Colorado: Vacation Documentary -Part I

I'm afraid to dissapoint but these next few Colorado posts will not include anything regarding brontosaurus barfing, pooping my pants in McDonald's or any other such sickness. Bummer. For the first time in our Colorado history we had none of this excitement. I'm not quite sure what happened?

Captain's Log: Day 1

-The Drive-

Yes. That's correct. We opted to drive with a toddler. But with much premeditation, we determined it was by far the better choice based on $$$. Our friend's Josh & Steph accompanied us and Josh's parents were kind enough to let us borrow their van for the trip. So we were able to share the driving and share the cost of the gas $. Not a bad deal. Otherwise we wouldn't have let them come with us. ha! just kidding guys. Come on, take a joke... 

Anyway,The following documentary -mainly in pictures (a ton of them) is all about our great trip! Enjoy!

Dawson did remarkably well. His worst times were the wee hours of the morning when he just wasn't comfortable sitting any longer in his car seat. He wanted to lay down. He would cry for about 5 minutes and then fall back asleep for a short amount of time. I think he was going in and out of REM. Because I should be a sleep psychologist.

We left right after I got off work at noon on Friday. It's about a 16 hour drive. With 20 pee stops for Steph. Just kidding Steph! But she'll readily admit she has an active bladder.
Days 2&3 (Sun/Mon): Church & Estes Park
Before church we headed to Starbucks. Steph's drug of choice. We're pretty cool.

The main reason I'm finding it important to tell about church is this. Dawson is not that shy. He sat with us for the church service and after the music, Greg (Jason's dad) walked up to preach. The moment he got up to the front (and all was quiet) Dawson yelled out "GRANDPA!". Indeed. That's his grandpa. At least most people found it funny..

After church we left for Estes Park. It's beautiful!:

I realize I look like I'm doing a little cheer in the pic. Don't ask questions.

Below you will see grand pictures of my favorite animal: The marmot. 

This is Jason killing himself to get a picture of the marmot.

 

This is us waving at Jason while he kills himself.

 

We stopped for the night and stayed in a cabin.

The view from outside our cabin:



The view from inside:

 
That afternoon we spotted 2 foxes outside our cabin:
 

Steph is the queen of jumping pictures, as you will soon find out.

Against my wishes, everyone wanted to go for a late night walk once we got to the cabin. I was freaked out and Steph kept making references to the Blair Witch Project. Then I'd hear a noise and run. Eventually, everyone else got freaked out too. That makes me feel responsible for world peace.

One of the most exciting segments of the trip:

At such high altitude we were just waiting for the bags to POP. But they never did.
And now for the hike. Before the hike we ate:

 

At a very over priced restaurant . Go figure.

Steph, Josh, Jason and I hiked to Emerald Lake. I highly recommend it if you ever go to Colorado. Which I'm sure all my blog viewers will be swarming to do once my vacation blogging is over with.

I tried to sucker a chimp into walking up to my hand even though I didn't have food. Didn't work.

On the hike back down, Jason found snow...

I'm assuming you understood that series of pics?

Here is video of Emarald Lake. It's worth the 1.8 miles uphill, one way.

Gloria, Greg, Steve & Jenessa did their own hiking and they took Dawson with them.

OH yes. He's angry.

Uncle Steve. Dawson has talked about him nonstop since we got back.

And this is only part 1...