Our Little Mountain Adventure

(Tony)  Our family and Ally's parents recently spent a couple of nights at the YMCA of the Rockies campus in Estes Park, CO.  We rented a cabin for two nights and enjoyed being surrounded by the gorgeous scenery of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the on-campus indoor pool, playing parachute games and put-put golf, collecting and learning about local bugs, and hiking near gorgeous Glacier Creek.  The campus was beautiful, the workers were really kind and helpful, and the chance to be in such amazing surroundings was priceless.

(Ally)  Yikes!  Packing for 5 is insane - how can 1 baby require so many things? (and since he's just nursing, we didn't need bottles, babyfood, etc. and it was STILL a lot)  After the stress of packing, 2 trips back to the house for essential things we forgot, and a good bit of car sickness driving up the mountains, I was just glad to be able to sit down and nurse the baby while staring out the cabin window at the God's magnificent creation.  I could seriously get used to the amazing weather and the peace and quiet of the mountains.  I am super proud of us for doing this with a 4 month old.  It would have been much easier if we just had the older 2 kids, but we are a family of 5 now and I gain a little more confidence every time we make it through another family adventure.  There were definitely some stressful moments, but there were also some precious moments of pure bliss as well.  My parents were a HUGE help to us and I think everyone but myself slept wonderfully ( I was just so nervous about the kids sleeping lol!) Ryder was awesome the whole time and the highlight for Scout and River was sharing their own room.  They actually woke up at 6:15 the first morning and "made their beds" and "played quietly" in their room - very sweet.  I think the best part for me was not having TV, cell service, or internet.  I feel like we learned what to do better/differently next time and there will definitely be a next time.  After we go to the trouble to get everything packed up and hauled up the mountain we are definitely staying at least 3 nights next time : )

The view from our porch.  I think coffee tastes better when you're looking at that.

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