You may remember the hike that I talked about two weeks ago that Derek and his dad attempted, but ran out of time.  Well, we tackled it on Monday and found ourselves back down the mountain after 6.5 miles.  It was a beautiful hike, but a little sketchy in some areas with some rock climbing involved.  All in all, we're glad we went for it.....and made it to the reservoir!!!

Derek's mom flew in last Saturday for the week, so we broke her in easy with the hike to Stanley Canyon Reservoir.  (Just joking....this was actually a difficult hike :) 

On the way up to the reservoir.

Derek, his mom, and Kendall.

There was quite a bit of snow toward the top!

Brrrrr!!!

Mom we made it to the reservoir after 2.5 hours!!!

Beautiful :)

Stanley Canyon Reservoir

Derek, his mom, and Kendall at the reservoir.

How lucky we are to have such wonderful, supportive family!!  Both of our parents have been able to come out to visit us within the last month.  Although we may miss our family and friends back home in Minnesota and Wisconsin, these last few weeks have been great being able to show our families just why we love living in Colorado!!! 

We've got a monkey on our hands....

 

Notice a theme??

What a gorgeous day for an afternoon in the park!

Off to the park!

What's this stuff?

Digging in the sand.

Crawling in the hippopotamus.

On our walk home :)

Later, dancing in the kitchen.....

On Thursday Derek and his dad made the attempt to hike to Stanley Canyon Reservoir.  After three hours and still no reservoir, they decided to turn around and head back down the mountain.  Probably a good decision considering it was nearing the end of the afternoon and Derek had never hiked that trail before. 

So yesterday Derek and his dad had this bright idea to drive to the reservoir and hike a short way down to see how much further they would have had to go on Thursday if they would have kept hiking.  We set out driving by way of Derek's directions.  10 miles later we were driving along the mountain side on a gravel road in hopes of Stanley Canyon Reservoir as our destination.  Needless to say, we never made it to the reservoir and we aren't even sure there is a road that goes to the reservoir, but we stumbled upon beautiful views of Pikes Peak and the mountain side. 

The next time Derek's dad comes out to visit his goal is to "drive a mountain road".  We'll have to work him up to that considering he wasn't able to look out the window while we were driving along some of the mountain side!!  All in all, we had a good time with him out here visiting and look forward to the next time he visits. 

Beautiful views!

Pikes Peak

We've got a little hiker on our hands!!

On the side of the mountain :)

Kendall and I :)

Derek and his dad.

"I want to do it all by myself!"

Reading books.

Reading books with Grandpa Joe.