Hey daydreamers! Today I had to pack and make a whole blog post, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone and do both at the same time? đ
I’m going to visit family for 4th of July, and we’ll be staying there for a few days. I figured it would be fun to show you guys what I’m packing, and I haven’t done one of these posts since camp last summer! When I first started this blog, one of the main categories I set up was travel. But that category hasn’t gotten very much use (especially since covid and everything!) Also, disclaimer, I’m totally an overpacker. I probably won’t need a lot of these things, but I like to bring it all just in case. đ
Hey daydreamers! Today’s post is going to be extra special. Mary Elizabeth came up with the idea for a fun 4th of July blog tour to celebrate our independence throughout the blogosphere! Her, Diamond & I are hosting the blog tour, and this is my post for it!
I have a kind of sad update for you guys – on Sunday, just a few hours before we were supposed to leave for camp, I found out that two counselors tested positive for COVID-19, and they had to cancel last week’s session – the week I was supposed to go. It was super hard to hear that, but we tried to make the best of our time in San Antonio and got to visit some family and friends! We rescheduled for session 8, which is on July 19th, and I’m hoping and praying they won’t cancel it and I’ll get to go! It was a super bummer at first, and I’ve got to restart the 14-day quarantine and prep/pack all over again. More staff got it, so they canceled this week too, and I really hope session 8 wonât get cancled! I have cheer camp this week (yay!) some fun posts planned, and a special surprise for Diary of a Daydreamer’s birthday, so stay tuned for that!
For the tour, I decided to make a post about all the things I love about Texas, which, I admit, was a pretty daunting task at first. I mean, Texas is 268,597 square miles (a couple thousand square miles bigger than France) and is home to 29 million people – how am I supposed to represent all of that in one post?! I tried my best to make a list of the things I love about living in the Lone Star State, plus some cool fun facts and, of course, Independence Day stuff too. So let’s get straight into it! Some of the photos are mine, and others are from Pinterest.
Hey daydreamers! (Lol, alliteration overload in the title.) You guys really seem to enjoy my Colorado Travel Diary series, so today I’m here with Day 3! Ahh, I can’t believe there’s only 2 more days left in the series.
Today was super special, because we went…*drumroll please*…WHITEWATER RAFTING! It was so, so, so much fun – I could’ve spent all day on that raft! And I still can’t believe that – wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. đ I can’t wait for today’s post, so let’s get started!
Once we’d eaten breakfast and hung out for a little bit, it was time to drive to the rafting place! When we first got there, I was kind of nervous. I kept thinking about everything that could go wrong, and what if I fell in? I was also super nervous about my insulin pump and supplies, because how was I supposed to treat my blood sugar on a tiny raft? What if I fell in and my pump got ruined?
Credit: Lakota Guides (Those people stuck in the branches? That’s us. đ)
We had to put on these wet suits that were really uncomfortable, since the straps were rubbing on my sunburn I got from going to Epic Discovery! We also had to wear these waterproof shoes, helmets, and splash jackets. For some reason, the helmets had random names on the back of them, and mine said Dory! Unicorn’s was Sleepy, lol.
We got to ride in a bus with all the other rafts going on the trip, and once we got there, we practiced a couple of strokes on the ground. Riley and I were tall enough to paddle, but poor Unicorn was stuck in the middle seat! đ We learned that when our guide, Perry, called out “Forward 3!” We’d row forward three strokes, and “Backward 3!” meant the same thing, but backwards. Us Texans were used to canoeing, so it was really fun learning how to paddle the raft!
My heart was pounding when we first got in! (I’m the terrified one in the back right, lol.) The water was soooo cold, so I was super grateful that we had to wear all that gear!
We started to paddle, and I felt like I was getting into the groove a little bit more! I started to relax as we traveled through the river. You could see the mountains from the raft!
And then we hit our first rapid! It was CRAZY. I was so scared and screaming with delight at the same time! It was such a fun adventure, and the rapids weren’t as bad as I thought they would be.
But then, of course, Riley decided to go on this thing called the Rodeo Seat, which is basically this rope that’s on the front of the raft. You kind of sit on the very edge, and the only thing that’s keeping you on is the rope! Riley seemed to be having fun, and the rodeo seat looked scary but also pretty cool.
Another raft in front of us had gotten stuck on this log, and their entire boat flipped over! Once they got free, the log was rolling around like crazy.
My exact thought process was, when I saw the helmet bobbing up and down in the water: “Oh look, there’s some girl in the water. WAIT!!!! THAT GIRL IS RILEY!!!!!!!!” She had fallen in the river! Suddenly, the log was rolling towards her. She went underwater and moved out of the way at the last second! It was crazy!!
Once we’d pulled Riley back onto the boat and that craziness was over, another person had fallen out of their raft! At first I thought it was my dad, lol, and then it turned out to be some random person. Since we were the sweeper boat, we had a special job of picking up all the people who fall off, so the guy rode on our boat for a few minutes before we could get him back to his party.
Paddling along the river was sooo relaxing – I just wanted to stay on that raft forever and ever! And the whitewater rapids were so exciting and scary and thrilling and petrifiying, all at the same time.
And of course, towards the end of the rafting trip, Riley decided to get BACK on the rodeo seat, even after her fall into the river! I was super amazed by her bravery. I could never have done that. đđđ
Soon the rafting trip was over, and we were all exhausted! We all got out of the raft and took off all our gear. They even had snacks, water, and cookies, so that was super nice! After enjoying our cookies, we got in the van with another raft and we all talked and rehashed the insanely amazing rafting trip. It was the highlight of Colorado, for sure!
We drove around this place called Minturn for a little bit, and then decided to eat lunch in Vail Village at this cute little deli that had AMAZING ice cream and sandwiches! Riley’s older sister called, and she answered with, “Guess what? I almost died today!” Uni and I almost died laughing! đ
Credit: My mom đ
We found these really cool murals next to the parking garage! They had all these flowers and swings on them, and I had to pose in front of it! I love how these kinds of murals make it seem like you’re part of the painting. I read in this travel magazine that was lying around the rental house that said something like “the murals in Vail aren’t complete until someone stands in them”, which I thought was really cool!
Credit: My mom again đđ
And of course, Unicorn had to pose, too. I love her expression in this photo, lol! She’s looking into the distance with a devious smile on her face, and I her arms are shrugging like “Whaaaaat?” when she was trying to “grab” the ropes of the swing. đđđ It actually does kinda look like she’s sitting on the swing!
Credit: My mom again (again) đđđ
I love this picture!! The rest of the day was spent doing puzzles, playing cards, eating snacks, laughing, chatting, and playing around in the yard. Riley and I even found these sleds in the garage, so we sledded down the hill of our rental house in the grass, just so we could tell everyone that we went sledding in the summer! đ It was actually really fun, except the grass was really itchy and irritated my skin.
Credit: Uh, me. It’s a selfie.
AHHH AVERT YOUR EYES! I look downright scary in this selfie. 𤪠I had to use the flash since it was getting darker. THIS SELFIE WILL HAUNT YOU IN YOUR NIGHTMARES MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
Credit: me
Anyway, here are the traditional sunset photos for today! I STILL can’t get over how GORGEOUS Colorado is. I know you guys are probably sick of me talking about how pretty this place is, but it’s so true. â¤
Credit: me again
I miss Colorado so much! In my opinion, it’s the most beautiful place in the world. đ đď¸
(We unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of the fireworks, so here’s a cool one I found from Unsplash!) Even though it was July 3, there were fireworks going off! We raced outside, and we could see the fireworks show perfectly…from our deck! It was insane. It was such a crazy, incredible experience to be able to see fireworks…oh, and also to be freezing cold on July 3rd. đ
And that’s it for today’s post! I’m really enjoying this Colorado series, and I hope you did, too! Writing these posts totally takes me back to that amazing vacation and puts me in my happy place! See you next Saturday!
P.S. â If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, youâll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Hey daydreamers! I’m so happy you guys liked the first installment of my Colorado Travel Diary, and today, I’m back with another one! The second day of our trip was truly amazing, with even more new things and new adventures to explore.
On day 2 of the Colorado trip, I faced my fears, tried new things, hung out with my friends, and saw even more of this beautiful state. And I’ll be documenting all of that in this post, so let’s get right to it!
I had a bit of a rough night – I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I was about to faint from altitude sickness, and I had these strange, vivid dreams that I kept waking up from every hour or so. But, I woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows and the beautiful mountain view! I read my Bible on the porch while everyone was still waking up – it was absolutely gorgeous, and I felt so close to God!
(Isn’t the sky so pretty? *Sighs*) After we had eaten breakfast, we got dressed and headed off towards Lionshead Village (just a few minutes away from Eagle Vail, the town where we were staying), found a parking spot, and walked around Lionshead for a little bit. Once we got gondola tickets, we decided to go up the mountain to check out this adventure park!
All of us on the gondola! (Riley’s face, lol. She’s the one in the blue shirt, next to me.) I was a little bit nervous about going up the gondola – I kept thinking of this episode I saw in a show called Bunk’d where the ski lift breaks! XD
The gondola started going faster and faster until we were in the air! It absolutely took my breath away being able to see the mountains from hundreds of feet in the air. It was so fun! (Except for the fact that my ears kept popping, lol.)
Me, Unicorn, and Claire in the gondola! We were so excited to go up the moutain!
Before we knew it, we were on the mountain! They had this really huge building called The Eagles’ Nest that had a ton of resturaunts and ski schools inside. Inside that little hut next to it, they had this mini-science center, which was a little lame. XD
Family photo! You can see the rockies in the background – aren’t they so beautiful?? I know I’ve said that like a thousand times so far in this series, but it’s so true! (By the way, the yellow tag thingy on Unicorn’s jacket is her gondola pass – you can also see mine attached to my jeans.)
At the top of the mountain, we discovered HUGE piles of snow!! In July! We were all freaking out with excitement and playing around in the snowpiles and throwing snowballs and “snowboarding” (aka sliding down on our shoes). That’s Texans for ya, haha.
This photo was supposed to be “aesthetic”…not sure if you can actually tell that it’s a close-up of the snow, lol. However, I love how the snowy bokeh looks like shimmering glitter! So pretty!
After we had looked around and decided all the stuff we wanted to do, we went back down the gondola to Lionshead Village to purchase our passes for the adventure park and eat some lunch (since the restaurants in the Eagle’s Nest were crazy expensive). This photo was taken as we went down the mountain in the gondola!
We ate lunch at this cute little restaurant (with a really weird name that I can’t remember right now) that had a deck on top of the roof where you could eat outside. It was so cool! I took this photo while we were waiting for our food – it’s probably one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken! Aren’t those flowers pretty? (I really need to stop saying pretty and beautiful in this post.)
After we bought our passes for Epic Discovery, the adventure park at the top of the mountain, we headed back up in the gondola! Unicorn says her favorite part of the adventure park was the gondola. XD
Unicorn and I got to do this super fun bungee jump while Riley went on a zipline! It was really cool jumping up super high and doing cheer and dance jumps, but whenever I almost attempted a backflip, I would lean back, see the sky, and change my mind! However, I’m determined to someday accomplish a backflip on a bungee jump! đ¤Ş
Riley and I both decided to go on the ropes course, but I wanted to warm up on this little baby ropes course they had that was literally three feet off the ground, yet somehow you had to wear harnesses anyways. When I was waiting in line to put my harness on, they had these ropes that said Vail on them and I had to take a picture!
This is the baby ropes course I did – behind it, you could see a real one, but it was closed, so Riley and I did another one on the opposite side of the moutaintop. The baby course was so easy, I went through it super fast!
This was the course I went on with Riley – I only did the first level, and I’m glad, because I’m not the best with heights sometimes! It was kind of scary – they didn’t have one of those automatic belays. You had to actually unclip one of the ropes that was holding you and move it to the next area you wanted to go on, and then do the next one, but I had a lot of trouble with that because I’m so short! I’m glad I got off on the first story, since I started feeling lightheaded right at the very end when I got down.
I didn’t get a picture of the rollercoaster (since I was on it, duh, and also my mom only took videos of it, and I only have the free plan đ), so enjoy this photo of two random people on the coaster from the Epic Discovery website. 𤪠There was this really cool mini – rollercoaster that Riley, Unicorn, and I went on, where you drove your own car and controlled the speed! I went slow at first, but then realized I totally loved full speed and went super fast the rest of the way! We all agree that this was the best attraction in Epic Discovery (except in Unicorn’s case. She still thinks it’s the gondola.)
Doesn’t this photo look like either Unicorn is super tiny or we’re about to back-flop of a cliff? We took a bunch of cool boomerangs of us jumping up and down right here, but WordPress won’t let me post them.
We were all super tired and exhausted from the day, so we headed back home in the gondola! We took a little bit to rest and recover from the busy day at Epic Discovery, and then headed over to Vail Village, where we shopped and ate at this cute little deli.
To end this post, here’s another sunset photo I took on the second day. Every day, I took some pictures of the gorgeous sunset, so I’ll be closing off every post in this series with them! I’m planning on making every other post part of this Colorado Travel Diary series, but that might change. đ Keep an eye out for a collab or guest post coming soon, along with a What’s In My Backpack + Back To School Haul post! See you then!
P.S. â If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, youâll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Hey, daydreamers! I’m super excited for today’s post (which, by the way, is not only the first post in my new series, but it’s also the first official post on here!)
A few weeks ago, I went on vacation to Vail, Colorado! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life! I miss it so much, and the mountains are my new happy place. XD In this series, I’m going to be sharing with you guys all of my adventures from Colorado!
A little backstory: when my mom was in College, she got to go on a mission trip to Vail and stayed there all summer! She loved it so much and really wanted to share Colorado with us. We’d already been to Colorado Springs a few years back, and we wanted to go back there super badly!
My friend (she’s going to be called Riley on this blog), her family, and my family had been talking about going on vacation together this summer – and we ended up going to Vail, Colorado, where my mom went on her mission trip! Riley and her parents decided to drive, and we decided to fly. On July 1, we hit the road/airport!
The night before, I was so excited, I could barely sleep! We had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning, and immediately drove to the airport! My little sister , DiamondUnicorn430 (but we’ll call her Unicorn or Uni in this series) loves these human conveyor belt thingies. Seriously, if you want to make her happy, all you have to do is take her on an escalator. XD
After we’d checked our bags and gotten through security, we went to our gate! I look so tired in this picture, lol. I felt kind of nauseous, but thankfully I didn’t throw up, even though I almost did. (Okay, that was TMI. Sorry ’bout that, lol.) I worked on my friendship bracelet until it was time to board!
We lined up to board when the flight attendant announced it, and then we could finally board the plane! Unicorn and I were so happy to finally go on the plane! (As you can tell, we don’t fly much. XD)
We were so excited as we walked through the hallway/tunnel thingy! I was a little bit nervous, but also super happy to not only be going on an airplane, but that we were going to Colorado!
Thankfully, I landed the middle seat! Unicorn sat on the other side with my dad. There was an empty aisle seat, and my mom and I were hoping for a skinny, quiet person. đ And a skinny man with headphones sat next to us! We were like, “Score!” But then he ended up being super chatty and talked with the old man in the seat next to my Dad and Unicorn. đ It wasn’t too bad, though – once my mom and dad had to sit next to this huge dude we call Two-Ton Tony…on an overnight flight to Paris!
I love how the plane drives slowly, and then goes faster and faster and faster and before you know it, you’re in the air and it takes your breath away. I was so excited when we took off! The view was so gorgeous and it was crazy seeing Houston from miles in the air. All the cars looked like tiny little ants!
Aren’t the clouds beautiful? When I was taking this picture, the baby in the row in front of us turned around and climbed on top of her seat and started babbling at me and my mom and tried to grab my finger! It was so cute! She was clapping and trying to get my mom to hold her. Most people would probably think that’s super annoying, so I’m glad we were the ones sitting behind her!
Another picture of the clouds as we rose into the sky, high above the city. Can you spot the little rainbow circle in the sky? That was cool to see a rainbow from above! I love flying; for me, it’s part of the vacation! I’ve only flown four times in my life, counting there and back from this trip to Colorado.
A few hours later, we landed, got on a shuttle to the rental car place, rented our car, and got on the road to Vail! We were starving, so we stopped at a Freddy’s in Denver that looked EXACTLY like the one at home. It felt like we were back in Texas!
We could see the mountains out the window – it was absolutely incredible! When we started heading out of the city towards the more rural parts of Colorado, I saw these HUGE mountains. I asked my mom if they were part of the Rockies, and she told me they were just foothills! I was blown away. I think the mountain in this picture might be an actual mountian! It’s hard to tell, they all seem so huge to me!
And get this – the bigger mountains still had snow on them. IN JULY. For a Texan who only sees snow barely once a year and the coldest temperature I’ve ever been in was 35 degrees, it was crazy to me to see snow! I’d heard it snowed the weekend before, and I didn’t believe it. đ
*Sighs* The mountains are so gorgeous. I miss them so much! I surprised myself and basically just stared out the window at the beautiful Colorado landscape and played the alphabet game with myself the whole time. Normally, I’m always on my phone or have my nose in a book while I’m in the car, so this was new for me.
There was a lot of confusion with our rental house – the rental company sent us the information for the wrong house, so we drove to Vail Village and were super confused (and a little dissapointed) to find that we were staying in a brown, kind of ugly little apartment that definitely wouldn’t fit seven people (our family of four + Riley and her parents)!
I made this GIF out of a video I took as we were driving into Eagle Vail!
But then, we figured out it was the wrong place! Then, the GPS took us to this random house with a lovely view of…a construction site? After some calls to Riley’s mom, we figured out the right place and were blown away when we got there! Here’s a tour:
This was our living room! The furniture wasn’t the most comfortable in the world – when we first got there, I was so excited that I ran into the living room and threw myself onto the couch – big mistake. It was rock hard, and it hurt super bad! đ
Here’s another picture of our living room – there were these huge windows and a gorgeous deck I got to read my Bible on every morning and look at the mountains! We played cards on that coffee table for hours and hours…
The view from the porch was absolutely stunning – we could see a huge mountain! On the other side, you could see all of Vail and the mountains in the distance. It was insanely awesome!
This was the kitchen! (Sorry about the mess – I actually took these pictures on the last day of our trip, so our stuff was everywhere from packing up!)
This super-annoying wooden thing didn’t go up all the way to the ceiling and bothered us all for the entire week and made us all OCD. đ
There were these really cool animal sculpture thingies (I seriously need to stop saying thingies) in some places. We couldn’t decide if the first one was a deer or a fox, and the other one kind of looks like a panda in this picture, but it’s actually a bear.
They had these fun frames with posters from all these different parks that were super cool to look at!
This was the room my parents stayed in. It’s nice, right? I like the little lamp with the branch.
Unicorn looks extremely unimpressed with the time change in this picture. đ She cracks me up.
Let’s venture downstairs, shall we? My sister was so excited to have stairs – we live in a one-story house, and for some reason it’s always been her dream to have an upstairs.
We did this super fun thing were we slid down the banister every time we went downstairs. Kind of a weird picture, but we basically lied on top of the banister, grabbed the sides with our legs and arms, and slid!
There were these super weird/cool wooden bird things that remind me of Angry Birds. Seriously, doesn’t the big pointy-headed one look like the yellow guy, and that littlest one like that tiny little white one, and the fifth one from the left like the red dude?
And of course, we shall not forget the spider that lived with us for the week and just hung there with that bird and ate bugs. We (me, Unicorn, and Riley) actually saw it with a bug all wrapped up in webs, and we thought it was an egg sac and freaked out that there were going to be a ton of baby spiders everywhere like in Charlotte’s web! đ
This was the room Riley’s parents slept in. (We took this when we first got there, before Riley had arrived, because that would be weird if I went in her parent’s room. đ)
WHY DID I TAKE A PICTURE OF OUR BATHROOM. đ¤ Anyways, enjoy this unnecessary photo of the restroom next to the kid’s room. Hey, at least it was a pretty nice bathroom. đ¤ˇ
Sory this picture is blurry! Anyways, here’s our bedroom! Unicorn and I landed the top bunks, and Riley slept on the bottom, below Unicorn. Our room was so cute and fun, and I loved sleeping on a bunk like at camp!
This was the view from our porch! đđđ I can’t get over how pretty Colorado is. I still can’t believe I got to spend almost a week there.
After Riley arrived (somehow we beat her even though she’d been driving for two days!), we went out to eat at this place called Pazzo’s Pizza! But, it wasn’t exactly the best dining experience of my life…first of all, the room felt weirdly slanted to me (I think I was a little bit disoriented from altitude sickness. I could’ve sworn I was slanted downwards!), and then our food took almost an hour! And it turned out that ordering “thick” pizza meant I got a pizza brick. Yum. When we got home, I took these photos of the beautiful sunset!
You could see the sun sinking below the mountains as the sky turned pink and orange from our porch! I love sunsets so much. And a sunset in the mountians? Ahh, I love it even more! đ
I took a sunset selfie with the Portait mode on my mom’s iPhone X – it has an awesome camera! I look kinda weird in this picture, but oh well – the lighting is amazing, at least!
And thus ends this super-long post with a selfie with me and Riley! I hope you enjoyed hearing all about the adventures from my first day in Colorado, touring the house, and seeing our flight. Thank you so much for reading through this whole thing! Have an awesome day!
P.S. â If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, youâll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post.
Diary of a Daydreamer 