The week before last Sunday we took a drive up into the mountains to Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way up we had a bit of a set back when Emma started whining. She's been doing this lately after we put her carseat in rear facing mode again, and we were thinking maybe her legs were cramped or something (i.e. the belt) was digging into her. So we decided to pull off at the cherry store not too far ahead to let the kids run around and turn her seat back to forward facing. However, just before we got there (I mean we realized later we were less than a 1/2 mile from it), Emma threw up! We think that she threw up because she was car sick from being rear facing and driving up the winding mountain road. So we had to pull over at the first pull off we came to and clean her up. And then John also turned her seat forward facing. Since we were on the side of the busy highway I had to hold her the whole time and Evan had to stay in his seat. After hitting the road again, she still whined a little bit on the trip, but not as bad as she had before. However, I think she's just in a phase of not liking to be strapped into a carseat for very long.
Once we were in Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove over our favorite bridge that has the river with lots of big boulders in it. Boy, the water was nice and fast flowing because of all the rains we've had over the past month.
Then we went to Sprague Lake for a hike around the lake because we figured that would be pretty easy for the kids to do. We didn't bring strollers or a backpack carrier so we just let the kids walk (or we carried them as needed). And man that was the slowest/longest walk around Sprague Lake I've ever had. The kids just did not want to move. They only wanted to stay in one place and throw rocks, pine cones, or sticks into the lake. Even though it took awhile, we got to see some beautiful nature on our walk around the lake and the kids got to see chipmunk, little cascades and streams, and the beautiful mountains in the backdrop. The kids didn't sit still for a nice family photo either so I just have a few candid shots that I took of the kids playing on the hike.
Just one more place for the kids to keep throwing things in the water. At least it had a nice view. :)
After the hike we went back to the picnic area and had a little picnic lunch. Evan must have worked up such an appetite that he actually said "I'm so hungry for sandwiches!" I've never seen him get excited about sandwiches before so it must have been that he was just really hungry. And boy did he devour his whole sandwich quickly. After our picnic lunch, the kids played a little bit more before we hit the road. Evan started picking up sticks and drew lines in the dirt. Emma started a pine cone collection. It was good to see the kids exploring nature and was wonderful to enjoy the beautiful cooler weather up in the mountains that day.
Check out my pine cone mommy!
On the drive home we went down Big Thompson Canyon to see the state of recovery from the 2013 floods. There are some signs that rebuilding has taken place and things are looking new again. But there are still plenty of homes and properties that are destroyed or maybe not ever going to be rebuilt. It's been an amazing journey watching the progression of recovery from that huge flood that I would have never thought could happen in my life time.
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