Colorado Springs to Estes Park 6/27/2025

 Friday, June 27th, 2025

This is our last day with AJ, Kristina, and Fam, so we had to make the most of it. I started by braiding Joy's hair. She wouldn't let me do this all week, but finally, I just started braiding, and she sat there while I did it. Admittedly, the second braid required some Bluey time, but for the most part, she allowed me to braid! Look how pretty it turned out!

Gavin had to get his music fix before we headed off to hike. Joy loved listening to him play!

Lillia wanted to see how close she could get to the friendly neighborhood deer. 

Here’s the result of her up close picture:

Here is the map of the hike. AJ gave us extensive instructions as to which path we would be following. Lillia, Gavin, and I all nodded, then started hiking. When the path diverged and we had to make a choice, we realized that none of us had actually listened to AJ closely enough to know which way we should go. We would never make it in the military.

Gavin using some sticks for drumming practice:

During our lunch break, the thunder started, and we began a quick walk back to the car. Luckily, it didn't hit us hard, and we just had a few raindrops. Lillia and JJ raced back to the car, but Lillia tried too hard!

AJ made this video from his drone shots, which are better than my pictures: 

Saying goodbye to Colorado Springs and this amazing family. 

It's easier to say goodbye when you know you'll see them in about 5 weeks!

Next stop: Denver

On our way to Estes Park, we stopped at the Viewhouse in Centennial to eat dinner with the Harkness family. I haven't seen them for over 15 years. Victor has seen Gary more frequently, with the last time being about 3 years ago. Rebecca reminded me that our girls, Ashley and Lillia, had met at Justin's wedding in 2006. The girls humored us and posed for a picture on their mom's laps. Lillia is studying engineering at Michigan, and Ashley is studying engineering at USC. There's a whole lot of smartness in this one picture!

Our kids got along beautifully and played cornhole and Jenga while the adults caught up and reminisced the fun times we had together in Hermosa/Redondo Beach.

Here is the whole gang:

L to R: Ashley (18), Rebecca, Gary, Cameron (16), 

Victor, Shannon, Gavin (17) , Lillia (18)

Fight On, USC lovers!

After getting a call from our hotel asking when we would be arriving, we realized we should probably get on the road. We had a two hour drive ahead of us, so we said our goodbyes around 9PM and got on our way to Estes Park. We drove a beautiful winding road up into the mountains, but it was completely pitch back, so we don't actually know what it looked like. We arrived around 11pm.

Silver Moon Inn

Exploring Estes Park 6/28/2025

 Saturday, June 28, 2025

Our day started out with a continental breakfast provided by our hotel. 

We enjoyed it while overlooking Fall River:

Morning relaxation time in front of our room:

Jared and Alisia would have loved the rock climbing wall that is literally next to our hotel and open to the public. Just another reminder of how much we miss them on this trip. :( 

Nana's Christmas Cottage is on the corner outside of our hotel, and it has just about every Christmas knick-knack you can imagine. It was fun browsing this store and thinking of how much our Nana loves Christmas!

We opted to spend the day relaxing and exploring the town of Estes Park. From our hotel, we followed the Fall River the whole way through Estes Park, along the River Walk.

We stopped for lunch at a random outdoor patio we came across as we started to get hungry. When we walked in, we realized it was Mexican food, which is always a win! We opted for outdoor seating with the river running through the background of this picture.

Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant:

Our first elk sighting! (Definitely not our last!)

Victor and I (half) went to church. I thought Google said mass was at 4:30, but when we got there, the priest was giving the homily. So we sat through the last half of Mass and then read the readings on our own. We tried...

After mass, we went to see Lake Estes. Not pictured is a beautiful bald eagle that flew overhead and swept down to get a fish. We couldn't tell if he got the fish, but he flew back into the woods, so we assume he was successful. 

After we returned home, Victor grilled chicken, while I prepped some veggies. 

We had a healthy homemade dinner on the patio outside our room.

After our healthy dinner, we couldn't pass up the free s'mores offered by our hotel each night!

Gavin showed up last, so he got the kids' chair. It's a vibe.

After dessert, we decided to go on a short fishing excursion by following Fall River further up into Rocky Mountain National Park. On our way, we spotted more elk:

The kids entertained us with music while Victor fished. Surely, this doesn't scare the fish away, right?

Here is the amazing result:

Eventually, it got too dark and we had to head home to prepare for our big day in RMNP tomorrow.

Pike’s Peak 6/26/2025

 Thursday, June 26, 2025

After a late night of talking, we slept in and took it easy this morning. After deciding not to go for a run, Lillia entertained Joy with guitar music.

While we were lazing around, AJ was jumping from an airplane and doing cool things.

Around 11:30, we headed to Manitou Springs to meet AJ for lunch and drive up Pikes Peak. While driving there, we got another glimpse at how crazy we were to climb the Manitou Incline. You can see it cutting through the woods and going straight up in this picture:

The kids had some fun at the penny arcade while we waited for AJ to get there after his “work” day. 

After lunch, we tried to take a picture by the sign and ended up with this gem. 

Tried again, with a higher sign and now you can actually see that we ate at the Manitou Brewing Co. Also, I could open my eyes since we weren’t staring directly at the sun. 

While Kristina and the kids went home for naps/down time (and Kristina packed and cleaned the house!), we drove up the treacherous road to Pikes Peak. Victor did a great job staying focused on the road and not trying to look at the views while driving. At the top, we all noted our elevated heart rates on our watches, but thankfully nobody really experienced altitude sickness. We ate the famous donuts (forgot to take a picture!) and used the bathrooms before heading back down the windy road. 

I was sure this was the marker showing this was the top of the mountain, but upon closer examination, I think it just indicated that the Pikes Peak sign was built in 2017. Shout out to Lillia for posing with it anyway. 

14,115 feet / 4302 meters 

I think this is the highest I’ve ever been!

Still sad it’s not a complete family picture but it’s a picture of our vacationers this year. 

We decided selfies captured the best views. 

Mid-June snowball fight!

This didn’t turn out as cool as I hoped, but here’s a time lapse of the descent. 

The game of the trip had to be played yet again (this is the 3rd time) and the battles are getting more brutal. This before game picture indicates friendly alliances. 

But don’t be fooled. There was not much friendly about this game tonight. This is shortly before Lillia, Victor, and Kristina obliterated Gavin. 

He’s red…

Lillia ended up winning with some surprise attacks securing the same amount of castles as AJ, but double the amount of strongholds. It was a hard fought battle, ending after midnight! 

The day that rained. 6/25/2025

 Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Today, Joy had gymnastics in the morning, so we took JJ on his first fishing excursion. (Note the sky!)

Upon arriving at Manitou Park Recreation Area in Woodland Park, CO, we had some great fishing luck! Lillia and Gavin both caught a fish within the first two minutes of casting their rods. Gavin then caught a second fish almost immediately. The luck ended there, though, as that was the grand total of catches for the day, leaving Gavin as the big winner. JJ loved seeing the fish in the net!

Casting lessons with Uncle Victor:

Casting on his own:

See the birds in the background here? My theory is that when they flew in and disturbed the water, they also scared the fish away because once they arrived, we didn't catch anything else!

As you can see in the pictures, the clouds were rolling in quickly. We fished for less than an hour before we saw the first lightning strike. Since Victor had sent us all the lightning safety information, we knew that getting to our car was the most important thing to do. We considered sitting in the car and waiting for it to pass, but the radar didn't look great, and we decided to try to drive to Manitou Springs and see if the sun was shining there. It was just starting to sprinkle when we arrived, so Victor and Gavin hiked down a short hill to fish on Fountain Creek. 

However, the weather turned quickly, and yet again, we found ourselves in a hailstorm! I opened the door to the car to take a video--it actually hurt!

So we scrapped the fishing idea and headed home to get ready for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks game. After eating some tacos at Dos Santos, we started walking toward the stadium. If you've been following the last two days, you know what came next. That's right, the rain started just as we entered the stadium. We found our seats and were glad to see they were under cover. 

A group of men parachuted in carrying various flags of the military branches, and lastly, a Switchbacks flag. We wished it was AJ jumping but it was still really cool. 

We cheered for the team as they introduced the players, then sang the national anthem. The players lined the field ready to start the game when… You guessed it. Lightning strikes! Rain delay. We decided to drive toward home since we weren't sure how long the delay would last. On the way home, we stopped for ice cream (obviously!) and got to see a beautiful double rainbow. The pictures never do it justice, but it was amazing! As we finished eating our ice cream, we checked social media and found out that the gates were open and they were letting people back in the stadium.

JJ and AJ headed home to relieve the babysitter and have a decent bedtime (AJ jumps early in the morning). Kristina and the four of us headed back to the game finally. We missed the first 10-15 minutes, but enjoyed watching the Colorado Springs Switchbacks dominate the San Antonio FC. Until they didn't. Despite controlling the ball for much of the game, San Antonio was the team that was able to finish. The Switchbacks lost 0-2 in a disappointing end. Here are the soccer fans:

Despite the loss, they still launched fireworks after the game!

I made Victor pose for this sign to show his mom:

So the rain kept us from enjoying some parts of our day, but in the end, we had a great day filled with fun memories (and wet feet).