Monday, July 31, 2017
Why would Jeff have this picture on his phone?
Anyone? Anyone? Is it because he loves baseball? Could it be that this is his favorite purple team? Here's a hint: look at the numbers. He's a math nerd, people. And we love him.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Whit Pres Camp Out 2017
Though dead tired, we headed out for an overnight at the church campout on Saturday. We were thrilled to be reunited with the Van Sickles, who'd just come back from Juneau, and were excited to see all or our church friends. Hammocks, lake floating, and catching up ensued!
Labels:
camping,
Rhoads,
van sickles,
Whitworth Church
Who needs RMNP when you have wildlife in your front yard?
A doe and THREE fawns? We think some sort of adoption happened, here. Is it possible for deer to have triplets? At any rate, this was a nice transition from the wildlife at RMNP!
Friday, July 28, 2017
The Long Goodbye...Colorado to Washington
The return trip were two days of traveling in a row. The first was Estes Park back to Ogden, where we stayed on the way over. It was already an 8-hr trip, but we decided to make the most of it and drive through the park on our way home. So it was a little longer. This elk ran right across the highway by us as we left the park. We LOVED RMNP! It is definitely in our top 5 National Parks!
Gorgeous roads. We got back to Ogden and got a swim in before they closed. That night we had a condo with a big room upstairs that all the kids shared.
Coffee and Garth kept us going through Wyoming...I took a picture of a random car with a cool license plate to remind me to blog about the License Plate game we played...we only missed seeing Hawaii, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and...what was the last one? At any rate, we had a great time keeping track on Julie's phone app.
Lots of "plugging in" happened on our road days. My escape was Ticket to Ride, while the kids took turns on Minecraft. Jeff listened to podcasts when he vegged, and Julie had her book on her iPad. And of course, a few movies were watched along the way.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Alberta Falls to Mill Lake...Nope!
Our last day in the park we wanted to make the most of it...so we left the house at SIX am to beat the rain. (It said it would be raining starting around 10 am, so we thought we'd get a jump on our last hike!) Turns out, it was raining even at 6:30 when we arrived at the Bear Lake parking lot, so we all decided that was too extreme, even for us! Back to Estes Park for naps and then we went shopping in the little shops and ended the day with a glorious thunder storm!
(Just to document the time...)
This guy was up early. On our way to our hike...
On our way home in the rain. It let up a little for us to get our sign pics!
Shopping...a lamp Jeff wants to make...and hummingbirds out behind the shops on these cute little boardwalks.
THE STORM. Julie had to go to Safeway during this crazy thing! Jeff was in heaven, Julie was terrified.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
The Alluvial Fan and The Old Fall River Road
The next day we slept in a little and then drove to have lunch at the Alluvial Fan. Lots of boulders and a big creek weaving and dancing over and around the rocks. Bagel sandwiches tasted especially tasty here, even though our rocky seats may have indented our tushies. Lots of rock crawling ensued, and Jeff and Julie and Josh MAY have climbed too far up and scared themselves 'real good.' Beautiful water.
After the Alluvial Fan, we decided to drive up the Old Fall River Road. This road is one way, and only open in the summer. It's gravel and filled with switchbacks and amazing scenery, so we inched along as we climbed quickly. Of course a moose sighting made the whole trip worth it (the scenery alone made it worth it!) and we ended up at the Alpine Visitor's Center where we hiked up a huge mountain to see some grazing elk (Julie got a crazy headache at this elevation!) and then we rested in the gift shop while the rain came.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Emerald Lake Trail
The next morning we got up EARLY to make sure we got a spot up in the Bear Lake parking lot. I bet we were in the car at 6:30. Sigh.
This trail was one of the most traveled in the park. We enjoyed it, but it was very busy, so we had to share. :)
Micah took a pretty good spill, so we got to use the first aid kit that Daddy carried the entire trip. Check out his bandage in the following pics.

They almost had to close the trail, due to a herd of elk that were traveling through...



There was a street performer up really high in the air on chairs and Grace couldn't watch! Too funny.
Nymph Lake lily pads. This is when I should've been drinking my coffee...before 8am!
This Alpine meadow was our favorite. I took pictures and pictures, and then heard my mom's voice in my head, telling me to put people in each of my pics. The one above is for her. :)
Micah took a pretty good spill, so we got to use the first aid kit that Daddy carried the entire trip. Check out his bandage in the following pics.
Here it is: Emerald Lake! We got to see rock climbers up on the peak beyond the lake--little red specks in the distance!

They almost had to close the trail, due to a herd of elk that were traveling through...


That evening we arranged to meet Christina for dinner in Boulder.
It was so fun to see her--and eat delicious tacos!

Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)