Reid and Angie's Place: A Surprise Weekend Vacation

On Friday August 8th, we surprised the boys with news that we were going on vacation. We had spent the weekend before planning a trip to Estes Park, the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Because we were booking so last minute I had a hard time finding a place to stay that meet our requirements and was in our price range. So, we took a gamble and booked ourselves a lodge room at the YMCA. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. The grounds at the YMCA were beautiful and well maintained. And there was so much to do. Our stay included classes for the kids, mini-golf, and more. There was a playground, a swimming pool, an art center, and a dining hall. If you didn't want to leave the conference center (the YMCA) you really didn't have to. The kids loved our time there. It was such a fun weekend we are looking forward to doing it again.

We took the long way there and ended up having lunch at a Burger King in Boulder.

Reid told the boys that to get their kids' meal toys they had to put these boxes on their heads.

The statue outside the reception building at the YMCA.

Inside the art center. You can pick a project, pay for it, and then work on it as you please throughout your time there.

While we were waiting for our room to be ready we played on the playground.

Outside the art building

Saturday we spent most of our day at the YMCA. The boys took a few classes, we did a mini-hike, played mini-golf, had lunch in the dining hall, and went swimming. For dinner we decided to go into downtown Estes Park where we found a fun Chicago-type eatery. We enjoyed walking and looking at all of the shops, putting our feet in the river, and buying some yummy salt water taffy. It was a full, busy and fun day.

The first class the kids took on Saturday morning was a parachute play time.

Later on Saturday the kids took a class on the basics of hiking.

Mini-golf

Our selfies while hiking (Reid was back at the room with Bree during naptime)

Heading down the hall to go to dinner

At dinner

Downtown Estes Park

In downtown Estes Park

All of our feet in the freezing river water

On Sunday we decided to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped at a visitor center first and the boys caught a Junior Ranger presentation. We got their handbooks to earn their Junior Ranger badges, and we bought them a passport to the National Parks like I had as a kid. The boys enjoyed finding the stamps in the park and Kai seems to like the idea of collecting them. Then we decided to drive all the way through to Grand Lake on the west side of the park. For the first time in my life I got car sick. Driving through the mountains just about killed me! The ranger had told us about the Grand Lake Lodge and so we stopped there for a look. We ended up grabbing lunch at a local burger place that was small but very good. It was a good find! By the time we got back it was too late for any hiking so we got back to the lodge and got ready to head into Estes Park again for "dinner" aka Dairy Queen.

Getting his book signed off

Wishing we had remembered to actually bring our jackets that we had packed but left in the room

Grand Lake

On Monday we checked out of the YMCA and decided go back to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some "hiking". We walked around Bear Lake and then decided to head over to some water falls. It turned into a bit more of a hike than we had anticipated, but the boys did pretty well with it. We were quite tired and hungry by the time we were done. Once we got back to the car we grabbed some snacks to tide us over and then started driving home. We had planned on stopping to eat but everyone fell asleep in the car so we drove straight on home. It had been a long weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Although, one of the best parts of vacation is getting home!