Jacob and I recently celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary! It’s so hard to believe we have already been married for ten years, but here we are. Ten years is such a long time, but I can honestly say it’s been a really, really good ten years. Sure, there have been some hiccups here and there, but really there hasn’t been that many. We both communicate pretty well with each other, so our disagreements are few and far between thankfully! Some days I remember our wedding like it just happened, and then other days, it feels so far behind. It’s funny how life is like that.
For our anniversary, Jacob surprised me with a trip to our favorite place in Colorado, Estes Park. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. It’s such a quaint little town on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and it totally feels like you’re in another place when you go there. There’s no hustle and bustle. For many years, my cell phone didn’t even work in most of the town, which was actually kind of refreshing to get a break from social media and the online world.
About a month before our trip, Jacob told me about it, and let me pick out our place that we were going to rent during our stay. He also surprised me with first class flight tickets, which was SO nice. I don’t really love flying because I get sick a lot and having to wear a mask on this flight was definitely not ideal, but I did not vomit, so yay me!
Anyways, we ended up selecting “Awestruck” for our house rental, and that was the perfect name for our place. Awestruck had the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life from inside a house. Endless mountain views could be seen from just about every room, and I really hope we get to visit it again soon. The windy road that we drove up to get to the house was somewhat sketchy in the freezing cold snow but made it totally worth it to stay in Awestruck.
This place had the most amazing views, but the ones from the master bathroom were pretty epic! I think the best shot is from the toilet, no joke! This place was stunning, and I dream of owning something like this one day. It was gorgeous.
Isn’t this view from the loft amazing?
This was the only year where we did not see a ton of wildlife during our trip. I think it was just too cold, so that animals were hiding. We did find these deer just outside the dining room window at Awestruck.
This house had so many more rooms and so many other views that I wish I had taken photos of so you could see! I hope we get to go back soon and stay in Awestruck again!
Jacob also surprised me and rented us a Range Rover SUV, so we could drive in style. The vehicle was nice, but I love mine so much more! I didn’t get a picture of it, but it was a black Range Rover Evoque.
The weather during our trip was extremely interesting, and I’ve never experienced anything colder before. When I say it was cold, I mean, it was cold. The lows two of the nights we were there were zero and -2. I wish I was exaggerating, but I am not at all. It was very, very cold. Of course, we picked our anniversary day to go out for a hike to Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. We rented snowshoes, and let me just say now that the hike was so incredibly hard. Not only was it very cold, but it was very snowy, and the wind was extremely harsh.
Bear Lake
Nymph Lake: I know my little white hat looks goofy, but it was the only thing I had to help keep my head warm. So just ignore the silly look.
Standing on Dream Lake. You can spot some hikers in the background that were just as brave or crazy as us!
Dream Lake: Doesn’t this just look so cold. It felt like it took forever to hike across.
Just me standing on top of Dream Lake taking a breather.
We finally made it to Emerald Lake in this photo. We took the photo, tried to hide out to rest and eat a snack, and then we went on our way back down.
While we were on our hike, Jacob surprised me with my anniversary gift, and it was everything I ever wanted in a diamond band. My original wedding band was just a simple silver band without any diamonds or stones on it. It was so very plain, so I hinted to him for our ten year anniversary since the theme was diamonds that I was okay with an upgrade, and he delivered!
It is beautiful and full of emerald cut diamonds. He tried to give it to me when we made it to Emerald Lake, but it was so cold, he put it back in his bag until we made it back to Dream Lake and were a little sheltered from the weather for a minute. Isn’t it just stunning? He did such a good job!
The lakes were frozen over, so we walked across almost all of them. I honestly didn’t know if we were going to make it to Emerald Lake, but somehow we did. It took us about 5 hours from start to finish, when the internet said it would take about half that time. That’s how cold and hard the hike was! When we made it to Emerald Lake, I was super worried I wasn’t going to make it back to our car. The weather conditions were so hard, and I was exhausted, especially my legs. When we finally made it back to our car, I told Jacob that I was really worried I wasn’t going to make it back, but luckily I did! I am pretty sure I will not be hiking to Emerald Lake ever again, but at least I can say I did it.
Here’s a few more photos from our trip:
I always take a picture of this tree in the Rocky Mountain National Park every time we go. I just love it. A few years ago, there was a huge fire in the park, and I was so worried it was gone, but luckily, it survived the fire!
The rest of our trip just consisted of a lot of relaxing, which honestly was a much needed thing for me. We ate at our favorite restaurants, visited Rocky Mountain National Park a few times, and nearly froze to death on a forever long hike, but we had an amazing time and made a lot of memories. Many thanks to my mom for keeping E for us while we went on our first kid-free vacation. We missed him a ton, but it was a nice way to refuel before returning back to the grind at home.
Restaurants we visited:
Penelope’s Such yummy hamburgers and french fries! We always go to Penelope’s, and I think we went twice this trip.
Grubsteak – We had hamburgers here as well, and they were great.
Hunter’s Chophouse for our anniversary dinner. The steak was great!
Ed’s Cantina – Great mexican restaurant! We always visit Ed’s as well when we are in EP.
Have you ever been to Estes Park?
Absolutely wonderful! Beautiful pictures too!!