We were all ready to get out of the house and breath some fresh air this weekend. January does not bring out the best in us :) On Saturday we hit up the ice skating rink in Louisville. Everyone had a ton of fun. Halle is at the point where she can do it totally by herself now, and she loved gilding around the ice. Josh and Blake appreciated the helpful red apparatus, and Blake especially loved being pulled around the ice on the sled. We then hit up the local candy store for a little treat before heading back home. It did all of us good to get outside and move our bodies!
The kids didn’t have school Monday and the forecast was gorgeous. 55 degrees and sunny. We decided we were up for another adventure and so the kids and I headed up to Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park. All national parks were having a free day—happy bonus! We stopped for lunch in Estes Park at Baba’s Burgers and Gyros. 
We ate some darn delicious burgers, but while we were inside the weather was deteriorating quickly. The wind started blowing at about 25 mph, and snow started coming down hard. We ate slowly hoping this was just a fluke storm, but it looked like it was here to stay. We debated just turning around and going home. We all decided we’d head up to Hidden Valley and give it two runs down the mountain. If we were miserable, we’d pack up and head home. We are all so glad we decided to give it a go, because sledding was absolutely perfect. Nestled up in the valley the wind didn’t do much harm. It was snowing and freezing but hiking up the hill kept us nice and toasty warm. Poor little Blake wasn’t looking up the hill and a tube came and swept his legs right out from under him. He hit the snow hard. He was delirious for about 20 minutes, but luckily pulled out of it. But, he wouldn’t go down the hill alone after that. After a couple of hours Halle, Jenna, and Blake we ready to leave. Josh could have stayed all day. He had a blast going off jumps and seeing how fast and how far his sled could make it down the hill.
We had debated just staying home and seeing a movie. When we ran into a herd of elk on the road Halle exclaimed, “THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN A 2:00 MOVIE!!” I couldn’t agree more.
