What'd you expect?

SO, of COURSE we had to take my parents up to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and Estes. RD got permission to use his flex hours for therest of the day off at the last minute before we left tuesday morning, so we picked him up, then Reese from school, and got on the road around 11 am. We saw elk on our way past Loveland (about 10 miles from our apartment), which was a good foreshadowing of our day. We first made our way to the Alluvial Fan in the RMNP. The boys had fun climbing the rocks, even climbing up the falls with some help. But then Reese wanted to climb the biggest ones, and frankly, there was a meltdown that "I wouldn't let him do anything" cause I forbade the biggest boulders. So we promptly left for lunch at Sprague lake, where RD caught a couple more brookies, and everyone tried to eat lunch without bread (I'd forgotten it... it was the only thing I forgot packing everything up for us, so I was happy it was only one thing... just wish it wasn't the bread).
We left Grace to nap in the van with RD while we hiked around Bear Lake. The boys love picking up sticks and rocks to throw in the lake, it's actually the highlight of the hikes. It was a beautiful warm day in the 60's , but a little cool in the shade of the mountain. When we finished, RD, my Dad and Cameron went on a hike up to Nymph Lake. Cameron hitched a ride for most of the way though.


Reese hung out with me and my Mom, coloring football players and then ending up playing football with Grandma.
After dinner in Estes, we got the kids rocks from the ore store and of course our carmeled apples! There was a herd of elk right by our van which was parked in the center of town, too close for comfort... it was difficult actually trying to get into the van! All the kids were asleep by the time we were off the mountain. They had been a little uncooperative today, but all in all it was a great day making memories together.