Colorado Adventures Part 2

Following family pictures, we loaded up the kids and headed up into the mountains. After missing out on the day our car broke down, we were anxious to get into the park. Brady and Andy enjoyed doing some rock climbing together.

He was pretty excited to get to the top!Snow! Snow! After being in CO last year in June when it snowed the first two days we were here, Brady was determined to find snow. We did find some for him to play in near the arctic tundra line. Sweatshirts on, let the snowball fight begin! Brady, Alex, and Andy had lots of fun!Helping out his little brother.Neither are looking at the camera, but I still love this sweet picture.Can you ever get enough of a view like that?After our afternoon in the park it was Christmas time! We enjoyed a gift exchange night with the family and our traditional Christmas meal of egg bakes and cinnamon rolls! One of Andy's cousins even found Anna a little hat!The kids were all anxious to open their gifts!Brady got a cool Cars play dough set. It was a big hit! Alex got a great moon dough set (which we waited to open until we got home) and Anna got some wonderful little girl toys complete with a diamond ring rattle!The biggest four kids enjoyed playing lots of games together. It was so much fun to see them all playing together and loving every minute of it!We spent one more day up in the park. We took a picture here last year as well and wanted a new one with Anna in it as well.This was the one and only stop that I took Anna out at up in the arctic tundra. Most of the time one of us stayed with her in the car due to all the wind and cold that I knew would just take her breath away. This particular day it was windy, but not quite as bad as other days we have been there. She still wasn't such a fan of the wind.We found a great picnic stop for lunch in the park. We were surrounded by wild life and beautiful views. When we finished we hiked around another lake as well.The pure joy of throwing big rocks into the water.This is one of a few herds of elk we saw on our trip. Amazing!More beautiful sceneryWe surprised Diane with a special evening to celebrate her upcoming birthday. There were decorations, songs, and ice cream sundaes!The parents of the little ones decided a movie night was in order one evening...we were all tired of dirty, brown children and giving nightly tubs!Cousins night! Thanks for all of the grandparents, we were gifted with a night out away from the kids with all the cousins. We hit up downtown Estes Park for an evening of fun and lots of laughs!Our last evening in CO we went to an old lodge for a chuck wagon dinner. The food was great and the entertainment was fun. Here is Alex enjoying his dinner.Brady and Andy gave it two thumbs up!Anna enjoying the show.While watching the performers, Alex started hollering that he needed a hat. They were all wearing cowboy hats so naturally he thought he needed one too. A napkin on the head was the best we could do. What a sweetie!It was a great trip that made many wonderful memories!