Party at Jayke's Place!

(This is only a small representation of the entire group)

Literally.  I had the entire team plus some of their younger siblings in our "other" hotel room...aka..."Jayke's Place".  

After coming home from Colorado I had to turn around and go back to Carmel for a soccer game the very next day.  That, in itself, wasn't too bad but didn't leave much time for packing...or should I say RE-packing for the following weekend in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Friday after we returned from our trip out west, we headed south to Louisville for a two day soccer tournament.  We got two hotel rooms, one for the 3 kids and one for us (Jeff and me).  Saturday we had two games and afterwards the entire team headed back to the hotel for swimming, a carry-in dinner, and then...party at Jayke's place.  He invited the entire team up to his hotel room for a "party".  I must have been temporarily out of my mind and agreed to this.  

All the kids made a break for the elevators and stairs before I could even blink.  I was trying to get up there with them so I could lay down some ground rules but kept getting hung up by more parents asking if they could, conveniently, send their kid up as well.  Sure!  The more the merrier...(wth was I thinking?)

I finally got up there and luckily, I had a key since I was unaware of the secret code word to get admission.  Once inside I was overwhelmed by the smell of kids who had been out playing soccer, swimming, eating garlic bread sticks, and running through the hotel.  They had turned the air conditioner off which helped contribute to the ripeness in that room.  After the smell hit me, the next thing I was aware of was that all the lights were off, there was a strobe light going, and they had chosen to listen to Eminem while all laying around on the beds and floor playing their tablets.  Pretty tame, as long as they kept the noise level down and the AC up.  Each kid had also brought host gifts, it appeared.  There was a collection of half eaten bags of Goldfish crackers, fruit roll ups, and other chosen snacks piled on the tv stand.  I also discovered that before I arrived there must have been a pretty intense Cheese ball war waged.  

I can't even imagine how people have more than two kids and keep their sanity.  I felt like a top, spinning around and around.  Picking up shoes, socks, cheese balls, orange coated wash clothes (from the cheese balls) and even a toothbrush and toothpaste.  I had kids coming at me from all angles asking questions, telling me things, and Jayke showing off by MOUTHING off and trying to usher me out of the room.  My main objective was to get them to understand they had to be quiet or the wheelchair bound gentleman in the room adjacent to theirs would likely get us removed from the premises.  Once it was down to a dull roar, I left for my room with one last order...they had to come tell me if they were leaving to go back to their room or any other reason.

I then made my way across the hall and down towards the elevator where I propped the door open and set up camp in a chair where I could see both the tv, and the hall way.  The party broke up not too long after it started.  They were in there maybe an hour before they all started heading to their own rooms, whether by their choice or their parent's.   All in all, it wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be.  We didn't get kicked out and all the lamps were still standing.  Everyone had to get to bed for an early morning game.  We played for the win in our bracket but, ultimately were eliminated and didn't advance.  We headed home in shock after rolling through the first day and only allowing one goal the entire tournament.   Too bad it was the one that put us out.

Precious!

Uncle Mark sent me this picture he took of my cherub at the wedding a few days after we got home.

Day 5: One for the Road

On the plane heading home...a selfie for the road!

Day 4: Hanging out at Mark's

View from Mark's balcony

After coming back from the wedding we grabbed our stuff from Kelly's house and met her for lunch to thank her for allowing us to crash at her house in between our running around.  I had to run into Old Navy because I wouldn't be me if I didn't get a little shopping in while on vacation then we were off to Mark and Robin's to watch football and just hang out with them before heading home.  Mark made the most awesome pizzas on the grill and we just relaxed after a busy few days.  

Day 3: Keystone and THE WEDDING!

On the third day of our trip we all headed for Keystone where Mitch and Mallory were getting married.  We met in Breckinridge for lunch on the way.  The weather was bad and we didn't have much time to spend there, which was disappointing since the last time I was there I was only 13 years old.  

After our quick lunch in Breckinridge we went to the the resort where we were staying.  Its the off season so there was really no one there, no one but wedding guests.  After a quick change we headed to the gondola that would take us up the mountain to the ceremony.

The view from our condo

Below is our ride to the wedding...

We had to take two gondolas to the top of the mountain.  Jayke thought this was pretty cool.  I was just happy it wasn't a chair lift!

On the way up the mountain it stopped raining and there was a rainbow over the mountains...a good omen. 

Jayke got to join in the Champagne toast!  Look how happy he was about it...then he tasted it.  (Non-alcoholic of course) He claimed it was good but I noticed he didn't touch it again.  He tried several of the h'ordeuvres, which I was proud of him for.  They were prepared for the 3 kids who were there and had chicken strips for them, much to Jayke's relief!

Before dinner...the guys watching football on their phone...smh.

There was lots of dancing.  I danced with Jeff, I tried to dance with Jayke, and my mom tried to dance with everyone.  As the night grew later and later I began to wonder how some of these people would get on the gondola to get back down the mountain.  The ride down was a little scary.  It was Jeff and I on the Gondola in the pitch black.   All you could see were the lights from the resort at the bottom of the mountain.  The only noise was when you went over the periodic stands that held the Gondola cables, which was a little disconcerting.  They gave you a blanket for the ride down which was little comfort in the pitch dark, on the side of a mountain, hanging by a cable in a metal and glass box.  I was more than happy to get off of that thing and wondered how Jayke did.  Turns out, he didn't like it much either.

The next morning we headed back towards Denver to have lunch with Kelly and go spend the evening with Mark and Robin.  After running around non stop for 3 days I was happy to just hang out at their house and eat pizza from the grill.  On the way back I took the below picture at the continental divide.  We would have loved to have had another week to hang out in the mountains but unfortunately, we had to go home the next day.  Maybe someday we will be able to go back.  4 days is not enough!

Day 2: Garden of The Gods and Pike's Peak!

Day two of vacation was another fun and nerve-wracking day of watching Jayke spider monkey up every rock he could get near and a long nervous drive up...and back down Pike's Peak.  

First stop was Garden of the Gods.  Jayke was more than eager to climb any and all rocks possible.  He clearly doesn't share my fear of heights.  I spent most of the time yelling at him to "get down!" and "stay away from the edge!"  I finally had to give up before everyone around us thought I was a crazy woman.  I decided moving along out of the area on to the next thing was the best idea and probably the only way I was going to keep him off these rocks...and save my sanity.

The picture below looks way worse than it actually was.  It was an easy climb up the back side of this rock formation.  I was able to get below for the shot that makes it look like he is a rock-climbing extraordinaire.  I really didn't allow him to climb anything difficult at all...much to his dismay.  He was quite aggravated with my lack of willingness to turn him loose.  I kept promising there would be more rocks to climb around the next turn...we just didn't stop at them.

The tallest point in the background is Pike's Peak, our next stop.  We called to try to get a reservation on the cog train but it was sold out for the day.  Not very good planning on our part but I will take the blame for that since it was I who decided we shouldn't drive up.  Jeff was confident he could do it and I figured I could always get in the back seat and curl up on the floor board if necessary.  Jayke was nervous about it too and I wasn't very good at reassuring him since I, myself, was terrified!

We got a little lost trying to find the road up and stopped off in some park where Jayke had to attempt to take off on some trail.  Once again, I had to reign him in which disgusted him.  I don't think falling or running across a rattle snake even crossed his mind.  I kept telling him that is why I'M THE MOM!

We finally found the road to the peak and started up.  It wasn't bad at all for a long time but then...

I managed to ride up and back down without getting in the back seat and even took picture and recorded a video.  I noticed while watching the video, that you could hear me moaning and cussing most of the way.  You could also hear Jeff laughing at me in the background.  As you can see from the pictures, no guard rails and nothing but sky over that edge!

It was pretty chilly at the top, 37 degrees with the wind chill.  I don't think it was all Jayke thought it would be.  He was over it pretty quickly and retreated to the warmth of the car, after hitting the gift shop, of course.  Jeff and I walked around to see the view from different directions.  The weather wasn't that great to be able to see very far.  I'm not sure if we saw 5 different states or not but we were trying!

Here's the train I WANTED to ride up.  In the end, I'm glad we drove.  It ended up not being nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be.   Jayke slept the whole way down...some mountain explorer he is!

When we got back to Dona's house there was more excitement!  A BEAR was on the side of their house trying to get their bee hives!  WE were able to see the baby bear briefly before he was scared off by all the crazy people with rocks and flashlights.  Jayke says this was the highlight of his trip.  I imagine we were all quite a site as we were told of the bear and all went racing through the house throwing small children out of our way!  Even more entertaining when while we were watching for the bear, several of the bees got in the house and even stung one of their protectors.  Kelly's Jeff soon changed from "team bee" to "team bear" after one of the little buggers stung his face!

Bear watching

Wonder what we would have done had mama bear come charging down that hill???

Day 1: Golden, Coors Light Brewery Tour, and Lookout Mountain

Our first day in Colorado we began with breakfast in Golden at a little cafe.  I made Jeff drive down the main road so I could take this photo because it reminded me so much of something I would see in the movies.  We made our first stop the Coors Light Brewery where we took the tour to see how our favorite beer is made.  Really, we took the tour to get free beer but some of the information was interesting too.  For instance, Indiana was the LAST state that Coors was sold in.  I think the people of Indiana have been trying to make up for lost time since everyone drinks Coors here!

After the tour we drove up in the mountains where I took the picture below of the Coors Brewery.

Our after-taste-testing selfie!

After the tour we drove up Lookout Mountain...

where we took another selfie, of course!

....and a lot of pictures of the mountains...

We would have walked more on the trails but I was wearing flip flops, of course.  Mountain trails were not in my plan for the day so I was unprepared.  Probably a good thing considering my horrible fear of heights.  This was a small test to make sure Jeff would be able to drive up Pike's Peak the next day...and to make sure I wouldn't be on the floor board or walking back down!!

We stopped and saw Buffalo Bill's grave site while we were up on the mountain.