Impromptu Roadie--our final destination

Here is where our kids wanted to spend most of their time--in Rocky Mountain National Park on one of the highest areas of Trail Ridge Road--sledding with a great backdrop of snowy mountains. Once Jimmer saw the snow-capped mountains he exclaimed, "Snow White!" Since he's never read the story and has only heard the term, this is HIS version of Snow White! =)As you can imagine, this is not the time of year to shop for snow pants and boots. We knew we wouldn't be needing the gear back in Texas (!), so we really didn't want to go to the expensive outfitter shops. We completely lucked out by finding all the winter outerwear we needed (besides hats and gloves we bought the night before) at a thrift shop right by our hotel. Since the store was trying to clear everything out, they had a $1/bag day. We made it out of there with all our gear for $5. This trip was meant to happen! We were also Earth friendly ;^) and recycled some of our gear by giving it back to the same shop!

We warmed up a bit in the Alpine Visitor Center...up in the tundra. The part of Trail Ridge Road that is closed for the winter opened the day we arrived and the weather was beautiful when we were in the mountains. Talk about blind luck!

An unphased large elk grazing by the road.

Our traditional picture of the kids taken on the Estes Park mountain lion statue downtown.

A friendly marmot who kept peeking out at us where we were sledding. Maybe he wanted in on the fun and wanted to go sledding also.

You can click here to see more pictures of our Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park adventures.