Christmas Colorado Road Trip: Day 1 - Taking Off, 1990's Country & Amarillo

For a week, we were counting down the hours until we would be on the road heading to Colorado. The main reason we drove to Colorado for the first time ever, was because of the road trip memories I had, in the half dozen times we drove to Breckenridge while I was in middle school and high school. It brings back memories of Beaches Soundtrack, Wynona  Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire. Being on the road for 14 hours, for us in 2019, means opportunity to explore, of course. The weather was gorgeous and the kid's didn't ask one single time, "How much longer?" After 3 years of consistent and long road trips, the kid's are truly used to car and we all look forward to it. The Friday before Christmas, we got the kids out of school around 10:30AM and headed Northwest, our goal was Amarillo, by morning. We got there easily by 8PM, even with a long stop in Lubbock at D.Q., where we introduced them to Steak Fingers, The Dude, small town local newspapers and the classified section. We jammed to good quality 90's music much of the time.

Ages of kids on this ski trip:

Carter: Just turned 13 - very first time snow boarding
Addison: 11.5
Delaney: 6.5 (2nd time skiing with lessons)

As with our previous family trips, we had a overall theme for this one:
BEING GRATEFUL
Blake and I had been keeping a daily gratitude journal for the last 3 months and so it was easy to incorporate it into the family trip.

The things I was grateful for this Friday, as we embarked on our Christmas Vacation Road Trip - I'm thankful to actually be on vacation and heading on a adventure with my crew, that everything fit in the van, the feeling that Christmas hustle and bustle is officially done on 12/20. Knowing that everything will be so simple while we are gone and even once we come back, it’s truly such a great feeling!