~Country Livin'~: Colorado Trip Day 3

After a better night's rest we were up and ready to get to our final destination....today!! We made it to the Colorado state line about mid morning and that was a GREAT feeling. The weather started to change some...still hot, but not so humid which was really nice. It wasn't long before we were ready for a lunch break so we stopped at a small cafe in Byers, CO. They had great hamburgers and ice cream too! :o) Hey, its a vacation so we can eat whatever we want, right? It took us awhile to get through Denver with all the awful traffic and rain, but we eventually could see the mountains far ahead of us. As we got closer and closer to the mountains, the kids really started to take in the whole scenery...it was so fun to watch their sweet face expressions as they were in awe. Wish I took pictures!! We were totally captivated by the beauty of the mountains, trees, streams, etc...the whole curvy drive to Estes through the mountains was breathtaking! Our condo was easy to find and again, we had a pleasant surprise. I had reserved this condo a while back and the pictures showed it was really nice, but I don't think we really expected it to be as awesome as it is!! I almost cried because it was just perfect!! It is very comfortable, homey, and the Big Thompson River is rushing right outside our balcony!! It is just gorgeous...and not too long after we had unpacked and settled down Sheldon spotted a herd of elk right across the river. It was AWESOME!! Ryder was so very happy to be able to get on the floor to crawl around and explore (we were very hesistant in letting him do that while in the motels the last couple nights). We were all hungry and wanted to venture out to see the town so that is what we did tonight. Walking down Elkhorn Drive with all the other tourists was fun (for me and Kalyn anyway!) and we did a little shopping for souvenirs. Pizza sounded good so we walked into Bob and Tony's Pizzeria...it was SO good! We normally don't eat every last slice, but tonight we did!! It was getting pretty late so we went on back to the condo to put Ryder down for bed then I took Kalyn and Sheldon to the hot tub overlooking the river for a little bit. The hot tub was HOT, but with the cool breeze it felt really good too! The kids loved being able to do this so much. Can't wait to see what tomorrow unfolds!!!