Denver: Day 7

This is it! The last day of our trip! And it only took me a little over a month to get it all posted here....

We spent the night in Hot Springs, SD and got up early to drive to Mount Rushmore through Wind Cave National park and Custer State Park. Driving through these parks, we got to see some beautiful scenery and a lot of wildlife...









We stopped for breakfast at the Blue Bell Resort-- the prices were a little steep for us, so we ended up sharing one order of pancakes and one waffle between the five of us!



Then, onto Mount Rushmore...



A really nice family from Colorado took our family pictures for us (& of course, we returned the favour!) They were a little shocked that we'd come this close to Mount Rushmore (we took this photo at a lookout point) and weren't going to go to the actual site. But, we were running low on funds and were happy with the views we got of it. (And we were especially happy with our decision when we drove closer to the site and saw how crazy busy it was, being the holiday weekend and all.)





I loved driving through these tunnels!



Our next stop, Wall, SD. We got out and explored for about an hour or so. Very touristy and fun! I thought Jonah would love the T-Rex that comes to life every 12 minutes, but it freaked him out a little. Oh well....



The boys loved looking through all the containers of rocks.

And after Wall, we boogied on home. Through Pierre, SD, we turned north and crossed the border shortly after midnight, making it home before 2 am. Crazy, but we didn't want to have to pay for another hotel. The kids had all travelled really well and fell asleep at around nine, so it was a fairly peaceful drive home.

And that, my friends, is our trip to Denver.

I made a mini-album of our trip to give to my SIL as a thank you gift. (She loved it!) I made it using the August kit at MSS.



If you'd like to see more of it, click here.

Thanks for looking!

Denver: Day 6

Warning, this post is very heavy on the photos!

On our last day in Denver, we treated the kids to the Denver zoo. Here are a couple of photos of downtown Denver:



Josie told Austin to look for a street that reminded him of her:



At the zoo, they had these gorgeous golden statues at the entrance:



And then we saw...

a hyena,



some zebras,



a beautiful tiger,



& some giraffes.



Isn't this cool? I sure wouldn't want to meet a real one!



Jonah loved the bison.



Look, I'm actually in a picture! LOL!



Jonah's favourites: the hippo...



& the rhino.








(I love this shot of Sage and jonah watching the penguins!)



This guy was so funny to watch!



The wall Austin and Sage are standing in front of is made of carpeting! It was so cool!



At the Congo section, Jonah and Sage got to try out some bongos.





This gorilla looked so sad.



Look! They had elephants, too!



We were too cheap to buy food at the zoo for the kids (except for a bag of cotton candy on our way out), so we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. Then, we hit the road, driving north through Wyoming.

We saw a pretty rainbow,



some fabulous scenery,



and some horses.



Then, the weather turned a little nasty.







Soon, we were driving through blinding rain and hail on a two-lane highway (& of course, it was my turn at the wheel!) I couldn't get off the road because I had people behind me and it was so hard to see if the sides were clear or not. But thankfully, we made through and managed to make it to Hot Springs, SD by 9pm, which gave the kids a half an hour to play in the pool before it closed.

Thanks for looking and for your kind comments. I appreciate each one!

Denver: Day 5

My older brother, Trevor, was out for a visit last week and pointed out to me that I was remiss in posting the rest of our trip to Denver on my blog.

So, for those of you who have been waiting, I apologize.

;)

Here are some pictures from Day 5 of our trip-- July 1st. Canada Day.

Even though we were in the States, I still got my traditional photo of the kids in their Canada Day tees on the front steps. (Although Jonah opted to where his new Transformers t-shirt instead. ;) )



Cameron spent the day with Andy, so that left Josie & me with the ten kids. We went thrift store shopping in the morning, which was so much fun! Their thrift stores are amazing. And Josie is such a pro!

In the afternoon, we went to Hobby Lobby (sigh!) and then to a pool called Splash where the kids swam.

Here are Sage and her cousin, Irene:

And a group shot:



And in the evening, the kids played (here are Irene and Sage playing dress-up!) and then Josie and I left Cameron and Andy with the kids (payback!) to go to the mall to make a couple of returns.

Thanks for looking!

Denver: Day 4

On Tuesday, June 30th, the fourteen of us piled into two vehicles (Cam rode with Andy, and Josie rode in our van, while I drove) and drove for about an hour up into the mountains. We stopped at a sign for a trail leading to St. Mary's Glacier.

We parked and started hiking up to the glacier.

Apparently, there was an easier trail to take, but Andy likes a bit of a challenge.





We did encounter a steep area fairly early on, but the kids all did really well climbing it on their own, with some encouragement from everyone else. It did wonders for their confidence!







When we got to the top of the trail, this is what we saw:



We had a wiener roast for lunch and then Cameron and Andy took eight of the kids up to hike on the glacier. I stayed back with Josie, Maria and Elle.





A little chipmunk kept coming closer and closer (I think he smelled some leftovers in Josie's backpack!)



Here's a shot of them coming down the glacier. So fun!

Austin loves to collect rocks and was quite thrilled with this find. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's actually quite lovely with pieces of quartz in it.





We took some more pictures and then headed down the mountain (this time, taking the easier trail. Thank you, Andy!)



I took a few pictures on the way back to Denver, but it's so hard to capture the grandeur of the Rocky's on film. I did think this waterfall was really pretty though.





Thanks for looking!