vacation – humble dwelling

Here we are at the beautiful Bear Lake.

Believe it or not, the hiking paths here were pretty crowded. However, the snow and ice gave everything a feeling of enormous stillness. Everything was so soft and quiet. I could have spent hours here, but poor Max and Matthew were finally done by this point.

These three amassed a great collection of Junior Ranger badges on this vacation.

Estes Park is such a cute little town. The food is wonderful (and thanks to the anonymous couple that paid for our meal at Poppy’s Pizza!!! We said a rosary for you, whoever you are!)

Liam and Jack had mountain man training from Jason.

Mirror selfies! Stella was really sick for most of the trip. She finally felt better the last few days but still begged for me to hold her the entire time. I didn’t mind one bit!

Matthew and Max honed their climbing skills. This was a pretty steep hike and these tough little boys handled it!

Over the ridge we found blue skies and gorgeous fields.

One of the kids took a picture of “butt rock” because we’re classy.

Qwirkle was our game of choice while waiting for dinner.

If only the chipmunk knew what the BBQ pit was used for…

The repeated sentence on this trip was, “When we come back here…”, so I think the kids had a great time. Even though it’s a lot of work for me and Jason to take so many little ones on a hiking vacation, we still had a great time too. I am looking forward to the day when our hikes can last longer and over much harder terrain. Soon!

Here are a TON of pictures from our vacation that was allll the way back in May. We stayed at an off-the-grid (run by nothing but a couple of solar panels, no interenet, no phone, no tv…Heaven!) cabin in the middle of nowhere in Roosevelt National Forest. So here’s how a family of 8 vacations! Enjoy.

How sweet are Jack and Stella by the fire?!

An elk visiting for breakfast.

Yes, I bathed my baby in the kitchen sink! One shower with 8 people, so I had to make do.

Jason became our bearded mountain man. It was super cold, so we had to keep the fire going all week. Pa Ingalls would have been proud!

The kids spent hours by the creek in front of the cabin. They spent the time rock hunting, rock tossing, and building forts.

This is a completely working outhouse. Last school year, the kids learned that outhouses in Colonial Williamsburg were called necessaries. Max kept running to this outhouse saying, “I need the necessary!”

This fog was carrying some huge snow clouds behind it.

When it was too cold and snowy to be outside, the kids spent time drawing or writing comics. Here is Matthew explaining to Matilda the robot he wants her to draw.

This is Matilda’s robot creation.

A hill rose up behind the cabin. This is the “mountain” Liam told everyone he almost reached the peak of.

Vacation reading: The Road, Pioneer Girl, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Reading The Road in the middle of nowhere with pitch black nights was not a good idea. I was kinda scared!