Estes Park

Tyson has had some online friends for about 12 years but has never met them, so we finally met up with them and it was great. Nate and Tanya have 2 children (Corey and Hailey) and even though they were a bit older, they were very kind to Ryder and he loved playing and hanging out with them. It was like we had all been close friends for a long time.

Ryder was so excited for our trip to the mountains, even though we are technically in the mountains at 6000 ft, the Rockies get much higher. They have a blue tint to them when the sun hits them, so he kept saying he wanted to go see the blue mountains, and see them...we did! We ventured up to a beautiful little mountain town called Estes Park, right on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was amazing and the weather was perfect. The drive alone was the most breathtaking drive I have ever been on, way more picturesque that anything we have seen in California. We stopped half way up the mountain at a cute shop called the Cherry Tree. They sold all sorts of cherry stuff (juice, jam, butter, candy, chocolate, hot sauce, etc). Ryder got a special lolly-pop treat there, which helped stop the non-stop questioning of ARE WE THERE YET?

Once at our destination, we parked the car next to the river that runs through town, we packed up the stroller and baby Bjorn and were on our way. We had lunch at a place called Penelope's Burgers (they have everything from elk burgers to buffalo burgers and regular too), then we walked to a scenic river spot. The boys all got their feet wet in the very cold river. We then kept walking through town and stopped at some quaint little shops, but spent most of our time in the homemade ice cream and candy shops. YUM! We stopped at a little pond with lots of very large trout, that we were able to buy food for and feed. Ryder had a blast feeding the fish and watching them come up so close and literally jump out of the water. Then the boys went go-karting and had a great time. They were the only ones on the track! This is all Ryder keeps talking about, so I have to say this was probably his favorite part.

We had a wonderful day with our new friends, but are pretty bummed that our new friends are moving to Arizona. Thank you for showing us around Estes Park and we wish you luck and hope to meet up again in the near future.