Colorado

Our first family vacation out west was a blast, and now we are hooked!

We tagged along with Dad on his work trip conference at the historic haunted Stanley Hotel, and it went so well that Mom wants to go to all of Dad's trips now.

The Rocky Mountain National Park mountains were in the background. Big mountains. Bigger and more interesting than Florida swampland and phosphate mining mounds. No offense.

And there was no humidity. So when people complained that it was sooooo hot, it wasn't. No offense.

We went fishing in a trout pond, with wiggly worms as bait.

Kelsey caught a 20 inch monster on her first cast! It was ridiculous! Everyone came running because no one could believe it.

Catching the trout was fun, 

but watching the guys hit them in the head with a stick was more fun.

We got to watch the guys clean the fish, and they even gave us the still-beating hearts.

Our first hike was beautiful.

We liked it so much that we drove into the park the next day and hiked again.

The chipmunks were our favorite.

On our last day, we took an off road tour to another part of the park.

It was super cool, until the guide told us to watch out for an aggressive mother moose that he had seen last time.

Exploring the town was fun, too.

We already loved rocks, so this was like rock paradise. We "used our intuition" and "let our bodies pick the right rock".

And loved building cairns.

The 2 hour time difference was tricky.

Our first horseback ride was terrifying and amazing. The lead horse got really anxious at the end, because there was a big bobcat in the bushes!

It was a great trip!