Another spontaneous vacation...Colorado!!!

Click to see Colorado!

Craig's company has a site in Denver and wanted him to come for two weeks for training and to meet his new employees/clients. Being that he has traveled so much since September, I was not looking forward to this two weeks on my own again. Fortunately for awesome deals I didn't have too! I found a flight deal for the boys and I for a whopping $237 total charge to my cc!!! We were able to fly in right smack in the middle of his trip and enjoy the weekend with him.

Holy cow what FUN we had on this trip! Craig left on Sunday and headed to Colorado Springs. We flew into Denver on Wednesday (after a four hour flight delay spent sitting in airport!) and spent the night there as Thursday was going to be a busy day. Fortunately I did my research and found a beyond cool restaurant for dinner...it had live cliff diving shows going on while we ate! They had this really neat pool with waterfalls set up right in the center of restaurant and we literally watched people diving off of them throughout our whole meal!

Thursday- First up we had an 8:30am tour of the US Mint to watch money be made. Brian and Matt both have been studying this in various levels and were so excited to se it in person! Luke was just excited to see money being made and the fact that he was missing school!!!  Our tour was awesome and we headed to our next stop...Bronco Stadium! From there we headed to Colorado Springs to meet up with Craig. Along the way we had another stop...the US Air Force Academy. The boys really liked this one...seeing the planes flying overhead, watching a video about how hard it is to be in the Academy and touring the campus was super neat and makes you so thankful for those who do this. Next stop was a ridiculously fun soda fountain for lunch with a 3 story slide attached to side of building and a whole lower floor designed to resemble a children's museum. We had a blast exploring, playing and eating :) Our final destination for Thursday was one of my favorites...the Olympic Training Facility. We had a complete tour of the campus, played on actual Olympic "toys", watched a movie that made us really excited for February, learned how the athletes are invited to stay on the campus and even saw the US men's and women's (I find this to be a weird sport for women!) wrestling teams in training, as well as the current silver medal holder in shooting practicing!

Friday was another day full of adventures...Craig had to work in the am so the kids and I were off to Garden of the Gods, a national park with the neatest rock (ok...giant boulder) formations! My guys were in heaven exploring, climbing trails, climbing rocks and pretending to be ninja warriors! Lunch was at yet another ridiculously fun restaurant...this time an old warplane converted into a restaurant! The kids were over the moon playing in the cockpit, pushing buttons and using the controls while we waited for food! After lunch we met up with Daddy at Cave of the Winds. This is a preserved cave that we took an hour and a half tour of carved right into the side of Pike's Peak! The cave was at 7500ft and it was freezing outside when we arrived but inside was a cozy 54 degrees! All of us enjoyed learning the history behind the cave, the peaks and exploring ourselves through narrow paths, low ceilings and tight curves!!! (And yes, I was the one who called ahead to verify that there in fact NO bats in this cave (much to Craig's embarrassment!!) before we paid for my admission ticket!)

Saturday was another early start...we had a train up the side of Pike's Peak to catch! This was one of our more anticipated events as it is something my Mom did as a kid and still talks about to this day. It did not disappoint!!! We bundled ourselves up well as the top of the peak is at over 14000ft and was expected to be -11 degrees!!! Yep, I said negative!!! Poor Luke literally had on 5 layers, starting with long johns and ending with his ski coat! We made it just shy of the full ride and took our train as high as we could go thanks to 70mph winds at the very top! The only thing we missed seeing was the gift shop/restaurant but both were closed thanks to the insane winds!!! The ride itself was incredible...we had the "good" side of the train and had the neatest views! The kids particularly enjoyed the frozen in midstream waterfalls with icicles over 5ft long! Our train let us out to play for 40 minutes (which was plenty of time in those temperatures!!!) and my guys had a ball cracking ice to touch actual water in the frozen over streams, throwing snowballs and ice at primarily me (the favorite target!) and running through the woods in the snow!  Once we made it back to the bottom we spent a few hours shopping for treasures in the little city below and enjoying a yummy lunch before Saturday's final stop...The North Pole! Yes...you read correct...we went to North Pole, Colorado...a Christmas-themed theme park on the side of the mountain!!! It was 34 degrees out giving us that Christmas feeling and we all loved exploring this adorable park full of rides and entertainment...all Christmas themed!

Sunday was our last day and we had one last adventure...going to the bottom of the Mollie Kathleen gold mine! The kids were so happy...this was only open weather permitting in the winter months and we got lucky! We put on our hardhats, climbed into a 3ftx3ft metal cage, and were lowered 1000ft into the ground (swinging the whole way!) into the mine. It was damp, dreary and the guys in my family loved it! (I would've been happy skipping this one but sadly was not offered the choice!!) Again...there was a bat inquiry made prior to my being locked in a cage!!! After the mine, we headed back down the mountain to North Pole to use the 2'nd day on our tickets.

What a fun, amazing, spontaneous trip we were fortunate enough to have taken! When I look back at how much we have traveled this year with the kids I am truly in shock...we went from coast to coast and a whole lot in between in a very short amount of time!!!