Day One: Frontier Days and Concerts
Our Estes Park adventure started with a stop in Cheyenne for Frontier Days. Terri and Andy had purchased tickets for the girls to see Journey. Journey is one of Terri’s favorite bands. Emersyn knows some of their songs because our 80’s music is used for the wii game, Rock Band. This was their first concert. Grandpa, Grandma and I would continue to Estes Park to get settled into our cabin. After enjoying a delicious pizza lunch, we said good-bye to the concert goers. Eleri had said she didn’t want to go, but Terri really wanted her to come so she did.
We checked into our cabin and dumped all our luggage. We had two cars full of luggage as Emersyn and I are leaving from Estes Park to go back to California. We had to cut our Nebraska time by a week to be back for her leg surgery. Grandma and I did the grocery shopping at Safeway. It appears this is the main grocery store in town and it is always packed. We picked up hamburgers to put on the gril for a nice, quiet night in – no kids!
Terri, Andy and the girls arrived around 1am. The report was that Emersyn loved the concert – the fun of being at a concert. Eleri did not. The music was too loud and the ear plugs wouldn’t stay in her little ears. Terri and Andy took turns taking her out and walking around the grounds. Our friends, Julie and Barry, met them at the concert which was a fun way to catch up with old friends.
Day Two: Poppy’s, Shopping and Fishing
Everyone slept in after a late night. We had an early lunch planned to meet classmates of mine, Brenda and Rob. Rob owns Poppy’s on the river. It is our favorite place to eat. He reserved a prime outside seat for us. Rob always takes very good care of us by giving us all kinds of food to try – appetizers and desserts.
After lunch, we did a little shopping and then we went back to the cabin for some fishing. Eleri found her spot out on a rock.
She had her bag of gold fish to eat!
Emersyn and Grandpa joking about the fish that got away.
We had dinner in as we wanted to be done with dinner and cleaned up before the London Olympic Opening Ceremony begun. Hard to believe it was four years ago we were at the Olympics in Beijing. Four years ago, we watched the opening ceremonies from our apartment three blocks from the Olympic Greens.
The girls have gown in four years…from 4 & 8 to 8 & 12.
Day Three: Rocky Mountain National Park
We drove through the Rock Mountain National Park. Last year when we came into the Park, the snow drifts were taller than us. This year has been a dry year with little snow and rain. We did see some snow caps on the mountains in the distance. We enjoyed the beauty of the Mountains.
We drove past the top and over the Continental Divide to find a lunch spot. We enjoyed lunch at the same spot as last year…but, it looked so different with no snow. After lunch, we walked around the small lake.
We drove back to the top to the visitor’s center. Eleri was the only one who wanted to stop and shop. But, it was Emersyn who found something to buy – this cute owl hat. Eleri had purchased a bear hat last year at the vistor’s center.
I found some cute gloves for the girls for the Shanghai winter.
We drove back to our cabin for more fishing and shopping. The ladies, except Eleri, wanted to go back to a few shops in town and to the grocery store for tonight’s dinner. We are enjoying dinner at the cabin on the bbq. Eleri just wanted to fish as she is not much of a shopper. She and Grandpa had fun fishing.
When Emersyn came home, she took up her fishing chair with her birthday book from Aunt Nancy. Aunt Nancy gave her a 4-book series for her birthday…Emersyn is on book 2.
Emersyn is on a roll for losing sunglasses. She lost her second pair of the summer this day out fishing. Good thing the sunglasses are not expensive and at this rate it is going to a long time before she can own anything but cheap ones. The hardest part of sunglasses for both of the girls is they both have the Lyon big head. Buying sunglasses is a challenge as their heads are big, but they still have little faces.
Day Four: Poppy’s and Good-bye’s
We packed up our gear and loaded the car. We enjoyed breakfast outside on the deck and a slow morning. We were meeting Julie for lunch at Poppy’s at 11:30. Julie is always late so we were not in too much of a hurry. We had a lovely lunch with Julie. She is always a delight. She offered to take Emersyn and I to the airport so Andy could get home faster to South Dakota. My Dad was concerned Eleri would be upset or sad when Emersyn and I left her…but she wasn’t. She kissed us good-bye and skipped off with Grandma, Grandpa and Terri for their car ride back to Nebraska. Since Emersyn’s surgery came up after we booked these tickets, it worked for Eleri to stay in Nebraska another week. She would come home with Terri and Andy.
We moved our four bags to Julie’s car. We had time to go back to Julie and Barry’s house before going to the airport. We had a nice visit and were able to see Koen. He is now 16 with the freedom of his own car and a job to pay for that freedom! I can remember when he was 2!! I enjoyed the time to visit with Julie and catch up on her life.
Emersyn and I got the luggage checked in and grabbed a quick dinner as we were leaving Denver at 6pm. It was a fast flight as we are used to long 13 hour flights. It was another fun, but short summer in Nebraska.