So as all of you probably know, I’ve been a bit out of pocket recently… Suffering for the cause, as it were, in Colorado. While the trip was most assuredly WORK, I also just so happened to have a camera handy– and you know what that means! But before I get to that, I wanted to share a bit of our Labor Day festivities with you all. We went to Cleburne, TX to visit Chelsea’s grandfather (a.k.a. “Grampy”) and his wife, Dee. This was only the second or third time they’ve ever been able to spend any sort of time with Dot, so they enjoyed it thoroughly! And, if you’ve been paying close attention this summer, you’ll know that Jack has learned to swim, and is therefore an absolute wild man in the water! Here are some of the highlights, like Dottie hanging with Grandmommy and Dee before we ate:

Remember how I said Jack was getting fearless?

Well, his Grampy isn’t one to be trifled with… Check out this “I’m the Mug Rootbeer Endorsee Shot”. Featuring a voiceover by Sam Elliot… He’ll go toe to toe with a 7-year old any day!

Dot even got in on the swimming pool fun!

Of course, Papi couldn’t resist a little fun, too!

So that was Labor Day… Tons of fun, but a long day in the sun! I was pretty bushed, and we still had a long way to go. We went home, got packed up, and left for Dallas that night, so I could spare myself the drive to the airport at 3am! After saying goodbye to the kids, I was pretty upset about having to leave, so my beautiful, amazing wife suggested I go buy a laptop so I could skype chat with them from the hotel. BRILLIANT!

So I leave the next morning at the ridiculous hour of 4:45 and begin my trek to Colorado. The first day, I didn’t really have time to grab a camera, so you won’t see anything from that. But you CAN see the window view from my sweet suite I got (yes, that verbiage is deliberate). Good enough?

As you can see, it rained most of the second day I was there. But, that made for a GREAT view of the mountainside later that evening! For all you photo nerds: This is SIX shots stitched into a panorama. The clouds were moving so quickly it made it tough to get to stitch properly, but I love the way it turned out!

The following morning when I woke up to look out the window, there was this bizarre thing on the horizon…

Why yes, that IS a hot air balloon! So I ran outside in my pajama pants to watch them get it the rest of the way inflated and take off.

I *might* be getting a canvas of this one for the office… Just sayin’…

So long, balloon!

The following morning, we actually had a bit of time to do some souvenir hunting and sightseeing. And boy, did we do it up right! Everybody in MY house got some sweet Colorado swag… What about yours? Along the way, we got to see some of the scenery around town, like the volcano-looking sulfur deposit of doom, and a cool old church:

My final thing to share with you all is a waterfall my boss knew about from his fly fishing adventures. We had to hike what seemed like 28 miles to get a good view of it, but it was AMAZING. No idea how high it actually was, but I could’ve looked at it for hours. Mostly just to catch my breath from the hike!

Well folks, that’s all from my travels last week. Hope you enjoyed it! As much fun as I had, I’m just glad to be home with my beautiful family!