Top 10 Favorite Things

Actually, it's more of a top 5 list--our 5 favorite things about Colorado and the 5 favorite things about being home.

COLORADO
1. Not having to fix food--we ate at restaurants a lot (not necessarily a good thing for eating healthy) and some of the hotels offered breakfast
2. Visiting family and friends--Will and his family and Kosette and Matt were our main reasons for going to Colorado, all the other adventures were just perks
3. Seeing new places
4. No schedule--it was nice to be able to sleep in and not have to be somewhere at a certain time
5. Not having to work or do school--that was Jonathan and the kids

HOME
1. Having a schedule--I love a schedule. A break is nice every once in awhile, but being back is better
2. Eating well--the first store I went to was Sprouts to stock up on fruits and veggies
3. Having our own space--the kids are back in their own beds and we aren't living out of suitcases
4. Good roads--we know where we are going and all the streets are labeled well
5. Home Sweet Home

Colorado Days 10-13

Saturday morning we drove down to a little town called Evergreen. We met Will and his girls and Matt and Kosette and went for a hike (more like a walk) around the lake. It was a beautiful area. It was a little windy, but a nice day.

Behind us a waterfall going over a dam Here's the whole group
And another silly one of Jonathan
Jonathan got a kick out of this picture
We said goodbye to Will, and the rest of us went to a park for a picnic lunch. We rested and visited, played frisbee, rode on Jonathan's long board and Matt made the kids balloon animals.
Then we went back to the hotel, went swimming, ate dinner, put the kids to bed and watched a scary movie.

We found another ward to attend and got lost again and were late to sacrament. This ward was better at welcoming the kids, but no adults talked to Jonathan or I. It's comforting to know that even if a ward isn't welcoming or friendly the gospel being taught is true and the spirit can still be felt. It also made me more aware of how I welcome visitors or new people in my own ward.

After church we went to the Denver temple. (We got lost again.) Matt and Kosette met us there. We took pictures while we were there, but I can't find them. I'll have to post them later. Then we went back to the hotel for dinner and visiting.

Monday morning we packed up and headed home. We made the trip in two days staying the night in Farmington, New Mexico. The drive was beautiful. It was also VERY windy. Jonathan saw the wheels on the trailer in front of us leave the ground. We got back to Phoenix early Tuesday evening and spent the next day unpacking, doing laundry and other household/yard chores that had gotten out of control while we were gone.

We had a great time and the kids weren't ready to say goodbye Matt and Kosette, but all vacations have to end sometime.

Colorado Day 9

After packing up we headed to Denver to meet Jonathan's sister Kosette and her boyfriend Matt at the Aquarium. (We got lost again) The animals and displays were pretty much the same as what we saw at the zoo, but they had a huge tank with sharks and sea turtles, and there was a pool of sting rays to feed and pet. Even though a lot of the animals were the same, it was neat to see how excited the kids got when they something cool.











After the aquarium we took a walk by the nearby river. It was amazing to me how many people do stuff outside in Colorado. Everywhere we went we saw people biking and running. By the river was no exception. We saw bikers and runners, people doing yoga, some guy who brought his complete drum set and was jamming away, kayakers, kids digging for crawdads and a bunch of people swimming. The kids had fun throwing rocks, wading in the river and visiting with Kosette and Matt.




Then we found a little diner, ate dinner (most of us had breakfast), and went to the hotel for bed. One of the reasons staying a hotel is tough, is the bedtime schedule. Rarely were the kids in bed or asleep before 9:00. Luckily they slept in the next morning. We usually ate breakfast between 9:00 and 10:00. The kids loved the breakfast provided at this hotel. Lots of yummy things to eat and they all got whatever they wanted.

Colorado Days 6-8

Tuesday morning we packed up our stuff and visited Cave of the Winds before heading up to Castle Rock. Cave of the Winds gets its name from the Indians who lived in that area. They said that the god of the wind lived there. We joined a group and took a tour of the cave and learned a little of its discovery.

We saw stalactites, (these have been broken off because people from the original tours took them thinking they would grow back)
stalagmites,
what our tour guide called "cave bacon", (I can't remember the real name)
and lots of other neat stuff





Here's one more silly one
A friend from Jonathan's mission (Will) lives in Castle Rock and we stayed with them for a couple of days. We got there in time to join the family at the pool for swim lessons and play time. It was a fun pool with water slides and stuff for the kids to play on. Wednesday morning we played at the park. Colorado has some cool parks--lots of new toys. Will has 2 girls and the kids had so much fun playing with them. Will wasn't able to get time off like we had originally planned, so we changed our schedule around. We were going to go to the zoo on Saturday, but decided to go on Thursday and hang out with Will on Saturday.

Dyllan threw-up Wednesday night and still wasn't feeling great on Thursday, so we rented a wagon for her to lay down in. By the way, we got lost getting to the zoo. You'll notice that pattern on our trip.
After about 2 pictures the batteries in our camera died. The zoo was probably my favorite day. We got to spend the whole day there, the weather was nice, the kids were happy, and there were a lot of cool animal displays. I loved watching the kids get excited about seeing the animals. Heck, I got excited every time an animal was up and moving around. We saw a tiger eating, a polar bear pacing back and forth behind a wall, a seal swimming, lots of fish, pretty birds, a grizzly bear scratching it's back and a baby zebra. We even heard an elephant trumpet.

Here's the only cute picture from the zoo. It's too bad we didn't bring extra batteries because there were a few Kodak moments.
That was our last day and night in Castle Rock.

Colorado Days 3-5

Our plan for Saturday morning (before another long drive) was to do something active, but by the time we got our stuff packed up and breakfast eaten it was too late. So, we headed for Colorado Springs and found our piece of crap hotel late afternoon. We unpacked and headed out to find a place to eat. We ended up in Manitou Spring--a fun hippie town. There were a lot of tourist shops, a neat park and a small river. Jonathan found a matte store and bought some new matte and a souvenir poro. We found a hole in the wall pizza place and waited for about 40 minutes for our pizza to come. The kids did amazingly well during the wait and the pizza was yummy. During dinner it started raining (actually pouring). Luckily we all had our jackets with us. We ran the few blocks to our van and hurried home to bed.

We found a ward (that didn't meet at 8:00) to attend. Unfortunately (because of stupid map quest and the dumb roads in Colorado) we got lost and were late. We missed half of sacrament meeting. Going to different wards makes us appreciate our own ward. When I took the kids to the primary room to find out where they should go, nobody looked at us or helped us. I had to walk up to the teachers and ask them what age they taught. It's hard enough on kids to be in someplace unfamiliar. Luckily I had a nice sister sit next to me in Relief Society. After church we headed back up to the hippie town and played at the park. It was a beautiful afternoon.

On Monday we visited the Garden of the Gods. We went to the tourist center first and saw some neat displays and learned about the people and animals and plants of the area.

Then we spent the rest of the day hiking around the rock formations. The guy who owned it (Charles Perkins) gave it to Colorado Springs on the condition that it be forever free to the public.
This is Kissing Camels

I can't remember the names of these

This one is Siamese Twins
And this one is Balanced Rock
Here's some fun pictures