Lundeland: 21 Family Members in 4 days

I am late in blogging this post - but a few weeks ago we took a "spontaneous" road trip to Crested Butte, CO to visit my 92 year old Grandpa and my Grandma. My grandfather is now in hospice so it was great to be able to take a few days off and go spend some quality time with him and my grandmother. Seeing as how getting to CB via plane is over $800 per person, we opted to fly to Denver ($210/person) and drive to CB. It worked out great because due to all of my family members in Colorado...and having our own car...we were able to see 21 extended family members.

Our trip kind of started on Friday with Nathan flying into Dallas. His flight was delayed so he didn't get in until midnight. The next morning he and I met Kelly and Joe at their apartment at 5:45am and we headed over to Love Field. We had a direct flight to Denver and met Matt (who was coming from his week in Chicago) at the airport at 9:30. A rental car later and we were on our way.

We started with a stop to see my cousin Mark, his fiance and their BEAUTIFUL baby boy, Oliver (3 months old). We ate lunch, and drove 2 hours to Colorado Springs, where my cousin Jenny was in the hospital where she had given birth to Samuel John 3 days prior. Samuel is the 4th boy in that family - and it was so fun to get to see all of the cute kiddos. That and hold a newborn...adorable!

After visiting with Jenny and her family (bonus Aunt Diana was in town) we drove back to Denver where we met Heather, her bf Joe, cousin Mark, Tracee and Oliver, and cousin Ryan and his gf Emily. I have seen my cousins in so long so it was so fun. We had about a 3 hour dinner at this amazing Ale house followed by icecream! Heather and Joe were kind enough to host us for the night and after morning coffee and bagels we headed off to Crested Butte.

It has been awhile since I took a road trip through new territory. We had a blast driving through the mountains and stopping anytime we saw a view we liked! We got into Gunnison (30 min from CB where my Grandparents nursing home is) mid afternoon, grabbed some starbucks for the group and had an amazing 3 hour visit and dinner. Oma and Papa were in such great spirits! When our visit was over we drove to CB and stayed with Aunt Donna. The next 2 days were spent exploring Crested Butte, visiting some favorite places and visiting Oma and Papa!

We drove back Tuesday, stopping to visit Oma and Papa on our way out - got to Denver and flew home. The trip was a great success - minus the fact that Nathan got stuck in the airport for an extra 24 hours!

All of these pictures are out of order bc, again, I can't figure out how to easily drag them in this blog thing.

Matt meeting baby Oliver...so sweet!