A Wonderful Vacation!!

We had a really great time!! I took tons of pics, I'll get them uploaded to my family site later today and then share them all with you!!

Thursday: We left here about 7:00 that morning, went through NM and on up to CO. We stopped at a little town called Fort Garland and the girls got to ride horses. Then we went to Alamosa and went to the Colorado Gator Farm. Tons of aligators, snakes, all sorts of creepy stuff that the girls just loved!! Then from there we went on up to Salida and Monarch Pass. Showed the girls the place that we camped at several years ago with my Grandparents. Then went to the top of the Continental Divide. Spent the night in Salida that night, took the girls to the park downtown and watched the guys kayaking (sp???) in the rapids. That was fun! Then went back to the hotel and they went swimming.

Friday: Got up early and headed to the Royal Gorge. Got and walked across the bridge. Then we rode the thing across the RG, then rode to the bottom of it. Went to the petting zoo there, drove through the wildlife park they have. Then drove across the bridge on our way out. After that we went to Buckskin Joe's Frontier Town. The girls loved that, we watched the gun fight, went in all the building and stores, took a horse drawn trolley ride and ate lunch in the saloon there. lol Then we took the train ride from there and it went around the Royal Gorge. After we finished that up, we took the scenic byway drive to Cripple Creek. Then from there took the other scenic byway drive to Colorado Springs. We even got to see a bear running in the wild, I tried to take pic, but he was too quick! loll When we got to CO Springs, we went up the Helen Hunt Falls, that was beautiful!! I love waterfalls! lol Then we got our hotel room. We stayed at the same place we stayed at in March and got the Family Suite. It was a huge room with another bedroom, so Ed and I had our own room with a king size bed and the girls each had a queen size bed of their own!! We stayed there Friday and Saturday night!

Saturday we got up and went to The North Pole, the girls got to ride the rides and we shopped in all the stores. They of course didn't want to go sit on Santa's lap though! :( They are just growing up too fast!! Then we left there and drove to the top of Pikes Peak. It was great going up, a little cloudy, but not too bad. Coming down, the clouds rolled in and it started raining! Needless to say, I was a little nervous and ready to get to the bottom! lollll After that we went to Divide, CO. and took a tour of the Wolf and Wildlife Center. Dakota is just crazy about wolves, so this was really exciting for her! Then back to CO Springs, went to the mall, out for supper and then back to the hotel and the girls went swimming again.

Sunday we slept in, got up and packed our stuff, went out for breakfast and then headed home. We got home, unpacked the pickup and put stuff away, then went and picked up my new horse! We messed with her most of the evening and Jordan and I ran to town to get pizza for supper.