Estes Park Colorado

We have been to Estes twice now and if you haven’t been I highly suggest adding it to your vacation destination wish list! Colorado is such a beautiful place anyway and Estes puts you right at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, so you are surrounded by gorgeous mountain views in this adorable little town.

This trip we took the kiddos with us, and as usual we wanted to maximize the small amount of vacation time we had this year so we set out for Colorado after work on Thursday. This means Dave and I will be tired on Friday but we have an entire day to spend acclimating to the altitude and relaxing. I think we hit the road about 7 or 8 p.m. and took shifts driving while the other parent napped. In my opinion there is nothing better than a good road trip, tunes blasting, alone time with the people I love! We cruised into Estes about 7 a.m.  so we went straight to Notch Top restaurant for breakfast. They have a great gluten free pancake that I have dreams about since our last trip.

Estes has a pretty little lake with a walking path around it and some exercise equipment. For some reason this was what my kids wanted to do first so we hit the path in search of workout equipment and spent the next hour playing around under blue skies and fluffy clouds. I think the lack of sleep made Dave slap happy and he spent the entire time pretending that he knows how to do parkour and making hilarious videos. Check them out on our Instagram here. There is also a cute little river walk and downtown shops within walking distance so walked down to get a coffee before setting off into the mountains.

Fourth graders got into the National parks last year for free along with their families so after figuring out how to use my kiddo’s pass we decided todays adventure would be to drive up to the Alpine Visitor Center. Along the way we stopped at Hidden Valley Creek and the kiddos did a junior ranger program about big horns and mountain lions. We were in a beautiful meadow watching the little kids play tag and chase each other pretending to be mountain lions and it was magical. We hiked a small loop trail looking for things on the junior ranger scavenger hunt and then hit the road again. My oldest kiddo was not excited about this vacation and driving up a narrow mountain road did not sit well with her anxiety but as narrow and curvy as it was it really wasn’t bad as far as mountain roads go. I wouldn’t want to drive it in the snow but it was fine in summer. We arrived at the visitor center and there is a short hike to the top of a ridge, mostly climbing stairs with a photo opp at 12,005 feet above sea level. It was super windy and a bit chilly up there so we didn’t stay long but it was a great way to get the kids to that elevation without a long hike.

After our mountain top adventure it was time to go check into our hotel room. We had planned on camping but waited so long to book our trip that there were no available campsites and we ended up in an old, slightly sketchy hotel. Whatever, I didn’t plan on spending a lot of time in the room anyway. That night we went into town and had dinner then let the kids play in the pool. We had our biggest hike planned for the next day and wanted to get some rest.

I don’t know if you have heard but my family doesn’t move very fast, ever, so when we plan to leave the hotel by 9 you can bet it will be 11. Parker awoke with an upset tummy, as we headed to the free breakfast in the lobby I heard her make a weird noise and looked down to see her trying to hold in throw up with her hands. All I could think of was to get her off the carpet and to the lobby restroom, so I picked her up and started running, dropping my backpack in the process. Dave and the other girls caught up to us as she was throwing up all over the tile in the lobby. Turns out medicine to prevent altitude sickness makes 2 of my kiddos sick. She got sick one more time in the car but then was fine the rest of the trip. The car incident was hilarious because I forgot the barf bags at home so we bought Ziploc bags for her. The other girls are trying to climb out the windows to get away from it while I am driving.

Between how slow we are to get ready and one kid throwing up all over the lobby we didn’t get to our planned hike until almost lunch. Luckily we had a late breakfast, the vomiting stopped and we made it to the Lily Mountain trail head. The ten year old’s only wish for this trip was to summit a mountain so we chose this one after reading reviews of several to determine which one my kiddos could do. It took us three hours, numerous snack breaks and one missed turn to hike the two miles up the mountain but it was breathtakingly beautiful and we did it. Dave did carry the 6 year old a bit, but the other two kids hiked on their own. At the top there is a short, steep rock scramble that was everyone’s favorite part of the hike. Sammi was terrified at the top and you can tell in all the pictures that she is clinging to rocks in fear but she made it up a mountain and was so proud of herself! The hike back down only took us a little over an hour and I had the “pleasure” of wearing the six year old for about a mile, that is some hard work! After all our hard work that day we rewarded ourselves with a shopping trip downtown. We ate at a yummy burger joint, had ice cream and bought souvenirs.

On our last full day there we intended to hike Alberta Falls but the parking was full and we didn’t want to mess with the shuttle so we went to Fern Lake instead. It is a nice flat hike through the woods with a river on one side and mountains on the other side. We just did an easy out and back and stopped for quite a while alongside the river once for the kids to dig in the dirt, snack and take in the scenery! We passed quite a few boulders that the kids had a blast climbing on. A good portion of the walk was spent playing the ground is lava so stay on the rocks! After we were all hot, grouchy and hungry we headed back to town to eat and then ride the Estes Park Aerial Tramway. It is this big red tram that is suspended on cables and takes you above the town to a mountain top where there are trails, squirrels that you can hand feed peanuts and a little shop. It was super cute and fun to do with the kids. They sell coffee up there too if you are in need. We climbed on rocks and watched the squirrels before heading back down to hit the arcade and pool again.

Monday it was time to head home but not before a trip to the Donut Haus and breakfast. If you haven’t made the drive from Colorado to Kansas City it is pretty boring but a short, easy drive. Parker said she loved Colorado if it wasn’t for all the hiking, Sammi loved it and Emma would rather be at the beach, but hey, we made some memories with them and Dave and I had a good time doing it.

Restaurants we enjoyed:

Notchtop Bakery & Cafe

Smokin Dave’s BBQ & Brew (I regret not ordering the buffalo rib so I could look like I was in Flinstones)

El Mex-Kal Family Mexican (Sam says this is the best burrito she has ever had)

Penelope’s Old Time Burgers

Coffee we tried:

Coffee on The Rocks (this place is so pretty)

Kind Coffee

  

The great bed sheet debate!

Last week through sheer laziness my DH and I ended up sleeping on a bed with no sheets on it. Let me explain, on Sunday the dog peed on the bed so we immediately removed, washed and dried the sheets. We sound perfectly responsible up to this point, right? Well this is where that ends. The day got busy and we forgot the sheets right up until bedtime rolls around. We walk into a room with no sheets on the bed and decide, “f*!k it, we are too tired to put them on”. Dave grabs a sleeping bag and I crash out right on the mattress with a quilt over top of me. Ok, this isn’t the most adult we have ever been but it is just one night, right? Wrong, this went on for almost a week! Every night we would do the same thing, get ready for bed, realize we hadn’t replaced the sheets and decide we were too tired to care. I also found it highly amusing, every night I would look over at him in his sleeping bag and giggle.

I found it so amusing that I told several people, “Dave and I are living like poor college kids, no sheets on the bed.” Responses to my story ranged from, “Oh thank goodness, us too” to “Seriously guys, get it together and put sheets back on your bed.” So here is what I really want to discuss, why the hell does it matter if I have sheets on my bed? I don’t mean it like “mind your business, I do what I want”, I mean honestly, why do we put sheets on our bed? I was just as comfortable with no sheet on the bed as I am with. If I hadn’t been comfortable I probably would have made the bed sooner.  So where did this social norm come from?

I have a theory that this started when we slept on straw beds. You have to keep your straw bundled and it is probably less pokey that way. Commence research on this topic!

I started at Bed Linen 123 .  In the beginning man slept on the ground, then straw mats, straw covered in animal fur, hammocks, etc. The Egyptians began sleeping on platforms off the ground. The article also touches on textiles and the cotton gin. I did read a few other sources and it does seem as though sheets evolved from a covering for early straw beds. Why do we still use sheets though? I myself have never slept on a straw bed.

My reading did offer a few different reasons. It is easier to wash a sheet than a mattress. That is true, however, sheets don’t stop liquids from soaking through to your mattress (think bodily fluids). Several websites suggested that sheets make your bed more comfortable, this could also be true but is a very subjective. Another suggestion was using the top sheet instead of a blanket on warmer nights. This is also true but since through my reading I have discovered there is a large portion of the millennial generation that doesn’t use top sheets this isn’t a solid reason either.

I guess the conclusion that I have come to is I don’t really care if there is a sheet on my bed. It is more aesthetically pleasing if my bed is made up all nice but I have too many other things to worry about to really care. If sheets are important to you, go for it (get the nice thread count, it is worth it) and if they aren’t, well that’s OK too!