Colorado

Before school started up again we decided we needed to sneak in a quick get away.  We planned to leave on a Friday, but I got asked to speak in Sacrament meeting the Sunday we wanted to be gone, so we left on a Monday.  We didn't really have any huge plans, but a break from the norm and any adventure we could find.  Monday we drove to Colorado Spring and checked into our hotel.  We had other plans to camp, but with weather being the way it is in Colorado, we checked the weather forecast and it was suppose to rain which made camping sound miserable!!  

We decided to go take a tour of the Olympic Training Center. We had been there before, but never taken the tour.  We wish there would have been more athletes practicing.  We only saw one--a shooter and that wasn't exactly thrilling to watch.  However, it was fun to watch a fun movie they showed that really emphasized the Paralympics that brought me to tears.  

After the Olympic Training center I noticed there was a tour of a Chocolate Factory and well...nothing sounded bad about giving that a shot.  We took the tour and to be honest we were all sick of chocolate at the end.  They handed out samples, but by the end it was just too much.  Everyone loved the snazzy hats they gave us to wear.  

That night we drove West because I had booked us a trip to go White water rafting the next morning.  We found a tour group that had a trip that was safe for kids.  Monty and I went rafting once when we were still dating and enjoyed it.  I've always wanted to take the boys, but they have never been old enough.  Well, now they are!  

Tyler was not to sure about the idea.  

Kyle was up for an adventure.

Kory wasn't sure about this idea either...

Can you tell how thrilled Makai and Trey were!

Family shot before the adventure down the Arkansas River!

  

Off we go.

Kory, dad, and I having fun

Now everyone is having fun.

At this point everyone was having fun and kept saying, "Mom, I can see why you wanted to do this!"  We traveled with another raft and in that boat 4 people fell out on one rapid...including the leader.  Dad was holding Makai and Trey with all his might.  Those boys were not going anywhere!  We did get stuck on one or two rocks, but our leader was good at what she did and VERY strong.  We were in good hands.  It was a fun adventure.  

  We didn't know we were going to raft so we didn't bring our swim shoes.  We did however go to Wal-Mart(the only store in the whole town and bought the only swim shoes they had).  Tyler and Kyle were not thrilled about having to wear these pink swim shoes, but did.  They felt much better when the boy from the other group was wearing them too.  He was pretty relieve to see them in them too.  

We spent the afternoon driving through some cute towns like Salida, CO and got some really good ICE CREAM.  We fell in love with the town.  Then we drove back to the Colorado Springs area.  We passed Manitou Springs.  Last time we were there we saw the Manitou Springs incline.  I really wanted to climb it not realizing what it actually was, but we found a parking spot and decided to try.  We talked to someone that said it took him an hour.  As we started we thought maybe it would take half hour or so.  HA!!  We had no idea what we began.

 This bad boy is one mile straight up and increases in elevation by 2,000ft in that one mile.  The altitude is no joke.  We did okay breathing wise, but there were some people from out of town and the thin air was killing them.

 The steps just keep going and going!!  Just when you think you are at the top there are about a hundred more stairs.

It ended up taking us and hour and a half to get up.  It was much darker than we thought it was going to be, but I will never forget the moment we reached the top.  Mind you, Makai climbed the ENTIRE way up without complaining.  He was a total trooper and their were some stairs as big as him.  I kept asking the boys if they wanted to stop and they said, "NO!  We are not giving up."  When we got to the top Tyler walked up to Makai, tapped him on the head and said, "Makai, you are the coolest 4 yr old in the whole world!"  There was a lot of family love at the top after we did a hard thing.  It brought us closer together as a family.  

The way down was another adventure.  We heard on the way up that there was a trail you could take down instead of having to use the stairs.  The only problem was it was dark, and we didn't know where we were going.  I did have my phone which has a flashlight(whoever invented that feature was a genius).  However, what no one knew was my phone was running low on power so I didn't know how long it would last.  We set off the way I thought the trail was.  We decided to stop and say a prayer that we would get down the mountain safely.  I am not sure what way we took, but we met up with a trail and another person who said we were going the right way.  It ended up being a four mile hike down and it took us an hour and a half.  So, it took the same amount of time to go up one mile and down a 4.  Makai walked all of that too...with only a little complaint.  We were all done when we got to the car, but everyone had a blast!!  

We came home, showered and all slept like babies!! 

We spent some time at the Academy this trip.  We watched the hokey team practice, the girls basketball team, and the boys soccer team.  The cadets had started school so we watched them in formation to go to Lunch.  We took a tour of their new exercise facility.  It was just as awesome as the Olympic training center and had a lot more athletes.  We went to a trampoline gym in the springs that had all kinds of trampolines to jump and play on.   All the kids loved it.  

The boys love to visit the academy.  They have so many questions.  I have no idea if any of them will go there for school, but they enjoy learning about it and respect their dad for going their.  

We were glad we got to get away for a few days.  It is fun to hang out as a family and enjoy our wonderful state.