Sharing our Rocky Mountain Experience! (Warning: long post)

Hey... don't get sick of me sharing ok, cuz this was a fabulous vacation. :) We had such a fantastic time. We headed out early wednesday morning, June 25th and drove into Denver. We were blown away by the view of the mountains, seriously... I should have set my phone to record all of our commentaries - we were like toddlers in a candy store. I can honestly say that of all the beautiful nature I've had the opportunity to enjoy... this was by far the most stunning. God smiled on the Rockies. It had snowed a week before we got there (yes, in June - ha ha) and so there was snow on the mountain tops. We checked into the Quality Inn (a 9 story "so-so" hotel) - Luke travels so often that he gets free night stays all the time, so it was a free stay. Gotta love that! I can endure taking a puppy on the elevator to do her business for a free nights stay. ha ha. We were on the 5th floor. Luke dropped Ciara and me off at the Northfield Mall. It's new and it's awesome! We had a blast at Macy's and some other stores that we don't have in the area. It was a lot of fun. The plan was to drive into downtown that night and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - but our precious little Shoogie Bear decided she wasn't gonna be left alone in no stupid hotel room. So... we adapted. Ciara and I ordered in some fantastic Chinese food and Luke and Brandon got room service, which Brandon thought was totally cool because the foot came on a silver tray with a lid. (nothing fancy, just a cheeseburger and fries, but exciting to him none the less)

The next morning we headed to the cabin which was located about 25 miles from Estes Park and was just on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. There are so many great things to share, but for the sake of time and space I'll summarize. We didn't get lunch in Boulder, not knowing that it was the last city for cheap food, so we ate $33.00 worth of Deli sandwiches in a little town called Lyons. We bought $77.00 worth of groceries for the cabin, which was enough for 3 meals and a few snacks. YIKES. A box of Kraft Mac and Cheese was $2.49. So... we headed on to the cabin which was cozy and quaint. We loved how rustic it was and that it sat on the front of a mountain. It also had a hot tub in the back. NICE. Just across the road was a rushing river that was so loud, if you didn't know it was water you would think it was wind. But seriously... the water was cold so the temperature by our cabin was about 20 degrees cooler than it was in the city. It was neat. I took tons of photos while there... some of which will likely double as outdoor senior pix of Ciara. So... don't think I love her more cuz there's more photos of her... I was on a mission to get some incredible photos and save some bucks. :) Of course I was behind the camera so there weren't so many of me, but I'm totally ok with that. Our trailblazer didn't like the elevation and trying to climb mountains - but we stopped occasionally to explore and give it a rest and it survived the trip. We went through Rocky Mountain National Park. Oh my gosh.... I can't even describe the beauty within. All I have to say is God must totally love us to give us such eye candy as the Rocky Mountains. Then we went into Estes Park. What a gorgeous town! Seems strange having all this city life going on right at the bottom of a magnificent mountain. We had a picnic lunch there and walked the river walk to walk through some little shops along the river. That's where Brandon got his dredlocks hat. Fun. :)We stopped several places along the way and took pictures. The old stone church was so neat. I can't describ it... check out the photo in the slide show. I've never seen anything quite like it on a ridge in front of a mountain. Really neat. Then we visited a place called Crystal Springs where the water was ice cold and so so GOOD! They filter it for safety and it runs 24/7 so all can come fill their bottles and enjoy yummy ice cold spring water. There are also photos of it in the slide show.

We really had a good time and were able to relax and just enjoy being a family. Lots of memories were made there that will be treasured to be sure. So we left the cabin and headed for home. We wanted to go to a Renaissance Fair in a nearby town, but as luck would have it - pets weren't welcome and we had our fuzzy baby along. We probably won't take her on vacation in the future but she is so young to be left at a kennel or to ask someone to keep her. (she's still in training you know!) :)

Luke was totally hating 6 lane traffic outside of Denver, but he knew how bad Ciara wanted to see Hard Rock - so we trekked into downtown. As soon as we parked we saw a homeless man digging in the trash. So sad. (see post "whatsoever you do to the least of my people...) We had a million people tell us how cute our puppy was and we took turns going into shops so someone could stay out with shoogie. This was 16th Stree Mall... tons of stores on 1 street with no thru traffic. There were musicians on the street and lots of interesting looking people. Very Diverse! We loved it. Hardrock was a blast. We didn't eat there (had McDonalds outdoors on the bench as we enjoyed Ukelele music and singing by a fella that Ciara later had her photo taken with) - but Hard Rock is a neat place to visit. Some of my favorite things were Steven Tyler's stretchy sparkly outfit, and Jimmy Hendrix's guitar and memorabilia. Very Cool! Willie Nelson's guitar was on the wall too. So... after a pitstop to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some delicious fudge - we headed back to Kansas. We were tired from all the traveling, but had a super great time in Colorado. Even though we loved the trip - we all agreed, there's no place like home. I guess you have to leave it to appreciate it.

See the slide shows below if you're interested in some beautiful scenery. If you want to see a photo closer up, just click on it and it will stop.