Croatia, Italy, and France..

Jude and I are on our way to Europe where we will make our first stop in Croatia!! 

Made it to Dubrovnik ad enjoying our first meal. :)

A cool small little island by Dubrovnik 

Exploring the small island. 

Skiing in Utah spring break 3/2014

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Jude and I are having a blast our first day at Steamboat springs, Colorado. Jude is learning how to snowboard and I am learning how to ski!! 

Jude in his snowboard getup.. 

Preparing for downhill.. He looks like he was born to do this..  :)

I'm getting ready for some skiing..

Our view from the hotel.

Another view from our hotel.

Yes, another view..

The pictures above are all of our first day at steamboat. So far we are having a greAt time. We both took lessons to learn how to snowboard (jude) and ski (I).. Jude did very well his first day and seems  to be picking it up quickly. Now we are ready for our second day of lessons.. 

This begins our second day of snow play. So MANY people come here to snow board and ski. It's crazy!! Jude loves snowboardng but mom is tire.. Skiing takes a lot out of ya. 

Jude is getting his snowboarding skills down. 

The ginormous sea of people. It goes way way back.. 

I'm skiing down this slope.. This was a bit of a challenge for me to ski down. My athletic abilities are not quite happening for me just yet. 

 More slope pictures. Well this wraps up day two of skiing and my body is aching all over. One more day left on the mountains .. :( 

  

Day 3. I wanted to do something different besides ski, but Jude insisted he wanted to snow board so another day of skiing for me. I am sooooo glad I did. Jude had

another day of lessons and I did not want to pay for another day so I did my own thing and it was the most amazing time!! I I Absolutely loved it!! Went up the mountain and did all the green slopes and truly had a blast! Honestly can not wait until my next adventure on the slopes. 

Big Bend Texas 1/2 -1/5/14

Our very first road trip of the year. Jude and I packed up the car equipped with our bikes to head SouthWest to Big Bend Texas to visit the National and State park. I have always wanted to visit this park and heard many wonderful things so we are very excited to start our trip.

 Selfies before the start of our adventure!!!

   Bike loaded and ready to go!!!

First Destination is Austin, TX were we stop at our favorite eats Gourdough 's where Jude enjoys a "flying pig" pictured here (donuts with bacon). Jude is in Donut heaven!! This is delicious!!!

I should mention that the above photo of donuts and bacon was Jude's desert. I have a donut hamburger  and Jude has donuts with chicken tenders.. What more can a kid ask for.. This place is Yummy and a definite recommendation for all when in Austin.

We finally make it to Alpine, TX. This is a small town almost 2 hours away from Big Bend. This was a 10 hour drive with stops. Our first night we get a place on Hotwire for $55 and stayed at a place call Oak Tree Inn. It's safe but not so fancy. It comes with breakfast at a place called Penny's Diner. This place truly looks like a diner.

Penny's Diner

Our first Destination is Big Bend Ranch State Park. We decided since our time is limited we will do the  drive down River Road aka FM 170.  This drive is absolutely an amazing drive. It's a drive along the Rio Grande River, a river that separates Mexico from the United States. At some portion of the river it really narrows which makes an easy to cross to Mexico.

Selfies!! 

 This view is absolutely AMAZING!! This picture really does not capture the enormity of it all. This place really felt untouched and desolate. It felt as if Jude and I really had the whole place to ourselves to explore.

 Our next stop is Close Canyon. This Hike is awesome!! It's just right off FM 170. This hike is literally between two canyons where a opening was formed that is not very far apart. It is unbelievably quiet between these two canyons and gets creepy with the silence. Jude and I are the only two taking this hike into the canyon that runs about a mile in.

 Jude in between the two canyon.  The canyon are very high and is very hard to depict in these photos.

There is no one in site and just us. This hike takes us about 1.5 hrs to complete and ends our hike here in Big Bend Ranch State Park. Jude was getting tire and didn't want to embark in anymore hikes. 

The last few pictures are along the River Road drive. This drive starts from Presidio to Lajita and takes about 1.5 hours to complete without any stops. This was a gorgeous drive. Big Bend Ranch State Park is HUGE. This was just a very small portion of the park. This park felt very remote, desolate, and magical. It's very hard to believe that a place like this exist in Texas. 

 The hotel that we stayed at after our day at the state park is a Lajita Resort and Spa. This is a very nice hotel located just right outside of Big Bend Ranch State Park. This place has a very Western feel to it.

 The only restaurant to eat at. Not too many choices. Lajita is a very very small town that just consist of this gulf resort.

The view from the restaurant that is part of the Resort we stayed at. 

Our next destination is the National Park.

 The hike to the top of Lost Mine trails. We made it to the top. The view is incredible!!!!!!

We only have one day at the National Park and decided to take a hike up one of the more popular hikes. This hike was called Lost Mines. It took us about 2 miles up a hill to over look the Chisos Mountain area at the National Park. This hike took us 5 hours to complete since we had to take several breaks along the way. This hike is a definite must do with some amazing views. We are very glad to have taken this hike. 

The Big Bend National Park is an Amazing and breathtaking park. We only had 1 day to spend here and regret that we were not able to experience the many other hikes available to take in this park. I definitely plan to make a trip back to this park one day but this time with more  time to explore the park.

Jude enjoying a freeze dry Ice cream sandwich at our visit to the Mc Donald's Observatory. I only have two pictures of this place because I got a bad case of food poisoning and could not enjoy this stop. 

Going to Big Bend Texas was a great experience. Unfortunately it is such a long drive and not so convenient to get to this park. To really get the opportunity to explore these park, camping would be idea. Other then that, There are small towns that are located just outside the park. The park does have accommodations located just inside the park. This includes both the National and the State park. Lajita Resort and Spa is very nice and is located just between both the State and National park. This place would be the idea place to stay but is rather expensive at almost $200 a night. It is a really nice place to stay compared to the other accommodations.