Day 2 in Estes

We had planned to attempt Bear Lake that morning and knew we had to be there by 9. Of course the boys slept in until 7:40 that morning, an unheard of time for them. I think we both refuse to set alarms because if they do happen to sleep in on a rare occasion we want to reap the benefit. So we flew around to make it out by 8:20 and stressed the whole way there if we would make it. We weren’t sure at what crossing we were in, but we made it! We pulled ourselves together in the parking lot and set off. (Before that BJ had gone back to the car with Blaine to grab something and on the way back saw a tied up llama. I could hear Blaine giggle from a ways away and realized why within a few steps! Pierce loved it too. We hadn’t had luck seeing many wild “dees”- Blaine’s name for all animals thanks to Kitty Diego.)

We first saw Bear Lake (beautiful!) and then headed up the trail to the other lakes (Nymph, Dream, and Emerald). We weren’t sure where we’d quite make it to, but we thought we’d try to get as far as we could. We had so much fun and saw some beautiful sights from the mountain. The boys did great! Anytime they got a little antsy or cranky, we would get up next to a tree and let them “touch some nature”. Pierce especially loved it. Every time he would reach out to touch it he would make a little question noise where his voice would go up. So cute! We got some great pics along the way and were glad we’d bought the Target tripod suggested by Abbey. We made it to Dream Lake and let the boys out to stretch. They loved “mountain climing” on the boulders and charmed everyone around us. Blaine even played peek a boo behind a boulder with a woman. They were pretty upset to go and we knew we’d better head back. Thankfully the trip down was much faster and both boys ended up falling asleep in our packs not far in! We were so surprised they’d fall asleep like that, but I guess the bobbing motion, fresh air and the fact it was close enough to nap time did them in.  They woke up at the car and ate peanut butter sandwiches until we got to the cabin where we put them down for naps.

BJ and I relaxed in the cabin and by the river and realized it was nice making ourselves have the relaxing downtime too. After naps we headed to downtown Estes to shop around for souvenirs and eat dinner. We ended up eating (or attempting to eat) at Poppy’s pizza. They were so tired and we weren’t able to entertain them long enough to quite make it through dinner. We got our food and pretty much packed it up and headed out. It was a little nicer of a place than I had expected and they were the only kids there. I didn’t want to make any more of a scene than we were. Our waiter was very sweet. We ate on the go and the boys ended up eating better in the stroller than inside. They each ate a piece of pepperoni pizza! We went to Hayley’s (my favorite) for ice cream and cookies for later. It always smelled so good outside the shop. I think it was the fresh waffle cones. Yum! We headed home for bedtime and relax time for us. Such a fun day!