more from Colorado

I guess I should finish up our Colorado pictures since I've now been on two more trips since then, and believe it or not we'll still be packing bags 2 more times before school starts.

I shared our camping pictures here. During the day we were hardly at camp at all.  We did lots of exploring and hiking and spent some time in the nearby towns.

Our first night there, we headed to Grandby after dinner to catch an outdoor movie in the park. This was the night it got really cold in the night (35 degrees), and it obviously got quite chilly as the sun went down.  We were freezing and super tired from leaving at 4am so we didn't make it through the entire movie. 

 The next day we went driving up the mountain we camped on.  Mason was determined to find some snow.

It was so nice to not be on any sort of agenda.  If we wanted to keep driving we did.  If we saw a spot that looked like we could do some exploring we stopped.  We drove some more, stopped again.  Drove some more, stopped again. 

 The light on this picture isn't the best but I had to document the dirt on his face.  This is what our kiddos looked like the entire trip. 

After some morning exploring, we made our way into Grand Lake for some ice cream and beach time (the Colorado kind = don't touch the freezing cold water)

The kids played for well over an hour here and could have kept going all day, building castles, moats and trenches to the lake.

And then more hiking.  And more silly poses.

We hiked to a beautiful waterfall.

The next day we headed to town for coffee and then took Trail Ridge Road through the Rocky Mountain National Forest over to Estes Park for the afternoon.

The cute little coffee shop had a gal singing outside on that upper balcony, so the kiddos gathered in the back of the truck to listen and drink their hot cocoa.

Dave and I have been on Trail Ridge Road before and hardly saw any wildlife.  We were so excited that this trip with the kids the animals were everywhere.  It took us forever to get through the park because we stopped so many times.

In the first 5 minutes of entering the park we stopped to see a moose and 2 babies.

This park is where Mason really came alive.  He was in love with the mountains and the animals and filling out his ranger booklet.  He was in his element for sure.

 The daddies decided to get a little adventurous and climb down the mountain to a stream.

So the moms posed the children for a picture.

These kids never knew each other before this trip, but they were the best of friends by the end.

 Mason finally found his snow!

And on our way out, another moose and her baby!

This last picture was one I posted on Instagram as our weekend came to an end, with this caption:

I will admit that camping with 3 small children is a lot of work.  But the memories and experience it is to do this together and to see the joy it brings to our little ones make every ounce of work, dirt, and drives to the bathroom worth it. The beauty we experienced on this trip, in both the mountains around us and the memories in us, has been unlike any other.

There is just something simple about camping (if you don't count all of the stuff required).  It was just us and the outdoors (and I was PRAYING no bears).  Our phones were put away except for the use of the camera. There wasn't anything else to be distracted by and to say "I'll help you in a little bit", "Wait until I'm done".  Being fully present just comes naturally out there.  And the kids just came alive. 

We are thankful for the invitation our friends gave us to join them.  We are so glad we ended up saying yes.  This trip will hold some special memories for sure.