Rocky Mountain NP

On Wednesday July 26, we hit the road early and drove to an AirBNB in Albuquerque.  It was our first time using AirBNB and was awesome.  We had a 3 bedroom house all to ourselves and it even had a hot tub outside.

On Thursday, July 27, we arrived in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and met up there at a group campsite with Ali and Ben, Ben and Eboni, Heather and Randy, and Mom and Dad A.  Ali was in charge of the reunion this year and when we told her we had decided to visit Rocky Mountain NP, she thought it sounded great and planned the reunion there.  We stayed at Glacier Basin Campground within the park.

Part of the group as we headed out on our first hike, Sprague Lake.  There were 38 of us total!

Randy and I with our baby girls on our backs.

Our family

Dan broke out his fly fishing stuff for the first time since we moved to Texas.  He loved it but didn't get to do as much as he hoped on this trip.  It was too hard to keep 5 kids entertained and out of the water so he could fish!

Cute cousin girls (Alyssa, Candy, Megan, Lily, Brooke)

Alyssa, Lily, Luke, Brooke, Megan, Whitney, Alonzo, Candy

There were such pretty views all around!  Even with clouds rolling in during the afternoon, the park was breathtaking.

After the hike we headed back to camp and the kids did crafts and played games while we waited on dinner to cook.

We were happy to have the shade tents in the evening to keep rain off.  We had fun that night, each family did a skit and we had dessert too.  We slept well and thankfully stayed warm enough.

Friday July 28, we all got up and did breakfast before catching a shuttle for our next hike up to Alberta Falls.  It was hard and had quite an elevation gain and the kids were getting hungry for lunch by the time we finished.  But it was also beautiful and we had fun being together.

The 4 Aird kids at this reunion, Ben, Dan, Heather, and Ali

All the kids loved climbing all over the rocks as we hiked.  Even Candy with her cast.

Emily was such a trooper in the hiking backpack.  We had the backpack for Emily and the ergo for when Jack needed a break.

Megan and Alyssa

The four families on the hike (minus Mom and Dad)

Playing around the campsite in the afternoon

We drove up Trail Ridge Road after lunch.  It is the highest road elevation in the US and it was COLD up there!  The views were spectacular and we had so much fun seeing it.

Don't Fall ;)

 Our family outside the visitor center...

There was even snow!  But we couldn't get close enough to touch it, there were railings to keep you up on the road and not sliding down the steep hillside

Back at camp we kept the babies corralled while we chatted and got dinner ready (Emily, JJ, Gracey, and Brayden)

Ali did pony bead crafts with the kids.

Heather and Randy working on dinner.  We were in charge with them that night.  It rained and we had to eat that dinner under tarps.  The wind made the dutch ovens take FOREVER but we all survived and ate and got to bed under our rain flaps in our tents.  Everyone was tired and in bed early that night.

Saturday morning the kids had a blast playing around the campsite while we all got up, ate breakfast, and packed up. 

Grace and Emily

We made one last stop on our way out at a visitors center.  It had pretty views and a little hike out behind it.  The kids played inside in the museum part too.

We stopped on our way out to document our family at the national park sign.  We have high hopes that we will get to visit lots of parks and make lots of memories with our kids as the years go by!

We drove all the way to Bountiful that day, arriving around 9 pm.