STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado – Relatives and friends were devastated by news Sunday that a plane carrying a Houston family had crashed in Colorado, killing the couple and their two small children.

Family friends identify those on board as Tommy Jacomini, Jr., an energy executive from Houston, his wife Suzie and their children, Tommy, 8, and Vivi, 6.  The family was flying home to their farm in Brenham, Texas, from a vacation in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

The farm is where Tommy and his father kept their shop and model planes. Friends say flying has always been a Jacomini family passion. Tommy, Jr. got his pilot’s license at 16.

“Tommy was an excellent pilot, exemplary pilot,” Don Ervin, Tommy Jacomini's uncle, told KBTX. “He’s been interested in planes all his life.”

“He’s highly trained I’ve flown with him myself,” family friend Charles Wickman said. “He understood the risk. He was very aware of the special circumstances that involved flying up there at that altitude.”

The wreckage of the Houston family's plane was found in Colorado Sunday, investigators confirmed. There were no survivors.

The plane was found by a hiker on a steep cliff more than 100 miles from where they took off. There were about six inches of snow in the area on the Continental Divide.

Search and rescue teams had been searching for the family's small plane since Saturday.

COURTESY

Tommy Jacomini and his children.

The plane, a four-seat Cessna 182, was last seen leaving the Steamboat Springs Airport at 8 a.m. Friday, according to Major Mark Young with the Colorado Civil Air Patrol.

Young said Jacomini did not file a flight plan. No distress call was received.

The Jacomini family was due to arrive in Texas Friday night. Family members reported them missing Saturday morning.

Friends say Tommy Jacomini was trained in aerobatics, with extensive flight hours in mountainous terrain.

Jacomini's other passion was his family.

Relatives say he met Susie on a blind date in New York City and she stole his heart.

COURTESY

Susie Jacomini and her daughter.

“They were so much in love,” said Tommy’s sister, Kathy Masterson.

“They’re the couple everyone else aspires to be," said Jason Stabell, Jacomini's brother-in-law. "He was a consummate family man. Everything he did, he did well. She was the life of the party. She was the one everyone wanted to be near. They were passionate about people and places and the things they did, and that rubbed off on everybody.”

Friends and family gathered at the farm Sunday and tearfully glanced through the family's photo album.

“I decided the farm would be the best place since we spend most of our weekends there,” Susie wrote in the album. “These will be some of their best memories when they grow up."

The photos show a picture perfect family: Little Vivi with a kitten or holding a flower in her mother's arms; Tommy in a cowboy hat with both kids on his lap; The family with a pet labrador.

The Jacomini kids would have started school Monday in Houston.

Relatives say they find some comfort in knowing that the family died together after enjoying their last vacation of the summer.

“In a weird way we are fortunate and happy that they’re all together,” said Masterson.

KBTX.com & Associated Press contributed to this report