Colorado: Days 1-3

We had an awesome time in Colorado last week! Oma and Opa Berg rented a house for the month in the mountains of Cripple Creek, and we were so excited to join them for a whole week. We decided to drive instead of fly, and I was really dreading to see how the boys would react being in a car for over 12 hours! But, the boys ended up doing great... even with potty training on the road! We went straight through, and even with all the potty stops, we got there in 14 1/2 hours.

I had a bag full of "surprises" to give the boys along the way, and here they are all chilled out watching a movie and playing with their first surprise, a Thomas the Train Doodle Pad...

When it got dark, we played with glow sticks! I just noticed that you can see the outline of mountains outside the window!

Unfortunately, the boys only napped for about 45 minutes on the road and didn't fall asleep again until about an hour before we arrived. I think it was about 11:30pm when pulled up to the house and they were beyond exhausted. This was our first trip with the boys without bringing Pack 'n Plays so when we got there, we weren't sure where to put them. Oma came up with this brilliant idea of turning two couches to face each other to create a big enclosed bed! Here they were sound asleep and snuggled up under some warm blankets...

The next morning, we took it pretty easy since we were still tired from the long drive. The boys got an opportunity to play with their cousin Grant, who had already been there for a week, before he headed back to Texas with Aunt Beth and Uncle Tim. Gabrielle stayed another week and rode back with us.

After finally showering and getting dressed, we took the boys to ride the local train...

All aboard!

Sharing popcorn with Gabrielle... by the look on Bryce's face, it must've been really good popcorn!

Gorgeous view from the train ride...

When we got back to the house, we brought the bubbles out to play on the front porch. Being able to bring extra toys on a trip is definitely a benefit of driving instead of flying!

Silly Ben!

It was usually a lot windier in the back of the house, so we moved to the back balcony to get the bubbles to fly higher. This is the amazing view from the balcony...

One of the best features of the rental house was this cute little playhouse built into the space under the stairs. The boys loved it, and now we want to do the same thing under our stairs at home! We'll let daddy finish the one he's building in the backyard first. :)

On our third day in Colorado, we decided to check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, an amazing zoo built on the side of a mountain! When we bought our tickets, we each received a quarter to put towards the zoo's Quarters for Conservation initiative. Through the collection of quarters, the zoo provided funding for new and existing wildlife conservation locally and around the world. We got to pick which animals we wanted our quarters to go towards... Ben decided on helping the African penguins and Bryce picked the elephants and rhinos!

We stopped to take a picture in front of this really cute and very tall giraffe statue...

My little model, Ben, posed again for his mommy...

Then, he saw this giraffe car and asked me to take another picture... :)

I think Ben's favorite part of the zoo was feeding the giraffes! Bryce was a little skeptical, but Ben loved it so much that we kept buying more and more lettuce for him...

Honestly, I can't tell if this is Ben or Bryce in this picture!

Ben kept laughing every time the giraffes stuck out their long tongues!

We realized shortly after entering the zoo that we forgot to bring the stroller with us. We were too far from the car to go back and were a little worried about how the boys would do. We ended up staying at the zoo for over 3 hours, and our big boys did great on their feet with just a few little breaks and a bunch of snacks! Here they were enjoying their first rice crispy break...

Daddy and the boys entering a cave exhibit...

Hmm, I can't seem to remember what we saw through these holes...

Bryce is still not a big fan of the camera, but he liked this statue enough to pose for me. :)

This giant tortoise was so beautiful!

The boys were intrigued by him too...

Around certain times of the day, the kangaroos were let out in this enclosed area to roam freely. I don't think I've ever been this close to kangaroos before!

This was by far the most beautiful reptile exhibit I've ever seen! Can you believe this piece of art was an aquarium for a couple of little turtles?!

Now, that's one very lucky turtle!

Another really fun part of the zoo was feeding the birds. Here's Ben feeding one...

And, can you tell Bryce loved it too? :)

This grizzly bear exhibit was really cool too. This big bear came to the window and entertained us!

We were all in awe of this beautiful and massive creature...

Bryce and mommy posing in front of the bear...

The boys were so excited when they spotted the carousel, so, of course, we had to go for a ride...

We were a little hesitant to take the boys on this open Mountaineer Sky Ride, but they ended up loving it, and the view was spectacular! We rode on the chair lift behind opa, oma and Gabrielle on the way up, and with trembling hands, I slowly took my phone out of my backpack so I could take this picture of them from behind...

Oma took this picture of us right before we hopped off the chair lift at the top of the mountain. As you can see, we each had a death grip on one of the boys...

We walked around a little bit and enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain. They also had climbing walls that the boys enjoyed with daddy's help...

This was our view going down... the descent was definitely less scary, at least for me!

This time we rode in front of opa, oma and Gabrielle, and oma took this picture of us...

And, here they were as they prepared to hop off...

A quick picture of the whole gang before leaving the zoo. As you can see, the boys scored a few items from the gift shop. Bryce picked out a baby white tiger and Ben a snuggly gray hippo. Then oma broke down and got them each a small train set that they kept eyeing. :) We had such a great day!

More pictures from our trip coming soon...