The Yurasko Difference: Hiking and Sliding

Monday, September 28, 2009

Hiking and Sliding

Last month, we went on a wonderful family hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park and ended the day on a big slide in Estes Park, Colorado.

Here are Sandi, Alexandra, and I all ready for our hike!

Group shot in front of Dream Lake. Grandpa, GG, Uncle Mike, Alexandra, me, Uncle Andy, Aunt Sandi, Uncle Mike, and Christopher. Alexandra doesn't understand the timer on the camera yet.

Little family photo in front of Dream Lake.

Alexandra got pretty heavy for her oxygen-deprived parents who are used to breathing sea-level air. Good thing we had an athletic 16-year old uncle on hand!

Since Alexandra didn't get to go horseback riding, we thought it would be fun for her to ride an Alexandra-sized horse. This was her first time on a coin-operated horse, and she thought it was a lot of fun! Note the pink baby Converse high tops. Alexandra's grandpa gave her these for Christmas.

We ended the day by going down the big slide in Estes Park. To give you an appreciation of the size of the slide, you have to climb like 3 or 4 flights of stairs to get to the top, and you ride down on a piece of carpet.

Here's the group (minus GG) coming down the slide. Apparently Mike won. See the little black speck in the top left of the photo? That's Alexandra and I. I was determined to have Alexandra go down the slide, since she loves slides at the playground and I have found memories of going down this slide as a kid myself. As she was obviously too little to go down the slide by herself, that meant that she got to ride with me. When we started our first run, all that I could think was "holy crap, what was I thinking! I'm taking my BABY down this thing? What kind of responsible parent am I!?!" After a couple of harrowing seconds, I realized that I could effectively hold onto my kid (who was squeeling with delight, oblivious to her mother's distress), and that it was actually kind of fun.