E-Este's Park par 3 (last one I promise!)

 So the last few days we were there were jam packed. The men started out Monday morning by waking up super early and heading up the canyon to go on a hike. Kyle sent me a few pictures from the hike and it was beautiful. I think they had a great time and saw lots of animals. They stopped and picked us up some doughnuts on their way back to the hotel. We had seen a little doughnut shop called the "Doughnut Haus". We loved joking about it and saying it in a thick Sweedish accent. The doughnuts from the Doughnut Haus were yummy! After doughnuts we headed into town to do some shopping. The main road was filled with super cute fun shops will all sorts of things in them. The kids actually did surprisingly well with shopping! The kids really wanted to go into the Christmas shop and pick out ornaments, it was a big highlight for them. I bought a new scarf as my souvenir and Kyle bought a couple of shirts (more on that later). We also bought some yummy kettle corn (we maybe had to go buy a 2nd bag because Brynnley and I downed the first so quickly) and we went to an old fashioned candy store. We gave each of the kids a bucket at the candy store and let them pick what they wanted, the phrase "a kid in a candy store" could not be more true! We had lunch at a pizza place by the shops then headed back for some swimming. That afternoon we headed over to go mini golfing. We had to kind of rush our golf game because an afternoon storm was rolling in. But we still had a lot of fun, and miraculously David won. (He is notoriously known for cheating at mini golf). For dinner we headed to a nice steak place in town. Kyle's Grandpa was nice enough to treat us all to dinner. It was so nice having him there with us. I am so glad that he came, I know my kids loved having him there. I know it was a little loud and chaotic but I think he had a good time.
I had to snap this pic of the kids while we were waiting for dinner. Tired would be an understatement, so the only way to keep them from whining and bugging each other was for them each to have a phone to play games on. You can't even see McKay who had the I Pad to watch bubble guppies on as well. What would we do without technology!

 After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Our hotel was right on the river and had a little playground next to the river. So we would go to the playground and wade feet in the river at least twice a day.
So Kyle walked back from dinner after us, he wanted to hit a couple more shops and said he would catch up. Look at this gem he found at one of the stores. He was determined to find an "awesome" animal shirt to remember the trip by. I think he for sure succeeded!

 On our last day we headed back into the park. We went on a short hike to a waterfall. We had borrowed my sister's backpack for McKay for hiking. I was shocked how much heavier he felt on my back. So we did the short version of the hike. The men took the older kids up to the top of the waterfall. Carson is for sure my adventurer. He would climb any rock he could find and was always looking for "secret passageways". It was a fun hike and the kids loved it. We were going to go on another hike later that evening but it started to rain so we decided not to go.

So here is my story about this guy. About 2 nights into our stay Mckay had decided he didn't want to sleep. He woke up at about 3 am and despite all of my efforts he would not go back to sleep. So at about 5 I decided to take him outside for a walk so the others could sleep. Brynn woke up because Mckay was crying and flipped out because I was leaving. So she came outside to walk Mckay with me. So me, Mckay and Brynn outside in our jammies walking the streets of Este's park. I was trying to stay positive and remind myself we were having a good time despite it being 5 am, I looked up and saw a beautiful deer just walking down the street. We walked another 1/2 hour and I spotted 2 elk. So I rushed Brynn over to where they were and we watched them eat breakfast. I noticed one of them had something on their antlers and I really thought it was Christmas lights, but thought "that can't be it". After everyone woke up I told them about our animal sightings. I told them about the Christmas tree elk and they looked skeptical. Later that night we were walking back to the hotel and spotted the 2 elk again. Kyle was able to get up close to them to snap a picture. He also confirmed that the elk I saw did in fact have Christmas lights on his antlers!
We had such a fun trip. I am so glad we were able to go and a big thank you to the Ford's for making it all happen!