The Ellington Family: Catching Up-September

We were so busy at the end of September and beginning of October that I never posted the blogs I started about Labor Day and Colorado. Now that I'm back at work I'm even more behind on blogging! So...here are both blogs in 1! Its kind of long and picture heavy but I didn't want to leave anything out!

Labor Day 2010
This year over the Labor Day Holiday weekend we headed to Lexington to spend some time with David's family and see some very special visitors from Germany! When the Ellington's lived in Germany, they rented an apartment from the Bauer family in a little town outside of Wurzburg called Uettingen. They were there for 3 years before coming back to the states. David and I made a trip over to visit them for a week in December of 2002 and had a wonderful experience! So we were very excited when they decided to make a trip to the United States. It was a packed but fun-filled few days! They took a tour of Monticello, walked around UVa, tailgated and attended a VMI football game, and toured Natural Bridge all in just 3 days!

Walking down the Lawn at UVa

group shot

Uta and Josie

Martina and Jules

Colorado, September 2010

At the end of September we headed back out to Denver for conference for David's dad. We flew out on Sunday and spent a few days in Denver before heading out to Breckenridge for the remainder of the week. While in Denver we went to an Oktoberfest, visited the Denver Zoo, walked around on the 16th street mall, and had dinner at a really neat restaurant called the Buckhorn Exchange.

underneath the giant blue bear in Denver

the blue bear peering into the convention center-Jules LOVED it!

Jules and David

poor Josie was so exhausted from our trip out!

Momma Tiger

Giving Mimi the Elephant a treat!

Uncle Peter and Josie

How Far Can You Jump?

Peter

David

Anne

Meg

Jules

my favorite part of the zoo!

Jules loved the lion! He is actually yawning in this pic and Jules loves to imitate him!

action shot!

family pic before leaving the Denver Zoo

a few of the mounted animals at the Buckhorn Exchange-the restaurant was unbelievable!

On Wednesday afternoon we made the drive out to Breck through Loveland Pass. We have never been in Colorado in the fall and were excited to see the Aspens changing! We also made a stop at Swan Mountain, which overlooks Lake Dillon. Juliann had a ball feeding the chipmunks and the view was spectacular! Since we were only in Breck for a few days so we tried to cram a bunch of hiking and into 3 short days. In addition to Loveland Pass, we also visited 2 other spots on the Continental Divide: Hoosier Pass and Boreas Pass. The weather was absolutely beautiful (similar to what we experience during the summers except it was VERY cold at night!) and the Aspens were a gorgeous shade of gold. As much as I love Breck in the summer, it was just as much fun in the fall!