Rocky Mountain Fourth

The day started out like any other holiday. We packed up and headed to the HR parade. It was lame, just like last year. I am not sure why we put ourselves through this every year, but we do. So, my camera battery died and I didn't get any pictures. Too bad for all of you. Then, we went over to the street fair/crowded mess thing. We waited in a couple of very long lines to get the girls' faces painted. Anna's was very cute:

Lily insisted on getting a snake that she almost immediately smeared all over her face. We were hot and grumpy by this time so we had a couple of snow cones and left. Ben then had this great idea to drive to the top of Mount Evans. It is the highest paved road in North America, and only 45 minutes from our house. Any one who knows me knows that I am VERY afraid of heights. This road is very narrow and scary. If you take the road too fast or hit any kind of bump you could go flying down the side of the mountain. AND there are no guard rails and lots of other cars taking holiday drives up the mountain. Luckily Ben is great driver, but I still sat in the back of the van. The kids were also scared because they inherited the fear of heights from me. Well, we got to the top and the view was amazing. We even saw quite a few mountain goats. I still did not have a camera, so we used Ben's phone and took these pictures.

As you can see our family survived our first (and hopefully last) trip to the top of a fourteener, a mountain that is over 14,000 feet in elevation. The trip down was much easier, but I still sat in the back. I do not recommend this trip for the faint of heart, but it is beautiful if you can stand the 14 miles of pure torture.

I did get the camera charged when we got home. The kids did some poppers and pull fireworks. Here are some pictures of them in the backyard.

Our day finished off with dinner with Ben's sisters and their families and off to the fireworks. It was very fun. We found a new viewing spot from our church parking lot. Much less crowded and getting home only took a few minutes. Overall we had a good day, but are glad to be back on flat ground here at 5280 in elevation.