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More favorite adventures included…

HIKING
How can you not hike in this lovely place?  We would put Samuel in his backpack (which he enjoys thankfully) and head out.  We went to Bear Lake and then decided to brave the hike to Nymph Lake which was UP the entire time.  Mom and Caleb "barely" made it (and were pretty pathetic about it when posing for a photo as you can see).  Beautiful and serene.  We loved it.

(Sidenote: Derek and the boys went on an early morning hike on some trails near our condo.  And then Derek went during a nap time for a large hike around Gem Lake)

 
 
 
 
 
 
I like to call this picture "Leave No Trace" – Samuel has a slight obsession with trash, picking up trash and throwing away trash.  He's a little OCD that little one. 

WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS
I think this is what we all probably enjoyed the MOST about Estes Park, strangely enough.  We spent HOURS doing it.  We would pile in to the Suburban and drive into Rocky Mountain National Park and look for wildlife.  We would ask park rangers about the best places to "sight" them and then drive to those places at opportune times (evening).  And we were VERY successful!  On our first outing we saw a badger, which is a rare find.  We also saw a coyote (or KO-YO-DE as Sam calls it), deer, and a bear (also a rare find).  We were so giddy about it all. 

 
 
 
Jacob had a checklist of animals that he wanted to see (thanks in part to his uncles who gave him a challenge), and many had been checked off.  But the one animal still eluding us was elk.  We knew that there was a plethora of elk around Estes Park, but we were never in the right places to spot them.  Late in the week we learned that they go to higher elevations when it's warm, so we took a trek up the mountain to see them, and we DID!  Jacob was particularly excited.  We also saw a groundhog up there.
 
 
I remember as a teen going to Colorado and we would do the same thing…and my Mom would be dead set on finding a deer.  She would make us open the door of our van as we drove slowly looking for wildlife.  She loved that sport!  And still does.  It was fun to watch how excited she would get and have her share that with her grandsons.  (Although I will probably always tease her about the open door thing).

FAMILY FUN

One day we headed to the local "fun" zone and played.  The kids loved it and it was nice to do that sort of thing in the beautiful mountain air.  Thanks, Mom, for taking pictures!

 
 
 
 
(I think Samuel thinks I drove too fast… 🙂