part three : rocky mountain national park

I'm itching to post some of the happenings around our house in the past week... first day of *first* grade, silly quotes, weaning (!), sweet little moments. But I'm on a mission to finish the vacation recap before I get sidetracked. If I stop now, it'll never get done.

Summer in Colorado : Part Three (Rocky Mountain National Park)

The second full day we were in Colorado (it was a Monday), we decided to take a drive up through Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a huge park, full of things to do and wildlife to see. I was totally unprepared for the amount of time we spent in the car (it takes a long time to drive over a mountain, did you know?) but the kids did really well. We drove over the mountain, had a picnic, then drove over to Bear Lake for a beautiful hike. The scenery was gorgeous and we got to see a lot of wildlife. We started out around 10am and didn't make it home until around 9pm. A long day. A fun day. But a long day.

By the end of the car ride we were grasping for things to entertain the kids. "Look out the window... aren't the mountains beautiful?" just wasn't cutting it anymore. Then I got the dreaded, "Tell us a story" from Claire. I knew it would happen eventually, she asks this of Cynthia all the time. Cynthia is great at it. She whips up a story out of thin air and it's fresh, entertaining, silly. My story was not. The kids listened, but lets just say they didn't ask for another one. And they haven't asked since. They just went back to looking out the window.

At least there were beautiful things for look at. For instance...

{What you can't see is that there were about 6 of these guys all sitting just off the road along the hillside. The antlers are amazing.}

{Hayes and Dada along a creek where we picnicked. Rocks and rushing water. He cried when we had to leave this spot.}

{You can tell this was serious business by the look on her face, right? It is a Junior Ranger Activity book. If you finish filling out the entire book, you can become a Junior Ranger. You get a badge and everything. I think it's meant to be done over a longer period of time, say 3 or 4 visits to the park, but Claire was on a mission to get that badge! This child is goal oriented like you wouldn't believe. She was totally focused on filling out the book. She took a few *short* breaks to have some fun, but then... right back to the book. It was really cracking us up.}

{I do not have a zoom lens. I was about 10 inches from his face when I took this. He was totally unfazed.}

{Realized when I got home I didn't get nearly enough pictures of the kids with the Grandparents. Here, with Geegee and Papa.}

{We let them climb some really, really big rocks. Impressive for a three year old, don't you think? ... okay, there may have been a shortcut up the back.}

{Impeccable technique. I have to write about Claire's rock climbing soon. When I get some good pictures. She loves it.}

{Hayes was asleep on Robert's back the entire time, hence their absence from pictures. So for once, I handed over the camera to prove I was actually on this vacation. I'm so glad I did... love these pictures with the girls.}

{This was THE TEST. To become a Junior Ranger, you have to first fill out the booklet, then sit down with a real Park Ranger to review you book and be quizzed about the information you learned. Addie got to ride Claire's coattails, filling out her book as Claire did, so they both finished by the time we made it around Bear Lake. Then they both passed their tests with flying colors and were officially commissioned as Junior Park Rangers, which was announced to the entire crowd at the trailhead. Very exciting stuff.}

{Can you see the pride in her face?}

{She's being modest here. I cannot tell you how many times we were reminded that she "worked really hard for this badge" and she "had to take a test and everything". It was a really big deal, that badge.}

{Of course, Geegee saw it fit to buy them all the official Junior Ranger gear. They had worked so hard, after-all.}