Estes Park - Winter 2014

The kids wanted to see snow - and Jennifer wanted to get up into the mountains....so we did just that.

Our flight was at 10am on Friday and we were at the rental car place ready to pick up our car right about noon.

All week I had stressed about getting a 4x4 to keep us alive driving in the mountains (because I am not an experienced snow/ice driver) and no one at any of the rental car places would guarantee me one - it just depended what was on the lot when we showed up.  Of course, as I am explaining this to the lady at the counter she says, "Well, all of the vehicles in the class you purchased come with all-wheel drive."  WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME THAT WHEN I CALLED 3 TIMES DURING THE WEEK?  Anyways, we ended up in good shape there.

On our way to Estes Park we drove through Boulder which required a stop at The Sink to eat a late lunch.  The Sink is the best.  Mmmmm.  We ordered an extra to-go order of the cheese bread so we could take care of dinner later that night.

[INSERT JENNIFER'S PICTURES OF THE CABIN & DEER]

When we arrived in Estes Park, we drove straight to our cabin where we unloaded, unpacked, and explored.  There were some deer walking around right outside the cabin.

The kids wanted to play in snow and we were fairly surprised that there really wasn't any snow on the ground.  Unfortunately, Rocky Mountain National Park was closing soon and we wouldn't be able to make it over there on this evening in time to get the kids feet in the powder.

We ate and then went to the grocery store to get our food for the rest of the trip and on the way back we stopped and the kids wanted ice cream.  Of course they did.

They then attempted to play in what snow/ice they could find...fairly unsuccessfully.  It was at this time that Bekah learned to NOT take off her gloves.

Saturday morning the kids were up before the sun.  Wonderful.

We had chosen this weekend to visit Estes Park because they were having their Winter Festival.  One of the activities was a snow shoe "class" at Bear Lake so we headed up there after we got everyone fed and dressed appropriately.

Unfortunately, the newspaper was wrong.  It was not at Bear Lake, it was at Glacier Basin (which we had passed on our way up to Bear Lake).  Before we left, the kids finally got to play in some snow.

When we got down to Glacier Basin we saw a few tents set up by vendors who were letting people test out the latest and greatest in snow shoe gear.  Bekah decided she didn't like the idea so Jennifer and Benjamin went ahead while I coaxed Bekah over.  S-L-O-W-L-Y.

 

Momma finally used some sort of magical Momma spell and all of a sudden Bekah wanted to join us - first on Jennifer's back and then later with her own snow shoes.  There really wasn't a "class" - it was more of a how to put them on correctly explanation.

After our snow shoeing we went back to the cabin and ate lunch and re-cooperated/rested for a short bit.

Then it was off to find the Estes Park Event Center where they were hosting more activities. Unfortunately, the Event Center is brand new so it didn't pull up in our GPS and the website map was waaaay wrong, so it took us over an hour to find it - but find it we did thanks to a friendly local.

There were two buildings - one was a grown up one with all sorts tables with local wineries and brews, a trampoline act, a live band playing on stage, etc.  The other building was for the kids - face painting, a train ride, chalk, ice sculptures, etc.

The ice sculptures were a big hit - the guy on the left is making Olaf and the guy on the right is making Elsa.

From there we went back to the cabin, ate some steak and potatoes and the kids were in bed by 7pm and my Eagle Scout skills got us a fire going.

Sunday morning, the kids were up before the sun - again.  We ate and then went and rented some snow shoes, sleds, and a kiddie carrier to haul Bekah before heading back up to Bear Lake.

Jennifer had read that the Bear Lake trail loop was about half a mile and was really easy for families so when we saw the sign we saw the short distance on Bear Lake and thought the one we were supposed to be on was the half mile hike to Nymph Lake.

We were wrong.  The 256 ft was to the beginning of the Bear Lake loop - but we didn't realize that until after our half mile trek up to Nymph Lake and our half mile trek back.

The hike to Nymph Lake wasn't horrifically long but it was fairly steep and Benjamin got pretty tired.  We asked him if he wanted to turn around and he firmly told us, "No, I want to go all the way."  He was so proud of himself when we made it up there, and we were so proud of him for being determined, pushing through and seeing the task out.

When we got back to the trail head, he and I took the quick 256 feet to see Bear Lake (Benjamin did the camera work on this picture).

We then snacked in the car to recharge and headed to Hidden Valley for some sledding.

 

Benjamin loved it and Bekah liked it until she somehow got a face full of snow - I think it had something to do with Jennifer's steering and the fact they were spinning in circles on their way down the hill.

Benjamin then decided he wanted to dig a giant hole, and there might have been some snowballs thrown.

As we're about to leave, Bekah remembers that she wanted to build a snow man - so we quickly built the world's saddest, tiny snowman.  The kids were happy so we were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

It was back to the cabin for dinner and a bunch of family goofing around time....and a late bed time.

Monday we were up, ate, got packed, locked the cabin up and headed to the library to print out boarding passes....except it was MLK day so the library was closed.  Thankfully, there was a UPS Store open that we were able to use for $0.87 (saving $10/boarding pass at the gate).

We dropped off the car, took the shuttle back to the airport, somehow our luggage weighed 1-1/2 pounds more, even though we had less stuff, and then Jennifer realized that in the commotion of gathering the kids, the car seats, and all of our bags she left her phone on the rental car shuttle bus.  Thankfully, the same driver was out front on his next drop off loop.  Crisis averted.

We had a couple of hours to kill so we ate and ate and ate.  The flight home was pretty smooth going and we were back at our house by 8pm and it was a quick dinner and then off to bed for the kids.

It was a wonderful snow and mountain filled weekend.