Colorado Vacation Part 1

With Big Boy's accident, needless to say, we had a rough start to our trip. We were all exhausted but we arrived in Colorado during the early evening so we were able to go to a popular pizza place and then head up to the cabin. When we go to Colorado we stay in my family's cabin in Green Mountain Falls, right outside of Colorado Springs. It is a beautiful little mountain community that I have gone to pretty much every summer since I was a baby, my dad's family has owned it since the 50s.

Our first morning we walked down to breakfast at The Little Pantry. It's the only restaurant left in Green Mountain Falls and not much has changed about it since I first went there when I was about 9 months old. Our vacation is full of tradition- I love to do all the things with my kids that I did when I was little. A scenic walk down to breakfast was always a great way to start the morning.


Big Boy is always game for a giant pancake, especially one with whipped cream. Guess how easy it was to clean a cup of syrup out of his cuts??? Sissy, my little weinie eater, had cereal this day. What's wrong with that child? It wasn't our last breakfast trip, though, and she did indulge in our of their giant cinnamon roles as well.


Right by the breakfast place is a pond and a gazebo and a wonderful playground. The scenery always takes my breathe away.




There she is! Home Sweet Home aka The Sleepy Seven (named for my grandparents and their 5 kids) aka The Cabin


After breakfast we took a LONG hike up to the falls, in the mountains behind the cabin. Now, it was beautiful, and interesting, and scenic, and all that. But with a 4 yo and 2 yo, it was slow moving. I was pretty slow myself! It was quite a workout. We only made it to the first falls, which were small but the kids enjoyed it. I did too but I was constantly keeping an eye out for a mountain lion wanting to eat my little ones.





Later that day we headed to Woodland Park, another larger beautiful mountain town just 5 minutes up the road. Pat and I are obsessed with it, we would love to live there. Everything about it is so...Colorado. They have all the modern conviences and yet they have strict building codes so everything is authentic. The McDonalds, the Sonic- they don't look like fast food. They look like cabins.
We hit a fun park there, the kids had a great time exploring and it was really amazing. It was really cool wood play with all sorts of peaks, towers, and other stuff. In an effort to keep it low key the first day we took the kids to Shrek and had a great time.







The next day we headed to Buckskin Joe's, an authentic Colorado Frontier Town. It is an amusement park of sorts, but all of the buildings are authentic buildings from the early to mid 1800s. The buildings had all been taken down piece by piece and put back together in this location. It was a pretty fun place. There is a lot of history behind it. In the mid 1900s it was used not as a theme park but as a set for Hollywood movies. Many movies and commercials were shot there, including some John Wayne films.






Update on Big Boy: This was Day 3 of injury. It definitely slowed him down, I could tell he was in pain. We had to keep him on almost constant pain medication or he would get really cranky. At this point the bruising got really bad- small bruises appeared all over his body. Even on weird places like his fingertips! The injured side of his face became very yellowish- it made him look a little deformed, it just wasn't right.


This is the "mayor" of BJ's. Here, he happened to be in his barn eating. However, he has no restraints and just walks freely throughout the town. We saw him everywhere. We were also warned that he will walk up to anyone and try to find candy in pockets or purses.




Unfortunately on this trip both the kids discovered guns, what they looked like and what to do with them.


BJs is located right next to the Royal Gorge so we took the train out there to get a good view. You can't see it very well, but above it is the highest suspension bridge over water in the world. As a kid we would whitewater raft around the canyon.


On the train:



The train was a little rickety and freaky but the view was amazing.









The next day we hit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, one of our fave places! It is one of two mountain zoos in the country and it is breathtaking. It has over 800 animals including more than 30 endangered species. It is known for the natural environments it creates for the animals and it has the largest captive giraffe herd in the world.

And the giraffe exhibit is exquisite. You get so close to those giraffes! You can feed them, pet them, kiss them- whatever!









The kids got to pet a baby wallaby. It's parents actually roam free in a large section of the zoo.






The kids couldn't get enough of the friendly chipmunks. They would even let you touch them.


Pony rides! I was disappointed when booking things for our trip that the kids were considered too young for real horseback riding. We settled for this, but the kids had a blast.










Both kids got to pick treats from the gift shop. Big Boy picked out a 5 foot long snake, which I don't have a picture of. Sissy picked out a replica of the zoo's newest exhibit- the NAKED MOLE RAT. In person, these things were adorable. We watched them for forever, they are the neatest animals to watch. (sorry, none of my pics turned out) Sissy fell in love and picked a sparkly pink gifaffe necklace and a little naked mole rat toy, which she named Molly.




Back at the cabin at the park, Molly in hand.



More to come!