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.