Happy Anniversary

Our trip to Colorado was in celebration of Terry and Marie's 40th anniversary. We all had a great time and are happy that they wanted to celebrate their anniversary with the family. I hope that the trip was a memorable for them as it was for us. We love you!

Colorado Springs - Day 5

Our last family day in Colorado was spent at the Garden of the Gods and the North Pole.

Some of us wanted to see the Garden of the Gods so we decided to stop there first and do a family picture. The view was wonderful.

After family picture time, we went to the North Pole - the place that the girls couldn't wait to get to, especially McKenzie. The visit to the North Pole was fun and at a pace for these girls. McKenzie loved riding the rides, a lot of them she could ride by herself, some she needed James or I to ride with her. James got to ride most of the rides, as she wanted to ride with her daddy. One of her favorite rides was the ferris wheel which was at the top of the mountain. She was not too sure of Santa but did inform him that she wanted a pony for Christmas.

Colorado Springs - Day 4

Today we found ourselves visiting Seven Falls. We weren't sure what we were going to find but it was worth the trip and admission into the park. There were two areas that you could go up and see the view. One allowed us to go up in an elevator - you know we took advantage of that. Had we walked up that area, it would have been 185 steps. The other area, where you walked up by the waterfall, had 224 steps. McKenzie and James made it half way. Keith, Tracie, Dylan and Micah made it to the very top.

After this adventure we parted ways with Keith and his family and went to lunch and to visit the Money Museum. This was a very neat experience to see the money from different times in this country as well as coins from around the world. This was a little over McKenzie's head, but I think that she would be interested when she is older.

Colorado Springs - Day 3

Today's activity involved the cog rail up to the summit of Pike's Peak. McKenzie was super excited to be able to ride a train to the top of a mountain. All I can say was this was awesome and the view was breathtaking. I hope you enjoy the pictures from today. You will notice that the trip started off with a very cloudy, foggy day, but as we got up the mountain, it became and very beautiful, sunny and clear day.

Colorado Springs - Day 2

Today we did a lot. Here are all of the places we visited today: Ghost Town Museum, Cave of the Winds, the Outlet mall and Focus on the Family. After all of these activities we came back to meet up with the rest of the family and we all went swimming. To top off the evening, we had a wonderful dinner and did thank you/anniversary gifts for Terry and Marie.

At the Ghost Town Museum, we got to see a replica of a mining town and pan for gold. This was not quite the experience we were hoping for but McKenzie had fun trying to pan for gold (there wasn't any gold to pan for).

Next stop was the Cave of the Winds. We basically made it to the gift shop and the entrance. McKenzie was not sure if she wanted to go through the cave, so we looked in the gift shop and then did some more panning at the entrance. At the cave entrance, they gave people to opportunity to buy bags of dirt to pan for either gems, fossils or arrowheads. McKenzie chose to pan for gems. This was her favorite activity for the day.

The outlet mall adventure was for a trip to Harry and Davids and whatever else we could find. McKenzie liked the idea of going shopping as she wanted to get new shoes. She is very much a shoe girl. I needed new dress sandals, which I found one pair and McKenzie found a new pair of flip flops.

On our way back to the house we staying at, we stopped off at the Focus on the Family Welcome Center. McKenzie liked visiting Whit's End - from Adventures in Odyssey. They have a great area to play in. McKenzie was not quite tall enough to go down the 3-story slide, but I don't know if she would have even gone down the slide.

Colorado Springs - Day 1

To celebrate my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary, we are having a family vacation in Colorado Springs. We caravaned up here from Amarillo on Sunday. We are staying in a beautiful home that is 3 stories. The girls are loving going up and down the stairs - the adults on the other hand are not so sure about all of the stairs, especially after the first day activities.

For day 1, we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. McKenzie's favorite part of the zoo adventure was getting to pet and feed the giraffes. We knew awhile back that we would all be going to this zoo, so we have been showing McKenzie the webcams from the zoo of the giraffes - she could hardly wait.

Here are some of the pictures from the zoo: