We had a great trip to Denver for our summer vacation this year. It's funny how many people ask why we went there? There was a lot to see, we could have spent another day in Colorado Springs! We left on a Wednesday and drove straight through it took us 11 hours, which I think would have been less had we not gone through slow construction from the Hoback to Rock Springs! Our hotel was in Castle Rock, which was about halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs, 1/2 hour each way.
On Thursday we got up and drove to Colorado Springs, and did a lot of walking!
We went to the US Air Force Academy. It was really neat, the building in the bottom middle picture is the Cadet Chapel its one of the most famous. They hold all religious meetings there. The Protestant Chapel was on the top floor, Catholic Chapel on the bottom, then in the back on the bottom was Jewish and Buddhist chapels. They said there was an all faith chapel that's plain for smaller worship groups, but we didn't see it. They had a huge sports complex and it looked like during the summer they hold lots of summer sports camps there.
The second thing we saw was Seven Falls. It was very pretty! I love water falls!!!! When we got there we saw the mine entrance and some stairs, 185 of them we decided to climb them. When we got to the top we realized there were 224 more stairs we needed to climb that was actually by the waterfalls, so we went down and walked over to the other stairs, which by the way didn't have an elevator, and walked up those 409 stairs total. We were so tired when we got there. It was worth the walk though and surprisingly our legs weren't to sore the next day!
At this point we had a choice, we had a list of things we wanted to do and one was to see the Worlds scariest bridge, The Royal Gorge Bridge, it was a way's out of the way, but we decided it was cool enough it would be worth it. One hour and a half later we were there (farther than indicated on any brochure) and found out to walk or drive in the gate was $25 per person, it was a very minor amusement park. Are you kidding we drove here to see it from a look out point! I was furious, so needless to say wasted 3 hours of our day and we ran out of daylight to drive to the top of Pikes Peak hindsight is 20/20 isn't it?
When we got back to Colorado Springs from the bridge we went to the Cave of Winds. We saw a cave when we were in South Dakota last year and it was so cool and very well preserved, this one was OK, but not nearly as neat, plus it was really expensive to get into. Which is my huge beef about Colorado, nothing is owned by the National Parks service, everything is privately owned so its super expensive to do any of these things. You just want to choose wisely so its worth it.
Garden of the Gods, not sure what I expected it wasn't that, but was still very beautiful. The rock formations were very unique and fun to look at. We missed driving to Pikes peak and a few other things that were in Colorado Springs but had a nice time there it was warm (when Idaho was not) and beautiful to look at!
Friday: When we first drove into Denver this morning we went to the museum. My kids had never been to an art museum and I was worried they would be so bored. This museum was fabulous for kids though they had bingo or ispy boards in some of the rooms. This helped keep their attention and made them look at the art instead of wondering when we were going to leave because they were bored. We spent 4 hours there and they would have stayed longer (we didn't finish) only they were hungry and we had more we wanted to see.
We then walked down to the US Mint to see if they had any standby tickets available, but no luck! So we walked to the 16th street mall and had lunch at the Hard Rock cafe. After spending way too much money on lunch and souvenirs we walked the mall for a ways, but Cierra was tired of walking and wanted to ride the bus. So we took it to the end closest to the capitol and walked there.
There was a lot of walking today too. We walked to the capitol building. In the pictures the kids are sitting on a step and it says "one mile above sea level" we then went in and toured the building. Very cool actually. We got to take a tour of the dome and found out some very interesting stuff. They didn't put electricity in that building until the 1930's because they thought it was going to be a fad! So funny! I'm glad it wasn't! In the dome they have huge windows that lift up and has a balcony that goes all the way around with signs every few feet that say what your looking at. They wouldn't let us go onto it though because of construction and falling debris.
We saw some very random stuff too! The large bulls that the girls wanted their picture with and Jesse wanted to slap! (Wild Hogs reference) They just made marijuana legal there so they had a shop ready and waiting for your purchase! They also have a ginormous blue bear that stares into the window of the Convention Center. I don't think there is any great purpose, just a work of art!
The last thing we did on Friday night was go to the traveling Broadway production of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. We love the Mel Brooks movie from the 70's it has light innuendo but hilarious. We were not prepared for the blatant innuendo of this production. It was just downright naughty. But we laughed and enjoyed it anyway and just hoped our kids didn't get it. Jesse did but handled it well and the girls just loved the music. There is a part in the show about an abnormal brain, but Igor refers to is as Abby Normal's brain, we had a couple of guys while we were taking pictures that thought it was so funny they wanted to take her picture! We couldn't resist buying the shirt!! (no pictures of it though, weird!) Well worth the visit!
On Saturday morning we drove from Castle Rock up to the outer parts of the Denver area. We went and saw the temple and the National Cemetery, which I think are so cool. And we went out to Red Rocks Amphitheater, its huge and amazing, and weird that people workout there amongst the tourists! Runners, boxers, people doing situps on the benches. I guess I hate people watching me workout that I think its so weird. After that we drove up the canyon a little farther and looked at Buffalo Bill Cody's Grave-site. Him and his wife are buried there, I think he should have been buried in Cody, WY but whatever. I love the picture of the kids looking out over the valley with the 25cent viewers!!!
After Buffalo Bills grave we drove down into Golden Colorado and had lunch, we decided to pass on the brewery tour, but went to this really cool train museum. We have a grandpa that loves trains and passed on the gene I guess because we love them too! They had a lot of really fun trains to see, I didn't post the pictures of the round house and moving that but it was really cool! Besides the large trains its also home to model railroaders and they had a huge outdoor model railroad set up outside and one inside the museum in a large railroad car. They are a lot of work, but I guess that's why they call it a hobby! Its work you enjoy!
The last thing we did was attend a Rockies Game. It was so much fun, but the thing I hate the most is how much it costs to get a drink! Well worth it I guess we got to keep the collectible cups though!
Family vacation is the greatest. Spending time and making memories with my kids, what could be any better?!?
This fourth of July for the fireworks we went to a house down in the area by Melaluca Field. We have a friend that has an office in a house down there and went to watch them there. The kids had fun lighting their fireworks waiting for the big moment. These turned out alright now I wish I would have had them spell their names! It was an alright spot to watch from, it would have been nicer if there were no trees though! But the traffic was horrendous to get home! We sat in one spot for almost 3o minutes no rolling forward at all! All in all a 5 mile drive took us more than an hour to get home!
For those of you who think my husband forgets my birthday every year, this year he did not! He came home with White roses (my fav's in the rose category!!!), and took us to dinner. We went out to Famous Daves, it was alright, but I think I still prefer Texas Roadhouse for BBQ!
For the 4th of July I have always wanted to organize a bike parade for the kids in our neighborhood, but I am too lazy. But this year for Pioneer day our ward activities committee did just that. The kids could dress up in Pioneer stuff, red white and blue, decorate a bike or wagon or whatever and join in the parade. It was so cute and fun! In Tremonton where I grew up we had a children's 24th of July parade every year it was the highlight of our youth and something we looked forward to every year!
Here is a picture of me, my best friend Kami and my sister Wendy pulling us in our Pioneer garb for the parade!
The next few picts are just those of my girls in theirs!
Isn't life the greatest!!!!
