Summer Vacation

Today I unpacked my new keyboard for the computer so in celebration of the rediscovery of the ability to type I feel it is time to post vacation pictures.

In the early part of August we packed everyone into the car and drove for Colorado Springs.  All the times we spent in Colorado growing up we just drove through this area. It turns out there are quite a few things to see.

I imagine this is the most photographed sign in Colorado.

We managed to navigate our way into Woodland Park with only one child losing their afternoon snack all over the car seat. So that evening we took in the Cave of the Winds.

The girls were fascinated by the cave and Gabe put up with it for a while. Until…well he decided he didn’t any more. Fortunately the tour wasn’t too long and we saw a lot of impressive cave formations.

The next day we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Apparently they are well known for their giraffes and you can interact with them quite a bit. The staff hands out pieces of lettuce which is a favorite food of these long-legged critters and you feed the lettuce to the giraffe.

At one point in the day we stumbled upon some face painting teenage docents and Laura

and Malissa availed themselves (read begged.)

By the middle of the afternoon everyone was hot and completely exhausted so we headed back to the hotel.

Once everyone had hydrated and rested (it turns out being rested is a big part of surviving a family vacation)  we headed out for Garden of the Gods.

Erosion has created quite the fun place for the kids to scramble around.

The next day was off to Santa’s workshop. This was completely new to me but I have to say I really liked it.

The rides were aimed more at the Laura’s age group (it was a good thing Karla had a growth spurt this summer because she was just big enough to participate some.) But there were some things there for the older ones to ride as well.

I’m not sure how Megan squeezed in but she managed!

Once she got over her shyness Karla had a ball!

After lunch we had to call it quits since it began to rain on us and was showing no signs of stopping. Just a note on the rain.  It rained every…single…day. But we never encountered the torrential rain Colorado is cleaning up from right now.

Also it was during the rain that we realized what an awesome hotel we were staying at.  We were staying at the Eagle Fire Lodge and the initial attraction is it had the capacity to sleep all of us in the suite and the kitchenette had a pretty functional kitchen with room to move around comfortably. But the best part about this place was the games they had in the room.

There were a whole pile of them such as Lincoln Logs but also Monopoly, PayDay and a whole slue of other games and we played every one when ever we had some down time or were hiding out from the rain. 

The next day we headed home to dry out. Hope you all enjoyed seeing a little bit of our vacation!