Day 3 of our stay with Nana and Papa in Colorado had us constantly going. No, not like that, I was trying to make a play on words since this is the Going Dad blog. Oh, did you already get that? Anyway…..

Kayaking was on the agenda for my wife and I while Nana and Cousin Ashlee took Avery to the playground at the Silverthorne Recreation Center. Like practically everything in Colorado, it’s a beautiful area with everything well maintained. But first things first, we needed coffee!

Kelley and I made the 2.5 mile walk from their house to Red Buffalo Cafe to enjoy a good brew by the Blue River. Along the way, we had to stop while crossing a bridge for an obligatory couples selfie.

I’ve been on a cold brew coffee kick for a while, and loved Red Buffalo’s high octane drink that steeped for 18 hours. Kelley got their house brew, and as an official taste tester of all things pure coffee, I confirmed it was good too! Then I was lucky enough to get to enjoy the coffee with this beautiful smiling lady next to the flowing river.

That damn old couple took the better bench while watching that fly fisherman, so we had to make due further back. But no worries, Nana soon arrived with Ashlee and Avery to pick us up and drive us to the neighboring town of Frisco for kayaking. Withing 10 minutes, Kathy (Nana) dropped us off at the Frisco Bay Marina where we agreed to meet her back in two hours.

The kayak rentals were for 2 or 3 hours, and we figured 2 would be plenty for us. We made it romantic and rented a tandem kayak so I could be the motor and take my wife along the lake while pretending it was a gondola.

Kelley insisted on helping out with the paddling and she did, but I ended up getting soaked with each stroke she took. We eventually found a rhythm, but then lost it again. Meh, we had a good time together and found 2 hours on the water was actually a lot longer than expected!

Our arms were getting a good workout in, and we only paused to take pictures (obviously) which included a great selfie shot by Going Mom.

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We passed the time just chatting about random things and enjoying the surrounding views of mountains, eagles, osprey, jumping fish, and some middle school kid running in shorts and a football helmet.

While we were out navigating the torrential mildly choppy waters in our tandem vessel, Avery was living it up on the playground with Nana and Ashlee.

Okay, so not the most thrilled look on either of their faces, but I heard they had a blast! Nana even took a selfie, something Avery is no stranger to!

Yeah, still not impressed I guess. She did do something I haven’t been able to get her to do yet which is walk along the equipment that’s raised above the ground.

Still a little cautious, but Ashlee helped support her, and those Soft Star Shoes provide plenty of confidence in her movement. I think after getting back down to ground level on the speckled turf, Avery was getting over her seriousness.

Ohhh, and there it is, the swings helped push her to finally crack a smile!

She just wanted her own swing. Guess we have some work to do about sharing. Back to my wife and I on the lake, we waited for the girls to finish playing and pick us back up by, you guessed it, getting coffee! More cold brew and several trips to pee later, and we were back at Nana and Papa’s home.

Avery was also back to her grump-face, so Kelley tried reading to her. The dog, Olivia, apparently enjoys story time too.

Everyone read a lot of books to Avery throughout the day to keep her happy. I am confident Cousin Ashlee is still reading the books without even looking at them.

After refueling, Kelley got Avery down for a nap and we were back at it to tackle the 4 mile trail loop we heard of the day before. Not wanting to waste precious nap-time…errr…time, we hurried out the door after quickly getting the O-K from Nana and Papa who would need to be there if Avery woke up.

Once more, we were on the trail taking the opposite way from what we did the prior day. The sights, sounds, and company were pleasing to the senses and we stopped only a few times to take selfies with Kelley’s phone. Then it died.

I didn’t have my phone, so we were slightly concerned that someone would try to contact us and wouldn’t be able to. But that didn’t stop us, we had a loop to conquer! I took the lead and Kelley bravely followed along.

We came across a few signs on our hike which gave us options for different paths. Sometimes, options suck! Either way, I went with a little instinct and little hopefulness for each direction I chose. Eventually, everything turned quiet, and you couldn’t even hear the rushing of the used-to-be-near-us water stream. That’s when Kelley’s nervousness could be felt through the air as she kept asking if I knew where we were.

I just kept saying yes and not to worry. Secretly I was just a tad bit worried myself, but I would never let it show. As we trudged through an unfamiliar, very narrow and muddy path, Kelley raised the question again asking if I knew where we were. Trying to remain confident in my voice, I just reassured her all was good.

Finally, we came across another directional path with a sign that had a familiar name to one of the trails! We took it and eventually started to recognize our surroundings. At the same time, we both noticed the tree I had just climbed the day before and scratched myself up really good.

From there, we carried on until we were back out at the trail head where we started. We hurried the rest of the way home fearful that Avery had been awake for the 2.5 hours we were gone and was a raging terror for the family. Turns out, she was still sleeping!

So much for that worried hike! Despite getting lost, or so my wife says, I had fun taking a long trail hike together and soaking up the thin mountain air. It was a long, non-stop day, but I’d say everyone had a great time.

The rest of the day was spent resting and getting ready for another fun day, including visiting the Breckenridge Distillery!