our colorado vacation

hello blog friends. it's been a while - or at least it seems like for me. i haven't posted a blog in almost 2 weeks. we went to colorado for vacation 9 days. there are a LOT of pictures in this post because when you take over 500 pictures it's hard to whittle it down in blog post. so sit back and relax.

it was the best vacation we've ever taken for many reasons. one reason was the officer. he read an article a while back that talked about "vacation dad". it said dads should be the one having the most fun on vacation. every member of the family should look at him and see him having a blast. he read this months ago and it had an affect on him. when we go on vacation, there are always lots of things to do and he can get lost in the where are we going, what do we need, do we have everything we need, and the where are we going next stuff. the officer was determined to enjoy each moment.

the officer has been to colorado many times on dirt bike trips. we were going to do some new things, but the officer was also going to take us to a lot of the places he rode his dirt bike. we were all looking forward to this.

the other reasons it was the best vacation ever was all the neat, different things we got to do. we got to do a lot of this with other family members, so it's great to have those memories to share.

okay this is going to be long - just for the sheer volume of pictures i'm going to include so i'll try to just tell you briefly what we did. unless there's a funny story to go with it! :)

we started our road trip last wednesday, july 8th. we drove straight to colorado springs. there were many stops along the way. we stopped at a mcdonalds for breakfast and lunch (and then decided we would not eat there again for the rest of the trip - and we didn't). during the lunch, i saw girls (junior high) with their hair in pigtails with little boys character underwear on their heads. their pigtails were pulled through the leg holes - is this something new i don't know about? i haven't ever seen this before - maybe it was a lamar, colorado thing. anyhow, we stayed two nights in a hotel and went sightseeing.

this is the view from our hotel room - beautiful huh? it only gets better!

thursday morning, we got up early to drive to the top of pikes peak. the drive is an hour long to the peak. it was 43 degrees at the peak. cold!!! the kids were wearing their heavy coats, hat and mittens. as soon as you stepped out of the car, the wind took your breath away. when you are at the top and see the view, you are immediately in awe of the beauty that surrounds you that God has made. yet, He cares about us and our insignificant little lives more than all of it.

we went into the gift shop to purchase a souvenir and taste the famous pikes peak donuts. my daughter loved the donuts - you can tell by the look in her eyes.

when you drive down pikes peak, there are several places you can stop. they have gift shops, restaurants, and places to hike around. my son was very excited because he got his very first pocketknife and got to play in the snow a little bit.

we stopped at toward the bottom of the mountain called crystal reservoir. it was very pretty. the edge of the bank's sand sparkled like gold and the water was COLD!

after pikes peak, we headed to the manitou cliff dwellings. it was amazing the see the homes the indians carved out of the mountainside. we were able to see a few indians dance.


after the manitou cliff dwellings, we drove through the garden of the gods. it was neat, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and i think we took the shortened version. we were too tired to go back and figure it out.


on friday morning, we packed up and headed to buena vista, colorado. we were going to camp a couple of nights at a KOA. it was a nice campground. the KOA had a playground, basketball and volleyball court, rec room, laundry, nice, clean showers/bathrooms, and lots of places to hike. once a day an army of red ants would march their way through our campsite - never bothering us - to pick up some dirt and go back to their camp.

before we came on vacation, we bought a lot of camping gear, including lanterns. however, we realized on the way home we never used the lanterns because we were always in bed by 8 p.m. - way before it ever got dark.


it rained while we were there. nothing like sitting in a tent for an hour trying to find something to entertain ourselves with. we listened to the officer make up stories about big ol' jerry. when we got out of the tent we were rewarded with a rainbow.

when we left on saturday to go sightseeing, we noticed about 2 miles from the campground was a corrections facility. the officer just laughed it off - that's when i knew for sure vacation dad was there! :)










the officer took us to one of the places he's ridden on his dirt bike. it was an old mining town called st. elmos. they have chipmunks you can feed. they sold black sunflower seeds for .50 cents. the kids were very skittish at first, but they warmed up to the chipmunks quickly.

isn't the chipmunk thing the neatest??? it was one of my favorite things about the whole vacation!

on the way home, we stopped by the side of the road to take a picture at cascade falls.

the officer took us to cottonwood pass and taylor lake - another place he likes to ride. as we left, we saw the rain moving in. it rained on our way home.

on sunday we left the KOA and headed to southfork, colorado. the officer's parents had rented a place for the week. the officer's two uncles, a sister & her family, and his parents would all be there at some point in the week. the officer's brother-in-law brought his motorcycle so everyone got a turn taking a ride. i even road it around the area with the officer. it was my first time since elementary school on a motorcycle. didn't get any pictures of me though.




on monday, we went hiking at hanson's mill. we also tried to take a one lane dirt road to wheeler's geological site, but had to turn around after a mile or so. it was just too rough on our cars.

anytime we hiked, my daughter loved picking flower to give to me. when it started to sprinkle she said, "everybody raise your flowers in the air so they can get some rain!"


on tuesday, my sister-in-law made an appointment for the kids to ride on a horse in a corral. when we drove to the location, it was a little scary. the people lived in a tent and the place looked a little run down. however, the man and woman were so very, very sweet. they were christians. it was a nice little lesson on not judging people by their appearance. when we were getting ready to leave, they asked how many were in our group and handed out little gideon Bibles to everyone. when the some of the adults said it was okay, they didn't need one, the man replied, "everyone who comes here leaves with a Bible."

the horse's name was alvin. he was about 17 years old. i think my daughter had the best time riding the horse. she had the biggest smile on her face the whole time!

we also decided to hike to the big fir tree. it's 66 inches in diameter. the hike to the tree was 1/3 of mile uphill. it was a long hike, even for the people used to being 10,000 ft. above sea level. well, my son did ask why everyone was moving so slow.











i loved this next picture of the officer and his sister. you can definitely tell they have kids. the officer is wearing a pink camo backpack (the one with the least amount of toys to dump out to use) and his sister is wearing her son's marvel comic backpack.


everyone went rock hunting later that afternoon, but i stayed back to relax.










on wednesday, we rented a jeep to drive the alpine loop in lake city. the officer had ridden this on his dirt bike and he wanted to take us on the loop. we drove to lake city to pick up the jeep. the jeep did not have windows in the back so the kids had to bundle up! it took us three hours to drive up the mountain and down to silverton. we ate lunch in silverton and then headed back to lake city - another three hours. we had to drive at the most 10 mph. sometimes, it was 5 mph. my daughter said, "dad, a wasp just passed us!" my son quoted journey to the center of the earth, "a goat just passed us in the passing lane!"

we saw a herd of sheep 12,000 ft. above sea level. last thing i expected to see there!

the kids fell alseep right before we got to silverton and the last half. although it was very, very bumpy, it was also relaxing.


you can see the roads on the side of the mountain we had to drive up.

this is engineer pass. it was on the last half of the trip. it was the officer's favorite spot. we also stopped at the hard tack mine. you could tour a mine that went 400 ft. into the mountain.

we were going to drive home on thursday, but the officer's sister told us about the great sand dunes in alamosa, colorado. we decided to go since we were so close. it's very strange to see a virtual desert at the base of the mountains. it was very pretty and very hot. the sand can get up to 140 degrees in the summer. it's very deceptive. when you first get there there's a little creek you can play in. it's nice and cool. then you see all the sand dunes and take off walking. it's not so bad at first; however, the sand gets deeper and hotter! we walked to the base of the dunes and our feet were burning! the officer and my son walked to the second dune. they rolled down the dune. it's also deceptive because it doens't look like it's a long way because it's all sand, but it really, really is!

you made it to the end!!!!! thanks for hanging in there! that's a lot of hiking, sightseeing, traveling in 9 days. i think the total miles in the car was just over 2,100 miles. the kids did great in the car - thank goodness for portable dvd players and leapsters! :) most of stuff we did was free - except the jeep rental. it was all beautiful. the officer and i both agreed it was the best vacation we've ever taken.