Sunday, June 24, 2012

Father's Day

This Father's Day, we surprised daddy with something he's been wanting for a long time... a bike trailer! Here are the boys testing it out... they loved it!


Later that day, we went to The Village at Fairview to have dinner at Twisted Root...


Afterwards, the boys begged to play at the "beach" and we didn't have the heart to say no even though it was already close to bedtime...


Time to go home!


A week later, we finally got daddy a bike to go with the trailer! As soon as we got home, the boys wanted to go for a ride even though it was 100+ degrees outside! Here they were waiting anxiously for daddy to hook up the trailer to his new bike...


All aboard!


Dad made sure the seat belts were secure...


They were so excited!


Closed the mesh cover so they won't get hit by any dirt flying off the bike tires...


Ready to go... poor dad was already sweating!


Bye bye mommy!


And, off they went... and mommy quickly ran inside for some "quite" time! :)


Thursday, June 21, 2012

Colorado: Days 7-9

After a week of sightseeing, we were all pretty exhausted! So, on the seventh day, we had a relaxing morning at the house and waited until the afternoon after the boys napped to check out one last place... a wolf sanctuary!


We signed up for the 4pm tour, and while we waited, the boys kept asking us to take pictures of them next to this wolf statue...


Here is the sweet story of how the sanctuary came about...


We had a great guide that told us a story about each wolf...


Ben was my little model during the tour...


Such incredible creatures! The black wolf on the right has a link to Hollywood... his uncle was in the Twilight movies!


The boys can't go anywhere without a snack break!


Opa and Ben leaving the sanctuary...


That night, opa gave the boys a lesson in cards!


They were catching on pretty quickly!


The day before we headed home, we decided to have a relaxing day at the house...


With the exception of a little hike, minus mommy and Gabrielle who both stayed behind...


I adore this picture...


The boys came back with pretty flowers for mommy! :)


On day 9, we packed up the car and started our long journey back to Texas. But, first we took a few pictures in front of the cabin...


Thank you, oma and opa, for an amazing vacation we'll never forget!



One last picture of Cripple Creek on our way out...


Potty training on a road trip is a big pain!


Gabrielle rode back with us and was a huge help with entertaining the boys! They all wore each other out!


When we reached Amarillo, TX, we couldn't help but to make a small detour to see the famous Cadillac Ranch!



Walking towards the Cadillacs...



In place of spray paint, we gave Gabrielle and the boys twistable crayons to draw with. :)


The boys saw other people drawing on the cars with spray paint, so Ben was really excited when he found a can left behind...



I think they really enjoyed themselves!


The boys participated in more crayon graffiti...


Daddy participated in the vandalism too...


We certainly couldn't go to Cadillac Ranch without leaving our mark!



Time to get back on the road!


Too cool!!


An iPad, a Kindle, and an iPhone gave us moments of much needed silence. We made it home in 15 hours!



Colorado: Days 4-6

Day four of our trip brought us gorgeous weather once again. Everyone piled into our minivan around 9:45, which had become our morning routine, to explore another part of Colorado. Today's agenda included the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and lunch in Manitou Springs. On the way to the Garden of the Gods, we surprised the boys with a stop at a donut shop. They were so happy!


We arrived to the Garden of the Gods and stopped immediately to take in the majestic scenery and capture a few photos...




The boys did a pretty good job climbing the rocks...


This big rock that looks like is about to topple over was jaw-droppingly incredible!


We went on to the Visitor Center before walking the hiking trails. We got a beautiful view of Pike's Peak towering over the giant red rocks from the Center's upper terrace.


The boys really liked the buffalo statues inside the Visitor Center...


They kept asking me to take more pictures! :)



We got back into the car and drove to the hiking trails. Oma and Ben shared a hiking stick...


Of course, we had to get a picture of the whole gang...


This place was simply breathtaking!



Very sweet...


Taking a break...


We left the park and drove just a few minutes to Manitou Springs to have lunch and walk around. I didn't take pictures there, but here's one that oma took of Ben playing on a cool swing at the playground...


We had two very tired boys on the drive back to the house!


That night the boys enjoyed some bonding time with Gabrielle while watching a movie on oma and opa's bed. :)


The next day, we went to see Seven Falls. I just read on their website that Seven Falls is located in a natural box canyon and is the only waterfall in Colorado listed in the National Geographic list of International waterfalls.


Bryce quickly made a new friend with a brave little chipmunk...


Gorgeous view of the Seven Falls...



Evan and I started our ascent to the top of the waterfalls, while everyone else left to find the elevators. Evan decided the height wasn't for him, and decided to go back down. I was too scared to turn around and have to look down to descend the steps, so I decided to keep going, with plans on taking the elevators back down. Once I reached the top, I discovered to my dismay that the elevators were not accessible from that side of the park, so I had no choice but to walk all the way back down! My legs were sore for the next two days!


With my out-of-shape state combined with the high altitude, I was out of breath halfway up. Luckily, there were benches to sit on. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and took some pictures of the spectacular view from halfway up...


I really can't believe I made it to the top with my strong dislike of heights! If you look really closely at the center of the picture, there is an observation platform on the other end of the park that gave guests a great view of the Seven Falls... that platform is accessed by the mountain elevator that I was desperately wishing for! Later, when I rejoined the rest of the group, I found out they were all waving to me from the platform. They were able to see me at the top of the falls because of my bright yellow shirt!


We were all pretty tired that day and went back to the house after Seven Falls. We took the boys for a swim in the community's indoor swimming pool, then relaxed the rest of the evening. Here are the boys watching tv from their makeshift "beds"...


The next day we took the boys to a dinosaur museum...


They loved the two big dinosaur statues in front of the building, but the ones inside were mostly of dinosaur skeletons, which they weren't really excited about. They were much more interested in the gift shop!



Afterwards, we took the long scenic drive up to the top of Pikes Peak, which forms the beautiful backdrop for Colorado Springs and is the most visited mountain in North America. It is also the 31st highest peak out of the 54 Colorado peaks.


As you can tell by Benjamin's expression, it was really cold up there!


Amazing view!


View of Pikes Peak from below...


More pictures from the rest of our trip coming soon...