Week 13 - Easter Break

Over Easter break this year my family and I took a trip to Colorado!  One of my cousins who lives in Denver was getting married in Estes Park.  It is one of our family traditions to take a trip somewhere in the spring of the year.  It was a very enjoyable time to spend with family and friends.

My dad's side of the family is very large.  I have over 35 first cousins.  Of the 35, nearly 20 made the trip to Estes Park, CO.   It was very fun to have so many of the cousins and rest of the family in the same place.  We all stayed at the same hotel which made it very enjoyable.  The hotel had a large game room and a swimming pool that we spent a lot of time in.  

We started the journey on Wednesday, March 29th.  We drove part of the way there and stopped at a hotel outside of Deadwood, SD.  It was just my immediate family that stayed there.  The hotel had a couple of outdoor hot tubs which my siblings and I utilized.  We sat in the hot tubs for nearly 2 hours! It was some much needed sibling bonding because I hadn't seen my brother and sisters for awhile.

Once we hit Colorado, the landscape changed completely.  We had been driving through the flats of Wyoming for several hours so it was fun to see some foothills of the mountains! The main road to Estes Park was closed so we had to take a backroad to get there.  The mountains were beautiful because it had just recently snowed.

We had some time to do some exploring of the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We saw roughly 150 elk!  The elk seemed to stay around the town itself.  We saw the majority of the elk merely roaming around people's yards rather than tucked away in the mountains of the National Park.  There was an elk near the church that we attended mass at.  I walked nearly 20 yards from it and it started to chase me.  It is safe to say that I learned to keep my distance from the animals.  

Overall, it was a great trip.  I really enjoyed getting to see family members that I hadn't seen in a very long time.  The wedding was beautiful and the weather cooperated nicely.  I was glad that we were able to explore the park and see a lot of the beauties of this earth!