Summer Road Trip, Part 3: Estes Park

After road-tripping to visit and go boating with our old neighbors/family (HERE), and spending several days with our Guzzo neighbors in Vail (HERE), Mark had to return to work. So the kids and I dropped him at the Denver airport, stopped by the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch with my 2nd grade BFF Erica and her kids, and then commenced our "Mommy & Me Road Trip" with our first stop in Estes Park, Colorado. I remember going down these slides when I was a kid!

(HERE is a link to our road trip video)

Oh, Fun City. The kids couldn't get enough of these floating hamster balls and begged to go over and over.

We stayed at Y of the Rockies in a big lodge and loved the family friendly camp environment with activities galore. This one might have been their favorite... tie dye.

 They were so proud with how their shirts turned out and wear them all the time. I love watching kids create and then take pride in their work.

 We played lots of checkers in the game room.

 And met Teddy Roosevelt, who taught us all about the history of the National Parks we were on our way to visit.

 We drove Trail Ridge Road to take in the beauty of the Rockies.

And braved some really long hikes for the kids' short legs.

We started out at Bear Lake first thing in the morning and got one of the last parking spots. Score! Our first hike was to gorgeous Alberta Falls. (But then Gryffin, with his obsession with emeralds, saw a sign for "Emerald Lake" and begged to do this hike, too...)

 From Alberta Falls, we hiked to Glacier Gorge, hitched a ride on the free shuttle back to Bear Lake, and started the loooong hike toward Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. I was thrilled Gryffy was so keen on seeing Emerald Lake, because I never thought I'd be able to drag them another 3.5 miles, especially without Mark to cheer us on (he's the best at motivating the kids when those feet are dragging)! Here we are, about to set off for our second hike!

 Nymph Lake was the first after a long hike uphill, and filled with gorgeous lily pads.

Next came Dream Lake. You can tell from Lorelei's face that we were beginning to teeter out (with another 2.5 or so miles to go...)

But the beauty and hopscotch river rocks kept us going!

We made it to the second of three: Dream Lake!
I asked the kids if they wanted to keep going. Lorelei was ready to turn around, but Gryffy wad determined. And by now we were so close... and so we pushed on!

Fortunately these little critters cheered Lulu up along the way.

We finally arrived... Emerald Lake!!

Such a gorgeous landscape! I'll always treasure this day that we persevered together even when it was really hard, and were rewarded with this stunning view and euphoria over what we'd accomplished!

We're all smiles!

We even got to play in the snow mid-July!

Yep, those faces say it all. We did this.

Then it was back to the Y, where we'd stay one more night before embarking on the next leg of our road trip to South Dakota...