Black & Blue (Week 5)

It's Week 5, meaning its week 4 of day camp, meaning this summer is almost halfway over! WHAT.

I've found my groove back in Estes Park again, which is really nice. Summer time here is such an interesting time for me here because it totally rattles my normal Harding groove. I don't have time for Netflix here (I barely get wifi in my room here, so if I want to watch shows I have to go somewhere else anyways, and Netflix is best watched in your own bed, hello) When I'm not working 8-4pm, I'm outside or playing games or hiking or hanging out with friends or blogging, like I'm doing now. I seriously love my me time here - whether blogging or reading, sitting on admin porch or people watching in Rustic, I love it.

Anyways, Week 4. Here ya go.

Monday June 22

First off, June 22 is blowing my mind. That just feels so late in the summer. I'm with Mountaineers this week, our 7th and 8th grade group. Eric and I had sixteen (SIXTEEN) of them on Monday. That may not sound like a lot, but just think about SIXTEEN sassy, sarcastic, obtuse, eye-rolling, unmotivated MIDDLE SCHOOLERS rolling around day camp. It was brutal. I have a new appreciation for middle school teachers. Of course, not all of the kids were bad. They really like to take a part in the planning of their day, and they'll let you know if they don't want to do something. I quickly realized I needed to change from my Outpost mindset to a different strategy.

I taught the kids bibbity bop bop bop and they hated it. They were too cool for the Lucky Charms and James Bond version, it blew my mind. They begged to play Capture the Flag instead, which was totally fine. Flexibility is key I learned. Also, witty comebacks are necessary to counter their snarky comments. We did archery and a hot dog cookout, then half the kids road horses while the other half told me they didn't feel like doing anything but sitting. Which we did for like 30 minutes until I finally persuaded them to play Groundies on the playground and then pingpong at Sweet Memorial.

Mountaineers: 1
Rachel: 0

Monday evening we celebrated Elizabeth's birthday with Hayley's icecream (of course) and a trip up Trail Ridge Road to watch the sunset. It was glorious.

Tuesday June 23

Armed with my nerves of steel and stronger will, I was ready for day 2 with Mountaineers. Luckily we only had 6 campers the second day, which made it so much easier to pay attention to each of them and control the preteen angst.We went down to the river with Outdoor Ed and learned about bugs and Ph levels in the river, then played Gaga ball (which the kids loved, whewww) before song time (which, surprise, the middle schoolers hate song time. Some of them sit on the concrete and refuse to sing.)

Tuesday evening was sweet relief - Abby, Amanda, Elizabeth and I went to see Inside Out, the new Pixar movie. it was SO GOOD. I was laughing and crying so hard the whole movie and 100% reccommend everyone to go see it. We drowned our feelings in McDonald's icecream afterwards and it was fabulous.

Wednesday June 24

I was really excited for Wednesday because Mountaineers do the big high ropes course with a zipline, not Steve's High Ropes (the smaller and less exciting version) We had 11 kids that were great for the most part, and aside from an ankle injury and a locked knee incident the morning went smoothly (and I go to do the high ropes course and zipline!!) We ate lunch at outpost and then did a few low ropes activities like the Log and the Whale Watch. Battle of the wills commenced at song time again, but less kids fought us on the issue so it's an improvement.

Wednesday night I played sand volleyball with other counselors. It's been a little sad in the volleyball realm this summer because the RA office told me they aren't organizing a summer tournament (crying many internal tears) but just getting out and playing again was fun. We had two games going and there was a hard ball and a soft ball, so it was always a hilarious struggle when the soft volleyball would land in the other court.

Thursday June 25

We swam from 9:30-11 today, which was great because the Mountaineers were entertained for the most part (several boys refused to swim so they played outside. We're done fighting them) We then ate lunch and played What Are the Odds. One of my girls had to propose to a strange boy walking by (which was hilarious) and then I lost a 1 in 2 odds to her and had to say "my pleasure" after ever sentence (which was not hilarious and the kids reminded me everytime I forgot). We went to the climbing wall next, which only half the kids did, and then we went to the museum and did constellation activities which surprisingly held their attention. We tried playing games in Hempel Auditorium next, which resulted in a big blowup from a few kids when they disagreed over what game to play.

So God has been having a fun little lesson in patience for me this week. For the most part, I've enjoyed this learning experience though. I've really connected with several of the kids and loved getting to hang with a girl who also knows all the Girl Scout songs I sing.


Friday

Friday was the mountaineer hike day! We decided to take them to Bierstadt Lake like I did with last weeks group. Although it was a little to easy for this group, we would rather not have them whine on a long hike. At the lake we played games like Black Magic, Green Glass Door, and the Stick of Common Courtesy (they love brain games rather than active games)

Friday night I went on an evening hike to Cub Lake with a group of gals. We started around 6pm, got there around 7pm then hung out for an hour singing worship songs, taking silly pics on the giant rocks, and trying to grab lillies without being attacked by leeches.

Saturday

Abby and I did a YMCA guided hike today! And we met at Sweet Memorial at 6:15am for it. SIX FIFTEEN IN THE MORNING. But being awake that early actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We were conquering a little hike called Black and Blue Lake (which actually isn't a little hike at all.)

We started at the Glacier Gorge trailhead at 7am, making great time up to Alberta Falls (15 minutes, .9 miles) then continued our merry little way to Mills Lake (2.8 miles). It was g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s at 8:30 in the morning, with the mountains reflecting in the water.

We rested for a little bit then continued onto Black Lake (5 miles) It was a nice little trek through woods, with varying flat areas and stairs. We made it around 10am and I was feeling pretty good about myself for going 5 miles and not feeling like I wanted to die.

The dying part came next. Blue Lake is a little less than a mile up from Black Lake, and when I say up I mean UP. You hike up steep steps next to this waterfall pouring into Black Lake - we took a break near the top and I was applauding myself for making it so far when our guide Devon said "We're halfway there now!" WHAT REALLY I JUST POURED MY HEART, SOUL, AND THE REST OF MY OXYGEN SUPPLY INTO THESE STEPS. 

We took a left next to the waterfall and bushwacked, crawled, and climbed our way through steep rocks and scratchy plants, and after an hour in total, we arrived at Blue Lake. The lake itself is pretty average (all lakes start looking similar, I've done so many lake hikes recently) What made Blue Lake magical was the surrounding area - there was a magnificent view up top and you could see Black Lake and Mills Lake and mountains in the background. It was definitely worth the hour of pain we endured to get there.

It took 3 hours to get back to the Glacier Gorge trailhead, and then we decided to shower and meet back up with several girls we hiked with to go to Safeway and dinner in town. We tried this Indian place called Nepal's - I haven't eaten much Indian food, and, although it was a little spicy, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was (I was also super hungry from hiking 11 miles).

Later that evening as we were resting, Elizabeth texted our group telling us about a meteor shower tonight from 12am-3am and asked if we wanted to watch it on Trail Ridge. As tired as I was, I was super excited and any chance to go up Trail Ridge is a YES. Unfortunately it was very cloudy so we could see much, but we could see some stars and had an awesome time just hanging out on top of the world at 1am.

Sunday

I slept in for the first time in forever (okay like a week) on Sunday. It was a wonderful Jesus, coffee, and admin porch morning. I spent more time reading "The Me I Want To Be" and soaked in the beautiful morning next to the mountains. The first chapter focuses on learning why God made us, and how we can grow spiritually.

Instead of measuring our spiritual life solely by the amount of time praying and reading the bible ("the problem is that by this measure the Pharisees always win") we should ask ourselves "Am I growing more easily discouraged these days? Am I growing more easily irritated these days? At the core of a flourishing soul are the love of God and the peace of God. If peace is growing in me, I am less easily discouraged. If love is growing, I am less easily irritated."

I also really loved a part in Chapter 2 talking about the Me I Don't Want To Be: "Comparison kills spiritual growth...spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be."

After lunch we went into town to check out the Scandinavian Festival - we ate Swedish baked goods, watched in fascination as live owls twisted their heads around 270 degrees for like 15 minutes, and sat in a book store for a long time. It was great. We went to our friend Amanda's house afterwards, made some mac n cheese, and watched a cheesy teen rom com. It was the perfect chill Sunday.

Colorado Spring Adventures (Week 4)

Week four. Has it really been a month already?? ***This post is remarkably short because I didn't feel like writing, and I also typed this all out before and it didn't save the first time :(

Monday

I was in Outpost again this week, which I was really excited about. We played minigolf, cooked hot dogs, played low ropes games, and had a really great Monday with only 5 kids.

Monday night Abby, Elizabeth and I were planning on going bowling ($1 on Mondays!) but the lanes were broken so we decided to go downtown for ice cream instead (the opposite of a problem. Hayley's is never bad option)

Tuesday

TACO TUESDAY. And high ropes, archery, and star lab. (Star Lab days are fun because you kind of get a little nap in lolz)

I went to LT Tuesday night again and loved the speaker and the worship! We sang Everlasting, one of my favorite worship songs in the world. I'm also super excited because I ordered the devotional book LT is going through, The Me I Want To Be" and just started reading it. It's really great, not only as a pre-China preparation but also for life in general.

Wednesday

Eric and Haley my co-counselors

HIKING DAY. I love getting paid to hike with kids into Rocky Mountain National Park. Like is this real life? We decided to take the kids up to Bierstadt because the shuttles started this week. We hiked down to the lake from the Bear Lake Trailhead - I definitely recommend going this way because you get to walk on a flat trail most of the time. It was a little less than 5 miles round trip and so beautiful.

hey this is my job cool

Thursday

Because we didn't have to work until 4pm, Haley and I decided to do a hike into the park Thursday morning. We met in Spruce at 7:20 and caught a ride with some of her friends and followed them up to Emerald Lake (apparently some of the best climbing in the world is up there and I had no idea!) I love doing Nymph, Dream, and Emerald so I definitely didn't mind seeing them again so soon. It was awesome to see how much Emerald Lake had melted in just two weeks.

After our hike we ate lunch and tooks naps before our eventful evening. Our kiddos came around 4pm and we played games at Outpost and cooked the best fire made spaghetti, meatball, garlic bread, and green bean dinner. We performed several songs and a skit for their parents at 7:30, then went to play gaga ball, go swimming 9-10pm, and make smores 10:30-11.

Carly, Ruby, Ashley, Jaden & Luke

Friday

We made chocolate chip pancakes (yummmmm) for breakfast before clocking out around 9am. I went on a hike into Moraine Park and enjoyed having the rest of the day off! Abby and I decided we would road trip to Colorado Springs to see our friend Erica that night, so we left around 7:30 and made it there around 10pm.

Saturday

COLORADO SPRINGS is awesome. We went to breakfast at this awesome place called Over Easy, then went to hit up the USA Olympic Training Center. It was SO cool. For 5 bucks we got to tour the facilities and see several gyms where swimmers, wrestlers, and shooters trained. (ALSO MICHAEL PHELPS TRAINED HERE LAST SUMMER). We saw a super inspirational video about the London and Sochi Olympics, and it also introduced the Rio games coming up next year. I LOVE the Olympics so I'm glad Abby suggested we check it out.

MICHAEL PHELPS SWAM IN THIS POOL

In the afternoon we went to GARDEN OF THE GODS, this beautiful rock formation place I've been wanting to see since last year. It was different than I expected, more paved sidewalks than hiking, but still very cool.

For dinner we went into this cute little town called Manitou, and then celebrated Erica's birthday at this adorable fondue place down the street. I've never had fondue before so I was feeling pretty fancy (but also a little out of place hahaha they put us in a room with two different couples on romantic dates)

We hit the road after dessert and made it back to Estes Park around 11:30pm with the joy of knowing we could sleep in a little the next morning.

Sunday

HIKING GROUP DAY. I love Sundays because they're challenging, exhausting, but so much fun. We typically get a group together to conquer a hike, and today we decided to go for Fern Lake. I was especially excited for this hike because today I got my new backpack and chacos!!! My old hiking backpack was 4 years old and falling to pieces, and my chacos are a little summer present to myself because my other pair is getting old and grody and day camp gives us a chaco pro deal (40% OFF HOLLA).

We left around 1pm and made it to the Pool (1.7 miles) in great time, mostly because the trail was flat and shady :) We got our butts kicked on the second half of the trail though - it was 1.1 miles to Fern Falls and I wanted to die, but we made it around 2:30pm. If that part was bad, the next mile to Fern Falls was hellish. It was so steep, but we saw a llama named Mister and that made things better.

Fern Lake was really pretty, and I made a little chipmunk friend. He jumped onto me and I screamed, thinking he was a huge spider or something (thank goodness he wasn't) He saw me eating my apple and peanut butter and just wanted some haha.


We decided to book it up to Odessa, another lake just .7 miles up from us. It was all uphill and horrible, but so worth the extra 35 minute hike up to reach it. It was even better than Fern!

We turned back around 5pm and made it back to the trailhead around 6:30pm (we were booking it) and then rewarded ourselves with McDonalds (Spruce was closed) and smores at a friends bonfire later that night.

You Make Beautiful Things (Week 3)

I'm switching up this week a little bit - instead of just giving you a day-by-day play of my week, I'm going to give you some highs, lows, and things that have been on my heart this week, okay? (It's kind of a long post be warned!)

 
First off, I love being a day camp counselor at the YMCA of the Rockies. This week I was in Outpost with a group of 5th-8th graders. In Outpost you cook lunch over a fire everyday, do high and low ropes with the group, and have a camp out on Thursday night with skits, swimming, and smores. My kids are seriously the best. They're so funny, they all get along really well, and they make my job so easy (and enjoyable). Kids like these are the reason I love being a camp counselor.

Monday

This week in Outpost we had 7 kids - a brother and sister who like to talk in British accents, two sassy cousins, a die hard UT fan, a trivia/camp song master, and a girl who has read more books than I have (probably). We played get to know you games with them, then moved on to the Bibbity Bop Bop Bop, Camouflage, and Gaga Ball. GAGA BALL IS SO MUCH FUN. If you haven't played you're missing out. All the kids stand in this low wooden circle and you pass the ball around, trying not to let it touch your feet. Last year I saw kids play it here at the YMCA and thought it was a giant fighting ring because of all the screaming the kids were doing. I also won a few rounds which is extra fun ;)

Tuesday

Tuesday we did the high ropes course with the kids, made mini pizzas for lunch (which was a big hit), went to archery and then did this cool thing called Star Lab. Star Lab is this big inflatable planetarium like thing that everyone gets inside and then a light in the middle shines stars all around. It's the coolest.

After work some friends and I played games in Rustic (I learned how to play yahtzee and got double yahtzee!!) and then we went to the LT service at 9pm. LT is a leadership training program here at the YMCA. College kids from all over the country come with their church groups and go to services on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as bible study groups throughout the week. They also have a thing called a project group where they are divided into small groups and spend one of their off-work days doing a hike, a service project, or just hanging out. The LT service was SO good. I loved worshiping with some new and old friends, singing I'll Stand and this gorgeous song You Make Beautiful Things.

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

Wednesday

We hiked to Sprague Lake on Wednesday. It was overcast and slightly drizzly, which is kind of nice to hike in but not great for pictures. All the kids had a great time - we played more bibbity bop bop bop with them at the lake and when we got back we played more Gaga ball. (Also, side note, I still can't get over the fact that I'm being paid to hike AND hang out with kids. I'm dreaming.)

Wednesday night was a giant staff Kickball game! This was great because I met so many more of the staff and also had fun playing with day camp people. I even caught a few outfield balls and the guys were like "we have our magical outfielder Rachel out there!" Hahaha then we played daycamp versus other staff and sang our camp songs obnoxiously while we were batting (sorry other staff). After the game we played Apples to Apples inside Admin and I met more staff from Colombia!

Thursday

Because I'm in Outpost, I got to sleep in Thursday and didn't have to go into work until 4pm, when my campers came for their campout.

As most of you know, I'm going to China in August to teach for a year. It was nice to have the morning off to work on some of things on my China to-do list. Honestly, this week has been challenging for me because of playing catch up in Colorado. When I first came here, I was definitely so happy to be back in Estes Park, but also worried about being away from home the summer before I leave for a year. My spring semester was a cycle of praying and thinking and praying and talking to friends and family about working in Colorado instead of staying in Texas. I felt God moving me in the direction of Colorado and took a leap with it. I knew there would be obstacles in the way - being away from family, trying to fundraise for China while working, not to mention lesson planning, language practicing, obtaining a Chinese visa and whatever else popped up. China is a decision I whole-heartedly committed to and want to pursue, and I didn't want to become so distracted (or better word, busy) in Colorado that I felt unprepared when I left for China.

I'm so glad I went to LT this week because it helped re-focus my purpose. I can handle all things through Christ who strengthens me, and being in the mountains for a summer gives me an opportunity to stretch myself and grow spiritually in ways that staying home might not have allowed. Just in the last three weeks I've met so many inspiring and beautiful people, learned more about the world and myself and what I want to do. God moves in these mountains, and I'm so excited to see the other ways He shakes things up. I'm learning to trust and fully rely on Him better, to be still and know He is there. It's difficult to feel like you aren't in control of things - today I woke up and found out my Chinese school requires us to have Chest X-Rays done ASAP. So this is definitely a minor thing in the grand scheme of life, but it just meant more creative planning and work on my part. Going to doctors out of state is not a fun process, especially with no car, and I'm so grateful the timing worked out with me being off Thursday morning to figure things out.

This is a SCRABBIT

While Thursday morning was rough, Thursday evening was AMAZING. After our staff meeting at 3:30, our Outpost kids came at 4pm and we headed down to Outpost to cook dinner and work on our skit for the evening. I was so close to crying from laughing so hard, those kids were so funny. They wrote in words to the song See You Again and had a little section they sang about each counselor. We also sang In The Jungle but changed it to In the Outpost and everyone had a little solo introducing themselves. We performed for their parents and they loved it.

Gaga ball all day everyday

After the skit we played Gaga ball for an hour then went swimming (and we had the whole pool to ourselves!) It rained on some of our stuff outside so walking back to outpost with wet things was an adventure. We couldn't make a fire so we had dry smores and went bed slightly wet, very tired, but so happy.

Friday

We woke up around 7:30 to start cleaning up and cooking breakfast (choco chip pancakes and bacon). Then was the part I had been dreading: saying goodbye to my kiddos. Because we can't work more than 40 hours a week, we have to clock out Friday morning and support staff takes over. I'll always remember my sweet week one Outpost babies.

It was really nice having the rest of the day off though. I took the Estes Park taxi into town because all of my friends were at work still and I needed to get my chest x-ray done. The driver's name was Jonas and he was so friendly. He asked about myself, where I worked, if I was okay since I was going to the medical center. He then told me about himself, how he loved playing the Christian radio station while driving, and about a church retreat he was going on in a few weeks. I told him about my trip to China and the ministry I would be doing and he was SO excited to hear about it. It was so encouraging.

After my chest x-ray (which was surprisingly a quick and painless process), I hung out in downtown Estes Park until 4pm, just wandering in an out of stores. Estes is such a fun little town to just walk around in - it's fun with friends, but there's also something so sweet and simple about spending the day by yourself. I'm an extrovert, but I've found I really love my alone time. I got new hiking socks, spent an hour in a bookstore, and then finished the day at Starbucks, where I ran into another teen counselor who got off early because of the rafting trip she took with the Adventurer group (she was so sweet and gave me a ride back to the YMCA).

God is amazing. There were so many things I was worried about this week  - like going to the doctors, getting a ride in and out of town - that worked out so perfectly. God's hand was orchestrating it all, like He always is. Big or small, it's taken care of.

Friday night we ate at Penelope's in town and then drove up Trail Ridge Road (the highest road in America!) and watched the sunset. It. was. BEAUTIFUL. (And we got some sweet silhouette pics.)

Saturday

Saturday afternoon Abby and I went canoeing at Lake Estes - we wanted to go last year but ran out of time so it was fun to finally try it! Even though a storm rolled in and we were only out there for half an hour, it was still a great experience and I'd love to do it again.

That night we caught a movie in town (half price with YMCA ID) It was the Melissa McCarthy movie Spy and it was surprisingly really great and hilarious.

Sunday

I honestly thought Sunday would be a short wrap up for the week, but I'm really sorry this hike called BALANCING ROCK happened and I have to share.

We originally planned on doing a hike in the morning, but decided to just sleep in and figure out a new plan at lunch.  We all agreed we didn't want a crazy long hike and decided to do Bridal Veil Falls, a 6 mile relatively flat hike. The trailhead parking was completely full though, so we decided to go to the Lumpy Ridge trailhead and see what else we could hike in the area. Gem Lake was just 1.8 miles up, and there was a place called Balancing Rock 2.1 miles after that so we decided to try it.

Gem Lake in itself is kind of tough lil hike, with almost 1,000 feet elevation gain and horrible giant steps at the end. The view from the top is fantastic, however, so that's what pushed me and we made it in exactly an hour. At the top we took a short break then continued the next 2.1 miles to Balancing Rock.

 I was in a grumpy hiking mood honestly, and hated that the trail just led us up and down and up and down with a few stretches of flat in between. I gave myself a little pep talk like, Rachel come on you get to see something new it will be worth it! We reached a junction in 20 minutes where we ran into a couple. We asked how Balancing Rock was and they said it "was kind of cool." That should have been a warning.

We kept going another 25 minutes and reached our destination. Uhhh...what? Slightly disappointed. Even the clouds were sad for us and started crying when we got there. We decided to turn around and get back before the rain got worse (but it did).

The rain came down harder and we reached the junction just in time for it to start pouring. We went a little farther when we heard thunder and saw lightning, two things you don't want to see/hear when you're high up. We didn't want to keep going back to Gem Lake, which was higher up than we were, so we decided to stay put in the trees. It was pretty miserable - tired, grumpy, wet, and disappointed about the destination aren't a great combo - but one really cool thing was the way we huddled together, praying and singing through the storm. Finally the storm passed and we were able to scramble back to Gem Lake and get down to the trailhead.

On our way down we saw the most beautiful rainbow, which made the whole ordeal much better.

Sorry for all of the word vomit and details, I just wanted to share all the wonderful and crazy things going on here. Even in the messy moments, God is present, making beautiful things.

I Would Walk 30 Miles (Week 2)

Week 2 was so much fun! This week we had our first group of campers and it was interesting to learn how the day-to-day camp life works here at the YMCA of the Rockies.

This week I was on support, so I didn't have a set group I stayed with all week. As a teen counselor, I'll rotate between Mountaineers (7-8th grade), Adventurers (9-12th grade), Outpost (5th-8th grade that have a camp out Thursday nights) and support staff (you basically fill in for any group K-12th that needs help).

Every morning at 8am campers are dropped off by their parents and then we lead songs and put up the flag from 8:30-9am. They also do song time in the afternoon right before they're picked up, from 2:30-3pm. Song time is so fun because we're all outside in a circle and the campers love to jump to the center with a counselor and lead songs with them. It was a little weird for me at first because I know most of the songs from girl scout camp, but they're sung differently here. I've had such a blast singing and learning the new versions.

So anywaysss, here's a little about my week.

Monday

Being on support for week one had many perks, but it also meant some tough work at first. We cleaned out the Outpost building that the Outpost group uses for campouts and cooking. We also had a lot of errands to run and drove around camp all day. Later I played some sand volleyball and then minigolf with some of the other camp counselors after work! 

Tuesday

Tuesday was so awesome. We finished cleaning outpost and then I helped teach archery with one of the other teen support counselors. One of the groups had a little boy who had amputated fingers, so he only had his thumbs and shorter limbs where his fingers would be. This kid was amazing. When we were showing all the kids how to hold the bows, we noticed his hands and he looked a little unsure of himself. I talked to his counselors and they told me he could still do lots of things like swing on the monkey bars by himself, so he could probably do archery too. I was so excited to help him - I helped him steady the bow in his hand while he shot and he hit several close to bullseye. The smile on his face was priceless.

I ate dinner with some friends and then we played more sand volleyball. There hasn't been any talk about a staff tournament yet but I'm hopeful they'll do it again!

Wednesday

I went on an all day hike with the group of 5th-6th graders on Wednesday into Moraine Park and part of the way to Cub Lake. Once a week each group has a day set aside for an all day hike into RMNP and being on support I got to go with them. I LOVED doing this hike because the kids were great, the conversations I had with other counselors was great, and being able to walk next to the most amazing mountains was great. We didn't have enough time to reach Cub Lake, but we ended up walking 9 miles in total and the kids were total troopers.



I went on an evening hike with Abby and Erica after dinner and we just did a loop from Outpost down into Moraine Park and then out through Tuxedo Park.

Thursday

I went on another all day hike with a group of 4th graders on Thursday. I found that I love being on support because you get to know so many more kids and get to do more hikes. We pretty much did the same hike with the 4th graders as yesterday. We hiked into Moraine Park through Tuxedo Park and then ate lunch and played games in RMNP for an hour. We're pretty limited with where we can hike with the kids because the park shuttles haven't started up yet, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of Moraine Park's beauty.

Thursday I ate dinner with another group of old and new friends and then we went into Estes Park to walk around and grab coffee. We wandered into Kind Coffee, this cute little coffee shop by the river that I went to once last summer.

 We ventured into the Elk Horn Lodge after that, this creepy but interesting 100+ year old lodge with cabins for people to stay in. We also drove into the park a little bit to check out these adorable baby owls that are nested right off the road in RMNP (couldn't get any decent pics of them. disappointing)

As you can tell (and probably already know) Estes Park is full of elk errywhere. They hang out at the YMCA, in town, on the roads, where ever they feel like it. Last summer we felt like locals and rolled our eyes at all the tourists who stopped traffic to take pictures of the elk just hangin out right next to the road. I'm sure it'll get to that point again, but getting to chill with elk all the time is something I don't want to take for granted either.

Friday

I was really excited for Friday because it meant I would be taking over the Outpost group so their counselors could rest after their camp out Thursday night. Friday was one of the most challenging days I've ever had as a camp counselor though. I've handled a number of difficult children before, but I had two boys that just want to disobey and pick on another kid. It was such a huge reminder that us counselors need prayer for patience and our kids need to be covered in prayer, too.

Friday night we went camping in Allenspark! It was so fun getting to hang with friends and enjoy being in our old campgrounds.

Saturday

We slept until 9 am and then went for breakfast at this cute little place called Meadow Mountain. Later that evening I went on an evening hike to Sprague Lake. I hiked Sprague last year and love it because even though it's an uphill struggle at first, it flattens out so you pretty much go the next 2.5 miles on flat ground. For a 6 mile round trip hike from the YMCA, it's not bad at all.

Sunday

Sunday was a big all day hike! We started at the Bear Lake Trailhead and went to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lake. This is a fun hike because you reach Nymph after .5 miles, Dream Lake after another .6 miles, and Emerald after another .7 miles. It was cool to see how much snow had already melted in 2 weeks since I went to Nymph Lake, but there was still a ton of snow the rest of the trail up and Emerald Lake was frozen completely.

Nymph

Dream

Emerald

We dropped by Bear Lake for a lunch break and then headed down to the Glacier Gorge trail. We went to Alberta Falls and then hiked up to Mills Lake. It was SO beautiful and worth extending our hike to 10.5 miles round trip.

Look at this cute little friend we made.

It was a fantastic hike and a great week overall, with 30+ miles hiked. And it's just going to keep getting better.