Sunday, July 14, 2019

Colorado Day 4

Day 4 - It was nice that our reunion cabin had a loft space to hangout.
The Kaisands and Wynias had the whole upstairs of the reunion cabin!
Hanging out before driving down to breakfast. 

Dad let Avery ride in the front to breakfast on the grounds
to keep an eye out for wildlife! 
We did see many deer just roaming around, which isn't too unusual
for us since we have them in our backyard ;) 

out the rock outside of breakfast 

After breakfast we drove downtown to Estes Park
and walked the shops with everyone, minus Dad VG since he was 
white-water rafting, and Curt and Emily were on their way.

Avery, Camryn, Jaelyn, Aubrey 

Weston, Dakota, and Grandma VG

Salt water taffy is popular downtown, and we watched this guy TRY to make it.....

...these three must have made the taffy guy nervous....

...because this is what happened to the taffy and he had to get his manager to help. 

We then met Curt and Emily at the Aerial Tramway

Cousins waiting in line for our turn up the mountain


Curt and Emily in the next tram up

At the top with beautiful views! 

Curt and Emily with all the cousins! 

Grandma VG with all the grandkids
(Grandpa VG was white water rafting that morning) 

fun rocks to play on at the top

Avery has been obsessed with doing her and other people's hair -
she even gave me a new style at the top! 

best cousin friends 

Avery (with new hairdo) and Dad going down on the tram 

This big elk was right next to the tram street. 



We ate a late lunch at the McDs in town.
Avery wanted to sit over there by herself :)


The weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole week,
which made for GREAT mountain views! 

We then came back to the YMCA and decided to SWIM!
The pool was maxed out at 100 people, so we did have to wait a bit
but we were able to get a good hour and a half swim in before suppertime. 


Hanging out in the cabins coloring 

Our immediate VG family decided to grill a night when
we were all able to be there together. 
Steve and Kyle were the grill masters. 

We enjoyed eating outside on the picnic tables
with the perfectly warm, dry weather with no bugs! 

View from the park of our two reunion cabins 

Steve playing horseshoes with Avery 

visiting with Great Grandma in the cabin and another new hairdo for Ave 

Colorado Day 3

Day 3 - Each morning we would drive down to the massive dining hall
and have a great spread of breakfast to choose from! 

This elk was perched right outside one off the cabins on the grounds 

Most of the group (85 I think) made a short drive to hike
Lumpy Ridge and make it 1.7 miles up to Gem Lake.
Here are the Van Grouw cousins ready to go! 

It was a pretty decent hike with BIG steps to climb for most of the way up! 

Jaelyn and Avery

getting closer to the lake with gorgeous views


Camryn and Aubrey 

We made it! I was so proud of the kids! It's hard work climbing
especially in the altitude starting and ending at 7,882' - 8,830'

Grandma VG stayed back because of her knee, but Grandpa 
insisted on still taking a grandkid pic for her :)


Camryn, Aubrey, Gavin
We took our lunch along and ate it at the top, along with the chipmunks! 

It took an hour and forty minutes to hike up and 
just over one hour to hike it back down!

Dad, Avery, and Weston 


Postcard perfect views! (no filter!)

Grandpa VG holding hands with Avery back down 

After returning from the hike and a little bit of down time,
we headed to an Archery location on the YMCA grounds. 
Avery was too young to shoot so she hung out here and did so well! 





That night our immediate VG family went to the Estes Park town
and went out for supper at a BBQ place.
We had a bit of a wait and found this fishing pond to wait at! 
Weston, Aubrey, Dakota, Avery 

a nice place to wait before supper 


That night we all gathered around the fire between our two big cabins
and had a time of Bible reading, testimony sharing, praying, and singing together.


sunset right over our cabin 

reading books before bed in our room
(each room was set up like a hotel, 2 queens and our own bathroom)

Steve and Kyle carried on the tradition of playing Pinochole
with Uncle Bob and Uncle Paul.
This time the young guys didn't win either time they played.