by Jewel
Saturday, August 7
We're off! We left early and drove all day. Kiowa and Flint got to spend time in the van with us some of the time, and people rode in Jesse and Levi's vehicles too. The kids did well, despite being in a car for 13-14 hours.
Just heading into the mountains!
We got to the cabin late afternoon/early evening and settled in quickly, exploring the house and getting supper ready. We were all ready for real food and a chance to chill and let the kids run off some energy.
Kiowa was always willing to help get supper ready; we brought a bunch of peaches from home, and even though they were gone in about three days, we enjoyed them while they lasted.
We had church in the sunporch on Sunday morning. There were plenty of opportunities to hold this little kiddo, and even Kiowa got her chances.
Sunday afternoon we headed to the Alluvial Fan, which was a lot of fun. Kiowa, Flint, Jason, and Jasper all loved throwing rocks in, while some of us older kids enjoyed scrambling way up the gorge, which was really fun.
Kiowa and Flint are little bookworms, and so we all had plenty of time to read to them.
Behind our cabin was a hill that sloped down to a little creek. There was also a little fort somebody else had built that the kids loved playing in. Kiowa called it "her" fort the whole week. She had plenty of willing aunts and uncles who took her and Flint to it quite a bit.
Lots of snuggle time!
Most nights we ate supper on this deck, which was pretty nice. It had a pretty view, and quite a bit of sitting room, which was handy. It was also the main pre-supper area, since when certain unnamed people (okay everybody) were running underfoot in the kitchen trying to beg food, they would get kicked outside.
Walking around Estes Park after supper.
Don't ask how many times we turned around trying to find a spot to get a close look at all these Elk fawns. They were pretty cute though.
Monday, August 9
The sun porch had a good view of the backyard, and multiple times we saw a deer and her fawns. We never did see a bear, although apparently one had been seen multiple times that summer at that location. And an earlier renter this summer had seen a bobcat catch a rabbit back there but we never got that privilege either.
We headed out relatively early to find Emerald Lake. Jason is ready to hike!
All the little boys were carried in a pack on the hikes, and the uncles/aunts helped carry them.
Kiowa did really really good hiking. She walked on all the hikes she did; except for at the end of Emerald lake she did get carried the last little bit. But most of the time she was running ahead of everybody else.
Fish in Dream Lake.
In case you can't tell, all three of these babies are out cold in this pic.
For lunch we headed to an area called Sprague Lake that had a nice location for a picnic lunch...
...although we hadn't counted on seeing this...
I don't think this picture is zoomed in at all. They just owned the hiking trail, and didn't seem bothered at all by us.
Still at Sprague Lake here; there was a shallow little creek running into Sprague Lake, and it had some nice sand, so the kids liked that quite a bit.
Back home chillin'.
We were all pretty impressed by this fella literally wandering through our front yard.
