~Country Livin'~: Colorado Trip Day 5

Yesterday was so awesome that we thought it would be hard to top it off, but today was just as awesome too!! Instead of cooking breakfast this morning we picked up some donuts from Donut Haus which is supposedly famous around here. They were pretty good!! As I mentioned in my post last night, we wanted to do more hiking today and decided to go back to Bear Lake Rd. We drove to the shuttle parking lot so we could ride the shuttle to our 1st destination...Alberta Falls. It was a 0.8 mile hike one way. It was not a hard hike, but we definitely could have been in better shape (me and Ricky anyway!) We had to stop a few times along the way to catch our breath...Kalyn and Sheldon would just climb rocks and follow other trails until we were ready to move on. Ricky carried Ryder in the snugli so he had extra weight to carry too!! Alberta Falls was a beautiful sight and the kids were amazed. They had never seen a big waterfall before so it was really neat for them to see. Ricky and I have seen many others and this one, as pretty as it is, does not compare to the ones we saw in Kauai on our honeymoon! :o) Sheldon was in heaven just wandering around, climbing rocks, and looking for caves. We actually saw a good one not far from the falls and the kids took a picture in front of it which Sheldon though was so cooool! After we were done with Alberta Falls we decided to take a shorter hike back to the shuttle stop. It was close to lunch so we decided to just head back to the condo to eat and decide what we wanted to do the rest of the day. Kalyn and Sheldon really wanted to go to Trout Haven to catch some trout for our supper so that is what we did next. It is a neat place where they provide all you need to fish and you just pay for the fish you catch. Even though the experience was fun, none of the trout would bite! What a bummer. However, Ryder decided to take a LONG afternoon nap in his stroller which he desperately needed!!! :o) He has been such a good trooper and has gone with the flow exceptionally well the whole time so far...if only he would sleep better at night! Oh well! After we gave up on catching trout we decided to go back to Elkhorn Dr. to finish our souvenir shopping. Kalyn and I enjoyed looking around while the guys tagged along. Kalyn and I found cute t-shirts and a coffee mug. Sheldon found a pocket knife and a hiking stick. Ryder got a stuffed elk that bugles and a stuffed wolf too...cute! Ricky wanted a camelbak but just didn't find one he liked enough to buy. Needing something sweet, we ventured into Hayley's Fudge Shoppe and each of us got ice cream....sooooo good!!! With our renewed energy we headed back to the Bear Lake area to hike a little more and just enjoy the scenery there. We really wanted to see more wildlife and were told by a ranger to try driving around Moraine Park. We did see one cow elk running across the pasture, but nothing else. The mule deer were out grazing again along the road too. Afterwards we went to Sweet Basilico for an Italian supper and it was so-o-o good! Much, much better than our supper last night!!! There is so much to see out here and we just didn't have enough time to do everything we would like to do. It is sad to think we have to leave beautiful Estes Park tomorrow morning, BUT we are looking forward to more fun in Colorado Springs before we actually start the l-o-n-g drive home on Tuesday. Feeling so very blessed tonight to be with my sweet husband and three precious kids...God is so good!