Colorado Vaction Post #4

Ok. So next we went to Buckskin Joes Frontier Town. It was pretty cool. It is a old west town where they have gunfights and magic shows. We saw 3 gunfights and 1 magic show. The fights are pretty cool. They have several different scripts, so each fight is a different story. All of them take about 15 minutes to watch. Very cool. Then we ate at the restaurant there. We all have Buffalo Burgers with 100% buffalo meat. Very tasty! I don't really have any pictures from there but here is the website. We did not stay for the show with the "hanging".

http://www.buckskinjoe.com/

Then we headed over to the Royal Gorge. When we got there it was $25 per adult and $19 for kids over 5. So just for M, G and I it would have been 70 dollars. We said no thanks and left. What a rip off. Just to drive over the giant hole in the earth. Instead we headed back to camp and went swimming it was about 80 that day. Later we cooked out and had Smore's.

Thursday was our last full day so we headed over to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was really cool. We got there at opening so we were first to see the Giraffes. The let them out and there was 14 or so of them. A Lot! Then we got to feed them crackers. It was awesome! We all got to pet them on the head too. I am still excited about it. They are such huge neat animals. I DO have pictures of that. We also got to pet a Wallaby and an albino baby wallaby too.
http://www.cmzoo.org/

Colorado Vaction Post #3

On our Tuesday in Colorado it was supposed to be rainy and yucky. So we did indoor things. First we went to Cave of the Winds. It was also a drive up a mountain. Then the cave tour was about 45 minutes. Cave of the winds website Here is a picture of the view over the side at the entrance to the cave. And another picture of me. See that Starbucks in my hand. yeah...well. We brought our own coffee to the campground, but why make your own when Starbucks is 1/2 a mile away? As we said laughing every time we pulled in "We are on vacation."

Click on any of the pictures to see them bigger and get the full effect. :)


In the afternoon it finally did start raining so we went to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. It kicked ass. They had a giant T-rex, the biggest only second to Sue. A marine animal section. I learned lots of things, like true dinosaurs lived on land. They did not fly or live in water. So the Pterodactyl is a flying reptile, not a dinosaur.

If you click here you can see some of the dinosaurs we saw. RMDRC

Colorado Vaction Post #2

I finally have my pictures developed and wanted to post some of the things we did. The first full day there we went to Garden of the Gods. After that we started driving around and decided to try driving up Pikes Peak just a bit. We went up the first 3 miles and then got out at a stopping point. We hiked and took pictures. It is amazingly beautiful. Then we drove 6 more miles up and turned around and came back. If you have never driven in such places I will tell you about it. There are no shoulders or even railing on the roads. If your brakes would fail you could go off the side and down the mountain. Luckily my mom had warned me about it, so it was actually much better than I anticipated. We put the van in 1st gear and let it slow itself down. The roads are very curvy. It is quite scary driving up and down the mountain.

And last but certainly not least, is the picture of me nursing Luca at Garden of the Gods. :)

Loosing teeth!

Gioia lost her first tooth about a week ago. One morning she came in and said "Mom I got some great news! My tooth is loose!" I was so excited for her. Then a few days later it fell out. She is already getting the new tooth in. Wow. What a big girl.

In other exciting news Luca took his first steps while we were in Colorado. *sniff sniff* My baby! He still mostly crawls but he likes to stand unassisted and then laugh as he tries to take steps. He just knows he is doing something awesome when he tries. I will try to get some pictures of him soon. Meanwhile, here is Gioia with her toothy smile!

Colorado Vaction Post #1

We just got back from vacation and it was by far the best trip we have ever done. The weather was beautiful, the kids were awesome and there was so much to do. So this is the first of many post talking about what we did and saw. As much to document for myself and the kids as to share with all of you.

Day 1 we headed out. Since we have a 11 month old we were doing the driving in two chunks. We left in the AM and stopped in Topeka for lunch and the zoo. This was perfect. The baby took a morning nap in the car. Then after the zoo he took his afternoon nap. We went to Hays, KS and stayed the night. This was almost exactly half way to our destination. Driving through Kansas we also saw all the windmills. VERY NICE! I want one on our farm.


The next day we headed out right after breakfast. We stopped in Limon, CO for lunch and played at a park. After that we finished driving to Colorado Springs. Here are some pictures of us at the park.


We stayed in a campground called Garden of the Gods Campground. Here is their website. HERE
It was the best campsite we have ever stayed at. We stayed in a camper cabin. It had bunk beds and a queen bed. It also had a ceiling fan, lights and electricity. The bathroom was super clean, nice showers and laundry rooms. They had a family pool, adult pool and adult hottub. On the weekends they also had BBQ dinners you could buy if you choose at the community building. Free WIFI in the clubhouse and TV with comfy couches. Our cabin also had chairs on the front porch, picnic table and fire pit. Isn't it cute?!! Another thing I loved about this campground is they had recycling, energy efficient bulbs everywhere and all their trucks and cart for the campground were 100% electric.

Jameson Picnic!

It was the Jameson Picnic weekend. This was the 118th year for it. At one time when the town was bigger it had a carnival. Now it has Moonbounces and some games instead. They also have a talent show on Thursday, live music all 3 nights and a baby show on Saturday. Gioia and I were in the talent show. It was pretty good this year. Gioia sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow, complete with Dorothy outfit. She won 3rd. I sang Real Gone by Sheryl Crow. I didn't place but that's fine. Luca was in the baby show. Dominic was in the Little Mister. Neither won, so it must have been rigged. LOL!


At my moms that weekend we picked blackberries, played with kittens and rode horses. The kids had a great time and didn't want to leave. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Our Cistern.

I am so excited! This house just keeps getting better and better. :) When we bought it we were told it had a cistern and they thought it was about 1500 gallons. That is cool. We thought we could water the garden with it and such. So today it rained a bunch and I asked DH if we could try to open it up and see if it had any water in it. It was full and he says, That looks way bigger than 1500 gallons. Turns out (if we measured it right) it is around 3500 gallons. To put that in perspective we use on average 6000 gallons a month with all our laundry and such. So this is awesome! The even sweeter part is that it is hooked up to the house. The plumbing is such that it is hooked up to the cold and the hot water heater. It even has a carbon filter on it.

Isn't that COOL? Wow! During rainy weather we could use nothing but that for the month. Other months it could supply up to half our monthly usage.

We have to get it checked out and make sure it all works and such. After we get back from vacation that is at the top of the list.

Garden Phase 1 and Play Area Phase 1

I know you all want to live vicariously through me and my garden. :) So I am going to bore you to death with all the details. Here is a picture of all the beautiful raspberry and blueberry bushes I got. There is also Sage, Rosemary and Strawberries in this picture.



The tilling got delayed until Sunday because of Friday night rain. I think that actually helped though. It was pretty perfect tilling conditions, not muddy and not rock hard. DH tilled for a couple hours. He is such a good man. The second picture is the garden ready to plant. It is approximately 30 x 40. WOO HOO!. I planted 1 row of lettuce, 1 row radishes, 1 row carrots. Now this "one row" is about 20 feet long. That little puny green fence in the second picture was how much I have planted right now. Everything else is seeds started in the house. I hope to plant them at the end of the month. This is Phase 1 of the garden.



Phase one of the play area is up. Tree swings. We priced swing set and they are so darn expensive. My mom suggested hanging the swings in the trees. DH was wanting to make a fort, so we are going one step further by incorporating the trees/fort/play area all over the back yard.
The kids are loving it. Although we hung them too close together so one needs moved. My parents got Gioia the horse tire swing for her birthday.