On our second full day of vacation, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a relaxing day of enjoying some of God's most beautiful creation together.
The Calaway Clan - so cute!
Yiayia and Papa on our first hike of the day.
My hiking buddy
Sisters
Turned out the old umbrella stroller didn't work out so well - bummer for the Hollowells.
Steve and his hiking buddy. Notice the marker/lightsaber in Zeke's hand (hint: look behind Steve's right ear)? That and a couple of action figures kept him pretty well occupied the whole ride to CO.
Hollowell fam
When we neared the highest elevation in the park, across from the visitor's center were not only giant patches of snow, but a whole herd of elk standing in the middle of it. It was totally a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And yes, we did have snowball fights in July :)
Enjoying the snow
Experiencing snow for the first time he can remember
Elk - they were close!
This one's for Nonni. She was captivated by these little forget-me-nots peeking out of the rock.
The view
A little caterpillar friend Zeke found while we were stopped to take pictures
After spending the morning hiking with our family we took off to Bear Lake at the other end of the park in hopes of meeting up with our dear friends, the Butlers. Due to a crazy set of circumstances, we had no idea where to find them and weren't completely sure they would even be there, but had faith that God had arranged this visit and therefore we would be able to locate them somehow. There is no cell phone reception in "the park" and only spotty reception in the surrounding areas, including Grand Lake. Isn't it SO God to prompt Brent to call less than 1 minute before we lost service for good and there would have been no hope of getting in touch with them about meeting up later? In fact, we lost reception very shortly after he called and had to turn around to where we could finish our conversation. The only plans we made were that we would meet at Bear Lake, and an approximate time. That afternoon after passing by a sign that told us Bear Lake parking was full but deciding that if we parked in a remote lot our hopes of finding our friends would be minimal, we pulled into the main parking lot only to find a parking space rather quickly; A partking spot that just so happened to be right next to a minivan from Iowa with Cru (the organization with which Brent and Erin are on staff) literature in plain view sitting in the front seat. Upon loading kids up in the stroller, we went in search of them. Looking out across the lake, we rather quickly spotted Erin on a little outcropping not far from us! God certainly worked miracles and promted us to know just what to do in order that we might experience a very sweet, albeit very short, reunion!
Some pics from the afternoon:
The best group shot of the kids we could manage :)
Together again!
6 of the Crazy 8!
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