Oh, how time flies when you’re loving life! I can’t believe it’s already the end of June! This past weekend was going to be a scorcher in Denver, so we decided on a whim to take off into the mountains for our first ever camping adventure as a family. It’s not easy to get a camping spot in advance in the summers in Colorado, let alone last minute. There are a lot of first come, first serve campgrounds though and luckily we have a book on all the best ones in Colorado. I picked out a few in the book and packed everything so we could take off as soon as Travis got off work on Friday. We had a couple spots in mind near Winter Park, so we took off hoping we’d get lucky and find a spot.
It’s a good thing we have the truck because packing for a weekend camping getaway has gotten noticeably more, well, packed. With the car seat in the middle of the back seat, we now have to make Nollie ride in the back of the truck. I felt bad, but we need to get used to the fact that she is, indeed, a dog! She loves it back there with the wind blowing through her hair and flapping her big dog cheeks. Everyone wins!
We got to Winter Park around 6pm and the campsite we were heading for was about 20 miles to go. We passed a first come, first serve site that had some openings just before Winter Park and when we saw signs for a Blues Fest in Winter Park this weekend, we decided to go back and claim the site we just saw instead of risking it with the next one. It was close enough that we thought we could come in to the Blues Fest on Saturday, which would be fun. We went and got set up and a fire started. It turns out there is a path along the river from the campground all the way into town, so we were excited to take a hike along the river to the Blues Fest on Saturday.
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| Getting Rome changed for the night |
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| Ready for the camp fire |
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| Life is good! |
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| I don't know where I am, but I think I like it |
The first night went off without a hitch…except for my paranoia. I have watched way too many television shows and have overtime become extremely paranoid about…bears. Travis tells me I’m ridiculous and that there hasn’t been any humans hurt by bears in the state of Colorado in a long time and it rarely ever happens. I still am just terrified of ever seeing one in person. I want to turn into stone if it ever happens. I don’t know what I would do…especially with my own cub to protect! Ugh. So, it turned out that this campsite has had a lot of “bear activity” and there were signs everywhere to take precautions and put food away, don’t feed them, yada, yada, yada. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night.
Travis woke up early on Saturday morning and took Rome outside so I could get some sleep. All of a sudden, I am awoken by Travis yelling my name and saying “stick your head out, you gotta see this”! I thought to myself, “this better not be a bear”. As I cautiously unzip the tent door and stick my head out, I saw the biggest Moose I’ve ever seen in my life…and it was only about 30 feet away from Travis and Rome. Travis was holding Nollie so she wouldn’t bark at them or chase them away (there was a baby Moose too). I had to rub my eyes and squint to make sure it was real, and sure enough it was! My first reaction was amazement, and then second was “bring me my baby!” The Moose didn’t look bothered by us, so we just sat there still and watched it. I tried to get the camera in time, but then it started trotting off down the valley by our campsite and toward the river with it’s baby. It was so cool! This thing was easily 6 feet tall to it’s back, 7 feet to it’s eyes, and then it had the most monstrous rack I’ve ever seen! It was amazing! Definitely, something for the eyes to see! And, I can’t prove any of it without a picture, dang it! Sorry readers, but you’ll have to take my word for it. I can’t wait to tell Rome about it when he gets older.
On Saturday, our friends Chris and Ryan came up to join us. Once they got there, we walked on the trail into town to check out the Blues Fest. It cost $30 to get in, so we just sat in the park outside and listened from afar for a while before we decided to walk back to camp. It was hot, even up here at higher elevation. And, we’re even closer to the sun, so we were all getting a little toasty.
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| Some kids loving on Nollie in the park |
We walked back and chilled at camp for a while and then the boys all went down by the river to take a dip. That night, we grilled out and sat around the campfire. Aaaaahhhh, I’ve been craving a campfire! The boys had a few brewskis, and then the story-telling got started! I laughed right along with them for the most part, but after listening to the boys tell stories about everything from girls to “souping up” cars to high school fights, I made a note-to-self to think twice about being the only girl on a camping trip ever again…and then it occurred me: “Oh. My. God…I’m raising one of these monsters!” Time for bed, sleepy head.
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| Chillin' |
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| The first of many Rome and Daddy camping trips to come |
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| All swaddled and ready for bed! |
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