Days 2-5 Chicago and Travel Days

 Rocky Mountain National Park - Days 6-7

After a late night and waking up at 4am eaten by guilt and needing a reset, I decided to rise early and take a walk in the campground at 5:30am.  There is a beautiful spot at the start of the campground with 180 degree mountain views and the early morning light lent a blue tint to everything.  The beauty of the mountains meeting me in my deep need of refreshment brought tears to my eyes.  I had some quiet time to pray and read the Bible. I was reminded that even David was capable of horrific judgment at moments and was able to get the reset I needed.  I was able to catch some glimpses of the sunrise through the trees as I walked back to the ampitheater area and enjoyed the big open space alone.  Then, I walked back toward the mountains and was in awe of the bright red colors that the first rays of sunshine brought to them.  I enjoyed the beauty for a bit before taking any pictures, so the best moments and color are captured in my soul rather than on my phone.  I love capturing moments in photos, but there is something special in saving the best for our souls.  

As I walked back, another woman was up and walking around too and we encountered a huge bull elk.  He chomped happily, glancing at us occassionally and then was joined by two deer.  I attempted to wake Ryan and my dad and told them there was an elk out there, but they didn’t rise (you could see it from our campstie, which was amazing because it was an end site and the loop after us is closed, so it felt like an extension of nature).  I then sat at our picnic table to allow the men and boys to sleep a bit more and another type of deer wandered right through our site.  Shortly after that, the three oldest woke up and came outside as well and another deer visited us.  It was such a beautiful start to our day.

We headed out around 8:30am to go up to Bear Lake, a very popular spot at Rocky Mountain National Park.  The lot was full, so we drove back down to take the shuttle and then did the Bear Lake loop trail, which was a fun and easy start to the day.  We then grabbed some food to bring and drove up, stopping along the way, to the Alpine Visitor Center, which is the highest altitude visitor center in the country.  At the top, there is a path, mostly of stairs, to the peak nicknamed “Huffer’s Hill” as it takes you to over 12,000 feet.  We felt the altitude as we huffed up there!  Josiah (5) changed his mind before we left the car, but leaving my dad with 3 of the 4 boys would’ve likely created a very unpleasant experience for him, so we brought him along anyway.  Super-dad Ryan then carried Josiah on his shoulders up most of the hill.  It was a great short hike that made us feel accomplished and going down was easy and brought on better spirits. 

We gathered the rest of our crew and woke Joshua up to join us at the store and cafe where we bought some food to round out our packed lunch and enjoyed majestic views during our meal.  After a quick visit to the Visitor Center (where I learned that what I had called “the fattest chipmunk I’ve ever seen” was really a ground squirrel), we headed back down to drive through clouds and witness lightning, stopping at Hidden Valley for our kids to be sworn in and receive their Junior Ranger badges.  Their programming had been canceled (likely due to the weather), but we did a short hike anyway before heading down to do a rainy walk around Sprague Lake.  We had heard from a ranger that a moose and her twin babies had been spending time there, but we didn’t spot much wildlife.  We returned to the campsite for some spaghetti and a fire before a reasonable bedtime.  We put the kids in their clothes for the next day in preparation of waking them by 5:30 to hike.

We did really well getting up and out early and were on the Nymph Lake trail by 6am.  It was a bit more intense than we had expected, yet we all continued on to Dream Lake.  I was carrying Joshua for the mostly uphill climb to Dream Lake, where our oldest son and my dad headed back and the rest of us continued on. 

I had asked Josiah and Isaiah if they wanted to continue on to Emerald Lake and they were both very enthusiastic about continuing.  Then, Josiah scraped his knee and did not want to join us.  These moments happen.  Five year olds change their minds, get into moods, and can be frustrating.  In these moments, we can choose to let it “ruin” the hike, the day, etc.  When I’m tired, sometimes I fail and get frustrated, but this morning, my cup had been filled by my special moments alone with nature, so I was able to keep on chugging with him following along unwillingly, trying to jump in puddles or kick the dirt toward me looking for a reaction.  Honestly, that child hiked the .7 miles without a smile and was resolute that he didn’t want to be on the hike.  I watched my other son try to engage him in climbing up some rocks and encouraging him to keep going and my heart was so warmed by his brotherly kindness.  When we reached the lake, he wouldn’t show his face for a picture and then, with another invitation from his brother, it was like a switch went off and he was cheerfully jumping along the rocks and climbing around.  I like to have control and I find kids’ moods frustrating, but I’m learning that I often do more damage by trying to control through rewards or consequences when it’s an issue of mood.  Time and distraction are the best healers for a bad mood.

 

On our way out of Emerald Lake, we and another family encountered a fox above us trotting along.  We stood still to try not to startle it and it came right down into the path.  It came right across my path and I turned, startling it, but it stayed around, sniffing, taking a bite of something, and hanging around.  It got more anxious as people converged on both sides of the trail, so I had the boys crouch down in hopes that it would take a path near us away from people, but it kept coming toward us until we decided it was best to just move away and head back down the trail in the opposite direction.  My guess is that it has been fed by people before and perhaps that is why it approached us when we crouched down trying to be less threatening.  Foxes are one of Josiah’s very favorite animals and the experience was such an incredible gift to him to make the hike worthwhile.  Wildlife is incredible and I hope we preserve that magic for future generations.

The 1.8 miles back was considerably easier as it was mostly going down (we were over 10,000 feet for a bit of the hike).  It took us almost 1.5 hours to get to the second lake, but going back, we covered that same area in about 35 minutes.  It was a great start to the day leading into a 7 hour drive.  We had only brought cereal bars, so the kids ate some more at the picnic table while we got the camper ready to go and we were off!  

Our car day routine is checking for wildlife, doing a journal entry (3 sentences for the 5 year old, 6+ for the bigger kids), to do some kind of educational activity (a page in a workbook, playing with tangrams, etc.), and to have some quiet time if it’s a long day (reading books or trying to nap). We also utitlize screens - I may create a separate post about that, along with lots of other things to entertain the younger kids that could be its own post as well.  We also provide lots of easy snacks- I have a 2.5 gallon bag filled with single-serving snacks (which I never buy at home) that I replenish every couple of drive days.  While part of me worries about their teeth (I’m allowing fruit snacks - which I never allow!), the part of me that can’t deal with my hangry kids is bigger.  I also bring fresh fruit - I bought one of those little plastic cereal containers at hte dollar store and put our fruit in there for the day to keep it safe so we don’t end up with smooshed peaches/clementines/apples.  Each child also has their own water bottle as well. 

Tonight will be another late dinner (a common theme as our drive times are even longer than expected- I had added 15% to account for taking the trailer and quick gas stops, but when the speed limts are 75 or 80, we are running closer to 20-25% over my estimates).  It’s also our chance to get some laundry done and if we find the energy, to reorganize the mess of the car (we have done well with trash, but have too many books in the car and need to find some pieces of activities that Joshua has thrown/dropped).  Tomorrow is just a 3 hour drive to Grand Teton, so it will be nice to arrive before evening somewhere!