A Getaway

Great minds think alike. At least, Kurt's and my great minds think alike. A coworker told me a few months ago that Estes Park was one of her favorite spots in Colorado. I relayed this information to Kurt. Then, we both started concocting plans to surprise the other with a quick trip up to Estes Park for our 2nd annivesary. One of us cracked (can't remember who) and told the other their idea, at which point the other side, "I was thinking of doing the same thing!" Good thing the cracker cracked (I think it was me), or else we would've have two getaway trips! Or maybe not such a good thing...
Our anniversary is actually next week but this weekend is going to be fairly crazy (that is, if we actually close on time), so Kurt booked it a week early. Plus, we still got off-season rates and a no-night minimum. :D So on Sunday we dropped Zumi off at Jen and Evan's and headed up to Estes Park to stay here:

We stayed in a cute little private cabin right on this river. On Sunday we: ate pizza, took a nap, soaked in the hot tub, ate ice cream, watched a movie, ate more ice cream and pizza, watched another movie, went to bed late. It was so rejuvenating! I seriously have so much more energy this week. We really needed to recharge our batteries (especially Kurt). Monday morning we woke up around 8:30 and I, of course, jumped back in the hot tub.

Because that's how I roll.
(PS--I learned that when you're pregnant you can't sit in hot water. WHAT?! I'll never be able to survive 9 months without a single bath or hot tub session, especially in the winter. My children better appreciate this sacrifice...)
We packed up and, after a little "detour" got to Rocky Mountain Park for some hiking. The original hike we planned on doing was completely snow blocked, so we found another one, a little shorter, that didn't go quite as high.

My husband, Tupac.
The hike took us past 4 gorgeous mountain lakes. The trail was completely snow packed. It ended up only being 6 miles round trip, but in the snow that is tiring! And especially at about 9500 feet.

Lake #1. This picture is so gorgeous. And I had to ruin it by sticking my tongue out.

Yes, I was feeling the ugly faces that day. And now you are too.

Here's a rock overlooking Lake #2.

There's Lake #2. (These lakes had names, but don't ask me what they were.)

Action shot!

Running in the snow...

is harder than it looks.

Our destination, Lake #3! It was incredibly--completely frozen over, tons of snow, all this white and the blue, blue sky. Definitely worth the crispy sunburns we incurred that day (hasty packing=forgetting sunscreen).



A pretty view of the mountains from the road. Obviously.
Next, we headed down to Boulder for delicious, dirty Mexican food that burned our taste buds off. Spicy=yum. We started to head home, but decided our anniversary fun-time wasn't over yet. So we headed to Golden. Golden is a cool town. We want to live there one day, except it's too far of a commute downtown and the only real place to work is the Coors brewery. But we will make it work.

There's this river that runs through town that is, seriously, like the beach. Everyone was hanging out! Kayakers, high school kids, families. There was even a sandy mini-beach. I now want to take up kayaking.
I still can't believe we're coming up on our 2nd anniversary. Not because I think that's an impressively long time, but just because it's zipped by. I mean, in the last year alone we've graduated, moved, bought a puppy, and we're buying a house. Crazy times. But amazingly good times. Because happiness really is being married to your best friend.