Stenger LIFE: Denver for Labor Day

A well deserved vacation was needed for the Stenger family this Labor Day weekend, so we jumped on a plane and flew to see our good friends Mike & Audra and their kids Brook and Ty! All we wanted to do was get a breath of mountain air, drink some beer, and relax with good friends all weekend long, and it was just that and better! The photos are a little out of order, but show the highlights of the trip.

We arrived Saturday afternoon. Karmann was perfect on the flights and slept for most of the long leg from Atlanta to Denver, which was nice! We hung out that evening and had good beer and lots of good food!

On Sunday, we drove about an hour to the top of Mt. Evans, which is the highest paved road in the US - we were at 14,000 feet (+/-) at the peak!! It was 15 degrees wind chill, so you could hardly get out of the car long enough to take a picture before you froze and had to get back in the car and drive back down the mountain! But it was worth the view and pictures! When we got back down, we visited the small town at the bottom for some delicious pizza pie and a bit of the old mining town atmosphere.

Monday we had another fun outing to the world famous Tiny Town!! This is also only a few miles from M&A's house, and a must visit site with small kids. Karmann was a tiny bit interested in the houses, though she took a liking to the Home Depot porch!! (How ironic, eh?) The pictures are priceless. We also rode the train around the site and got to play on the swings. It was a perfect day and fun for all of us, really. That night, we also went to another local landmark - Heritage Square. It was similar to an amusement park and fairgrounds with a main street similar to Disney. Brook had the most fun riding the crazy rides and even got to jump on the super trampoline! After all that, we were worn out!

Tuesday our flight back wasn't scheduled until 5 pm so we were able to meet up with Mike for lunch in Denver. His office is close to Cherry Creek, which was neat to drive through.

We hated to leave the beautiful weather, good friends, and scenery, but had to head home. Karmann was pretty good on the plane (especially compared to the other 15 kids on the flight) but didn't sleep a wink. We had a direct flight back, thank goodness, but didn't get into Orlando until 10:45 pm. Needless to say, we were all a little jet-lagged Wednesday morning!

Thanks again to M&A and Brook and Ty for hosting, and we very much look forward to their future visit to Orlando sometime soon!