hiking

Since Andy and I have lived in Colorado, we have looked forward to every summer. The time off is nice, but what we really enjoy is taking advantage of the outdoors. Camping, hiking, and just overall exploration of the great state that we live in.

This summer we have been a little down in the dumps as it is a lot more challenging to do the activities that we so enjoy. We already knew it would be extra work with a little one, but Calvin's condition makes it extremely hard to get any sort of mountain fix in this awesome state. Of course, I have been doing some research and looking into the elevations of each and every city and campground in the state and have found some potential spots that we will hopefully be able to check out at some point this summer.

Recently I was able to scratch my mountain itch just on the surface. My active mama friend, Carlie, introduced me to an awesome Meetup group of moms that go hiking with their babies once a week. I was a little nervous about this because Calvin cannot go above 8,000 feet, which definitely limits our options. But, the other day, they did a hike that was near Chatfield Reservoir and it fit our requirements. Still, I was quite nervous and brought plenty of extra oxygen and all of the "necessities" for the little guy.

So, we headed out on Waterton Canyon trail, which is a super wide path that made it easy for our stroller and all the baby goods to come with us as we blazed the trail. There were about 9 women with their babies. I was super impressed because many of the mothers were only 6-10 weeks out from giving birth! Thinking back to my condition at that point, I was definitely not in the mindset or physical shape to do a hike.

We started out in our new forward facing position in the stroller with all of our toys in position. He's either tired in that picture or already bored with hiking! Similar to my Stroller Strides class, this hike was a great chance to be with other moms and talk about our kids. I have realized in my 7 months of being a parent that this kind of community is quite important and necessary for my sanity and well-being...you could say this is a little thing, but I will get to that later!

We were trucking right along on the path, actually going at a pretty good pace, when all of a sudden we met these little fellas...

Colorado is amazing! Even in a lower elevation, there are beautiful landscapes, flowing water, and furry creatures that you are able to enjoy!

We made it a total of 5 miles by the end of it and were both extremely hot and exhausted. It was a great time and we will definitely do it again sometime soon. The only tragedy was that somewhere along the route, Calvin's bunny fell out and is now gone forever. Maybe we will have to go back and hang up some of these signs...

In the end, we had a fabulous morning enjoying the outdoors, chatting with amazing mamas, and smiling at some adorable new babies (and a few older ones). These are all little things that I relish about summer vacation and am so thankful that I have another month to enjoy!

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