Colorado Trip part 1

So last week we headed out to Colorado and stayed for a week. We had the most fun we've had in ages. I took tons and tons of pictures and I plan to share as many of them as I can here on my blog. 

I'll probably do a 3 or 4 part post because it would take so long to share everything in one post. 

So the first leg of our trip we headed to the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. It is a huge valley full of farms. You can see the great Rocky Mountains on either side of the valley. It is absolutely gorgeous! 

Headed into the valley. These mountains are called the Sangre De Cristos.

Some sights we saw while in the valley.

Cabin near the mountains.

 Beautiful double rainbow.

Sunrise over the Sangre De Cristo mountains.

Just a random picture.

Rain cloud over the valley.

Cattle along the road. Look at them gorgeous mountains in the background!

We then headed to a small town called Bonanza that used to be a big boom town with silver mines. 

It sits at 9500 feet.

Today the population is only 10 but in 1880 when mineral deposits were found by a man that stumbled upon ore while searching for his horses the population then increased to 1500. The town had 36 saloons and 7 dance halls. Sounds like a wild place to me.

Sadly I didn't take any pictures of the actual little town.

(the road to Bonanza)

Marlin was so sweet to me. He sat in the car so many times and let me get out to take tons and tons of pictures. He was so much fun to vacation with. There is no one else I would rather have been with!

We also went to another old mining town in Creede, Colorado. This is an extremely rugged place, The old mining buildings and railroads were built into the side of cliffs and high up on steep mountain sides.

Within 137 years of mining in Colorado over 5,000 fatal deaths occurred. I can certainly see why after visiting several mining sights.

The road to Creede.

This picture hardly shows how high this building was. All I know is if you walked off the front porch you would be a goner.

You couldn't have payed me to step one foot on the train that went across this track.

Well, I don't know. Maybe.

 beautiful creek that I slid down the side of the hill to take pictures of.

Marlin and Little Marlin waving to me!

One little picture of me! I thought it would be a cool picture with the waterfall in the background but it turns out you can hardly even see the waterfall. Oh well.

Little Marlin and daddy.

I love how bright and colorful this little town was in Creede. All the flowers were gorgeous too!

Then we left Creede to head back to the valley again. 

This is enough pictures I assume for my first post! There are many many more to come so don't forget to come back often for more photos!

We had such a marvelous time. I can't help but share all the photos and memories!

DIY Thrift Store Makeover

I've been wanting to try  DIY fixes on thrift store clothing. Ever since I read a blog about this lady that would find thrift store dresses and fix them up, always resulting in something cute, I just thought I had to try it. So my first attempt turned out amazing! At least I think so!

A while back I found this ugly brown dress. Actually I didn't really think it was all that ugly until I showed it to my mom telling her I thought it would look so cute this fall with boots. She just smiled and said something nice about it, but I could tell she must have been thinking it was quite ugly. When I got home I showed it to my husband Marlin and he did not like it. He said it looked like an Amish dress. I was like what? It does not. Anyhow that really altered my opinion of the dress and so it sat up in my sewing room for a couple of months. Just today I was in a fix it mood and I decided to give this dress a makeover that it desperately needed. As you can see from the picture it was a little big, long sleeved, and unflattering. It was missing a button and the hem was all messed up.

Basically all I did to this dress was fix the hem, put all new buttons on it, turn the sleeves into some cute short (almost cap) sleeves, and add a cute belt that I also found at the thrift store!

I know I took some terribly quality photos but I didn't exactly feel like bringing my nice camera up to my sewing room, plus I was in a hurry to get back down to the house to make supper for my sweet husband!

Here is the dress after the alterations!

Then I added this cute belt!

And folded down the collar thingy.

So now I believe I have a very nice dress that fits me very nicely! It was so much fun to do this and I will be on the look out for more dresses to makeover!!!

Last Day at the Beach

For our last day on the beach we went to an island called Howard Park! It was so gorgeous with palm trees all around. There weren't as many people either!

They had some beautiful scenery on the island with some rocky beaches, bright yellow flowers, and sea shells everywhere!

Random fact: Marlin bought us two hot dogs for lunch from a near by vendor. Sadly I dropped my hot dog in the sand like a silly little girl, but Marlin was sweet enough to go and get me another one, and then we shared a root beer float!

We just had such a great time! Before we left we snapped a few pictures by a gorgeous rocky beach. We are on our way home now and I will certainly miss the beach!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! 

As crazy as it sounds we are headed out to Colorado in two weeks to do some camping and to hang out in the Rocky Mountains for a while!

I am super excited about going out there! We will be hiking, four wheeling, camping and exploring! I'm sure my blog will be flooded with tons of pictures from this trip, so if you enjoy keeping up with my jam packed, photo filled post then stay tuned for tons of awesome Colorado pictures in the near future!!!!