Enhanced image, could I have done this in the camera

[Boomn4x4]

Here's a shot of my wife and son I took last night, I'm happy with the composition, but not the colors.

It was an easy fix in Gimp...

...but is there a way I could have brought those colors out in the camera when I took the shot as opposed to having to do it later on?

 

[pbelarge]

Boom
It is hard to say, not knowing what the lighting actually was on site.

Have you tried bracketing? Sometimes you can get results like that simply from putting your camera in bracket.

 

[HannahRebekah]

You can turn the preprogramed saturation and contrast up. That's not going to get it quite how you want it, but it will be closer. Also if your shutter speed was a little slower, that would help too.