Colorado, Part 3: Wildlife

Deserving of its own post is all the wildlife we saw in Rocky Mountain National Park.  First off, we saw a bear (although not at close range – this photo had to be cropped for it to even look like a bear.)

We saw elk at multiple places in the park and even by our cabin.
We also saw many marmots. Natalie tried to sneak up on one.
We saw hummingbirds (especially by our cabin), a pretty bird called a Clark’s Nutcracker, and lots of chipmunks.
In addition to those pictured we also saw muskrats, rabbits, and baby ducks. It appeared that Louis’s favorite animal sighting was the domesticated dog.

Colorado, Part 2: Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is beautiful. We were fortunate to get to stay three nights in a cabin that was just a few minutes from downtown Estes Park (the quaint and tourist friendly town that is located near the entrance to the Park) yet we also had impressive views from every window of the cabin. Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures of the views from the cabin, or the exterior.  The only interior pictures we got were of Louis’s bath time. This does not do the cabin justice. Every inch of it was decorated with pine furniture and bear, moose, elk, and bird motifs. Here is Louis taking a bath in the sink with Natalie and Matt. (At least you can see the bear paper towel rack in the background).

The first day we settled in and took a trip to town to buy souvenir hats. On our first full day we drove to the Bear Lake area of the park. We did a hike that took us to four mountain lakes. Below are a few pictures from that hike. Matt did most of the heavy lifting with Louis, who slept most of the time.

In the afternoon we took a drive along the Trail Ridge Road which is the highest paved portion of the park, and higher than the tree line. We stopped along the way to photograph the scenery.

The next day we did some more hiking (and Natalie and Matt did some rock scrambling). In the afternoon we visited the Stanley Hotel and then visited two more lakes and had a picnic.

Colorado, Part 1: Denver

We traveled to Denver, the impetus was that Matt had a conference to attend. The timing worked out well to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Brooks. While Matt was at his conference, the rest of us visited the zoo, went for walks, shopped, played at a indoor playground, and swam in the rooftop pool. On one afternoon Matt was able to join in on the tourism and we all visited the Botanic Gardens together. In the evenings we went out to eat at memorable restaurants. We met up with our cousin Cate and her husband Matt for dinner one night but forgot to take any pictures.

The first picture below is from the zoo and the rest are from the Botanic Gardens.

 

9 Months Old and Crawling

About a week and a half ago, and just a few days shy of Louis’s 9-month birthday, we saw him crawl for the first time. He has been working up to it for a while, perfecting the move from sitting up to crawling position and then back to sitting up. This is the first time we saw him cover some ground. In this short clip he is eagerly going after his shoe. (Adult shoes are also attractive destinations.)

Here are some other photos from early July: Louis after a bath, and Louis working on an art project using finger paints Matt got him.