The Drehers

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Colorado Vacation | 2017

Back in mid-July, we went to Colorado for our family vacation. Adam's brother Matt and his wife Shay had a baby just a week before. They live in a tiny town in northwest Kansas, so we stopped by there on our way to Colorado to meet Arlo, take some newborn photos, and just visit with them. Matt's daughter Bailey happened to be there at the same time, so we got to take a couple family photos for them as well.

When we first got there, Matt was still harvesting wheat, so we got to ride on the combine.

Ren still loves babies, so he was very excited to hold Arlo.

Sutton, on the other hand, was more excited about the cats. Ha! He's obsessed. They had a litter of kittens and Sutton fell in love with the white one named Lightning.

We got there in the afternoon, hung out all day and evening, and spent the night in an RV that Shay's parents had. It was so nice! We left mid-morning the next day. The boys were so sad to leave!

It was really nice to break up the drive like that. We arrived mid-afternoon in Golden, Colorado where my brother Michael lives. We hadn't seen little Selah since Christmas and she is over a year old now! She's my buddy. Throughout our trip, I got to be her stand-in Momma any time Sara wasn't around.

We stayed there overnight and just hung out. The next morning, we got all our stuff packed up and we headed to the campsite up at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Before we started up the mountain, the four of us stopped in the downtown of Golden to shop a little and have some lunch. We found a yummy Mexican restaurant that we might have to go back to some day!

Once we started up the mountain, we found we had no phone service! It was a very interesting 3 days without a phone. After we set up our camp, Michael and Sara still hadn't arrived (kiddos were napping), so the four of us went out on a little hike. The trail head was right by our campsite. We hiked down to a low point, where you see Sutton below. Then we realized that we had no idea how long this hike actually was! So Sutton and I turned around to head back, but Adam decided to continue with Ren in the backpack.

It was a good thing we turned around! The hike end up being over 2 miles one way. Adam ended at a place called Panorama Point. He had LUCKILY had the idea to take a walkie talkie with him, and left one at camp. I tried to reach him via walkie talkie when Sutton and I got back to the campsite and miraculously he answered! He told me that the end point had a parking lot, so instead of hiking all the way back, I found my way to him and picked them up. Panorama Point was gorgeous.

We ended up frequenting Panorama Point because we actually got spotty service there and I had to get ahold of some clients I was meeting on the mountain to photograph. That's a whole crazy story. :) Anyway, when Michael and Sara got there, they set up camp, we ate, and then I took some family photos for them.

The next day, we went on a long hike. Longer than we thought, and it was hot, and Sutton did NOT do well. He kept crying, and yelling, and getting mad at himself for crying. It was pretty exhausting and frustrating. Adam had Ren in the backpack, then he carried Sutton on his shoulders half the time too! People kept making comments that he was a beast. Ren fell asleep back there and got a little sunburnt on his neck. :)

Now start all the landscape photos that Adam (mostly) took. It was so pretty up there! I'm pretty sure these next ones are all from that (terrible) beautiful hike.

Frazer's Meadow was our destination, and it was beautiful! There was a cabin where William (?) Frazer used to live that is old and abandoned and neat.

Adam took a family photo of us in Frazer's Meadow with his drone. :)

After lots of resting and a shower, I did our original hike again with my awesome clients and took their photos along the way. Adam and the boys came along for part of it....and Ren fell asleep again. :)

When we got back to the campsite, before I changed out of my nice clothes, I had Michael take a couple photos of our family in the meadow right next to our campsite.

We also did a group photo with Michael + his crew.

This was back at Panorama Point. We went again that evening (or maybe these are all out of order and it was the first night that we went back? I waited too long to post these...) to watch the sunset.

When sunset started, it was so pretty. We tried to capture it, and took about a million photos but I don't know if we did it justice!

We made Sutton pose as if he was staring into the sunset, haha!

We also climbed around on the rocks while we were waiting for the sunset.

Lastly, here's a final shot from the meadow by our campsite of the mountain right next to us.

We left on Sunday, and stopped east of Denver to see our friends Tim and Steph who were in our wedding many years ago. They live in Colorado now and we don't get to see them as often. But every time we do, it's like we pick up where we left off! We had pizza and then drove back to their awesome house to see where they live. It was so good to see them again.

And here's a short video that my super talented husband made of our adventures:

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Sutton's 7th Birthday Party

This year, Sutton's birthday fell on a Saturday, so we got to have his party on his actual birthday! Adam and I photographed a wedding the day before, so we were scrambling all day Saturday to get everything ready. Sutton was busy chilling out, being a 7 year old (playing with a fidget spinner).

We did Minecraft as the theme for his party, and I'm not really good at party decor, so I just made this banner out of scrapbook paper we already have.

The party got off to a little bit of a rough start. Ren wouldn't let me put him down because I'd had to wake him up from his (3 hour!) nap and so he was grumpy. He let my mom take him for awhile, but kept coming back to me. Finally, a slice of cheese in a bowl and a shady spot did the trick. After he had a snack, he was good to go.

We got a stock tank pool a couple of days before because we'd been wanting one since we moved out here. Adam also made a gigantic slip n slide out of plastic sheeting that included a ramp and went down a little hill. That was the big hit of the party. We also had a little sprinkler thing, and some water balloons that Ren kept getting into before he was supposed to. Haha. I didn't take any pictures of that stuff because it was busy! But here's the present and food tables.

Potion of Healing was strawberry lemonade, and Potion of Fire Resistance was orange Gatorade.

And here's a little video Adam got of Sutton trying out the slip n slide before the party.

Soooooo many people came out, we probably had 50 people out here. We loved all the love that Sutton got! He got hurt on the slip n slide towards the beginning of the party and was having a hard time getting over it. Between him and Ren, I was worried for awhile that none of my people were having a good time! Cousin Aubrynn helped Sutton forget about it and get to his good old laughing self again.

Sutton had requested sandwiches for supper. So we made a bunch of meat, cheese, mayo and peanut butter + jelly sandwiches, which are his favorite. We ran out of food! Luckily, Adam had brilliantly ordered some pizzas. Those were cleaned out as well.

After that, he opened presents. He got lots of good stuff...including a giant bag of cheese popcorn.

I tried to take pictures of everyone sitting around, watching him.

Then it was time for cake! Adam and I made a creeper cake, plus some cupcakes. Those little red bags in the back had a white stripe across that said TNT (like in Minecraft), and had a minecraft fidget spinner and a minecraft ring in them.