Denver - Day One

We woke up this morning and wished Connor a Happy 17th Birthday.  Because it was his birthday, he got to choose the day's activities.  So we started off the day by grabbing Starbucks and heading to the Denver Aquarium.

Even though the aquarium was perfect for younger children, there were still quite a few things our older kids loved about it.  We spent a couple of hours looking at exhibits and gawking at sharks and fish.

But the highlight of our aquarium visit was playing in the stingray tank.  The kids loved that.  The rays would come right up to them and lift their fins up out of the water.  We wanted to stay and feed them, but we had to move on.

After the aquarium, we headed over to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature to catch a show about black holes at the Gates Planetarium.  Connor is a big fan of astrophysics, so he was eager to see this show.

The planetarium show did not disappoint.  We spent an hour or so wandering around the space exhibits before heading out to explore the nature, Egyptian mummy, and paleontology exhibits.

We were starving by the time we finished at the museum, so Connor picked out a restaurant called Avanti for dinner.  It was like a food truck restaurant.  There were seven different mini restaurants inside, so we got to sample a bunch of different foods.  It was way yummy!

For dessert, we headed down the road to Little Man Ice Cream.  We sampled butterscotch, salted Oreo, and oatmeal cookie ice cream.  On our way over, the Emergency Broadcast System issued a tornado warning for Denver over the radio.  Apparently, a huge storm--complete with golf-ball sized hail and a funnel cloud--hit the Denver area.  We were a little freaked out, but it obviously missed our area, so all was well.

Since we weren't in any imminent danger of being consumed by a tornado, we decided to round out our day with a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We had visited 15 years ago when Connor was a baby, so we were anxious to go back with the girls.

Surprisingly, the kids loved this place just as much as we did.  They were enthralled by the Japanese gardens, and enjoyed weaving their way through the lush greenery.  It was so serene, and a perfect way to end our fun day in Denver.

Tomorrow we hit the Denver Mint and Elitch Gardens for some roller coaster action.  These teenagers are anxious to ride some coasters.  See ya then!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

After driving way too long, we finally arrived at Great Sand Dune National Park in Colorado.  The actual national park campground was full, so we had made reservations at San Luis State Park.  It wasn't the most beautiful campground, but it had clean bathrooms and electric hookups, so we were good.

It was insanely windy when we arrived, and, although we were planning on sand boarding, the rental place closed in an hour, so we decided to just visit the dunes and come back the next day to sand board and sled.

Did I say it was windy?  It was crazy windy.  We were beaten around by the wind and sand so much that we made the trip quick.  Then we retreated to the camper, where we cooked up a quick pot of spaghetti and ate some dinner.  Then we showered, popped some popcorn, and played card games in the camper all night.

The next day, we came prepared.  We hit the rental store early and rented boards and sleds and grabbed some bandanas as well.  Then we hit the dunes for some action.  Justin and I figured the kids would do a good amount of falling before they decided they didn't want to ride the dunes anymore.  Boy!  Were we wrong!

Although they did a fair amount of falling, they also rocked those dunes like they had done it for years.  After tackling the small hills, they were ready for some steeper ones, so we climbed several taller dunes looking for the next big rush.

Here's a cute video of one of Tate's bigger crashes.  Believe it or not, she got right back up and carted her board back to the top of the hill to try again.

We spent several hours at the dunes, and then we packed it up.  We headed back to the car, emptied the pounds of sand in our shoes, shirts, pants pockets, ears...  you name it!  There is sand everywhere.

We returned the sand boards and sleds and hit the road again.  We made it to Denver a few hours later.  We've set up a nice little camp at Cherry Creek State Park, and we plan to hit the sights of the city in the morning.  We'll check in again soon.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Road trip 2016 is in full swing.  We are having a blast, but are a bit behind on blogging.  We are just having too much fun.  We drop into bed exhausted each night.  Our first stop was Vernon, AZ.  We met up with the Richardson family and friends for a night.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, so I'll have to get some from Grandma Linda when we get home.

From Vernon, we headed on to Chaco Culture NHP.  And let me tell you... this was no easy trip.  We had 20 miles of washboard dirt road to navigate before we reached the park.  It was slow going, and these kids were anxious to be out of the car.

We arrived to find that the Visitor Center was closed, so we set up camp, made some dinner, and headed out to the Indian ruins to catch a moonlight guided hike.  The hike was pretty interesting, but these kids were beat.  As soon as it was over, they were in bed. It was so dark and quiet at Chaco because it is so remote.  Justin and I awoke to the sound of howling coyotes several times that night.  The next morning, we packed up and headed out to see the ruins in the daylight.

Along the road to the ruins, we saw this awkward ripple moving along the road.  We drove closer and closer trying to figure out what it was, when suddenly, it turned to face us.  There were three badgers in the middle of the road.  They puffed up and tried to stare us down before retreating into the rocks on the side of the road.  You can kind of see them in the picture above.  None of us had ever seen a badger before.  We were so shocked, it took us a minute to find our cameras.

We spent a good hour exploring the ruins at Chaco Culture.  They were so interesting.  We are still amazed at how well these structures were built--and all by hand!  They are incredible.

We would have loved to spend more time there, but we have a tight schedule.  So after a bit of exploring, we were on the road again.  Next stop is The Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We will be back tomorrow to tell you all about sand boarding... and crashing.  :-)