Owen and the train

Like I said before Owen loved the train ride. He had been waiting all day to do the train. Kept saying "choo-choo" and "train". Early afternoon we finally went. He did great on the way but the way back he fell asleep. It was pretty cute!!!

I forgot that you can't flip your camera when you are taking a video. I think you can still get the jest of it.

Colorado Springs-Day 3

Royal Gorge- Free (kinda)

We were going to go and do the whole thing. The bridge, tram, park everything. But Maddison started flipping out the day before we after Brent mentioned that the bridge was held by wire. Not a good start. So all that night and the next morning was not good. She thought she was going to throw up in the car. Not sure how much was actually "car sickness" as making her self sick w/worry. We kept telling her she didn't have to go across the bridge, that there were other things to do. So we got there and she was still scared. Garrett said he would go across the bridge but not do the tram/train thing that goes across the royal gorge. So we decided that since neither kid wanted to do anything we were not going to pay. So we did the free overlook and took some back roads/trails around the picnic areas and got a few shots. We also did Bucksin Joe's. They had a train ride that took us to the opposite side of the gorge. Kids had a good time at Bucksin joe's watching the street fights and magic show. Owen loved the train ride!

Royal Gorge

Royal Gorge

View from the scenic outlook. You can see the bridge in background

We had an hour ride back to cabin after Bucksin Joe's. Owen took a LONG and much needed nap and stayed asleep at the cabin. Kids and I went swimming. We ordered pizza that night and hung out at the cabin. Another good day!

Colorado Springs-Day 2

Seven Falls- This place was a little disappointing for me as I THOUGHT (shows you how much I know) that there were seven DIFFERENT Falls throughout the park that you could hike/walk to you. That would be a BIG no. So I saw where there were seven "little falls" all on the big one. The funnest part about this was walking up all the stairs. We did it and it was fun. Kudos to Brent for carrying O up and down ALL the stairs. Pictures are backwards. Sorry, might want to start at the bottom of post and work your way back up.

Base of Seven Falls

Brent and the kids at the top of first staircase overlooking seven falls. We did take the elevator down!

View from the look out of Seven Seven Falls

Owen throwing one of many fits! Not wanting to go up the steps. I think it says 196 steps. But didn't really want to ride in the backpack either!

The start of the adventure.

After 7 falls we went back and checked out of hotel. Grabbed some lunch and then checked into the cabin. First off let me say this cabin was one I found on short notice via internet and through CO Springs Chamber office. As Brent was driving closer to Manitou Springs, our little navagition "lady" kept saying we were getting closer. The buildings were not looking good. I mean they were scary. You know the ones that say 50 bucks/week scary. I'm starting to panic thinking I've made a huge mistake. Can we get out of the minimum 3 night stay??? Can we just cancel, it before 4pm? But low and behold between 2 "sites" there set the Timber Ridge Lodges. They were only 2 miles from our orginal hotel. Very nicely located. Still close to everything. Very relieved. Our cabin had 1 bedroom w/queen bed, pull out futon in L.R. and 2 bathrooms. Plus a little kitchenette, with 2 burner stove fridge, microwave. Again not fancy, but for the price, fit our needs. Our neighbors were from Wellsville, KS (by lawrence) and then the next 2 cabins down were people from KS too. It even had a pool.(which was FREEZING) and a little playground. We got settled into the cabin, again O needed a nap, and the kids went swimming. That night we went to the FLYING W Ranch. (this was not cheap either, but fun) This was a pioneer town again with different buildings set up as a town, BUT you got supper w/your ticket. A BIG Supper. All 3 kids got the same amount as the adults. It was bbq chicken or beef, HUGE baked potatoe, baked beans, homemade biscuit, homemade chunky applesauce, spice cake and coffee tea water. Served all on tin plates and cups. Very cool, They feed an average of 1000 people a night. I think they said there were 800 people the night we were there. (I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of that), Plus they had a ranch band that played after supper. We didn't last through that. A very good day was had by all!

Colorado Springs - Day 1

We are back from our vacation to Colorado Springs. We had a great time. I would recommend going as there was a ton of stuff to do, but I also recommend bringing your cash, because things were expensive. Especially the touristy places. Some worth the money and some not. I promise I won't give you a minute by minute detail of every fight, scratch, french fry, snoring, wiggling, crying, fighting, arguing, breath taking, cold, hot, cabin, hotel, pool, car ride detail of our vacation. Don't get me wrong we had an awesome time, but in all honesty it took us a couple of days to get used to each other. Brent didn't realize that each of our children have little quirks...like G-likes to hop, jump, skip, dance any down time he has. He seiously can't stand still for more than 10 seconds. He had a tendency to wander, thus causing a little friction. M-stays w/us, but tends to be a little dramatic and screeches A LOT. O-well, he's 2 and you can only imagine the melt downs, screaming fits that we incurred. I won't blame it all on the kids, because Brent and I had our moments too, but only seconds really.... BUT AGAIN-IT REALLY WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. Owen did really well in the car. On the way out Wed. afternoon we only had to stop 3 times and on the way home only 2 times. Made pretty good time.

Day 1-Garden of the God's (FREE!). We took pictures and walked around. We also went back Sunday afternoon and did the back half of the park. It was really neat and we had such a beautiful morning. I also recommend going fairly early as peopel started coming around 10 to 11am. Tons of biking and walking trails too.

scenic pictures

Owen, Maddison, & Garrett at Balanced Rock-explanation: Owen trying to hold up the rock!

Brent back-packed Owen a lot on walking and hiking. So some pics don't have O because Brent was either taking the picture or Brent didn't want to be in the picture, but mostly because it was too much effort to take O in and out of the backpack. I forgot to crop the gawking sight seer in the back ground.

More pics of the kids!More scenic pics. I'm know all of these rocks have names, but Brent isn't here standing over my shoulder telling me. If you really must know, I'll find out for you!

We also did Focus on the Family play land-which was free too. We didn't however go on the tour of all the buildings. Just did the kid stuff. We were going to go to a castle but missed the tour time and decided to hit Rockledge Ranch-pioneer town. It was neat, a little hokie, but ended up being the cheapest place the whole vacation. We toured the 2 orginal farm houses and watched a blacksmith, who made us a "C". We also saw a "farm wife" making jelly. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of those. We then ended up back at the hotel for naps and kids to swim in the pool at our hotel. I will say. the pool was small, but by far the WARMEST indoor pool we've ever encountered. They had no hot tub, but none was needed as it was nearly as warm as one. Kids LOVED it, and nice for O, who isn't a huge fan of cold water.