Colorado

We had a wonderful summer vacation this year!  At the end of June our family along with my mom and dad loaded up our two cars and headed to Colorado!  We left early on Monday morning and drove to Levelland where we stayed with my cousin Carrie at a nice half way point.  The next morning we made the rest of the trip to Denver, Colorado.  Our first stop was the Botanic Gardens.

 They had a hill that we were told was great for the kids to roll down.  They didn't quite understand what we were telling them to do or were surprised that we were telling them to roll in the grass so grandpa quickly demonstrated.  Jillian eventually tried it but grandpa rolled much better and faster

 Checking out the fish

 They had a little kid area on the top of the parking garage and the kids enjoyed playing in the water

 We stayed at a hotel and the next morning we left and drove up Mt. Evans.  This is Echo Lake at the bottom of the mountain

 About 3/4 of the way up and the view is already gorgeous!

 Summit Lake with the melting ice from the mountain

 view from the top

 On our way to Colorado Springs we stopped at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and it had beautiful stained glass windows

 We made it to Colorado Springs where we had rental a little cottage in a quiet neighborhood that was perfect for us.  The next morning we took the Cog train up Pikes Peak and again saw beautiful scenery.  The view from Pikes Peak inspired the song America the Beautiful

The best part about taking the train up Pikes Peak was not the view though, it was watching the kids on the train.  They loved it!  On the way up Jillian kept looking out the window and on the way back down Grayson joined in and got a little brave by standing on the arm rail and leaning on the window.

Our next stop was Garden of the Gods.  We drove through most of it while Grayson napped but he woke up just in time for some pictures at the Balance Rock

 Next stop was 7 falls and James and I braved the 224 stops to get to the top and man did it take a LOT of effort for this out of shape mama!

 It was beautiful though and well worth it

 The next morning we took a tour of the Olympic Training Center

 Then we went to Santa's North Pole.  It was a wonderful place for young kids and Jillian enjoyed riding all of the rides and Grayson enjoyed a few rides as well as a nap in the stroller

 Our last stop was a mine tour where we went down underground to tour and old gold mine.  We even got to wear our lovely hard hats and provided jackets.

We had a wonderful trip and hope to go back again to see even more things because unfortunately our time there was too short