Mountain Air

Brad and I took a vacation to Colorado at the beginning of August, and it was beyond wonderful. Brad's mom came to Lubbock and stayed with Addison while we jumped in the car and drove the almost eleven hours to get to beautiful Estes Park. This was our first real vacation since our honeymoon, and it was beautiful, and restful, and so refreshing.

We stayed in a cute little cabin about three miles from downtown Estes Park, and right across from a river that put us to sleep every night. The view from the cabin, of course, was amazing. We were directly across from the Rocky Mountain National Park, and had views of gorgeous mountains such as Long's Peak every morning. The cabin was called, "The Carver's House" because apparently the man that owns the cabin is a wood carver, and he had a lot of interesting pieces throughout his cabin. But, the Carver's House...doesn't it sound a little bit like a bad scary movie? Haha. After I got past that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed our little cabin. The cabin also had a little porch area with two hand made gliders, but it rained every day and so the chairs were never dry enough to actually sit in. But, the big picture windows in the living room, and the sound of the river filtering in through the open windows made us feel like we were outside as we relaxed and read on the over sized living room couch.

Our cute little cabin. The windows on the left enclosed the kitchen/dining room.

The truck parked outside of our cabin...Brad assured me this is what made the cabin the creepiest. A reference to some scary movie, I think?

Our patio with the (wet) chairs.

The kitchen.

Living room. Windows are on the right side looking out to the mountains and river.

The first night we arrived in town we went into town and ate dinner on the patio of a cute little Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, coming from West Texas we had not taken into consideration that after about 6 p.m. in the mountains, the air SIGNIFICANTLY cools down. So we shivered and rushed through our meal, eyeing the Starbucks across the street the entire time. We did make it through dinner and rushed over to Starbucks to grab some hot drinks to warm us up as we walked back to our cars. Since we had come into town unprepared with the correct attire we decided to go back to the cabin with our drinks for the night and read in our cabin. Oh, how I love to read!! The next day was our white water rafting adventure. The river was a little bit low, so there were more rocks, but less rapids. But, we still had a blast. Our raft was comprised of Brad and I, our guide, and this cute little family with three kids. It was fairly uneventful...oh, except for that one time we had to rescue a man from the rapids and pull him into our raft...oh, and the POURING rain! So, day two and we are still FREEZING! As if the water wasn't cold enough, add rain to that and you are almost shivering enough to go overboard. Haha. But, we both had a blast and would definitely have done it again! Our third day we got up and decided to go hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I don't remember what our hike was called, but it was gorgeous! We ended up at this beautiful lake, but on the way to the lake we saw many waterfalls.
Self portrait - excuse the foliage that was in front of the camera. :)


It was neat to get to the end and see where the waterfalls were originating from. We saw many families hiking with their little ones on their backs, and it made me miss Addison, but it also made me excited for the time Brad and I were able to spend together without the exhaustion that accompanied those families hiking adventures with little ones in tow. However, I can't wait to bring Addison back with us someday!
Breath taking scenery!


Our last day we decided to spend the day in town. We ate at cute little places all over town, and went into I think just about every little shop there was. Thank heavens for a patient husband! Later that evening we went on a drive in RMNP. We drove to the top of the Continental Divide. I don't remember ever having seen such gorgeous scenery. It was literally breath taking. And, there were elk everywhere. They were so close to the road, and not bothered by a car driving by.
Notice the elk in the background!

Being up in the mountains like that, and seeing such amazing sights, and magnificent animals made me just think how much fun God must have had creating the world. How blessed we are to be able to see glimpses of his majesty in things like mountains and strong animals like elk. Wow, thank you God!

While I loved our vacation, my heart was aching for my little girl by Saturday. We planned to leave a little after 7 on Saturday morning...we drove away from our cabin at 6:30. I think Brad might have been a little anxious to get back to Miss Addison as well. :) Coming home to our sweet baby sure made being back in Lubbock, rather than surrounded by mountains in Estes Park, very much ok. However, our trip was so relaxing and refreshing that I wouldn't have traded it for the world. We have already started planning our return trip, I can't wait to show Addison all of the gorgeous things we got to see!!