Matt took the day off from work for my birthday on Friday, October 2nd. I thought we were just going to hang out around the house and leave for Crested Butte the next morning. At 11am, he said to me, "Pack a bag-we're leaving in an hour!" I had no idea we were going somewhere, and he wouldn't tell me where, which made packing interesting. We got in the car, and started our ascent into the mountains for about 45 minutes and arrived at Cripple Creek, Colorado, which is a small historic victorian casino town. I actually went there for my 21st birthday as well with some friends nine years ago! Matt told me where to park and we checked into the hotel suite that he had reserved for us at J.P. McGill's. This suite was the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in in my life. It was amazing!!! We went into the jacuzzi, then out to a really nice dinner at a steak restaurant in the casino hotel next door. Afterwards, Matt played on the slot machines for about 45 minutes, while I gave Lochlan a bath in the jacuzzi. Lochlan loved trying to swim around and was kicking his legs like a frog. He kept trying to throw his head back under the water, but I wouldn't let him. It was so cute watching him try to swim. Matt came back up to the suite and hung out with Lochlan while I went and played at the poker room for three hours. I only lost $36 so that wasn't bad at all! :)
The next day, we woke up and went to breakfast, then headed to Crested Butte overnight. I took Matt through Buena Vista and up over Cottonwood Pass to the Jack's Cabin cutoff and into Crested Butte. We spent a couple of hours visiting with my nephew, Josiah, his sister, Carly and his parents Eric and Annie. I hadn't seen them in a year and the kids had grown so much. After this, we went and checked in to a local european-style guesthaus called the Christiana, then we walked to the Timberline Restaurant for a drink and an appetizer. I had a few friends working there that I was able to catch up with! Next, we walked over to Maxwell's Restaurant and ran into a few other people I knew while also meeting a couple next to us from NYC. The woman was originally from Italy and the man was from England and Matt talked to them for awhile while I caught up with the people I knew. We attempted to eat dinner, but we were so full from our appetizers from earlier, that we didn't eat much of our dinner. Through all of this, Lochlan mostly slept and ate a little at the end. Afterward, we walked back to our room and all three of us were asleep by 10:30pm. The next thing I know, it's 8:30 on Sunday morning and we were waking up. Matt and I couldn't believe that Lochlan had slept for ten hours! I decided that this was my birthday present from Lochlan to his mama! :)
We walked over to the Gas Cafe to see Eric, Josiah's dad, and have breakfast. Then we walked to the children's store in Crested Butte to get Carly a birthday present, as we already had one for Josiah, but wanted to get Carly the perfect gift as well. We found a great book for her called "Fireside Stories" that Matt picked out. We liked it so much, that we got one for our own house as well to read to Lochlan and Gavin. We walked over to the Tunkey's and gave Josiah and Carly their gifts, then we had to leave and get on the road. We drove up to Mt. Crested Butte to check out the new base area that I hadn't seen since it had been constructed.
We then drove down to Gunnison and stopped by my friend's house, Lindsey and Lars, to see them and their fourteen month old daughter, Prestyn. Our friends Kevin, Crissy and baby Norah stopped by while we were there and we took pictures of the babies together, as well as the mama's with our babies. We were running late at this point and needed to get on the road, so we left and grabbed sandwiches from a restaurant in town and then got on the road.
Driving home we went the Monarch Pass route and were home in about three hours after leaving Gunnison. It was such a great weekend and the best birthday I've ever had! I thought a few times on the way home how my 30th birthday felt so complete, spending it with my little family and wanting nothing more than that.
