Estes Park, Colorado Spring Break

Spring Break 2021 

After last years fiasco of rescheduling our spring break trip to Florida (thanks COVID), we were so excited to go on a proper spring break trip this year. I picked Estes Park, CO after driving through it on our way home from Colorado last summer. Estes Park is minutes outside of Rock Mountain National Park. It's the cutest mountain town with a wonderful downtown. I found a house on a stream which was icing on the cake. 

We headed out bright and early for our 15 hour trek to Colorado. I thought we were nuts, but we planned to drive this straight through. That was our longest drive to date, and I'm not sure I would want to drive any longer than that. The trip went smoothly with no issues. We packed lots of toys, snacks, and drinks which helped. We also were able to watch movies thanks to our new SUV.  

We drove through five states that day: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. It's fun to see how the terrain changes. This is Kansas below. It's FLAT and boring. 

Shortly before sunset we made it too Denever. Colorado is beautiful. I can never get over the grandeur of the mountains. It seriously never gets old. 

We were exhausted from the drive. We ate dinner and went to bed. We all slept in the clothes from that day. We were too exhausted to even change clothes. 

We woke up to this view, and it was seriously gorgeous. It was cold, but we were still able to enjoy the outdoors. 

Paige had to go out and play in the snow and explore as soon as the sun came up. 

The rental we stayed in was so nice and perfect for us. We gave Ella the master bedroom. Paige and I slept in one bedroom downstairs (her on the blow up mattress) and Adam slept in the other bedroom downstairs. I loved the living room. The windows were huge, and the view was awesome. 

The backside of the house. Take me back!!

Our first full day we had to go check out the downtown and do some shopping. Estes Park has the best shops. I seriously shopped until I dropped. 

Ella and I tried to walk to the coffee shop at the end of the trail behind our rental, but there was too much slush and mud. Even though it was cold, it was a beautiful day. 

Without fail, it would start snowing like this every afternoon. It was insane but so pretty!

On Monday, I scheduled to have our pictures taken in the national park at sunset. It was almost a disaster. It was pouring snow, but we went ahead with it. It snowed for about fifteen minutes, and then the sun came out. I am not sure I will have pictures taken again on a trip anytime soon, but I am so glad we did it. Our photographer got some awesome shots. 

Before our pictures, we saw deer, a coyote, and elk. I love seeing wildlife in the park. 

We woke up to more snow on Tuesday (shocking I know), but it ended up being a beautiful day. 

We lounged around every morning, and it was SO nice. We don't get to do this at home so it was nice to just sit and do nothing. 

We finally got in gear and headed downtown for more shopping and lunch. We parked at the other end of the street this time and went in the shops we didn't get to go in the first day. 

 

After lunch we picked up our snow gear and headed to RMNP to go to bear lake. I actually expected to see a lake but instead, saw a frozen lake covered in snow. Its was beautiful, but I would love to see it in the summer. 

There were a lot of people hiking with snow shoes which are what those colorful things are way off in the distance. 

First time I have ever stood on a frozen lake. So weird! 

This snowman was already there and great for pictures. 

We said goodbye to the snowman and headed out. Stay tuned for park two of our trip!

February happenings 2021

February started out with a bang with ice and snow back to back. 

I was hoping for a good snow, but we only had about an inch of ice/snow mix. School ended up being cancelled for three days because of this. We went out and tried to have a little fun, but there wasn't enough snow to sled. 

We ended up getting the golf cart out to pull the sleds around since there was not enough snow. Ella and Paige had fun being pulled around.  

 Paige misses school so much when it's cancelled. Since she didn't have any friends to play with she recruited Brody. Poor Brody, he's such a good sport. He would definitely rather sleep than "play", but he toughs it out. 

The following week we got around six inches of snow and school was cancelled for a week! It was fun for about a day, and then I was over it. All of it! We had a hard time cleaning our driveway since a layer of ice was underneath it. The streets in our neighborhood were a mess. It was COLD, like really cold. We made the best of it, but I was so happy when life returned to normal. 

Paige looks like a little eskimo. 

We did go sledding one day once it stopped snowing. There were a ton of people on the big hill at the golf course which was annoying. It was hard to get through the main street of our neighborhood with all of the cars. Add that to the list of things that annoyed me that week... lol! 

Elliott was totally unbothered by the weather. He slept through most of it. 

Ella finally was able to try out her snow scooter that I bought a couple of years ago. 

I have never seen this many people sledding in our neighborhood. It was like this all week. 

Paige had obviously had enough of the cold and snow. I felt the same way. ;) 

I was way more fun sledding down the small hill next to our house. We were out for a couple of hours one morning sledding (Paige) and trying to clean the driveway off (me). 

The following week life was back to normal! Yay! The first day back to school Paige was so excited for her valentine party. She had a ton of goodies and was so excited. 

Paige was the leader in preschool the last week in February. There is nothing she loves more than being the leader. I was able to go with her, and it's so fun seeing her in her element at school. 

Paige loves playing with Tinley at school. 

When you sit on the floor these kids just flock to you. Can you tell how annoyed Paige is that another child is sitting on my lap? She was so mad. Ha! 

That's my girl! We have spent the last almost 6 years together. I can't believe I will be sending her off to kindergarten this fall. It's bittersweet. 

Paige still loves her zippy's. I can't believe we still have one that fits her. She has had her zippy's since she was three months old.