Casa Bonita

In Denver, we went out to Casa Bonita. It's all about the atmosphere. I think everyone had a great time. We definately had the best seat in the restaurant. All the kids got to meet the cliff diver when he climbed up the rocks to the table.

The cliff diver trying to give Cooper a high-five, Cooper doesn't want any part of it.

Still working on the juggling.

Denver

We loved having Grandma, Christy & Cooper come to see us in Denver. We had a great time.

We went to the Children's Museum & great fun was had by all. Bonus points to Kelly & Christy for spending so much time in the recycle construction area helping Josh build a birdhouse, helping Nathaniel saw wood & Christy building a tractor.

Other Stuff

Our hotel was directly across the street from Focus on the Family. They have a great area for kids. The kids would have loved to have stayed here longer.

They had a 2 story slide that went from inside to the outside & ended inside in another part of the building, very fun.

Caleb haning out in our hotel room.

Garden of the Gods

Went to Garden of the Gods. It was pretty warm that day. We started off on the main path but there were alot of people.

We went off on a dirt path & didn't see any other people. It was nice & we found many cool places like this rock.

Saw some climbers.

We'd rather be at the pool, mom.

Colorado Springs

We spent a couple of hours driving around town trying to find a Vitamin Cottage or Whole Foods store. Our navigation system kept directing us to ones that were still under construction or had closed, it got so ridiculuous that all we could do was laugh.

After we checked into the hotel we drove to Woodland Park to the Dinosaur Resource Center.

Josh took this picture of Dad, grrr...very scary.

They had a kids corner to dig for fossils, make fossil rubbings & feel dinosaur poop. Here is the dino that Josh made with magnets, Kate is deciding what to name it.

It was neat to be able to see in their Paleo lab and look at the exhibts in progress.

Goodbye Canon City

We spent some time at a nice park right by the train depot. It has a wide bridge that crosses the Arkansas river.

On to Colorado Springs...

Royal Gorge Park

Next it was on to the Royal Gorge Park. The park is on both sides of the gorge.

We went on the longest incline railway all the way to the bottom of the canyon. They pack you in like cattle, the trip down made the children a little nervous.







At the bottom we saw some people rafting that had 2 people go overboard. Because of the sheer cliffs the 2 guides were having to do some rock scrambling to find them.

They did get to them and here they are emerging from a tunnel in the cliff wall to a cheer from the crowd on our side of the gorge. The other folks nervously waiting.
The children especially enjoyed the carousel, petting zoo & burro rides. Funny, we could have done all those at a local fair.

The aerial tramway across the gorge was also fun. We walked across the bridge first & took the tram on the way back, much faster. Here's a picture from the tram. Kelly's waving for the camera because the kids refused to go out on this platform.
Other pictures.