Fourth of July in Steamboat Springs

For the 4th of July we decided to take a vacation up to Steamboat Springs. My parents came and got Jack and Lily early on Friday, leaving me and Luke with an *almost* kid free night. We took advantage of it and hoped on the MAX with Josie and went to downtown Ft. Collins. We ate at a restaurant, got drinks and hung around to hear the band. It was a great night!

Saturday morning we woke up super early and made the drive up to Steamboat. We met up with my parents and the kids and headed straight out to the alpine slides. My parents took the kids on the slides and Luke and I slipped away for a trail run.

I had to call it quits after 4 miles, Luke continued on and I met back up with the kids who were having a blast on the slides

After the slides we went for a walk to the downtown area and hung out for a while by the river

There was a street fair going on and the kids stopped by this vendor booth to make a cool painting. Sad part is that we left it there to dry while we got lunch, but a nasty storm blew up really quickly during lunch and all the vendors had to pack up and leave so we lost the painting. But they had fun making it!

Josie is such a trooper she tries hang as long as she can, but then she just passes right out

But then again, she is also a little booger sometimes. ALWAYS getting into things she shouldn't...

While we were hanging out back at the apartment, I took my eyes off of her for a few seconds while I went in the kids room to check on them. In that short time Josie was sitting playing in my room. When I walked back into my room I saw her eating something, I look in her mouth and it is a random  pill. I have no idea where she found it but our only guess was that she found it under the bed since she was sitting right next to the bed and hand't moved. The pill was broke in half and half of the powder inside was gone (I assume she swallowed it). 

If this had happened at home it would have been no big deal since we have no dangerous pills around. But this is a strange apartment in a party town... who knows what pills you could find. I usually am the one to freak out over little things so I told everyone what happened to get their opinion what to do. Luke and my mom even tasted some of the pill to see if they could determine what it was. Everyone though it would be fine we decided to go to dinner. I put a quick call into Josie's doctor who I really like to see what she thought. The doctor office called back but said they couldn't help us and to call poison control. At this point I wasn't too worried anymore so I told Luke he could call if he wanted. And he did. And poison control freaked him out and told him that if we don't take her to the ER right now that she could die. 

So we loaded Josie up and took her to the ER. 

At the ER they ran a couple of non-invasive tests on her including and EEG and an EKG. Everything looked fine. They had her on a heart rate monitor constantly. As the time went by, the less worried I was. I figured that if the pill was anything dangerous that some symptoms would be showing. After a couple hours the ER called poison control to find out how to proceed. Poison control freaked them out and told them that Josie needed to be admitted to the hospital and have blood tests and urine samples done. They came in the room and told me they were going to prep her for an IV.

By now she was finally sleeping soundly and the thought of invasive tests was brutal. It had been over 4 hours since she ate the pill and all her vitals looked fine. I wasn't sure that there was a big enough reason to put her through the IV and the hospital stay. Luke and I talked it over and over. We decided not to admit her into the hospital and not to let them run blood tests. We had to sign paperwork that said we were going against medical advice and get the lecture from the doctors. But by the time we finally left the ER it had been almost 8 hours since she ate the pill and there were no symptoms. We were 99% sure the pill was harmless. But in any case, I put my fitbit on her wrist and it showed her heart rate. We took her back home and I set my alarm for 30 minutes all night long and woke up to check her heart rate & pupils. It was a long night.

But that was the last we worried about that pill. I'm not sure we'll ever know what was in it...

The next day we hung around the Steamboat ski area. It is a really beautiful place with a small river flowing right through. The kids played in the sand and the water. They spent hours digging pools and streams. The water was a little cold in the river though..

But right outside our apartment there were two hot tubs. They were kind of between a hot tub and a pool. It was the perfect temperature and the perfect size. The kids spent many hours swimming here

Luke and Jack were able to sneak away for some fishing. Jack caught a nice one!

We took the kids up the gondola with the hope they could ride their bikes down. But the trails were way to advanced for the kids. Lily ended up walking down and Jack rode the fire road down with the guys.

It was a long walk down for us girls! The guys made it down on their bikes way before us and even walked up the trail to meet us

The evening of the 4th we hiked back up that trail to watch fireworks. I think the kids favorite thing of the weekend was hiking back down that hill in the dark with flashlights. 

Our last day at steamboat we spent some more time walking around the gondola area.

It is probably my favorite ski town I have ever visited.

We took the kids back to ride the gondola and we hoped to go floating on the river. But when we got to the raft rental they told us no one under 10 could float the river. Kids were pretty bummed.

So instead we went fishing. We drove out to Stagecoach reservoir and spent the afternoon there.

Luke and Jack fished and the girls and I went on walks and took pictures

A big storm came through and left tons of mud and puddles for the girls to play in

Finally it was time to make the 5 hour drive home. We had hoped the kids would sleep most of the way, but they all woke up 2 hours from home. So we loaded them up with junk food in hopes to keep them happy...

But man oh man. It never fails that on long car rides we have screaming children. Steamboat may be the most beautiful place in Colorado but it is 2 hours to far for us right now.

Maybe we'll try again in a few years...