estes park

matt grew up vistitng his grandparents in estes park.  i can't believe it took ten+ years for us to go together. but thanks to his cousin, who got married in fort collins (not far from estes park) we finally made it to this little gem in northern colorado, right next door to rocky mountain national park.  

 estes park is absolutely magical and if you've ever been, i'm sure you fell in love with it instantly, just as i did. and if you haven't been, i strongly encourage you to make that your next vacation destination. 

{this is not a sponsored post} ;)

the only downfall is that we didn't get to play at the playground because the reindeer, sven (we watch a lot frozen), bull elk was there first. life lesson, not all animals are friendly.

there is a stocked fishing pond that matt used to go to when he was little...unfortunately, we didn't catch anything and i kept saying, "be careful. be careful." over and over again. kids running near water gives me all sorts of anxiety. hashtag:obnoxious anxious mom

 ^^^ hello, beautiful mountains in the background.^^^

^^^ me: "aplin, be careful." ^^^

we went to rocky mountain national park and hiked bear lake.

again, a lot of me saying yelling, "be careful!" 

 ^^^ he brought his binoculars ^^^

^^^ hiking barefoot is how she rolls ^^^

pretty sure there is an identical bear lake/rocky mountain national park in heaven.

 we spent some time in town at the stanley hotel {super creepy}. we ate at penelope's burgers, 

got ice cream, sampled taffy and put our feet in the river running through town. 

^^^ insert me: "be careful! be careful" ^^^

as we were leaving estes park, we saw the same bull elk from the day before, with all his ladies friends in this vast field.  he kept chasing this one other (much smaller) buck away.  animals in their natural habitat is one of my very favorite things in life.

^^^ hey handsome, let's buy that house right there. ^^^

we will definitely be going back soon. and, i can guarantee it won't take ten years.  

estes park, you are my new favorite.

thanks for reading!

big hugs~s.