Colorado Part 4: Strawberries, Cupcakes, and Bears -- Oh, my!

You can't go to Colorado without doing some hiking.  But hiking with two toddlers isn't exactly a walk in the (national) park.  So we asked around and decided to do a hike (more like a leisurely stroll) around beautiful Bear Lake in the RMNP (that's the Rocky Mountain National Park if you're not down with the lingo).  Bear Lake delivered with beautiful views, a big snake (!) on the trail, and even a bus ride to the trail head (which may have been Max's favorite part).

Max was ready -- let's do this!

Max points out the sights to Mommy and BB.  (It was drizzling in case you're wondering why BB is dressed like Sponge Bob Square Pants.)

Paw, Grandma, BB, Max, and Scarlett in front of Bear Lake.

The whole gang.

Scarlett points out a big rock she'd like to climb.

Scarlett and Grandma taking cover from the afternoon rain.

Another day we ventured over the YMCA of the Rockies at the base of the RMNP.  That place is amazing.  It has a lodge, cabins, day camp for kids, horseback riding, mini golf, an indoor pool, and all sorts of other fun recreation opportunities in an absolutely gorgeous setting.  Now, I'm no expert on YMCAs, but I'd be shocked if there is a nicer or more scenic YMCA anywhere in the country.

On the agenda for our YMCA visit:  pony rides.  Meet Strawberry ...

... and Cupcake.  (Check out the stylin' hairdo on Cupcake.  Looking good little guy.  Looking good.)

They had a trail that looped through a clearing in the forest for the pony rides.  Scarlett had a blast and would have taken off by herself if we'd let her.  Max was more skeptical and required two handlers (one horse leader and one baby balancer).  Given his reaction to chipmunks and butterflies earlier in the week, I would have expected him to run for cover at the sight of Cupcake, but he managed to hold it together.  

Max decided at some point that he wanted to get down, hold the lead rope, and walk Cupcake around himself.

Max!!!!  Look out for the .... never mind.

"Oh, MAX!!"

Scarlett posing with her trusty steed.  Not sure why Strawberry is giving us the side-eye.

Thanks for the memories, Strawberry!  (Note the sign behind him that says "Please Do Not Pet the Ponies."  While Scarlett pets the pony.  Ok, so that might explain the side-eye.  Strawberry is a stickler for rules, apparently.)

Colorado Part 3: Heritage Festival and the Stanley Hotel

One morning we checked out the Heritage Festival that was taking place at the fair grounds, which included a combination of old west exhibits and a horse show (and a few kid-geared activities like face painting and a petting zoo).  

Checking out the antlers and tepees.  

Petting the pelts.

Scarlett's arrowhead.

Face painting.

Watching the horse show and staying dry during a rain shower.

Building a log cabin (note the work gloves).

Max lends a hand.

Posing with the bear at Mountain Munchies after lunch.

One afternoon we headed over to the historic Stanley Hotel built in 1909.  The hotel served as the inspiration for Stephen King's novel The Shining, which was later turned into the horror flick starring Jack Nicholson.  The adults were interested in checking out the hotel, and we figured the kids would have fun at a monarch butterfly release that they do once a week in the summer.  (They raise the butterflies on site and you can see them at their various stages of development.)  Little did we know that the butterfly release would turn into a bit of a horror show itself ...

Front of the hotel with a storm brewing in the background.

Hanging out on the front porch.

Waiting for the butterflies and throwing rocks into the pond with BB.

Scarlett got to unzip one of several butterfly cages.

I was expecting hundreds of beautiful butterflies to flutter delicately up into the air and head off to begin their lives as glorious Rocky Mountain butterflies.  Instead, they were sort of dumped unceremoniously onto the sidewalk while hoards of kids stomped around trying to pick them up, pet them, and in a few unfortunate cases, smash them.  It was basically a butterfly massacre.  Stephen King may have arranged the whole thing, now that I think about it.

Max wanted no part of it, and put his finely-honed clinging skills to the test once again.  Perhaps he was imagining the butterfly with a tiny little axe and a maniacal grin running through a hedge-maze.  (That happened in The Shining, right?  Except obviously not with butterflies.  I think.)

Post-butterfly release, with (mostly) smiles all around.  Probably the happiest of the bunch were the handful of butterflies who actually managed to survive and escape from the Stanley Hotel.  Sort of like in The Shining.  But not really.

The End.  (Look out Stephen King, there's a new master storyteller in town.)

Colorado Part 2: Rocky Mountain High

We went up the Estes Park aerial tram with two objectives:  (1)  to check out the cool views of the town below, and (2) to hang out with the fat chipmunks who live up top and wait for tourists to feed them peanuts.  Mission accomplished.

Heading up the tram.  If you think Max looks less than thrilled to be in a red cage dangling from a cable being dragged up a mountainside, you should have seen his Grandma (who does not like heights but nevertheless sucked it up and braved the ride).

Once we arrived up top, we grabbed a bag of peanuts, and headed out in search of the chipmunks.

There they are!

Note Max clinging desperately to Chris.  Bless his heart, you would have thought they were zombie chipmunks the way he was acting (Max, not Chris, just to be clear).

Scarlett and BB.

More clinging.  Oh, the horror!

In addition to discovering that Max is terrified of chipmunks, we learned that Scarlett loves to rock climb.  All week long she scrambled up any rocks she could find, big or small.

More hungry chipmunks.

The gang watches Scarlett and the chipmunks from a safe distance (maybe Max was onto something after all ...).

Picnic lunch.

Cutie.

Dark clouds started to move in after lunch (it rained every afternoon while we were in Colorado, which conveniently coincided with nap time), and we had to dash back down for fear of getting stuck up on top of the mountain in a rainstorm.  There was quite a lightening show on the tram ride down, which made the ride down even dicier than the ride up.