Tour of Colorado

Jason took off last week and we decided to take a "vacation" to sightsee around Colorado.  We headed out after church on Sunday and went to the Royal Gorge for the afternoon.  It was absolutely stunning!  We did train rides, attended a magic show, walked across the bridge and went on a tram down into the gorge.  It was really incredible! 

Sunday night we stayed in Colorado Springs and headed to Seven Falls Monday morning.  It was a VERY steep stairclimb all the way up and then we hiked around looking at all the falls.  I still have no idea how Jason managed to do it with little guy on his back. On our way home we stopped by the Focus on the Family center.  It is a great, free place for the kids to play on special playground equipment, slide down an extremely tall slide, put on puppet shows and do all sorts of other cool things and the bookstore and facility itself was neat for me to see.

Tuesday, we decided to hang out nearby and take the boat out on the reservoir which is about 15 min away from our house.  It is always too crowded to go on the weekends and honestly, it was pretty crowded on this weekday.  It was a beautiful lake and we had fun but I really have no idea why it wasn't made larger with all the people that enjoy being on it.  I felt like a fish trapped in a fish bowl after being spoiled with Lake Lanier for the last 3 years.  Our next lake adventure will likely be a 3.5 hr drive away to a decent-size lake.

On Wednesday, we set out for Estes Park.  We had read somewhere that it ranked in the top 10 national parks and decided to go check it out. We always take Stella (our labradoodle) with us on hikes and Colorado is the most animal-friendly place ever but the Rocky Mountain National Forest does not let dogs on the trails.   We did all we could with her and decided we'd go back over the weekend without her.

Thursday we just hung out and caught up on stuff around the house and found a place to go stay at Estes park for Friday/Saturday.  We  went back up on Friday sans dogs and hiked up mountains, the kids went to a Junior Rangers program and began working on their Junior Ranger workbooks (so they could get badges at the end), we drove up to Continental Divide (it was amazing..tons of wildlife near to you and everywhere!).  We even found snow for the kids to touch!  We rounded out our day with dinner and camping out at the park.  We had a real nice setup..it was an RV that was already there and it had bunkbeds for the kids and toilet/shower, it was definitely a step-up from tent camping (which I refuse to do here since I've been warned numerous times about bears and mountain lions).  It was real fun until the sunlight beamed through the windows at 4:45..yes, 4:45 AM.  Our kids sleep LATE and all but 2 of us were up from 4:45-6:30am and thankfully were able to go back to sleep.  Next time, foil will be on my packing list. 

Saturday morning we hung out, went to let the kids turn in their completed books and become Junior Rangers.  The older 2 kids, Brannan and myself went to Main St. to go shop for their trinkets and Haley and Jason headed out for a horseback ride. 

In the canyon at Royal Gorge

view from on the bridge

he thought it would be cooler to wear than drink his Icee

headed down in the tram

it was a LONG way down!

yummy hotel breakfast

sleepy head

cheeser

he looks very mischevious here

wrestling

these were the stairs we climbed to top of falls

almost there

these signs are just so comforting to hike up on:/

at the top and made it to the 7th fall

The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe..thought this was so cool..there really was another side

The puppet performers

this picture cracks me up

Getting a view from up high

the rapid waterfalls

Junior Ranger Program..very cool-go if you ever have the opportunity

yep, that's snow..in July

this chipmunk jumped up right in our face..he was NOT afraid

Brannan had a hat obession while away and insisted that Jason put on one too

After completing their books they pledged to be great Junior Park Rangers



First set of elk we saw...Bentley pointed out and said "Look, cows!"  Guess, he was partly right but that's a ton of elk.



Ones, closer

Getting geared up

We had a wonderful week but I sure was glad to be back home and get on a schedule!  We started school today (yes, in July) and Brannan also began ISR swim lessons (heart wrenching to watch but they say he'll be able to hold breath underwater, swim, turn over to float, flip back over and swim to side by the time he's done in 5 weeks).  I'll try to video on Friday (they only allow it once a week) but if it looks to awful, I'll wait another week or 2:)  Enjoy all the pics!

She loved it!

Their badges