Adventures in Estes Part 1

Round two, or I should say road trip #2 of the summer. Several months ago we started planning an annual summer camping trip and decided to head someplace new. We'd never camped in Colorado before and every year we and several other families meet up for a few days of fun. Estes Park was the destination this year and we were talked into renting a condo instead of camping. Sounded just fine to me...I honestly don't mind camping, but am the first to admit that it's a little more difficult with a baby that is now VERY mobile and likes to put everything in his mouth.

So we came across this HUGE 5,000 square foot condo with 6 bedrooms, 2 full kitchens, hot tub and it was in the middle of nowhere. Literally. We couldn't get our bags packed fast enough!

We convinced Casey's Mom to ride along with us and spend the 4-day weekend in Denver with her best friend, Kay. It was awesome to have an extra adult in the suburban to help "entertain" on the way up and back!

Before we knew it we had 6 families with 11 adults and 15 kids lined up for our big adventure. It didn't take long for the kids to figure out that they outnumbered us! They took over the hot tub and no adults set foot in it (more on that later.)

We headed for the mountains on a Wednesday afternoon...we drove straight through to Denver to our good friends, Kay and Mike's. We crashed there for the night and slept in. The kids had a blast the next morning playing with all of her grandkids toys! We wish we would have planned a full day there, it was hard to leave.

Mike and Kay have a beautiful home and such a nice open space outside. They are so generous and we always feel right at home there. We are looking forward to them coming to visit us for a Husker game this fall.

Kennedy and Kay's grandson, Dane. Crazy girl behind the wheel!

We left late morning and took the short and scenic drive to Estes. Our condo was about 10 miles out of Estes and the roads were crazy sharp and curvy. The driveway was super steep and narrow with a terrible drop-off, but it was so beautiful! We could barely see our nearest neighbor, on the next hill. We immediately jumped out of the car and went exploring.

One other family beat us to the house and gave us the grand tour. It was seriously easy to get lost in this place, it was huge! And the new owners had just remodeled part of it. We were so excited that we landed this place, there was more than enough room for our crazy crews. Lots of room for privacy and for socializing....which we all did plenty of.

After a couple more families showed up and we had gotten unpacked, Casey and I and Chase headed back to town to pick up groceries for the meal we were assigned to prepare. It was nice to be in charge of one meal and to relax and enjoy the rest. While we were gone a couple of the adults and some of the kids (including ours) went exploring around our house. Corbin took a little tumble but was fine and luckily one of the adults was leading....a rattlesnake crossed their path, EEK! Fortunately it was the only one spotted all weekend.

Here is the whole crew!!! This is before one of the several hikes that was taken. That was the main activity we did, lots and lots and LOTS of hiking! We took some amazing trails...and took so many pictures. Our kids did amazingly well and no major injuries to report. Here are just a few pictures to share. My next post will include some of the other fun we had on the trip.

"Entering Travel Zone" ....I loved this sign since it describes our month so perfectly!!

It wasn't long before each of the kids had claimed their own walking stick.

Chase spent a lot of time in this backpack carrier!

Family picture--see Chay-Chay peeking over my shoulder :)Bear Lake that we hiked around....it was our coldest hike, we hiked through the snow!Walsh's
Jones's (minus Allison)Livingston'sBranch's

Wyatt's

Getting ready to go hiking!

"Please Daddy, no more hiking, I'm tired!"