Here, bear, here.

Last August we took the kids to visit some of our favorite stomping grounds in Colorado. We were so excited for the trip... The summer had started off rather rocky when Ella got sick unexpectedly and had to be in the hospital for several days. We really wanted to take her to do something that she could remember the summer for other than those awful hospital experiences. Plus, there is no better place to be in the summer than high up in the Rocky Mountains. I promise, it is amazing.

After flying into Denver and picking up Carol and Steve's (Matt's aunt and uncle) car, we cruised out to Breckenridge, where Carol and Steve also have a condo. (I know. Could we be any luckier?) I'd like to say that the kids were more excited than Matt and me to be there, but that would be a lie. I just couldn't wait to introduce my babies to one of my most beloved states. We had talked up our visit from the moment the plane tickets were booked. I so looked forward to seeing the massive Rockies and smelling the spruce pine trees way up high in the mountains and my eyes getting lost in all of the stunning wildflowers that blanket the Colorado landscape in the summer.


Carol and Steve's condo is in a beautiful spot beside a lazy river filled with rocks of all colors, fish and ducks, and a multitude of beaver dams. Every evening at dusk, people who spend their summers in the condos venture out to the banks to see the beavers emerge from their homes in the little river. It's like the water animals salute the sun a goodnight all at once. Well, the kids thought that even the idea of a beaver living just outside the very condo they were sleeping in was super cool. So, we decided to ride that train and pique their interest in old Colorado from the wildlife vantage point.

We told them about the moose and the eagles, the prairie dogs and the chipmunks, the fox and the bighorn sheep, the mountain lions and the wolves. The biggest selling point? The bears. Now, I'm not gonna lie and pretend that I had ever seen all of this stuff when I lived in Crested Butte or from all of the visits I've made to the state. I mean, I have seen tons of prairie dogs and eagles and chipmunks and sheep, but never a lion or a wolf or a bear. (And if I had, I probably wouldn't have gone camping as much.) This time, though, it was like all of those animals were drawn to us.

Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was coincidence. Or maybe it was Summit, because this kid was on the lookout the whole time we were there. On our drive over Cottonwood Pass from Breckenridge to Crested Butte, we stopped at several scenic points along the way to go on  little hikes. At one spot beside a creek, we pulled out some peaches and blueberries to snack on. Ella and I were walking through the trees and looking for animal tracks and checking out the blackened marks on the spruce pine trees where there had been a short-lived forest fire (probably a controlled burn). All of a sudden, Summit walks past with a peach in one hand and a blueberry in the other calling out, "Here, bear, here" over and over again. When I asked what he was gonna do when his bear came up to him, he said, "I'm gonna give him this," and he held up the blueberry.

Luckily, we didn't see any bears at that stop, but as soon as we got back in the car, all the animals in Colorado must have started looking for us. We saw mule deer a couple minutes later. There was a big black bear on the base area of Mt. Crested Butte that night that I saw outside the restaurant where we ate. We spied a wolf going over another pass on the way back to Breck the next night. We saw fox, chipmunks, another bear in Frisco, bighorn sheep, and eagles. It was crazy. It was cool. And the kids still talk about it.