St. Mary's Glacier Archives

Labor Day in Our Own Backyard

Published on September 2, 2025September 2, 2025 by Cheryl LockLeave a comment

Any weekend that begins with a double rainbow is bound to be a good one.

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you had a safe and fun-filled Labor Day weekend. We considered camping, then decided not to. We thought about Great Wolfe Lodge. Then x’d out the email.

Instead, we hung around home. And it was wonderful.

Besides getting caught up on lots of life (turns out, back-to-school is hectic), Chris took the girls on a couple of dad/daughter adventures, and then we hiked as a family to Gem Lake on Monday.

Chris took the girls on Saturday to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, which was a cool, new-to-us urban refuge that has an awesome visitor center, hiking trails, and an 11-mile scenic driving route that is rife with bison!

They spent hours in the visitor’s center.

Hitting the trails! They saw bison on their drive, plus white-tailed deer, and tons of different birds.

Sunday was St. Mary’s Glacier day! They were supposed to drive up Mt. Blue Sky (formerly Mt. Evans), but the road was closed. This was a back-up, which was a bummer, because I definitely would have joined. Not only am I so incredibly proud of my babies for hiking two very rocky miles, but THEY SAW A MOOSE. I mean, I’m happy for them. But … I’m jealous. More happy than jealous. But still. So jealous.

Colorado. You are so incredibly beautiful.

Then on Monday, we all headed to Gem Lake, a gorgeous but fairly difficult 3.2 mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. The girls did amazing! They hiked the entire time (Emilia included) with nary a whine.

I mean, there was a small whine here or there, but really, I was whining too, so who am I to point fingers.

Did you know that all fourth graders in the states get a free National Park Pass for their entire family? How cool is that?! Get on it, fourth grade families!

The terrain is super rocky, too, so even more reason to be proud of these ladies.

We fed chipmunks on the way in! Don’t worry, it was just (unsalted) seeds and nuts. Nothing they wouldn’t eat naturally in the wild.

The last time we did this hike, Lotte was eight months old and Grace was in my belly, but I didn’t know it. Oh man, time flies!

And that’s it in a nutshell, friends! It was the perfect way to celebrate the first two weeks of school and prepare to head into the wildness of the rest of the year. We booked our trip back to New York for Thanksgiving, and are really looking forward to that. But until then … bis bald, friends!

Falling in Love With Colorado Fall

Published on October 14, 2024October 14, 2024 by Cheryl LockLeave a comment

You guys … it is FINALLY fall in Colorado!

I mean, today is still supposed to hit 80 degrees. But the weather is slowly changing, and we have made the most out of the past few weekends, with multiple trips to the mountains (peak fall foliage!) and a gorgeous run/bike along the trail behind our old house. It’s been glorious.

This Thursday & Friday is Fall Break for the girls, so we’re off on another adventure. But until then, enjoy these fall photos from our past few days.

Last weekend we spent our Sunday in Frisco, which was truly the first time we felt like we saw fall colors this season.

We grabbed lunch at Highside Brewing and sat outside while the kiddos entertained themselves.

I am gearing up to run the Apex Center’s Trick or Trot 5K the weekend before Halloween. So we grabbed the kiddos and their bikes and hit up the trail behind our old house on Saturday morning. So much fun. So many memories.

It’s easy to forget how pretty this place is when you don’t live 15 feet away anymore. We had the best morning!

Yesterday we packed up the car and headed back to the mountains. This time for the St. Mary’s Glacier hike.

Did Emilia spend 99.9% of the hike on Dad’s shoulders? Sure did.

Emilia had never been to St. Mary’s Glacier, and Lotte & Grace were last here when they were teeny tiny.

It was some kind of special to be back this time <3

Never not picking the more adventurous route.

A stranger took this picture, and it’s probably one of our best ever.

In four days we’re off to Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is yet another place that Emilia has never been to and Lotte & Grace only visited once when they were very little. Call this an unintentional revisiting of our past … whatever it is, I’m here for it.

Happy fall, ya’ll!

Bis bald!

Your 2019 Colorado Summer Bucket List

Published on June 19, 2019August 21, 2019 by Cheryl LockLeave a comment

I mean … G is barely even in this photo, but you get the gist — Colorado is amazing in the summer, and summer is right around the corner! I mean, it’s pretty amazing all of the time, but the summer is a great time to check out the mountains, lakes, hikes, breweries … and everything in between.

To help you out if you happen to be in the hood, here are a few of our fave hangouts when the weather gets warmer:

Continue reading “Your 2019 Colorado Summer Bucket List” →

2018: A Year in Review

Published on December 18, 2018August 27, 2019 by Cheryl LockLeave a comment

Well friends, somehow — and I’m really not sure how — this photo was taken on New Years Eve ONE YEAR AGO. 2018 is coming to a close, and since we leave for Australia the day after tomorrow, I figured I should put together my Year In Review post before we head out, and then just add Epic Australia, as I will from now on be calling it, once we’re back.

So without further adieu, here is a bit of what we got up to in the year that started with us expanding our little family ….

Continue reading “2018: A Year in Review” →

Dinosaurs, Kayaks, Baseball, Glaciers … and all the Aussie Guests!

Published on July 10, 2018July 17, 2019 by Cheryl Lock3 Comments

Happy July, friends! Our summer of insanity is still in full swing over here! We’ve had guests upon guests upon guests … and we wouldn’t have it any other way! Over the July 4th holiday we welcomed Chris’ aunt and uncle and their three kids from Australia, while the fabulous Auntie Kate was still on the tail end of her trip out, as well. We did all the things while this troop was here, which has been a lot of fun. Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to lately …

^^ We checked out Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison on what turned out to be a very, very hot day. It’s a bit of an uphill trek to reach the dinosaur footprints, but once you get there it’s actually really, really cool. There are tons of geological stops along the way, too.

^^ I’m sorry, but Colorado backdrops are hard to beat.

^^ We rented some kayaks on Lake Standley behind our house the second day after the family arrived. We did this last year with Lotte, too, and even though she still wasn’t too sure about the life jacket situation, this year she seemed to enjoy the overall activity much more!

^^ We even took in a baseball game with the Aussie clan, and while the kids seemed to enjoy the game, it was mostly the junk food that kept them in the seats, I’d say 😉

^^ Nothing more American than baseball and Coors Light!

^^The day before July 4th we drove into the mountains to do the hike up to St. Mary’s Glacier. I was skeptical how the kids would handle it—especially 6-year-old Lucy—but they were all champs, which was great because this view is truly spectacular.

^^ Our family selfie game needs improvement 😉

^^ Ugh Auntie Kate, why did you leave us?!

^^ By July 4th we were all pretty tuckered out. So we dressed up … and hung out! We played games, ate delicious food (including my homemade American Flag brownie, see below!), listened/watched the fireworks, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company.

^^ American Flag brownie, courtesy of one of my favorite food bloggers 😉

We still have one of Chris’ friends in town until tomorrow, and then we’re done with visitors for a little while, which always makes me a bit sad. We do have Lotte’s 2nd birthday at the end of July to look forward to (which also makes me sad!), our trip to New York in August, Chicago in October and the grand finale of the year … Australia in December/January! Chris and I are still contemplating a separate mini-trip, just the two of us, to New Zealand while we’re in Australia. That extra adventure is TBD, but for now, there’s a lot more to look forward to, even though we’re halfway through the year already!

Hope you guys are having a great summer, as well! Until next time … bis bald!

Thursdays at St. Mary’s Glacier

Published on June 30, 2017 by Cheryl Lock2 Comments

Happy holiday weekend Friday, friends! I hope everyone is either already enjoying the long weekend, or has super fun plans to start doing so immediately.

Over in our neck of the woods, Chris is starting a new job next week, so he has a couple of days off and we have lots of fun stuff planned, starting with the hike we took to St. Mary’s Glacier yesterday. Mind you, the trail is only 1.4 miles (that’s to the lake and back, but you can continue the hike past the lake, which we did for a bit), and it’s labeled as easy on All Trails … but I call shenanigans! Listen, I’m no ninny when it comes to hikes, and we’ve done our fair share since we’ve moved to Colorado, but this was not easy. The altitude (you’re at 10,848 feet at the base of the glacier) probably has something to do with it, but the steady incline and slippery rocks don’t help, either. Now is it worth it? Spectacularly yes! The views are amazing and if your breath isn’t already taken away by your hike to reach it (which it likely will be), the lake and glacier will certainly do the trick. We had thrown Lotte in the Ergo and brought her with us, of course, but there were definitely times, especially on the descent, when I questioned how safe the whole thing actually was with a baby.

Chris, of course, felt perfectly safe the entire time. What can I say, it’s my momness kicking in.

Anyway, if you can push on through the altitude and rocky climb (if I can, you can!), here’s some of what you’ll be blessed with:

^^ She looks so excited for another adventure, doesn’t she 😉

^^ I mean look at that sky?! Have you ever seen anything so blue and clear?

^^ After about 10 minutes of trying for a family photo with the self timer on my actual camera, we gave up and settled for this one with my iPhone. Not a bad runner up!

^^ Lotte’s hat in this picture … it makes me so happy!

^^ Dangerous indeed. In fact, the whole time we were taking a short rest and snack break at the lake before heading back, a team of about five or six rescue workers were trying to figure out how to get a snowboarder down who had injured himself up on the glacier. Yes, snowboarding is allowed on the glacier, but of course it’s entirely dangerous. Hence the injury.

^^ So excited to get out of the Ergo, onto the ground and into some snacks!

^^ See those two tiny little snowboarder flecks in the white snow and ice? Crazy!

^^ After the hike — which probably took us about two hours all told, including our break — we stopped off in Idaho Springs on the way back for lunch at Tommyknocker Brewery. By this time Lotte had only taken about 30 minutes of a nap all day, and she had barely had anything to eat (snack was much less exciting than staring at everything going on around her at the lake … between that and trying to eat dirt, who had time for snack?!). Still, you couldn’t tell from her sweet little ‘tude. She’s simply the best.

And that was our Thursday, friends. Our Fourth of July weekend is off to a smashing start. We’re off tomorrow to stay in Fairplay Colorado so we’ll be close to our hike at Twin Lakes on Saturday. I hope my legs feel rested by then!

Until then … bis bald, friends!