Colorado Mini-Trip Day 4

On our last day at the Broadmoor I woke up early. Not really "early" but my family was still sleeping. I thought bonus. I jumped up, threw on work-out clothes, grabbed my ipod, and left the room.  Note to all those who are concerned...my sweet husband woke up so I told him I was leaving and he said, "take your time and bring back coffee." Ha!  Anyways, I cranked up my worship songs and went on a walk around the grounds of the Broadmoor hotel.  I saw many little piece of heaven during my peace & quiet.  Geez, it was beautiful! I felt refreshed, revived, and rejuvenated and it was all because I was breathing fresh Colorado air, looking at the most beautiful setting, and listening to the best praise & worship on my ipod.  It is a moment that I will be forever grateful for.  Her are just a few sights around our resort.  Unfortunately my pictures do not do this resort justice so if you want to see more just check out their website.

http://www.broadmoor.com/colorado-springs-resort.php

Here is a picture from our bedroom

While on my walk I looped around the walking trail which was about 1 mile around the grounds of the entire resort.Here are the pics.

 Outside around the pond

 This is a view from the end of the infinity outdoor pool.  There were several guest who enjoyed the outdoor pool but we only swam in the indoor one.

The pirate ship playground...Z loved this.

I loved these brozed statues of these 4 children. It reminded me of when my sister & I were little. We would visit family in Ohio.  The highlight of our time with Becky & Peter would be a 4 man musical parade for our parents. 

 View of the mountians

 View as you enter the resort

 Beautiful flower beds.

 Valet Parking

So that was my my walk. I returned back at our room with coffee and packed up.  We headed to Denver for a morning of shopping before we headed back to their airport.  Kevin, Zachary, & I had a great mini-vacaction!

 This is our last picture from our trip....our flight kept getting delayed so we went into a restaurant to eat.  Z plopped himself in front of the window to watch the planes.  He sat there for over two hours while we watched the Arkansas VS Alabama game.  He was so tired and so good.

Another funny about our trip was we flew out to Colorado with our "Aunt" Renee.  On our return trip home we flew back with our "Uncle" Mike.  This was a huge surprise for all of us.  Zachary thought it was PERFECT!

We had a WONDERFUL trip! So thankful that we made it home safely. 

Colorado Mini-trip Day 2 3/4 and 3

So after a wonderful. long day at the zoo we hopped in our rental car to check out Garden of the Gods.  What a beautiful place!  Zachary was bummed he couldn't climb on them but we enjoyed the scenery.

 On our first night in town we found a Whole Foods!  Boy, do I wish we had one in our neck of the woods.  We stocked up on breakfast items, fresh fruit, and snacks for our hotel room.  While we were there on our first night, Zachary found what he called "MONSTER MILK". Neither Kevin or I saw them but Zachary talked about them from that first visit until we returned to the grocery store for trip #2.  We were out of fruit and healthy snacks so after Garden of the Gods we went back to Whole Foods. The 20 minute ride Z chattered in the back seat about "MONSTER MILK". Again we had no idea what he was talking about.  So when he lead us to the "orange yogart in a neat container" we HAD to get "MONSTER MILK".  Funny thing about it was when I opened up the yogart it "spit" a ton of yogurt in my face, eye, neck, etc. I was covered in the yucky smelling substance.  Z thought it was hilarious.  When Z finally got to eat it he didn't like it.  So the hype was all about the packaging.  Which I might add was pretty cool because all you had to do was twist of the lid (remember do not aim at your face) and eat. No spoon required.  So without further ado here is Z with his must have purchase from Whole Foods.

 We also hit a Dicks.Sporting.Goods. We were just browsing and enjoying not being in a rush about anything. Z spotted the punching bag so we let him burn off a little bit of extra energy.

 After Dick's, we went to a local brewery that was playing college football all over the place.  I was impressed with their kids meal selection.  Isn't it terrible but that is what I look for when selecting a place to eat?  We wanted to eat at places that we did not have in our area.  We chose Rock Bottom.  Good choice on our part. I had a steak, salad, and veggies. Zachary chose the Make-Your-Own Pizza. It was awesome!  The waiter brought out sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and dough. Z made the pizza his way and then the waiter returned to pick up his creation.  Within 15 minutes Z's pizza came back and HE LOVED IT!  Snaps to this place for keeping Zachary busy so that Kevin and I could have a "normal" conversation.

 Here is Z with his pizza before it was baked. He was so proud.

 So I am finally on to day 3....Kevin had class until 11:30 so Z and I just enjoyed the luxury of our hotel bedroom until Kevin returned.  Then we went on a Cog Railway Tour to Pikes Peak.  I don't think I have mentioned that the conference that we were at was 99% adults. Its funny because you never know if people are going to bring their kids or not.  This time everyone left their kids at home.  So Zachary was the ONLY kid at the conference "family" activities.  You might think this was a bad thing but it wasn't. Everyone (resort staff, concierge, other conference attendees, etc) LOVED Zachary, knew Zachary, and treated Zachary like he was a king.  He was SO well behaved that people were stopping us commenting how awesome Zachary is. I think he was so good because Kevin told him if he wasn't good he would be sent home like all the other kids.  Terrible I know!  But it worked.  Z was amazing because he didn't want to get sent home.

Here is Z & Kevin on the Cog Railway headed up 14, 000 feet to Pikes Peak

 At the top....I love this pic because I was so NERVOUS that Z was going to fall off the mountain. As soon as he got off the train he ran to pick up the snow.

 Zachary & Me throwing snowballs at Kevin

 The tourist photo opportunity at the top

 This was what we rode in the entire way up and back

 I had to include this photo too. Zachary was playing in the snow and his hands got super cold. He started crying because he needed gloves because his hands were freezing. 

 Another family pic at the top of the mountian

 Coming back down. Z got a bear that was drinking his chocolate milk.  Again look there are no other children on the train. 

 After Pike's Peak we met up with our dear friends Jennifer & Neil at the resort.  Zachary just hopped on Neil's back and was ready to play. I felt bad because Neil & Jennifer left their three kiddos at home and were enjoying the joys of an adult vacation.  However Neil did not mind one bit because he was missing his kids and he loved picking on Zachary.

While Zachary & Neil played in the lobby...Jennifer and I were deciding on where we should go for dinner. It really did not matter where we went because we just wanted to hang out with each other and catch up.   Kevin & Neil were in residency together. We love spending time with eachother's families and one another.  Jennifer & I picked the eating establishment because Neil & Kevin love German food.  So we went to a German restaurant.  It was yummy! After we were seated a German "band" came over to sing to us.  Little did I know they would hang out at our table forever. HA!

Please remember I am using a TERRIBLE camera.  The German place was poorly lit and the camera (with a flash) was a terrible so this is what I got. Mind you this was after editing the exposures.  O'well.  I guess this is what you get when you leave your battery at home. :)

Here's an adult only picture taken by Zachary.

Hil, Kevin, Neil, & Jennifer

 It was 2 days before Z's birthday and the waiters suprised him with dessert.  Z was thrilled so thrilled that he wanted to take a picture of his cake with Ms. Jennifer's phone.
 Our final group picture. Again it is terrible but at least we have something, right?

Colorado Mini-trip Day 2

While Kevin attended morning classes, Zachary and I rode the resort shuttle to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  All I have to say is what an amazing zoo.  It was on the edge of a mountian.  We planned to be there from 9-noon but when Kevin called to say he was done with class we had him head over and we stayed until around 4.  It was awesome! 

Here's Zachary posing by the giraffe statues.

We watched this two year old monkey and his mama for about an hour. It reminded me so much of me & Zachary. The baby boy orangutan would harrass and bother his mom so much. It cracked me up.

This primate was so sweet.  He looked so sad...until...

Zachary came over to the window. This is one of my all time favorite pictures. I love that you can see the primate, Zacharys reflection and then Zachary looking at him. 

We also had the pleasure of seeing two hippos out of the water.  How they hold themselves up with those little feet is beyond me.  Amazing!

The Cheyenne Mountian Zoo lets you feed the giraffes crackers.  Our local zoo does the same but this was different. These giraffes got SO close it was crazy. In fact one licked Zachary's spikey hair.

The zoo also had a bird room. You could pay $1 for 2 sticks that had food on the end of them.  You would hold your stick in the air and then the bird would land on the stick.  I was afraid of getting pooped on but we didn't.

Zachary's bird

Here's the one Kevin caught

Here is the view from the bottom of the zoo. The zoo wrapped itself around the mountain. My calf muscles are still sore from all the climbing.

The view from the top. BE-U-TI-FUL!

Yes, I was at the zoo that day. I just so happened to be behind the camera. Kevin made sure I got out and had my picture taken.

After the zoo we went to the Garden of the Gods.

I still have more photos to download for this day but I don't have enough time.  Praying I can get all my blogging done soon. 

Colorado Mini-trip Day 1

Back in January, my husband booked a trip for a conference.  After booking it I looked at the calendar and decided that Zachary and I were going to tag along too.  Little did we know in January that we were going to be buried up to our eyeballs in all things for his new office.  Luckly God did and knew that we needed a break.  So last Wednesday we hopped on a plane at 5:30 am and arrived in Colorado at 7:22 am.  We had 4 whole days to not worry about one thing back at home.  Again, God knew that we needed some peace & quiet and there was no better place in the world to get that than in Colorado Springs, CO.  Holy Cow! It was so peaceful and serene. 

Before we left I promised my nephew to take TONS of pictures.  He knows his Aunt Howie never leaves home without her camera!  As we were waiting in the airport, my "Aunt" Renee walks up to our terminal.  We were shocked to see her and to see that she would be flying with us. When I went to take her picture I realized my battery for the camera was back at home on the charger. TALK ABOUT DISAPPOINTMENT!  So we took a lot of pics with our iphones.  Then we spent about 2 hours trying to find the nearest camera store to buy a new battery.  Easier said than done. By the time I would have purchased a new battery & charger (since they can't guarantee that the battery is charged) I could have purchased a cheap digital camera. So that is what I did.  BIG MISTAKE...HUGE MISTAKE. The camera I purchased was JUNK!.  You'll be able to tell from my pics. I thought I could edit them out but I have had no luck. So here we go.

As soon as we got our rental car in Denver we met my cousin, Jeff for breakfast.  I could not remember the last time I have seen Jeff....at least 10 years.  When I mentioned on Facebook that we were headed West he messaged me to see if we could meet up. Good ole' FB was at it again. We had a pleasant breakfast and got caught up.  Here's what happens when your hurried waiter takes your picture with your phone.

You get blurry people. I wish I would have noticed this before we left the restaurant but I didn't.  After breakfast we took a beautiful drive to Colorado Springs. On our way we noticed a brand new outlet mall so we stopped to "move our legs" AKA shop for an hour.  Zachary found a huge superman doll that he HAD to have so within a matter of two hours of stepping foot on Colorado soil, he had already blown his souvenir money and it wasn't on anything "Colordado-y".  O'well that Superman doll was the best purchase because he entertained Zachary the entire trip.

After checking in at our hotel we decided to find me a camera store.  We also discovered a Whole Foods where we stocked up on fruits, breakfast items, and snacks.  Why in the world don't we have have Whole Foods in our city.  We loved it!  When we got back in the car from grocery shopping it was pouring.  I mean pouring down rain. Since everything we wanted to do was outside we decided to head to the United States Air Force Academy.  Kevin had never been there and Zachary was so excited to see the planes.  By the time we got there Z was sound asleep in his car seat.  Poor little guy had been up since 3:30 so it was not a surprise just a disappointment that he missed EVERYTHING.  We tried to wake him but he was out. 
After getting our rental car searched, trunk and all, we got clearance to enter the USAF grounds.  We wanted to get out but with a sleeping boy and pouring rain we took a car tour.  Our hopes were to come back later in the week but we never made it back.  I guess that just gives us an excuse to go back. 
Here's our only pic from the USAF.

Zachary drooling in the backseat.

After our car tour we hit the "FAMOUS" Fargo's Pizza.  Everyone suggested that we try it. In fact the 'founder' of Fargos, Landon Gardner's daughter is very good friends with my sister so it was a #1 priority to check it out. 

Here is the inside. Zachary was enjoyed the saloon type feel of the place.  The mirrors on the wall would light up with you number when your order is up.  If you look real close order 29 is ready to be picked up. 

Our friend Tracy told us that Zachary would need quarters to play the player piano.  He was thrilled to watch it as we waited for our pizza.

Here is a picture of the founder, Landon Gardner.  I had to take this to show our friend that we were really there and we saw a picture of her dad.  Kinda cool, huh?

Here is an edited picture of the pizza from my "new" camera. 

The last event of the night was going to the indoor pool to swim.  I relaxed on a chair while Kevin & Z swam.  We were all exhausted but thrilled to be on a mini-trip.