Willow's Birthday Party

We had a mellow party for our big 4 year old. She still really loves Peppa Pig. This was convenient because I was able to re-use last year's party favors and decorations. #Winning!

 Bryan made this delicious, chocolate cake..... Mmmmmm.
Looks like the pig family found a nice muddy puddle ;)  Haha

Willow telling stories....

Blowing out the candles; making the birthday official  ;)

Happy Birthday sweet Willow!

Princess Willow turns 4 !

Willow is 4 years old today! How can this be? She is so sweet, kind, and adventurous. A light and joy. She went through a "princess" stage where she needed to wear fancy dresses all the time. Luckily, she got some hand-me-down's from her cousin Addison. She likes what she likes and she'll articulate it. Haha. It's been fun to document all these fun wardrobe pieces through the months.

There is a princess for every season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).
Ode to our expressive, colorful 4 year old:

"Fairy Tales can come true; you gotta make them happen. It's all up to you."

Ice Skating at Stella Lake

It's been a strange, warm but super dry season. The mountains don't have much snow. Kind of frightening. The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive remains open. It was in our favor for this particular adventure. A friend informed me that the ice was really great on the lakes in the park. It was a very sudden, sporadic decision ~ but the stars aligned and we were able to rent skates and take a chance to see if we could play on the ice. My sister Audrey was in town and it was the perfect Saturday morning activity together. We departed our house at 7:00 in the morning. That took a lot of effort for us Hamiltons haha. We drove up to 10,000 ft to hike the one mile trail to the lake. Skates in hand, this was going to be an epic experience.....

It felt different to tread this trail in mid November! A walk through the naked aspens, passed ice covered streams, and across the dormant meadow with watchful eyes of a couple of deer.

Stella Lake, November 11th (Veteran's Day):

By first judgement, it didn't appear good for skating...

Then we walked around and took a better look. We tip-toed lightly on the ice.....

We discovered the ice was thick enough to support us, to our delight!

There was a log next to the edge of the lake, perfect for us to put on our ice skates ;)

I couldn't believe the smoothness and clarity of the ice! Like glass! It was unbelievable! Perfect!

We were ready to go!

Practice, practice, practice lol

As I snapped photos, I kept thinking how grateful I was to be here in this moment with these faces :)

We took a break for hot cocoa. Food and beverage always tastes more delicious with a fantastic view in nature  ;)

We were all showing some improvement as the minutes ticked by....

Audrey was a newbie and she already dances on ice! I thoroughly enjoyed watching her Hahaha

We were all feeling goofy :)

 I took a lot of photos (and stole several from Audrey). I honestly don't know if we will have another opportunity to skate at Stella Lake again in my kid's childhood. I wanted to document it well. This was such a unique experience.

What a special day!