Trail Ridge Road, Bear Lake, Rockies Game

After hiking on Friday morning, we drove Trail Ridge Road over to Estes Park (which was our base for the last week of vacation).  This was a very stressful drive for me, with all of the switchbacks and intense heights!  The kids had fun, and I think Josh enjoyed driving it again, so at least some of us liked it! :)






At the visitor's center.  Had to get the kids' national parks passports stamped (the passports are super cool by the way, thanks mom!).

Just a tad above sea level!  It was about 40 degrees with some wicked wind up at the top.  Chilly.

We finally saw the sun!  It felt so fantastic.

Dave had to play in the snow.

We saw a huge herd of elk way up there.









Once we got to Estes Park, we had some time to kill before our house was ready (story of this trip!), so we found yet another nice playground where the kids burned off some energy.  We settled into our new home and hung out until Josh's parents and sister got into town.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early and went out to Bear Lake.  It is a super popular spot so you have to get there really early to get a parking spot, or you have to take the shuttle which we did not want to do!







Walking around Bear Lake.  Gorgeous scenery.  Picture is a tad crooked-the rock I sat my camera on must have shifted a bit  :)

Sprague Lake.  I can't get enough of lakes with mountains in the background!








After our hiking adventure, we just hung out the rest of the day.  Enjoyed some beautiful sunshine, had dinner, etc.  Sunday morning we headed to Denver to spend the day exploring and to watch the Rockies game.  We tried to go to a restaurant known for its biscuits, but it had an 1.5 hour wait in both locations...eek!  So we found a different place for brunch then went to a really nice park.

At the game.  Can you tell we were roasting?  Soooo hot.

Love this one of the Bowyer boys!









The ballpark was awesome for kids!  They had kid-sized concessions (which were really just regular sized in my opinion) for cheap and they had playgrounds to keep the kids entertained during the game.  We stayed through the 5th inning, which was just enough time with the kids plus the heat.

After the game, we drove through Boulder and ate at a fantastic restaurant called Blackbelly Market.  It is owned by Hosea Rosenberg (any Top Chef fans?  He won season 5!).  Super delicious, and they were great with the kids!