Road Trip - Day #9

Total Mileage: Way to much
Number of waterfalls seen: 21
Number of celebrities spotted in Aspen: Maybe 1 (I really think I saw an athlete, have no idea who he was though).
Number of coyotes spared: 1
Number of times James wished he could teleport: 3

Today was a rough day. Driving that is. We left our place at Estes Park around 9:30 and didn't make it to Aspen until 6:00. It was only supposed to be a little over 200 miles. We had bad weather, finally got into some good weather, and realized we went the wrong way (way too late)... so we had to go back and start over in bad weather again. It was a long day.

We planned on going to a ghost town today but couldn't make it. We got to Aspen around dinner time and walked around the quaint little mountain town attempting to find a restaurant that was acceptable for kids. No such luck. We found a pizza place that James went into for some carry out... came back to the hotel and ate. We found a Disney movie on TV, and that pretty much summed up our day.

When the rain and snow wasn't falling, we had some terrific views.

We did have a lovely time going up Hwy 82? toward Aspen. It was a very scenic drive. I found a classical station and was able to reflect some while driving. We serve an awesome God. Lots and lots of waterfalls, rivers, lakes and beautiful homes.

At one point I had to swerve to miss a coyote with a rabbit in his mouth. I got some brownie points from James for not driving off the mountain.

We did manage to get here...

which was pretty cool. Austin and I ran up the path to the scenic overlook. I was totally out of breath... the elevation really gets to me at some points! Everybody looked at us like we were nuts for wearing shorts and t-shirts. It was about 38 degrees.

I guess that was the highlight.

Well maybe the real highlight was finding all these free samples in our hotel room. Jackpot! I actually found more after I took this picture. Yeah, yeah... I know I paid for them like 100 times over, but still...

Now I am off to bed and looking forward until tomorrow. Or looking for a bar in Aspen. Kidding. Really.

Road Trip - Day #8

Total mileage: 32
Total miles hiked: 10ish
Total # of elk Austin saw: 196
Total bottles of water consumed: 12
Total "falls" on hiking trails: 4

This is a picture I took right after the kids fell asleep last night, all in different positions. They are too cute.

We started out the day with some cereal. When we first got into town, we went to the store for some breakfast items... bacon, eggs, bread... I wanted to have a good breakfast. What I should have done before going to the store was to check out what kind of pans were available. Well it was a total waste of money buying those things. I attempted breakfast the first day and let's just say it didn't turn out. You cabin owners should really invest in some non-stick pans.

After cereal, I tried to find a show for the kids to watch. The only thing I could find was Diego on Telemundo. Do you know that they sat through that entire show in Spanish the whole time totally intrigued. They haven't stayed that quiet this whole trip. Maybe I need to try this at home. Mucho bueno.

We went back to Rocky National Park to hike a few trails. The first one we went to was a little more challenging, straight up a mountain. We only lasted about an hour on that one when the girls got tired.

Taking a break.

The weather was great.

Here's Emily getting a little snack. Not exactly trail mix...

A picture from as high as we got. What a great view!

We asked Austin if he thought he could move this boulder. No dice.

Onward we went to the second trail - to see a herd of elk. This is a fast-moving stream. There were several people fly-fishing. Didn't see anyone catch anything. However, we did spot a really cute mallard duck cruising downstream - a really funny site to see. He was having a great time!


Here's part of one herd of elk. All of the big bucks were about a mile to the East.

Here's Austin striking a pose. Looks like he's trying to smuggle something under one of his shirts.

Elk, elk, everywhere.

This guy was sticking his tongue out at us. "I get to live in the mountains and you doooon't."

We took a break for lunch and back to the house for a nap before we attempted our next trail - Cub Lake, a total of 4.6 miles. James even didn't mind the chatter of the girls on this hike - since noise keeps bears away.

Abby's bruises are FINALLY starting to go away.

"Hey, what's in the cave? I hope it's a Happy Meal." The kiddos were getting hungry.

We saw a few of these critters which I thought were beavers. I discovered later they are actually marmots (also known as woodchucks or groundhogs).

More hiking.

And even more hiking.

We made it! Our final destination, Cub Lake!

Thunderstorms were rolling in and we had to head back - and fast. Everybody did such a great job on this longer hike. Austin had a pretty good fall on the way back, but he was a trooper. Nothing that a bandaid couldn't help.

Next stop - Aspen!

Road Trip - Day #7

Total Mileage: 35
Total ice cream cones eaten (Austin): 1
Total number of deer we had to avoid: 1
Total number of bears seen: 0
Total times James's horse fell behind the pack because he (the horse) was "being careful": 8

We're having a great time staying in our "cabin." I'm not sure if that's really what you should call it. A lady (the owner) has a store beneath us and we have a busy highway in the back. But it does have a mountain kind of feel. We can't spend much time out back since there is a raging river about 20 feet from the house - and I don't want the kids to drown in. For the record, the owners are really nice and if we were into massage therapy (the actual business downstairs), this place would be ideal.

There is a downstairs with a TV and bed that Austin really wanted to sleep in (below). All the other rooms are upstairs though. I've seen too many Datelines so we decided he could stay up with us. Especially since the sliding back door was wide open when we arrived.

Today we spent our morning horseback riding in the Rockies. I wasn't sure how this was going to happen with the girls, but it did. A ranger each held onto each girl's horse and Austin went up the mountain by himself. Of course, we went at a very slow speed and those horses have gone up that mountain a bazillion times, so it really wasn't that dangerous.

This is Emily and Oscar. Fitting for her to have a horse named that. The ranger below was so nice, and I can't remember what her name was, but she was so good with Emily and very entertaining.

We were a little surprised that they let little kids go up a mountain on their own horse. But it was very cool. And we thought the donkey rides at Royal Gorge were neat - this makes that look like a carousel ride!

Abby and Velvet. We had to pretend Velvet was a girl because she did not want a boy horse. They were all males though. Eventually she found out Velvet was a boy, but by that time they were best buddies. "I liked my horse because he was my friend."

Austin and Socks. He claims that his horse was "the fastest." Of course... our super-competitive speed demon.

James and Ace. We had to wait for James and Ace every couple of minutes. Poor Ace was in no hurry to get up or down that mountain. Ace was very, very careful over every root, stone or hill... Of course, James told him that he could take all the time he needed. My horse's name was Simba. I think that's why the kids wanted to watch Lion King that night. I discovered tonight that the full movie is broken out into 10 segments on You Tube (it would have been better if we remembered our DVDs).

The "careful" riders.

The country was beautiful. One of the guides said that there have been sightings of a few bears. She said one of the scary things was that the cub has been seen all over the trail we were riding on... Then she said something about James and Ace "taking one for the team."


After the horses, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for a hike. We went to Bear Lake and one side of the lake was sunny and felt great, then the other side was snowy and it started to hail on us (again). For some weird reason the kids felt like posing for me today. Together. Very strange. Colorado is bringing out the love. Atleast today.

There's no fishing in the lake - there's one species of trout that they are trying to protect.

The happy hikers.


Everywhere we looked, we saw beautiful scenery. Another thumbs up for our National Park system. Everyone is really friendly and helpful. I guess it's easy to be in good spirits when your office looks like this...


James snapped this when I wasn't looking. About 3 minutes later it started to hail on us.

This is on the "other side." Snow covered the trail many times. We had a few mishaps of slipping, no major injuries though. It was so cold! Summer snow for Texans is pretty neat. I keep having to remind myself that it is the middle of June.

Everybody tasted the snow, buried beneath the dirty surface. Actually, it worked out pretty well since we forgot to restock our drinking water.

Next we headed here:

to have some of this:

This is Emily imitating me tonight. She thinks she looks like me when she has no bangs. Hmmm. Yeah. Kinda. :) I still think she is 100% her daddy.

Another fun day for our crew. We're really happy to be staying in the same place for a few days.

Road Trip - Day #6

Total Mileage: 280
Total times James thought it was "the end": 4
Total different times we experienced rain: 4
Total times we were snowed on: 2
Total times we were hailed on: 1
Total deer that were on the same road as us: 2

So I thought the Royal Gorge was scary, well driving up Pikes Peak was even scarier. We showed up at 8:30 and the ranger at the gate informed us that we couldn't make it to the top because of icy road conditions. He wasn't sure when the roads would reopen. "You'll know when to stop - when you see all of the ice." James turned white. We (I) decided to go anyway.

We were greeted by a couple of deer on our journey up the mountain. James pretty much closed his eyes while I drove. Mountain driving is not his thing.

Here's Austin at a pit stop at about 9,000 feet elevation.

Notice that the road is not paved. And there's no guard rail.

James did open his eyes for this picture. I was shocked. This was one of the many drop-offs... thousands of feet down. No railing or anything.

Yes, we were higher than the clouds.

About this time, we're driving on ice and dirt. And my white-knuckled husband is praying very, very hard.

Here's our brave Austin touching snow... fearless. Guess who's side of the family he got this from...

This is what it looked like on top. We decided not to wait until the sun came out and melted the ice. Who knows when that would have happened. We made it 13K feet up and it was 20 degrees on the top of the mountain. And the wind was blowing at about 40 miles per hour. Brrrrrrr...

We promised the kids hot chocolate on top of the mountain, but since we couldn't make it to the top we had some at a gift shop halfway down.


Then is started to SNOW!!


We thankfully got to the bottom and got a bite to eat. Then we headed to the Helen Hunts waterfall. While we were in the parking lot it started hailing and raining on us. I don't know if we have experienced, snow, sun, hail, and rain in one day! After the rain stopped, we got out to check out the falls.

The stairs to the top...

Here's my brave husband next to a fall. This is more his speed.

Emily loved the waterfall. If it wasn't raining, we would have explored a bit more.

Our next destination was Estes Park where we are finally staying at a place more than one night. It took forever to get there... apparently Denver has really bad traffic. It was only 3:00 in the afternoon! It turns out that they had a lot of snow the night before and it caused some standing water on the freeway - so it added another 45 minutes to our trip.

I did snap this shot of Invesco Field. I really hoped when I saw this stadium I'd be attending a game, but oh well. Go Broncos!

We went to a local grocery and got some groceries. It will be nice to have a "permanent" home for a few days.