Ahhh, Colorado summer

Have I mentioned that I love CO summertime? (Well, summertime everywhere, really.) But this weekend was exceptionally great.

Friday began with a farewell happy hour for my dear Krista. She is leaving me and heading to Portland for an awesome new job and I'm still in denial that she's leaving. What am I going to do without my hiking buddy? Seriously, KLane, I am so happy to have gotten to know you these past two years and walking in to work tomorrow will be verrrry weird. I WILL be coming to visit Portland! 

Happy hour to celebrate Krista

In honor of Krista's last weekend here we decided to go on a hike (shocking)! As it turned out, everyone at Friday happy hour thought a hike was a good idea, too, so we had to caravan to the trail head. Jordan had heard of this gorgeous hike up to Diamond Lake and we decided to check it out. She mentioned that it was "a little backwoodsy" and the road up to the trail head was "a bit rough".

O.M.G. 

It was a real-life video game where you had to weave through the boulders, the car-sized potholes, and jiggle across the washboard patches all while avoiding the cliff on the other side of the road and praying a car doesn't come the other direction. (Not really that bad, Mom, don't worry.) But actually, it was pretty bad. At one point we drove through a puddle larger that Raul and I had to admit, I felt a little like a CO mountainwoman badass at that point. 

This hike had better be worth it. 

And it was! Gorgeous views and lots of lovely waterfalls to jump over (don't fall in). The trail head name is Fourth of July trail head, meaning that there is usually too much snow to hike up there until after the fourth of July. We poo-poo'd that. And then... (can you guess where I'm going with this?)

Raul wasn't the only one who got a workout that day. The hike was definitely a full-body workout for us, too, full of the "holy sh*t don't fall" arm-flail, the "woah-woah-woah!" crossing-the-waterfall core workout, the "ahhhhhh!" barely-controlled-downhill-snow-bound,and the "uuuumpf!" grunting split-leaps across the mud puddles. But we all survived. 

Snowball fight! (When the snow was still a novelty...)

Oh, THAT'S why they recommend waiting until the fourth of July

We made it!!

And heading back down before the rain comes...

I was WIPED after that hike (physically and mentally from the video-game drive). Sunday is a day of rest, right? Sounds like a perfect excuse for Eldorado Springs pool. LOVE. 

And suddenly there was a HUGE clap of thunder that echoed off the mountains! All of the sunbathers bolted up and the pool had to be cleared. It passed, though, and the water slide resumed :)

Happy first weekend of summer to all, and much love from the Rockies!