillon reservoir

Paavo loved the Dillon Reservoir

keystone gondola

2 awesome dudes inside the Gondola

kidzfest keystone

Paavo’s first bouncy house experience and he didn’t want to get out.

kidzfest keystone

Train ride through Keystone = Priceless

kidzfest keystone

Extremely interested in finding out more about this T-Rex

kidzfest keystone

He specifically requested a pink bunny balloon

kidzfest keystone

Gettin ink done

strider bike race keystone

So much concentration at the Strider bike race in Keystone

strider bike race keystone

Our proud little finisher

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