Colorado Springs

Moving on eastward, we traveled to Colorado Springs. It hit some incredible thunderstorms and arrived late afternoon in the middle of one. We stopped off at Focus on the Family and the kids all enjoyed the exhibits there. Sadly, none of the photos turned out well.

Stalking Tim and girls, we stayed at the same hotel. Some kids enjoyed a cool, evening swim while others bundled up for games in the lounge. We all ate to our hearts content the next morning! A very good breakfast buffet.

The next morning was beautiful and we headed on the Garden of the Gods before completing the final leg of the journey up to Estes Park for the reunion.

 The kids all enjoyed Garden of the Gods. It's a big, natural playground for all ages:).

 We enjoyed family devotions in an isolated setting, even watching deer go by. Then there was Joe! Little man had to go!

What is vacation without a trip to the Apple Store? The only store designed for a family of nine children! I love it. Ipads for everyone. Wish there were one closer to home because it would be worth it for everyone to have "computer time" at the same time each day:). Just 30 minutes per kid/per day at our home equates to 4 hours!

Colorado Continued. . .

After a nice (but extremely long) birthday breakfast at Dennys, we continued traveling on toward CO. We made the stop at Four Corners which has turned into a mini-enterprise and we did feel "ripped off"  by our fellow countrymen who forced us to pay to see this site which all Americans should have free access to, in my opinion. Or, at least pay for National Park fee. . .but this was ridiculous. As if we aren't already supplying money to this group of people . . . well hold off on those views.

So, here's the photo. :) A once in a lifetime stop - the next time the kids can do it on their own . . .

I had hoped to stop in Mesa Verde, but time didn't allow. We pulled into the timeshare later than we hoped, but was nice to have Tim, Hannah, and girls ready with a nice dinner! They were kind to let us follow them out to CO and invade on a bit of their vacation prior to the reunion. We overlapped a day and the cousins enjoyed time together.

Our  view from the timeshare at Pagosa Springs, CO

Golfing with AR cousins! Golf Team 1

The styling golf Team 2!