Aunt Ashlee came to visit

Over Labor Day weekend we had a visitor. It's always a good time when Ashlee comes to town. We picked her up at the airport Friday afternoon while the girls were still in school {they were not so happy with that}. We got stuck in accident traffic on the way there and weekend/holiday traffic on the way back. When we finally made it home it was well past dinner time. 

We had a BBQ on the deck and just relaxed the rest of the night.

even Stewy joined us for a while

Wellington just got a new Mexican restaurant downtown. I'm telling ya it has been the talk of the town for months!! We decided we better go try it out for lunch. It was decent, but I don't think any of us were blown away. It will be nice to have another choice for date nights when we want to stay local.

That night Ashlee and Bailee went on a Ghost Tour in Fort Collins. They have done one of these together in Salt Lake. It is kinda their thing! The tour takes you around an under Old Town. Most of the tour was too dark for photos (or so I was told;) I did get this one sent to me of Bay in solitary. They seemed to really like the tour and had all sorts of stories to share about the encounters they had around Old Town Square. That can be an interesting place during the day time so on a Friday night I imagine there are some colorful characters!

Sunday we took off for Estes Park with a plan to do a short hike to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park but were forced to alter the plan. RMNP is always "busy" but I had never seen anything like this before. They were literally turning cars back because the road and parking areas were over capacity. After waiting in lines of cars for what seemed like forever, I was fine to go to a quieter part of the park. We picnicked and then went on a little hike around Wind River instead. 

 It was a lot of uphill at first and I was not so sure I liked it .. ..

 .. .. but then the view  ... ... beautiful!

We hung around for a while chatting and were treated to some elk bugling while we sat.

 Of course a silly face photo is a must for Emmrey these days:)

 We got a peak at a couple of cows nearby and knew the bull had to be close but we couldn't see him. As we headed back down off the top. We literally walked into a sea of cows with babies. It was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced before. They were everywhere on both sides of us.

 It was amazing!!

 We made our way back to Estes and stopped in at The Stanley Hotel to look around.

 We walked through the Hedge Maze inspired by the movie

 This photo (not mine) gives you a better appreciation for it

We then went inside. Access to the rooms upstairs is limited to guests staying at the hotel. We did get on the elevator to go down. It felt a little unsettling for sure! Notice anything abnormal?:0

Downstairs was a museum of photos and memorabilia. There was also this dollhouse version of the Stanley which was used for exterior snow scenes in the Stephen King TV version of The Shining.

It was worth checking out. It almost makes me want to watch The Shining again.

Funny how this girl was getting into it and she doesn't even know what The Shining is. Not sure the one above really does either for that matter;)

  After The Stanley we were hungry. We stopped in at one of our favorite joints in Estes for some Chicago style pizza.

 Then we walked around the shops and eventually had some ice cream.

Our last day with Ashlee was spent at Water World. The girls have been talking this up with her ever since we went for the first time in 2013. It is kinda spendy so it's definitely a treat! 

It is also huge and this time was even more fun than the first.

awesome photo taken in full motion as we turned at the light ;0

There really isn't a way to take pics at the slides (unless of course you aren't actually riding them). It was non stop action from the time we got there until closing time .... literally! This was the last day of the season and they played Closing Time as we all packed up to leave. It was awesome! Trust me ... it was a super fun day. I hope it lived up to all the hype the girls created:)

 We had dinner and then drove Ashlee to DIA to catch her flight that night. It seemed like she had barely got here and it was already time for her to leave. We had a great time with her over the weekend and hope she can come back soon!