Closing out spring in Colorado

I absolutely adore every season change.  Adore them!  And I am so thankful to have a hubby who loves to get outside and enjoy God's creation with me.  We have been like little kids who hear the sound of the ice cream truck in the distance.  After saving up our little "Colorado" envelope for months, off we went with huge eyes of excitement for our four Colorado trip together.  And we loved it!  Here's the scoop...

David and I flew into the Denver airport on May 5th (yes, I am behind) for a night camping under the stars of the Morraine Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).  Yes, loved ones.  That was super-moon night!  It got pretty cold that night, a baby cried for about six hours and their public bathrooms were closed...ugh.  I have officially decided that backpacking with a privy is the way to go.  Not to be discouraged, we woke up at 7:00 a.m., loaded the car and headed for KIND Coffee.  After filling our bellies with delicious coffee (my first full-caff experience since the unfortunate Johnson Shut-ins experience and after surviving Mikel Morgan's death blend) and gluten-free pumpkin muffins, we headed for our rental for the rest of the week.  Check out the view!  A river and elk with sweet scrambling peaks in the background - right up our alley.  What a blessing!  Couldn't wait for Debbie and Mikel to get there.

  The next morning we hustled around to get a hike in before heading to the airport to meet up with the Majors.  What a site and what a hike.  Did I mention it was in the 60s when we landed the day before?

On our way back from the airport to Estes Park, we stopped to visit with Aunt Mary.  Love her!  She is such a sweetie.  Quite a feisty one, I tell ya.  After that stop and a crazy big trip to Wal Mart, we finally started our official week of hiking.  David did a great job of choosing new hikes we had never done before.  Tuesday we selected one that was in lower elevation to help everyone acclimate well.  Caught a great pic of the guys and another of Mikel, Debbie and David. 

 

As the week went on it got warmer and back into the upper 60s.  Glorious!  We did a pretty fantastic hike on Wednesday.  I would say it was fantastic once we got to the top.  We were on vacation time, so we didn't even get out to the trail until 3 p.m.  And no one had been fed.  Any family on my side is raising eyebrows at this point knowing what happens when you don't feed Missy the Pooh.  Some random, and rather unappreciated, couple told us we had forty-five minutes until we hit the top at the point when this picture was taken.  So we were all-smiles.

Well into an hour and a half later, we still had not reached the top.  Mikel recommended we stop for a snack.  I don't even remember getting the food out of my pack and into my hands, but I was shoveling it in faster than a chipmunk on a cracker binge.  In the midst of the lightheadedness and dizzying excitment over nothing more than an apple and M&Ms, David announced he was going to check out the top.  Debbie and Mikel were murmuring about retiring this one.  We pressed on, people!  And we were so glad we did.  Look at that view! 

Needless to say, the next day we were huge fans of taking a more "relaxed" hike.  Mikel stayed home to deal with some 3M business.  David, Debbie and I hit the trail.  It was another sunny day - perfect for shorts. 

And we finished up the week with one last hike on Friday...in the snow.  We couldn't have been more pleased.  We headed to Bear Lake, but from a different route than we had ever done before.  We ate lunch right next to the snow-covered lake with gloved hands and finished it off with hot chocolate straight from the Jet Boil.  Nothing like a good snow storm before heading back to a midwest summer, right?  Praise God for Colorado - we needed that break!

I'll post details for our trip closer with the Batemans and our trip to FL. 

For now, know that we love you all and miss you terribly.

Missy