DAM & Rocky Mountain National Park, Labor Day weekend

We took a little family vacation several weeks ago on Labor Day weekend. We checked out a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Denver Art Museum and then spent two days in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.

I didn't take any photos in Denver, but Nora did pretty well at the museum. She was babbling and noisy in the very quiet galleries and she spit up on the floor when we were looking at Rothko, but other than that, she was quite good. We happened upon the Taste of Denver event, so downtown was full of people and food. We got a snack on the street and then headed for Estes Park.

Nora is learning at an early age that vacation means time to read a book. 

This was our first outing with the hiking backpack, Mike's birthday present.

We hiked about five miles, it was gorgeous, and Nora fell asleep. It was hard work riding on Daddy's back!

I could post a dozen mountain pictures. It was so pretty!

Right before hike number two.

Family Reunion in Idaho

After a couple of days in the Tetons, we continued to Idaho, where we spent a couple of days with my family and an evening with some of Mike's family.

The cousins had a pool party

Nora didn't love it

Seth did!

Clancy is just three months older than Nora

Kisses!

We went out on Robert's boat, which was lots of fun!

And "camped" with Grandma and Grandpa (we didn't spend the night)

Cousins got matching 4th of July outfits from Grandma! Getting a picture was a challenge.

Nora with Mike's Aunt June -- such a happy girl!

And with Grandma Brough

Family Vacation: Teton National Park

We spent a couple of days in Teton National Park last week at the UW Research Station. It was gorgeous and relaxing and fun. Here are some highlights:

Lodge at the research station

Taking a nap in our cabin

The view from the dock at the research station

Our lovely host, my colleague Mary Ann.

Mike and I hiked to Grand View Point while Mary Ann played with Nora.

Here we are at the top!

We had a great time!

London & Reykjavik

This is it, the final blog post documenting our 18-day trip to Europe. Our trip was book-ended with brief stops in London: an afternoon at Windsor Castle at the very beginning of our trip before we flew to Paris, and at the end of our trip we spent an evening and a day in London. Our last day in Europe was in Reykjavik, Iceland. We hadn't planned to visit Iceland, but IcelandAir just started offering flights out of Denver, and they had the lowest fares. We were happy to get a glimpse of one more country on our European tour!

London, Part 1

Windsor Castle is an official royal residence, and it has been a royal home and fortress for over 900 years -- still in operation today! The Queen uses parts of the Castle as a private home, where she usually spends the weekend, and as a place for formal royal duties. Of course, the parts of the castle that the public can tour do not include the Queen's bedroom. 

Here's the guard who prevents tourists from seeing the Queen's closet.

London, Part 2

Our favorite part of the time we spent in London was seeing a production of "Singin' in the Rain." It was so much fun -- great music, fabulous dancing, and rain on the stage!

For our one full day in London, we did a hop-on/hop-off double-decker bus tour and sightseeing river tour down the Thames. 

Eye of London & Big Ben clocktower

The Tower of London

Westminster Abbey

Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace (where we saw preparations for the Queen's Jubilee)

And we made a super-quick stop at the British Museum, especially to see the Rosetta Stone

Reykjavik 
We landed at the Reykjavik airport around midnight, and it looked like the sun was setting. Iceland is so far north that at the end of May there was hardly any "night" at all.

Midnight sunset

Keflavik harbor

Reykjavik city pond 

I ate yogurt in every country we visited, and Iceland's was the best.

Road Trip Part 3: The Lake District

 Part of our road trip with Jacob, Rachel, and Gavin, was to visit England's Lake District. One of our first stops in the Lake District was a town called Cockermouth, which is William Wordsworth's birthplace.

While in Cockermouth, we visited Wordsworth's childhood house (pictured above). 

While inside the Wordsworth house, Melissa played a harpsichord, which was a replica of a Handel harpsichord, and we learned more about some of the daily life of an 18th Century household. 

 In the Lake District, we also saw animals. Highland cattle and sheep are pictured above, and...

Lakes! 

Above is a view of Lake Buttermere, and below is a closeup of the stone wall at Lake Buttermere. 

We took a lovely hike at Buttermere with Rachel, Jacob, and Gavin. Below is a photo of us fording a stream  with Gavin in his all-terrain stroller. 

For more photos from this part of our trip, see Rachel's blog.