I will provide you with fair warning my friends — I’m about to overload you with baby and beautiful scenery photos. If that happens to be the kind of thing you enjoy (ahem, who doesn’t?!), then please keep reading.
As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend was my birthday, and Chris planned a weekend getaway to Estes Park for our little fam. We stayed at this Airbnb, which was two blocks from the Lake Estes walking path, about a four-minute drive from our hike at Gem Lake on Saturday and an easy walk into town, too. There was a cute little kitchenette which was perfect for our beer-stocking, baby food-making needs, and they had games and puzzles and the perfect Wi-Fi password. (It had something to do with going outside, but Chris says I shouldn’t give the actual password … fair enough.)
We had take-out from Thai Kitchen on Friday night (delish), made a lunch to bring with us on our hike Saturday and had Mexican for dinner Saturday night at Ed’s Cantina & Grill. The food was fantastic, and the town — which we walked through on Saturday evening after our hike — was really cute, but really what you come to Estes Park for are the awe-inspiring views. We had planned to do two hikes on Saturday, but the Gem Lake trail ended up taking us about four hours total, because we took the long way back and it had snowed the day before, so it was a bit icy in patches, which meant we went super slow with the little one in tow. Chris was carrying her in the Ergo, so I was really glad that he rented spikes for our shoes from Estes Park Mountain Shop, which we had never used before but which I thoroughly believe I’ll be using for every hike from here on out … they are so helpful!
Anyway, the Gem Lake hike was definitely difficult in parts (check out the All Trails info on it here), but it was absolutely worth it.
Here’s a bit from our weekend getaway ….
^^ A bit blurry, but OMG I love this pic 😉
^^ A fridge full of Michelob Ultra … that’s my kind of birthday celebration!
^^ Lotte was very excited to help dad set out the puzzle pieces for a puzzle that we never actually did. Turns out when your 8-month-old goes to bed at 7 p.m. and you’re sharing the same room, there’s not much you can do but watch Parks & Rec repeats on your iPad in the dark, which, as anyone who knows me at all will know, was totally fine by me.
^^ This is definitely a photo of some of my favorite things, but I actually took a picture of it because last year I was pregnant with Lotte and couldn’t have beer or soft cheeses. My how things change in 12 months.
^^ Traveling with a baby is, as I’ve mentioned before, a lot of fun, but there is something to be said about having to be on baby’s schedule. It actually turned out that it was better we had to wait for Lotte to wake up from her morning nap before heading out, because it warmed up nicely before we hit the trail.
^^ Chris is frequently annoyed with my trail mix eating habits, which include picking out all of the M&Ms and leaving pretty much everything else behind. This time he decided to hedge his bets and set up a make-your-own-trail-mix bar, that way I could put in as many M&Ms (and as few peanuts, yuck!) as I wanted!
^^ Hiking shoe spikes! So dorky … and so worth it!
^^ And so the trail begins! It was about 3.3 miles round-trip, but we took the Twin Owls loop back, which added an extra 1/2 mile or so.
^^ These two 😉 My loves.
^^ Rocky Mountain National Park usually costs $20 for a day pass to enter, but this trail technically takes you through sections of the park … for free!
^^ We seriously could not get enough of these views!
^^ The higher we got, the snowier it got. Thank goodness we had our hiking shoe spikes! That was $16 well spent.
^^ Just before you hit Gem Lake you’re blessed with this gorgeous view. I would have been happy with just this alone, but then …
^^ You get to the lake, and it’s simply spectacular.
^^ These icicles are gorgeous, but I really love the blurry Chris & Lotte in the background.
^^ We hiked around a bit and ate our sandwiches on the other side of the lake, then started to make our way down. I swear it had been a bit cloudy and chilly on our hike up, but as soon as we reached the lake the clouds cleared and the sun was shining. It was stunning.
^^ This little muffin even fell asleep on the way back down – why not, all comfy, cozy snuggled on dad!?
^^ Checking out the Twin Owls View Trail on the way back was definitely worth the extra .5 miles!
After our hike we took a brief rest back at our Airbnb before heading out on the walk into town. The River Walk is super cute, and you pass by a bunch of fun shops and restaurants to browse.
^^ This sign on our walk had me cracking up. I mean I guess aggressive elk isn’t something to laugh about, but it certainly seemed funny to me!
On Sunday — my actual birthday 😉 — we planned to get up and get breakfast in town, then check out the downtown area a bit more, but Lotte had other ideas. Namely, she was super grumpy and just wanted to go home, which was fair enough because we’ve kept her pretty busy over these past couple weeks. We did manage to stop by the Estes Park sign on our way out and snap a photo though:
Thanks for an amazing time, Estes Park, and thank you for being so close to our home. We will definitely be back.
Bis bald, friends!
^^ Home. That makes six plane rides for this little 8-month-old.
^^ Snowflakes in front of my face … love it!
^^ Oh you know, just sittin’ on a bench in the snow. No big deal 😉
^^ I’m sorry Chris didn’t make it home from work before it got dark (at like 4:30 p.m., mind you!), because we couldn’t take pictures with him in them. Something tells me we’ll have plenty more opportunity, though!
^^ I let the hubs do the heavy stroller lifting these days 😉
^^ That’s Denver there in the distance … oh hey, Denvy!
^^ A pixelated up-close view!
^^ Have you ever seen a happier dog? Can you blame him — look at that view!
^^ Chris’s traditional birthday steak dinner … just one night early 😉
^^ What you see here are parents who are ecstatic that their child slept through their meal!
^^ After presents we made our way to 
^^ The falls!
^^ The rising sun was not my photography friend on this hike, but the falls are there, if you look hard enough!
^^ Again, slept like a champ throughout the whole thing! We made sure to rug her up so she was nice and warm, all cozy-like against dad’s chest for the hike.
^^ After the hike we had a seriously delicious breakfast at 
^^ Bloody Mary’s all around!
^^ Under the table and dreaming 😉
^^ See? How cute is this back patio?!
^^ After breakfast we went for a little walk in town to do some shopping and check out the fall colors. Although some things were unfortunately closed for the season (like back patios, for example, and the gondola), I would highly recommend traveling during this time. It was really quiet, which was nice, and the views were spectacular.
^^ Cowboy boots for days!
^^ They had ’em for kids, too!
^^ See what I mean about the fall colors? Glorious!
^^ 
^^ After shopping we hopped in the car for a (super) short ride to 
^^ Again, ecstatic parents that their child is cooperating …
^^ Lotte did wake up from a short nap here, which allowed us to take some silly pictures. Always a plus in my book.
^^ Silly pic No. 1 …
^^ And 2 …
^^ And 3 …
^^ And 4 … and trust me, there were many more, but I’ll spare you. You get the picture.
^^ We tried to hang at 
^^ On Sunday morning we had to get rugged up again (which someone was not happy about at first), because we took a walk down by the 
^^ On the way back to the lodge to grab the car we stopped in 
^^ We definitely wanted to check out the area near the mountain while we were there as well. It’s really cute with lots of little shops and restaurants, and while you can tell it would probably be crazy packed in winter, again, at this perfect time of year, it was pretty empty, which is always amazing for a ski town.
^^ Improvising when no ramp is available.
^^ We grabbed lunch at 
^^ Multitasking at its best.
^^^Mr. Mountain Goat says ‘Hi!’
^^^ I love that we also found where you can rent kayaks, paddle boards and the like at the lake … that seems like it would be so much fun!
^^^ All of these flowers are now officially in our garden!
^^ Just the three of us, out for a day at the gardens 😉
^^ Country road views on the way from Denver to Crested Butte
^^^ The Silver Pavilion inside Ginkaku-ji
^^^ An artist making the most of Philosopher’s Walk
^^^ Here we are, all ready to hop our Japanese Bullet Train from Tokyo to Kyoto — yehaw!!
^^^ Entrance to the Yasaka Shrine. We thought the shrine closed to visitors at 5, and most of the stalls and things were closed, but you can still walk into the actual shrine area past 5, so seeing it at night (and then again later during the day) was special.
^^^ We were starving and decided to get sushi (no raw fish for me!) at a little place we happened upon in the Gion district. They had vegetarian noodles, so I started with those, and then gorged myself on veggie sushi, as well. Yum!
^^^ We caught the ferry from Hiroshima over to Miyajima Island first.
^^^ Chris & his dad about to chow down on some fried oyster donuts. Chris said this was one of his favorite things he ate the entire trip.
^^^ We also took the
^^^ Back down on the island …
^^^ After Miyajima Island it was on to Hiroshima, where our first stop was this structure, now known as the 
^^^ The city as it stands today. Incredible. While it’s obviously been a while since the attack, it’s still pretty amazing to see how the city has built itself up around the ashes.
Hi friends,
^^^ We took the subway to the 
^^^ This guy … too funny!
^^^ This was our first view coming up on the temple. You can just tell right away that it’s going to be pretty amazing, and the surrounding area — referred to as 
^^^ Senso-ji, in all her splendor.
^^^ Senso-ji is known to be Tokyo’s oldest temple, and its referred by to locals as the temple of the Asakusa Kannon. Even though the temple receives 30 million visitors every year, it is still an important center of worship. There’s a great history of the temple and surrounding area 
^^^ 100 yen (placed in an honour box) will get you an omikuji, or a fortune written on a small piece of paper. If your fortune is bad, tradition would have you tie the paper on a nearby string so the wind can disperse the bad luck. Above is the incense burner, which you’ll find in the temple forecourt. People come here to fan the smoke from the incense over themselves, believing it to have healing powers.
^^^ The area immediately surrounding the temple includes manicured gardens, Buddhist and other statues to pray at, and some other, smaller temple structures. The whole area is so alluring and you’ll feel like you never want to leave.
^^^ That about sums it up!
^^^ Of course you don’t have to try on one of the costume heads when the show is over … unless you’re my husband 😉
^^^ Thank you, Robot Restaurant, for showing us a crazy, wild side of Tokyo that we probably would never have otherwise seen!
^^^ If you’re a tempura fan, this is a great place to try out. They have traditional seating, too (on the floor, legs crossed), if you want, and if you sit up at the bar area, like we did, you can watch the chefs cook your dinner right in front of you. So cool!
^^ A blurry view of the snowy trees whizzing by on our way up to the mountains on Christmas Eve.
^^Our dining room looking into what we came to affectionately refer to as our “Christmas nook”.
^^The kitchen
^^ Our Christmas nook, pre decorations.
^^ Chris spent most of his time stoking the lovely wood fire.
^^ Our Christmas nook, all decorated and lovely.
^^ Christmas Eve dinner was at the 
^^ Christmas eve entertainment was a roaring fire and some Christmas classics.
^^ Christmas morning Christmas nook views.
^^ I thought this photo was artsy, with the Christmas lights in the foreground, but Chris just said it was confusing.
^^ Holy cow does it look cold or what?! Well it was!
^^ Passing by markers for the Oregon Trail during our drive brought me right back to my American history days!
^^ Our first stop in South Dakota was the 
^^ Yes, these are mountain goats, my friends, and guess who was super excited to add this animal to our list of animals we’ve seen this year …
^^ My husband was … that’s who 😉
^^ Entering the Mount Rushmore area was a sort of out-of-body experience for me at first. I mean you spend your whole life growing up, knowing that this place exists, seeing photos of it in history books and reading about what it represents, and then you see it in person … and you’re just blown away.
^^ The sunrise view from our hotel Wednesday morning certainly wasn’t too shabby.
^^Wednesday morning we drove through 
^^ We saw bison — hey bison!
^^ A vulture …
^^ You can’t really see it too well in this picture, but there’s a coyote a little right of center in this photo …
^^ There he goes, off to the right and into the woods!
^^ Prairie dogs!
^^ And more bison, super up close and personal.
^^ Look at these little cuties! We sure do miss them when we’re not with them.
^^ We also got to quickly check out 
^^ And then it was back to Mount Rushmore one more time to finish up with the museum and check out the monument again before heading back to Denver.
