Elk Season at Estes...

We were so excited to have Dan's parents come stay with us from Arizona last weekend! They hadn't seen our home yet and after living so close to them, the past 3 months without them have felt like forever! We pulled the kids out of school after lunch on Friday so we could meet Dan's brother Ken up in Estes Park, which is fast becoming our favorite weekend getaway. A friend mentioned that it was elk season in town, but little did I know that we'd see so many!

My brother-on-law lives in Loveland, which is about 40 minutes North of us. We hadn't seen him on a few years and it was great to catch up.  We LOVE the girl he's dating and her daughter, who is Ashlyn's age. Ken suggested that we all rent a pontoon boat and go out on the lake to see if we could see some elk. On our way to the lake, a herd of elk walked right across the freeway, as if they owned it!                                                  

(Above): Ken and Linda  

                                                         Corey, Ashlyn and Fantasia all got to drive the boat. After our boat ride, we headed out to the parking lot, where there was another herd of elk just sleeping in the sun! It was crazy to see them so comfortable around people!

Okay, so in retrospect, taking these pictures so close to a large herd of wild elk that are almost in rutting season may not have been the brightest idea! They looked so peaceful and sleepy, but that little fence would not have protected us at all if one of them decided to attack us. We snapped a few pictures, then backed up to watch them from a safer distance.

(Above): Ken, Sky and Fantasia with the bull elk...

In the meantime, some other people thought they'd get a little closer and walked right up to them. We were just waiting for the bull elk to decide he didn't like that and use his amazing rack on them! I've seen one too many episodes of "When Animals Attack."    

Check out the big bull elk giving these people the evil eye!  (below)                     

After all of our elk watching, we headed into town to check out some of the little shops and to get some ice cream. Ashlyn and Fantasia hit it off so well that we invited her to come sleep over at our house that night. Ken and Sky met us the next morning and came to Ashlyn's volleyball game with us.

(Above): Corey made a book about our weekend. I LOVE his drawing of the elk!