girls weekend!

GIRL'S WEEKEND!

Farron and I passed Dillon Reservoir just as the sun was casting the most incredible colors on our drive. Shot on iPhone, through my window, as I glanced to set it up then turned my head back to the road in front of me!  Not bad huh? lol

ROAD TRIPPPPP!!  I always get up to see Gabby in Grand Junction at least 1 time each semester!  The drive is gorgeous and when Farron is with me, I have a built in DJ who kills it each and every time and lucky for us, I LOVE the same music she does!  

This road trip was a special one!  This one was to celebrate the 21 years that Gabby has been on this earth, and able for me to hug! I always tell my girls, their birthdays are literally two of the BEST days of my life!  

We headed out around 3:30 from Denver as to try not to have to drive for too long in the darkness.  There are literally a kazillon places that I like to stop at on my drive to GJ to take pictures.  This trip, I had to be choosy.  We didn't have a lot of time with light since the clocks had JUST changed the weekend before!  I decided that if we could make it, traffic willing, we would make a pit stop in Georgetown at the local lake. I'd been there many times with Gabby but not with Farron.  It's a place a LOVE to take pictures and I was hell bent on stopping! 

This lake has gorgeous light and mountain ranges that it's nestled in between. 

We just barely made the last bits of sun.  It had already dipped behind the mountain but gave us enough to work with for a few shots in a short period of time! 

My mom used to make my brother and I get out of the car at rest stops during road trips, and run, to get out our pent up energy!!  Good tip mom!!!

Back in the car we went, and onto the next stop for some dinner!  We had planned to stop in Dillon and grab something we could eat in the car, but we ended up not being too hungry so waited until Vail.  We stopped at King Soopers, picked up some baked chicken and a 6 pack of Mike's Hard for the freshly turned 21 year old, and hopped back in the CRV and hit the road!

I was sad to miss daylight in Glenwood Canyon as it's legit one of my favorite parts of the drive.  The bright side though, we had zero traffic delays and I would get to see it on the trip home!

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We checked into the hotel at around 7:30 and went right away to get Gabby over at the school!  

We checked out her new pad, met her roommate, took a couple polaroids and went back to the hotel with Cannolis, donuts and Wine Coolers in hand to celebrate the birthday!

Gabby's new 4 person dorm is really cool! She has a lot more space, a kitchen and living room! As always, decorated with really cool stuff!

Gabby wanted donuts for her "birthday cake" so we got a dozen...and I decided on a cannoli filled with cream and chocolate chips for myself!  😋

We enjoyed giving gifts and just chillin out together before I passed out for the night!  (due to hours awake, not alcohol lol)

 Opening gifts...a special necklace called the Heart of the Rockies, for her special day. 

Getting wifi set up on our phones.

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Gabby and I woke up semi early the next day as she wanted to take me on a hike that she and her BF Justin had done a few months back.  I was excited to get to experience it because she told me how rough it is, but the payoff....fantastic!

Farron stayed behind as she had a ton of homework to catch up on, and most likely would NOT have liked the hike we were about to undertake lol.

Fun fact, this trail head is maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops, from the hotel.  The directions to the parking lot are horrible on just about every navigation we found, and after being re-routed, for 45 minutes, we found it!

So THIS, is what we were going to be ascending!  She wasn't kidding when she said it was a difficult trail!  2100 foot climb in about 1.7 miles! 

View to the right as we climbed up the ridge of the book cliff.

We were both taking a ton of breaks going up, it's steep, but kept moving!

Seeking shade when the day starts to heat up.

First plateau we found!  SO nice to get a reprieve from the steepness!

Just before we hit another really sketchy part of the trail.

This part of the trail had really cool striations in the rock, but also had a very steep drop off to one side!

Inspecting some of the geology of the area but staying close to the wall.

Getting towards the end...we had to scale the rocks to get to the plateau!

Seeing this gives me a slight bit of anxiety, but it didn't feel like I was as close to the edge as it looks like I am!!

At the top, we get to stand by a huge flag and over look the entire valley. It is truly magnificent!

We got to spend some time just relaxing at the top, taking it all in.   

We had totally stripped down on the way up but all the layers went back on at the chilly top!!

This is the old flag pole holder!

By the time we got back to the bottom our feet and knees hurt so badly from the climb down!  I have never before been so glad to be back at my car!!

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Our plan that day was, after Gabby and I hiked, we were all going to drive through Colorado National Monument to catch sunset for some photos!  We had a hard time actually getting the sun to be where we WANTED it to be lol, due to all the mountain areas where it hid!

We still got some amazing shots!!

This was our first stop! After I got mad at Farron for going too close to the edge, we got down to capturing some memories!!

 

Chasing the light and the setting sun around the monument, we found a couple more less than sunny, but cool, places to stop to shoot.

As we were driving out of the park, we finally came across the warm setting sunlight that I had been after this whole time.  It was perfect so we jumped out and made the best of our location!!

After I had my fill and the sun dipped out, we headed from Fruita back to Grand Junction to meet up with Justin.  We enjoyed a really tasty birthday dinner together at Rockslide Brewery!

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Sunday rolled around and it was time to head home.  After a great breakfast, again downtown, at a local cafe, we were on the road.

It is always hard to say goodbye!!

Someone can't hang....

Always a good time with these two and I can't wait for our next adventure together!!