We just got back from 3 days at our cabin in the mountains. We are having really hot temperatures here in Denver, so it was great to get up into the mountains where is was slightly cooler. We left Saturday afternoon after working all morning around the house. When we were about 5 minutes from the cabin we saw a moose on the side of the road, muchin' away on some grass. Sunday we woke up, the neighbors brought us some fresh bran muffins (we have awesome cabin neighbors) and went for a nice 2 hour hike up by Agnes lake. We tried to make it to American Lakes, but there was still too much snow. We had to turn around when the trail became to snowy. We saw moose tracks left and right, it was apparent that they are all around up there. Sunday night we gave Annabelle a bath in the sink, had a nice dinner and watched SwingKids.
Monday I was sleeping in until Troy called for me to get up quickly. We had a moose on our porch! That was the closest I have ever seen them get to the cabin.
She saw us inside and got a little uneasy. Eventually she sauntered around the edge of the pond and then disappeared over the banks of the river.
After breakfast we packed up and went for a hike up to Lost Lake and Laramie Lake. Laramie Lake was awesome, we were the only ones there, so we thought.
When we got to Laramie Lake, Annabelle had a huge meltdown because she had skipped her morning nap and in the process of chewing on our camelback tube had soaked her sleeper outfit. We had to strip her down to a diaper and rock her to sleep on the banks of the lake. While I was holding her and sitting on a log we had the pleasure of watching a beaver come out of his den and swim around in the lake. He slapped his tail at us (or possibly Arwen) and dove down twice. Then after about 20 minutes of swimming, he went back into his home. I have never seen a beaver in person so it was a really cool sight, and a nice reward for having to slow down and let Annie take her nap in an interesting location.
That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner, some peach cobbler, watched a sad movie, and hit the hay. Tuesday Troy let me sleep in! He got up with Annie at 7am and let me sleep until 10. While I was sleeping Troy and Annie went on a walk and took a picture of this orchid that they found growing along our entrance road. I have never seen an orchid in the wild. I didn't even know that they grew wild in Colorado. Pretty rare find!!
I woke up feeling more rested than I have in a long time. We packed up, I went over and got the bran muffin recipe from the neighbors and visited a little with Annie, and we headed home. The drive was uneventful, Annabelle slept the entire way and Troy got in a good nap himself!