Estes Park/ Day 4

Day 4 was Julie's 30th birthday. Alisha decorated the house and her door -very sweet- and brought party hats.

Here is Jack showing off his party hat.

And here's the beautiful birthday girl herself.

Kale and Chad

Doug, Kate and Alisha

Me and the sweet princess

The birthday girl and her man

The silly crew. Note Doug's "bonnet"

After breakfast the family went on a hike. 3.4 miles to be exact. Ask Kale :) He apparently hiked the whole time without complaint {thanks to chocolate and the promise of more chocolate at the end...} Still very proud of him!

Kate, Jack and I stayed home. Like I said yesterday, Kate had had enough. And honestly I see why. We definitely pushed her limit of what she could handle and we paid for it. It was sad and frustrating but in the end we had a good time relaxing at home. We all needed it I guess.

The hike was good. Windy but good I heard. Here's Kale in front of Nymph Lake.

And here's Mark posing Kale. Kale took the picture.

The hiking crew. Doug, Kale, Mark, Mike, Julie, Chad and Margie in front. Alisha must have been taking the picture.

3 Palmer boys - excuse me -Palmer men.

Doug and Kale stuck between a rock and a hard place

Shelter from the wind. It was beautiful but it was cold!

Kale took this one. Can you tell it was windy?

After the hike some family friends came and visited for the afternoon. That night it was Mark's and my turn to make dinner. Sadly we never got a picture of Mark and I in the aprons but we did get a good one of all the girls.

All the girls showing off their fun new aprons. Thanks to Grandma Margie!

After this picture was taken Doug and Margie had to leave and go see if they could get to their home. The Boulder fire - Four Mile Fire - got to within 2 miles of their home. Unfortunately they were turned away and had to come back to the house. But they tried again a couple days later and were able to get in and get stuff. A pretty scary ending to a good weekend.

Estes Park/Day 3

Day 3 started off with a fun trip up the gondola. We all crammed into the same gondola and actually had a great time on the ride up.

At the top Uncle Mike and Uncle Chad bought the group some peanuts so we could feed the crazy chipmunks, squirrels and birds.

Here's the little monkey waiting patiently in line.

Aunt Julie and monkey

Beautiful view of Estes

Julie, me, Jack and Mike on the gondola

Buds. Kate and Aunt Alisha

My little goofy monkey and me

Family picture

Kale and Mark had a bit of fun doing a photo shoot.

Kate had to spend a little time in time out. Jack was sad and decided to keep her company.

Mark's cool jump shot

All of us in the gondola on the ride down.

After the gondola we went to a fun park that had slides, bungie trampoline things, bumper cars, go-karts and stuff like that. We bought a ticket for us and the kids to slide and we got more than we bargained for. The kids were excited to go but as soon as we took off they flew. Apparently their light little bodies help them go faster. When we got to the bottom both kids were crying hysterically. Very scary for them. Fun for Mark and I. Note to self: try it out with them on laps first next time...

And here's Mark's parents on their trip down. All the adults had fun :)

Next we hit the bumper cars. Kate and Mark rode together and Chad took Kale. The rest of us had our own. This was hilarious. Lots of time for paybacks!

After the bumper cars Chad, Alisha, Mike and Julie decided to go down the slide one more time. We had an extra ride so Kale decided to conquer his fear and go again. This time with Uncle Chad. This time he had a blast. Proud of him for doing it again.

This picture was from after naptime. Jack and Sophie had a good time sharing the graham cracker and we had a good time laughing at it.

After nap we decided to do a quick hike around Sprague Lake. Kate decided that she didn't like her shoes and refused to wear them. We decided it wasn't worth fighting over and let her walk without them thinking she'd eventually put them on. Nope. She walked the whole way with no shoes. She's a tough chica.

The whole family. Jack, Mark, Alisha, Kate, Chad, Julie, Doug, Mike, Margie and Kale.

Hitchin' a ride with Uncle Mike {or O Mike as Jack calls him}

Another family shot. We literally stood there for several minutes waiting for the clouds to move and cover the sun enough to take the picture. The view was just too good to pass up!

Silly boy

Tough girl

These next 2 are hilarious. Friends one minute...

...annoyed the next.

Unfortunately Kale took a big spill near the end of the trail. Here we are bandaging the wounds in the parking lot. He lived :)

And these are our chefs for the evening. Chad and Alisha showing off their aprons.

End of Day 3. Whew! We Palmer/Priddys like to keep busy!

Estes Park/Day 2

I had a brief moment of thinking I could combine days so as not to overwhelm you but it's not going to work. Too much to share!

Saturday we decided to spend the morning shopping downtown. This sign caught my attention and I had to capture it.

Here are the Palmer brothers strolling along...

We let the kids pick out one thing to buy - it was a difficult decision for everyone except Jack. He's a car/truck/plane/bus guy. Here's his prize along with a mouth full of cookie.

Here's Kate and her prize. She picked a cell phone that inside is really lip gloss. Totally fits.

And here's what Kale picked. A very cool helicopter.

And here is the face of one very disappointed little man when he discovered - after he already got the helicopter - a very cool tube of sharks. And he wanted that more. Unfortunately he already made his choice. Tough to live with...

But we were able to cheer him up a few store later by putting a crazy hairy hat on his head.

After lunch and naps we had a scavenger hunt in the backyard - aka big, steep hill of wilderness. Here are Kate and grandma from Team Girls searching for the things.

Chad, Doug and Kale from Team Boys looking for a dead squirrel. Yes that was one of the items we were looking for and yes there really was one.

One of the cutest little girls ever!

Me and my wonderful gift of a sister-in-law, Julie

Team Boys - oh yeah and they won. Chad, Mark, Jack, Mike, Kale and Doug

Team Girls. Alisha, Margie, Julie, me and Kate

Mark and Jack with a "look at what we found" look on their faces. Like father like son.

Mike and Julie made dinner for us this night. Here they are modeling the pretty aprons that Margie made for all the girls. Cute huh?

After dinner we went to a small lake nearby to do some fishin', or in this case rock throwin'

This is what he does when we tell him to say cheese.

Kale learning how to fish

Cool shot of Mark fishing

Grandpa and Kate

Uncle Chad caught something and let Kale share in the thrill

I like this one of them. Very sweet.

Jack's learning young.

More to come soon. Day 3. And as I've been posting these pics and going through them I realize why we had such a tough time on Monday with Kate. We really packed out our first two days. We had a wonderful time but I'm thinking we overloaded her and by Monday she couldn't handle it. You'll see as we keep going. We were like the energizer bunny!