Colorado Mini Vacation {Kingman, AZ Family Photographer}

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I *love* to travel, and road trips are definitely my favorite! So, when my good friend and fellow photographer, Chelsea, of Chelsea Ellingson Photography, mentioned how much she would love it if I could come up and visit her in Colorado during the peak of their leaf-changing season, I impulsively and excitedly said YES!

The schools here in Kingman have begun a modified year round school schedule this year, allowing for a 2 week break in the fall (as well as in the winter and spring, too), which just so happened to be scheduled during the reputed best time to go and see the changing colors in Colorado. While the two week break can be a nice break for the kids from school, it really stinks for families whom have parents who coach during those seasons, my husband being one of them, which meant he wouldn’t be able to come with us. 🙁

I consider myself a pretty brave person, and have always taken all of my kids everywhere with me, regardless if my husband could be with us or not, but for our 8-9 hour drive to Colorado, I opted to only take 3 out of 4 of the kids with me…..you know, so I could at least keep some of my sanity intact! 😉

My two oldest, Levi and Gracie, my youngest, Emilynn, and myself, left around 8 a.m. on September 28. We got into Telluride between 3-4 p.m. that day, met up with Chelsea and her girls, changed our clothes, and headed out to a spot that Chelsea had found earlier that week. We took pictures of ours kids, and once the sun started to go down, headed back to her place in Montrose about an hour away.  My kids and I stopped to have dinner together, and I remember it being so nice, getting to sit with them and talk to them one-on-one like that.  We stayed at Chelsea’s house that night, and her and her husband were amazing hosts, giving up two rooms in their house for us to take over for the next 2 days. 😉

The next day was pretty low-key, hanging out at her house, taking the kids to the park…oh yeah, and taking my car to the tire shop to get one of my tires checked out.  Turns out, there was a nail in one of them, and who knows how long it had been there.  Scary to think that I could have had a blowout while driving that far with my kids in the car! About $900 later, there were 4 brand new tires on the car, and they were all terrain because I was in Colorado, and that’s all they had on the shelf.  Good to know that the next time it snows in Arizona, I’m all set! 😉 LOL!!!

We set out for Last Dollar Road on that second day. Let me tell you, if you go anywhere in Colorado, you MUST go to Last Dollar Road.  That place is seriously GORGEOUS!!!!  I might have been a tad starstruck, too, knowing that we had passed by Ralph Lauren’s ranch while driving through it.  😉

We left Colorado the next morning, to head back home. I could only stay for a couple days because I had prior appointments scheduled that week in Kingman, but nevertheless, it was well worth the drive.  Colorado was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined it and so much more.  Last Dollar Road was my favorite, because it seemed so peaceful, serene, and breathtaking.  I have already told my husband that we need to go back sometime when he and Cohen can join us next time.

Here are some of the images that I took while we were there. Fall family sessions were so busy this year that I actually didn’t get around to even opening these up or editing them until just a few weeks ago!  Anyway, enjoy! 🙂

The images below were taken on the second and third days, either on Last Dollar Road, or on our drive home.  It was such an amazing place, I wish I could do it all over again!