i still go back to hawaii-quite often and remember how i felt while i was there-how it smelled.
one of the wonders of it all is that vacations are often stressful, but your memories are always sweeter and the stressful situations get edited out. the memory of emily running away from the beach, screaming, 'i don't like how my swimsuit feels' has faded a bit and now i mostly remember the kids running and playing in the waves and sitting in the sand with anneliese.
our last trip to colorado had moments that haven't disappeared yet-like driving from fort collins back to denver on a 100 degree day without air conditioning, passing an ice pack back and forth between the kids as anneliese threw up. but even as terrible as that was-the picture we have of emily and grant standing and pointing to a gigantic rainbow over the kansas prairie and grant at 4 1/2 singing all the words to "rocky mountain high"-will be what i remember.
last year we had to forego any real destination vacation because the construction, renovation, and moving that happened. we needed a vacation this year. nana and papa came through with a house in estes park, next to the river and very close to the national park entrance. but the most beautiful part about it was that we were ALL there.
we loaded up the prius with pipe cleaners, clothes pins, popsicle sticks and some john denver and headed west. the kids made all sorts of wondrous creations-i unfortunately packed my camera in the way back to make room for all the snacks in the front. we stayed the first night at a hotel in long mont. it was still daylight and they spied the mountains as we walked to a brewery 'oskar blues' that was across the street. there was live music, there was good beer, it felt like vacation.
the kids swam in the pool when we got back to the hotel. bobby declared that the lifeguard stand was located in the hottub and we talked about how cool it was that the kids were all able to swim on their own.
the next day we drove up to estes and arrived before we could check in to the house. we drove up to the national park and did a walk around sprague lake. we then went down to morraine park and i fell in love with the scenery. seriously i would have just spent the whole vacation there if everyone else would have agreed with me.
we did lots of hiking-the kids were troopers. they all found a walking stick that was just their size.
anneliese found 'elkie' at the gift shop at the top of trail ridge road. she accompanied us on all our adventures.
on our hike up to dream lake-anneliese said 'my legs are too tired to walk anymore' and had to hitch a ride.
glaciar lodge managed the house we rented-so we were able to go use the facilities there. the kids were so excited to swim, but spent more time 'getting warm' on the concrete.
we may need to get a tether ball-these guys could have played all day
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