Skip to main content

Family Vacation 2015

For our annual family vacation this year we traveled to Colorado to visit Paul's sister, Cheryl.  We stayed at our timeshare in Estes Park for 4 nights and then spent the next 2 nights at her place in Colorado Springs.

Estes Park is so awesome.  It's near Rocky Mountain National Park, so the scenery is very mountainous with trees, lakes and streams.  The town is really cute with a plaza and boardwalk along a creek (or maybe it's a small river) and cute shops and restaurants.

On day one we just settled into our room and went swimming and the girls played on the playground that was right outside our room and near a creek.

Pretty creek and walking path right behind our condo

On day two we took them to this family fun center place with bumper cars, go-karts, huge slides and what-not.  Then we walked around the town along the above-mentioned boardwalk and checked out some of the shops.  The girls of course got bored shopping so I dropped them off at the condo and they all went swimming while I went back to town and explored the shops.  Paul's sister came that evening to stay with us there for a few days until we all went to her place.

 
Day three was a beautiful horseback ride in RMNP.  It was the girls' first time riding a horse by themselves and they did great!

We didn't really have time to stop and pose but here's the girls on their horses





The whole gang

After lunch we went to check out the historic Stanley Hotel.  It has something to do with the Stanley Steamer guy, and it served as the inspiration for Steven King's The Shining.  Apparently, Mr. King had stayed there (in room 217) with his family as a child and stuff happened that inspired the book.  Also, scenes from Dumb and Dumber were filmed there.

 
I love the look on Olivia's face, and Kayley always has to be weird.




Then we went on a gondola ride to the top of some mountain and we bought peanuts for the girls to feed the chipmunks.  They LOVED that!  The chipmunks are so used to people and being fed that some will come right up to you and eat out of your hand.  So fun for the girls.

On day 4 we went for a hike in the park from Bear Lake to Dream Lake.  It was probably the most gorgeous hike I've ever been on.

 







Look how close we were able to get!
 








Feeding a chipmunk


On day 5 we checked out of Estes Park and headed South to Idaho Springs were we went river rafting.  Again, the girls did great and everyone had fun.  We had dinner at a great pizza place in the cute little historic mining town, then drove to our final destination, Colorado Springs.

On day 6 we went to Garden of the Gods and hiked around.  Another beautiful place with lots of amazing red rock formations.  That evening we had a potluck dinner at Cheryl's with some of her friends and the next morning we flew home.








Comments

What gorgeous scenery! Glad you had a great vacation!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Luther Burbank Park

Last summer a friend of mine introduced me to this cool park on Mercer Island.  When we went, we only played at the swimming beach and never explored the rest of the park or played on the playground.  So yesterday, we finally went back with a picnic lunch and checked out some more of the park (there's still another section we didn't get to, so maybe next time).  The playground was really cool with all sorts of nooks and cranies, and old-fashioned metal slides and ladders.  They girls loved it. View from our picnic spot A pyramid with slides on the other side Lake Washington beyond Chair swings--never seen these before I-90 bridge over Lake Washington Trail along the lake leading to the swimming beach Should have brought swimsuits.  They were SO sandy and wet coming home.

First Day of 10th Grade

 Today was the first day of 10th grade for the girls.  Sophomores.  I can't believe we only have two more of these.  Not counting college, of course. Kayley Kayley again Olivia It has become my tradition to take the day before and the first day off.  Back in the elementary days, the day before the first day was "meet the teacher day", so I would always take them to that, then in middle school we would just go to lunch or get our nails done.  Last year was their first day of high school, though, so that day was orientation and that brings us up to this year.  The day before the first day is "Wildcat Day", which is mostly a freshman and new student orientation.  Olivia is in ASB so she had to go help with that, but Kayley didn't go.  Instead, her and I took some of her old clothes to this resale store called Plato's Closet to try and sell them (it's similar to a consignment shop except they just pay you then and there and then resell them, instead of o

The Girls' Room

So it's kids' rooms this week at Kelly's Korner Home Tours.  Unfortunately, we haven't finished the girls' room make-over.  We recently transitioned from toddler beds to twins.  I would have loved to get bunk beds to save space, but the twin beds were given to us by friends of Paul's parents so we're making do.  They were wood-colored (oak, maybe?) so we painted them white.  It was challenging to figure out how to arrange their furniture because of the alcove/nook thingie on one side.  I couldn't do the obvious two beds perpedicular to the wall with a nightstand in between configuration, so I had to compromise. There are lots of finishing touches still to be done.  We need to replace their dresser, get a nightstand, put up a shelf (ledge) or two and some wall art, and curtains.  We're also going to paint.  I've had my heart set on purple for a long time, which is why I chose this bedding with some purple but not too much, but now I'm also