Heather's parents are living in Woodland Park, Colorado (12 minutes outside of Colorado Springs) for a couple years while they attend
Charis Bible College. They are in year 2, so we decided it was time to make the trip out for a visit! We found some good deals on flights out of Omaha, so we decided to fly! Trigg and Garrett are super excited to fly!
Blythe is pretty pumped up too!
Once we got into the air, the boys settled in with some books and workbooks!
Our first adventure was to
Cave of the Winds, we got signed up for a tour and explored the visitors center. They had this sweet climbing tower with giant twisty slide!
Then it was time to head into the cave!
It was about an hour walking tour through the cave, we learned about how caves are formed and how this cave was discovered!
It was a great tour with lots to see!
G practicing his senior picture pose!
The boys missed a couple days of school for the trip and Garrett's kindergarten teacher sent home the "Travel Bag" inside was Gerald the Elephant and a travel journal to document where he was off too! We took pictures with Gerald and than Garrett wrote about some of the memorable sights and adventures we had!
After the Cave of the Winds, we went to
Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings
This stop was probably more interesting for the adults than for the kids, but they had fun exploring the house right in the side of the mountain!
Pretty cool tee-pee!
The next day, we headed to
Garden of the Gods for some hiking and exploring!
Geared up and ready to hike!
Trigg found some cactus along the trail...
Gerald needed to check it out too!
We found some rocks, so the boys decided to rock climb!
Trigg and Garrett both have an adventurous spirit!
To the top!
G was able to shimmy through some small places!
After exploring, we drove over to balanced rock...G holding it in place!
Trigg trying his best to not get squished!
Blythe is super strong!
Our whole crew!
Papa, G and Blythe enjoying the red rocks!
Nana and the kids take a quick pause for a smile!
Our next day, we headed to
Seven Falls to check out some beautiful waterfalls!
This was a little pricey to get in and we had to take a shuttle to get there, but it was beautiful. I can see why they have people park offsite - it was nice to explore without cars driving around!
Our little fierce bear!
We found this little guy running up the trail..
G managed to catch him!
Trigg held the little lizard and then let him go free!
There was an elevator up to the "Eagle's Nest" for the first look out point!
After that, we walked around the corner to the falls...and the steps...
Heather is in the green with the boys in front of her making their way up the steps.
Heather was good to climb to the first landing and she was good to wait there for the rest of us! Garrett decided to wait with Mom, so Trigg, Blythe and I made our way to the top.
We got up to the top of the falls...it was a great view and 224 steps in all!
Once we worked our way down to the 1st platform, Garrett had changed his mind and wanted to climb up...so up we went!
Sitting next to Trout Pond enjoying the mountain views!
On the walk back to the shuttle, we did a little "off roading"
That afternoon, we headed up to Pikes Peak! Garrett and Gerald at 14,115 feet above sea level!
Trigg feeling on top of the world!
Our crew!
With the official summit!
There is construction going on at the top of Pikes Peak, so everyone takes a shuttle up and down from mile marker 13 or 16. On the way back down, we came across this mountain goat!
Our driver through the goat some sun flower seeds!
These 3 kiddo's loved their trip to Colorado!
One last stop at the Manitou Spring Arcade to play some games before driving to Denver to catch our plane!
We packed a lot into our 3 full days in the mountains! We saw a lot, explored a lot and had fun doing it all! Big thanks to Brent and Doreen for hosting us and their generous hospitality! We love the mountains and hope to see them again soon!
