Vacation!

We were so blessed with the time to take a week for vacation. First, we headed west to the farm to see my dad. We always love our time out there, even more as the kids get older. We rode the go-cart. . .. . .jumped on the trampoline. . .. . .cleaned house. Oh, wait. That is Raegan cleaning her "fort" she made. Yes, she made her own straw broom to sweep the dirt. For those of you who don't know, Raegan was born to be house wife. She LOVES to clean and "make house". Later in the week, when we got to our cabin, she exclaimed with eager anticipation, "Oh, we get to do lots of jobs in here!" This was the kitchen. Notice the salt and pepper!
. . .and we shot. I grew up with guns all around me; however, I never shot one until I married my city-boy husband! I really loved shooting this 22. Thanks, Pat! :) We were aiming at barn swallows. I never got one, but it was so fun!

. . . and had a birthday party for the girls with Papa. Then, it was off to Denver to see our cousins, Kevin and Brandi, and their kids, Dawson and Caleb. The kids had a great time playing together and celebrating birthdays again!On Thursday, we headed north to Estes Park. We were excited to get to the mountains! Here is the view from our cabin, looking at our first view of wildlife!That first night, we celebrated Sydney's birthday because it was finally her real birthday!

The next day, we got up early and headed out toward Loch Vale, a 3-mile hike! Yes, this was ambitious, but we figured we could turn back if we needed to do so. Here is how Isaiah "hiked" most of the way! Here is our entire group! Three families!Getting started!
One of the highlights was seeing Alberta Falls. They were beautiful!

Here, the falls are in the background.
We had just one breakdown where Raegan thought she couldn't make it any farther, but after some encouragement from Chris, she made it to the top.

Here, we are almost there!

The last major obstacle was climbing a snow-covered hill to get to the lake. It was slippery!
Eating lunch on a giant rock by the lake.
Here is a view of the lake. Stunning!
Then, we headed back down. Raegan told Chris, "I like going down-hill!"
One treat was seeing an elk nearby. It didn't seem phased by all of us gawking humans. Isaiah liked touching the trees.
That night (July 15), we celebrated Raegan's and Brent's birthdays. Melanie made it so special with decorations and ice cream cake!The next day, we were all a little pooped from our adventure from the previous day, so we slept in and had a good breakfast. Then, we ventured out to Bear Lake and took in a couple of easier hikes. It was fun because we saw two boys who we recognized as Ethiopians, so we introduced ourselves and Isaiah. It was fun to connect with them for just a bit. Once back to the cabins, the kids busied themselves with feeding the chipmunks. . .
. . .and training them to do tricks!
One of their favorite activities was playing on the rocks and building forts. Our last day there, we were able to sneak away to a lake and let the girls fish. Raegan was so glad to get to throw in her line! Isaiah was happy to play in the sand.
We didn't have much time, but Sydney even got a bite!Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the cool weather, the sweet smell of pine, and fun memories. We are so thankful to have been able to spend time together as well as with some special friends.