Mike and Sarah

On the last two days of our trip we ventured through a series of trails leading to a few lakes. Is there anything better than enjoying a secluded lake in the midst of vast mountains? Maybe, but while we were there we couldn't think of anything that could beat these views. This lake was completely ridiculous because no clear path or trail lead to the lake, you had to climb over the boulders... not rocks, boulders. I snapped this shot while standing on top of the boulders but do you see the rocks on the bottom of the picture? When you are standing on the ground most of these go over your head. Mike and I reached the lake but couldn't see anything but huge boulders. So we started to climb and sure enough, we found the lake. It was crazy! So, this is kind of neat. This is actually a picture of the first two lakes in this post from a higher elevation. Mike and I stopped here to take a rest and much to our surprise we realized we were looking down on the l...

Just a few more images from one of the most beautiful places on earth! A moose! That's not even zoomed in folks... gotta love national parks!

On day 2 of our trip we hiked to Lulu City. The description for the hike mentioned the trail took you through an old mining area which used to be home to about 200 people in the late 1800's. The hike was pretty neat but we didn't see as many remnants of the city as we had hoped. This hike took us into the woods so there were less rocks and more trees. We still saw a lot of rocks, like this rockslide we walked through. I guess you can't fully escape the rock-scapes in Rocky Mountain National Park. We passed this remnant of an old log cabin but this is all we really saw of the old mining town. Once we reached Lulu City we turned around but you could keep going on the trail so I wonder if there were more further up the hike. Our final destination. It was a great place to stop and rest a while. It was so quiet and you were completely surrounded by the woods and the mountains. So beautiful.  

The best way to describe this trip is through pictures because when you're in Estes you have 360 degrees of breathtaking views 24/7. We pulled into our campsite around 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday July 13th. It took about 30 minutes to park, stabilize, hook up, and set up everything up inside the RV. When we finished, we headed straight to the park for our first hike to Gem Lake. I know this will sound really lame but I was immediately shocked at how rocky it was. There are just huge  rocks everywhere there (I know right, how profound of me to point out the large rocks in Rocky Mountain National Park, geesh ). See what I mean... big rocks, huge . Little did we know, the hike to Gem Lake ended up being one of the most strenuous hikes we did because the elevation was quite intense. There were parts of the hike where you felt as though you were climbing up a flight of stairs only the stairs are...

After our week and a half staycation in Illinois and after laying Mike' Grandpa to rest we realized we still had a solid week and half before we needed to be back in Iowa. So we began brainstorming ideas for trips we could take in the RV in a weekish time frame. We landed on Estes Park, CO where we could stay in the mountains and explore Rocky Mountain National Park. Mike and his parents have all been before but it was my first time to both places so I was super excited. We left Illinois and had about 16 hours to unpack, repack, sleep and recharge for our Plan B vacation. Mike's parents pulled through Des Moines around 7am on Thursday July 12th and we headed west in this... It didn't take long before we felt at home in the RV we affectionately call "The BigA** RV". Mike was the designated window washer when we stopped for gas. Lunchtime on the road is so easy when you have a fully stocked kitchen in your vehicle...

Have I ever mentioned that Mike's parents own an RV? Well they do and we had a pretty intense vacation planned for the first three weeks of July this summer. We've been planning it since about October of last year and we were certainly looking forward to the trip. But then, life happened . We received word that Mike's grandpa wasn't doing so well. At first, we continued planning and packing for our trip (the hospital couldn't say for sure how much time we had but encouraged us to go ahead with the trip) but things took a turn for the worse and it became quite clear we weren't going anywhere for the time being. Mike and I decided the best thing to do was head to his parents house and stay there for the foreseeable future thus changing our va cation to a stay cation in Illinois. It was unbearably hot so thank goodness Mike's parents have a pool. They hosted an impromtu 4th of July pool party which was a blast! It was great to spend so much time with f...

Waaaaaaay back in June, Mike and I took a trip up to MN to visit my family. Of the four of us in my immediate family, 3 of our birthdays are within about 3 weeks of each other and this trip was a chance to celebrate all three in one weekend. Here's what a cake looks like for a tri-birthday celebration: (Kudos to Dairy Queen for fitting it all in). We pulled in Friday night and as we finished dinner I couldn't help but notice my mom and dad looking at each other as if they had a great big secret to reveal. About two minutes after I saw this, I was told to close my eyes because they had a "birthday surprise" for me. I realize this sounds like it's a birthday party for a little girl and in all honesty, my excitement level was truly comparable to that of a little girl; I mean, it's my 28th birthday and, let's face it, surprises are hard to come by after a while right? Anyways, I was excited. When I opened my eyes, I saw this: ...

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Wow, quite a hiatus, huh? I won't go into much detail; I'd rather save if for some juicy posts to follow about all the activities we've busied ourselves with over the last 3 weeks. I will however give you a little preview... In my head, when I say "Cue Music" I'd like to hear some sort of rugged adventurous song like the Indiana Jones theme because I feel this truly captures the spirit of the vacation we took while we were away. Unfortunately, I do realize the actual song most of you are thinking of at this moment goes like this... "holiday roooo-ahahoooaah-oooahhh-ooooah-ooooahahahooooo-d," which is fine, I get it. But I'd like to set the record straight... this RV is a lot cooler than a green station wagon with faux wood and we didn't set out on a vacation to Wally World. More later... good to be back =).

Please excuse the light amount of posting around here; we're busy enjoying time with family and trying to beat the heat as best we can. Updates to come soon but until then, stay cool everyone!