Where We Went...What We Did: Part 2

4.  Bass Pro Shop.
When we first arrived in Denver, we were looking for something fun but cheap/free to kill some time.  The perfect answer was Bass Pro Shop.  It's a fun place to look around and was perfect for a nice walk since we had been in the van for a few hours.  We giggled at this sign as we walked in:

***I don't know why this picture is so small...but it says, "Welcome Fisherman, Hunters, and Other Liars"

5.  The Denver Aquarium. 

WOW.  Besides the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, this is the best Aquarium we've been to.  It could seem a little pricey at $16.99/adult and $9.99/child plus $7.00 for parking, but it was well worth it.  (***NOTE***When we went up to the counter to purchase the tickets, they had this huge banner that made it look like there was only 1 ticket option for around $22.00/person.  NOT TRUE.  That includes a short movie and face painting or something like that.  There IS an admission-only ticket.)

There are MANY, MANY tanks and exhibits to look through.  We were there for over 3 hours.

They also have animals besides fish, eels, starfish, etc.  There are tigers, otters, snakes, frogs, and MOST importantly (to The Girl), MERMAIDS!

The Girl could NOT keep her eyes off of "Ariel".  During this little show that they do, there are speakers in the room where you watch.  A scripted dialogue comes on, and the mermaids in the tank mouth all the words so it looks like they're talking to you.  The mermaid appearances are every 15 minutes from 10am-2pm.   

After the show, the mermaids come out of the tank and you can get your picture taken with them!  And the coolest part:  it was F-R-E-E!  They have their own photagrapher there and you can buy a picture in their "special paper frame", but they also let you take your own pictures. 

In the picture above, one of the divers was playing "rock, paper, scissors" with Boy 1 through the glass.

They also had 2 really cool touch pools.  One of them had different varieties of starfish and horseshoe crabs.  The other was a large tank with Stingrays.  You could touch them, and if you wanted to purchase little cartons of fish, you could hand feed them.

6.  Pagosa Springs, CO.

Pagosa Springs is a sweet little town known for it's abundance of natural hot springs.  We stopped here because it was a good 1/2 way point for us between Denver and Albuquerque.  They have a well-known resort with over 20 different soaking pools.  You do not have to stay at the resort to soak in their pools.  It is $22/adults and $14/kids (children 2 and under are free with a paying adult).  It was our intention to go to the pools, however, we got into town around 6 pm and no matter what time you enter the pools, it's still full price. 

So instead, we walked along the San Juan River and explored the natural hot springs along the way.

And, of course, the kids' favorite thing to do...throw rocks in the river.

FOOD ON THE TRIP: We all know that one of the most expensive things on a trip can be the food.  It's not like you can go without it, so we had to figure out how to save money.  We brought a cooler with lunch meat, cheese, apples, grapes, drinks, etc., as well as a box with snacks.  We made sure the hotels we were at served a free continental breakfast.  Whenever we were out and about, we brought our own snacks, so we didn't have to pay $1.50 for an individual-sized bag of chips.  We ate picnic-style lunches with our cooler food pretty much everyday.  We would find a nice park, let the kids run and play, and have lunch together.  We usually ate dinner at a restaurant.  Sometimes it was a nice place (like the restaurant in the Denver Aquarium), but more often is was Mc Donald's, Wendys, or the like.

Well...this is the second and last re-cap of our family vacay.  If you have any questions about our trip, where we went, what we did, etc. just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you!

Colorado: Summer 2012 Shutterfly Album

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Where We Went...What We Did...Part 1

As promised, this is my first blog post about where we went on the first half of vacay and my synopsis of each.  The second half will come soon.  If anyone is planning a Colorado trip, this info may be helpful!

I have 3 kiddos, so I tried to be prepared ahead of time, in terms of trip-planning.  I had an itinerary, hotel reservations, mileage and driving time from place to place, and printed information about each place we were going to.  All of this info I put in a 3 ring binder to keep handy in the mini-van.  I also put empty sheet protectors in my binder to add any pamphlets, ticket stubs, or other memorabilia from the trip.  This way it's all in one place!  (Of course, with the fires in Colorado Springs, we had to re-vamp everything at the last minute, but we did it!)  Our final itinerary looked like this:

Saturday, June 30^th-Leave for Durango/Arrive in Durango
***Albuquerque to Durango:  3 hours 42 minutes (215 miles)

Sunday, July 1^st- Leave Durango/Drive through Silverton & Ouray, Arrive in Rifle, CO

***Durango to Ouray:  1 hour 49 minutes (71 miles)

***Ouray to Rifle, CO: 3 hours 6 minutes (178 miles)

Monday, July 2^nd- Glenwood Springs Caverns
***$22.00/adults $18.00/kids

Tuesday, July 3^rd-Hike in Rifle Falls, CO.  and Cave Exploring
***$7.00 for 1 Day State Park Pass

Wednesday, July 4^th-Leave Glenwood Springs/Drive to Denver:  2 hours 51 minutes (157 miles)

Thursday, July 5^th-Denver Aquarium/Casa Bonita

***Aquarium info:  $16.99/adults     $9.99/kids

***Mermaids: 10 am-3pm every 15 minutes/ Parking: $7.00 per vehicle

Friday, July 6^th-Leave Denver/Drive to Pagosa Springs: 5 hours 25 minutes (277 miles)
***Walk the San Juan River--natural hot springs are along the trail.

Saturday, July 7^th-Leave Pagosa Springs:  Drive back to Albuquerque

***Pagosa Springs to Albuquerque:  4 hours (214 miles)

MY NOTES ABOUT EACH PLACE:

1.  Durango-Beautiful city!  We ate lunch at a park and took a walk along the Animas River.  We did not ride the Durango/Silverton train for cost reasons, however, it is something we would LOVE to do, eventually.  There is free Trolley service in and near the downtown area.  Durango's downtown area has sweet little shops with lots of fun things to look at.  We also hung out at the train station and got to see one of the trains come into the station.

2.  From Durango we drove through Silverton and Ouray.  This drive has incredible views!!! 

Be on the lookout for rivers and waterfalls along the way.  They're fun stops.  We stopped at a really neat yellow river (from oxidation) that wasn't even marked along the road.  The kids had a great time exploring and playing in the water. 

Silverton is a very small community.  There is a small downtown area, but the highlight was watcing another train come into the station.  Very fun!

The drive to Ouray has a stretch named "The Million Dollar Highway".  There are various theories as to why it's called The Million Dollar Highway that you can read about HERE if you're interested.   This drive can be a bit scary...hairpin turns and often, no guardrails.  But it's an absolutely gorgeous drive!  Take your time and do it if you can!  Ouray is another quaint city with beautiful views along the way. 

While in Ouray, we went to Cascade Falls.  It's free to take the hike, which is steep at times, but not arduous.  When we reached the falls, the kids climbed and explored for quite awhile.

3.  After driving through Silverton and Ouray, we spent a few days in Rifle, CO, which is about 20 miles from Glenwood Springs.  We had originally planned to go to the hot springs pools in Glenwood Springs, but when it's 95 degrees outside and the hot springs pools are 90-104 degrees, it didn't sound so relaxing.

We did go to the Glenwood Springs Caverns.  SUPER FUN!  To get my kids excited about caves ahead of time, I had them watch "Journey Into Amazing Caves".  It's an educational IMAX movie and free on Netflix!  I use it when teaching Science--it's informative and interesting for kids!  There are a couple of different tours your can take.  We did the more "Family Friendly" one. It starts with a tram ride up to the top of the mountain where there is a mini-amusement park.  You can pay for all-day ride passes, but we just did the cave tour.  It's a little over an hour long and goes into 2 seperate cave areas.  Even my 3 year old was able to keep up on this tour. 

We heard about a neat hike from a local lady, and since we decided not to go to the hot springs pools, we did this instead.  Rifle Falls has 3 beautiful waterfalls side-by-side.  You can hike all around them, up the sides, behind them, and above to see where they begin.  There are caves all along the path.  Luckily, the local told us to bring flashlights, and we are so glad she did!  Some of the caves had cracks only big enough for my kids to fit through, but they thought it was cool to go in by themselves anyways. :)

Be on the look-out for my next blog post with info about the second half of our vacation. :)

Vacation.

I've been on vacation for the past week, and it was amazing!  My parents came into town for my graduation, then we went on a week long vacation to Colorado.  My intention was to blog about what we did each day while we were gone, but the hotel internet was not-so-great, and we were so busy, I probably wouldn't have had time to do it anyways.  So this is a re-cap!   

***(I will be posting another blog about each of the places we went and my thoughts on each for other families who may be thinking about going to Colorado--kid-friendly, interesting for adults, how old should kids be, time you should allow to enjoy each place, how much each activity costs, etc.)

But until then, here are just a few of the highlights of our vacation:

The Girl was mesmerized by the mermaids at the Denver Aquarium.

Here is The Girl, who is enthralled with the mermaids after watching them swim around.

The Fam at Glenwood Springs Caverns.

The boys in Durango, CO.

Here is Darrin with the boys after rock climbing at Casacde Falls in Ouray, CO.

This is The Girl and I cave exploring on one of our hikes in Rifle, CO.

The boys having fun exploring caves in Rifle, CO.

Rifle Falls, CO

The kiddos enjoying their favorite past-time in Pagosa Springs, CO:  throwing rocks into the river:

Because of the fires in Colorado Springs, we had to change and adjust the majority of our vacation plans at the last minute.  We had a *FANTASTIC* time with Grandma and Papa, and made life-long memories. 

Be looking for further blog posts with my thoughts on each place we went!

Fast Forward --->

This weekend we attended a wedding in Nevada.  My husband performed the wedding ceremony and The Girl was the Flower Girl.  She LOVES to dress up, get her hair done, and wear *a little bit of* make-up.  The wedding was at 6:00, but we needed to be ready well before that for pictures with the photographer, which meant = NO NAP.  That's a quick fix:

Don't judge me.  :)

Watching my little Girl all dresssed up as a miniature bride, put my mom-brain on a 20 year fast forward.  I'll admit it, I was a little emotional...what will her husband be like?  Where will her wedding be?  Will she be nervous?  My thoughts raced, so to distract myself from getting too emotional, I snapped pictures like crazy!

 This is one of my absolute FAVORITE pictures of The Girl:

Watching Daddy perform the ceremony:

Could she be any cuter???

Not that I'm partial or anything...  :)

She was being a bit of a goof ball.

Here's The Girl and, who she kept calling, "Her Prince".  AKA:  The Ringbearer.

"I need to tell you a secret!"

I think I'm in trouble in 20 years.  But in the words of Scarlett, "I won't think about that today.  I'll go crazy if I do.  I'll think about that tomorrow."