This weekend we had to have an official moment of silence, as it marked one whole year since we'd set foot on a beach. Yes, one year ago over Memorial weekend we visited the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and it's been twelve long months since we bid ol' salty blue farewell.... Sigh. Anyway, let's segue into this year's Memorial celebration starting with our overnight stay in Colorado Springs!
Yes! Beautiful Colorado Springs, just 40 minutes south of us, and packed full of adventure. We stayed at a super classy place called the Cheyenne Mountain Resort which featured some fancy amenities, like this heated outdoor pool! I picked the kids up a little early from school on Friday and we headed down to start vacationing ASAP. Jon was scheduled to work until 6 p.m., so he was a good sport and let us take two cars.
Babykins loved her soak in the hot tub!! This little peanut has probably been in more hot tubs than I have. In fact I think she sneaks out at night to go hot-tubbing.
The scenery around the pool was just gorgeous! It's nestled right up against the mountains and kind of reminds me of Europe. We swam until about 6:30 p.m. and then headed back to our room to get dressed and meet Jon.
One of the views from our hotel room. So lovely!
We were all starving, and Jon picked Drifters again because a nice juicy burger was what sounded good to him after a long day battling tooth decay. Zach the Burgermeister was in total agreement!
Back at the resort they had a huge fire going outside and lots of fixings to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. The kids were in heaven and we got to watch the sun go down behind the mountains.
Mmmmmm. Pretty good pre-bedtime snack!
Early the next morning we headed to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner which had rave reviews online. It had a super cute ambiance and we'd gotten there early enough to avoid a long wait so that was a huge plus!
Wee-Wee's loved scouting out all the black bears decorating the restaurant and felt like this could quite possibly Merida's restaurant-- and if you've ever seen the movie "Brave" you know why.
The breakfast was amazing! Chocolate chip pancakes, whipped cream, sausage and bacon-- these kid platters were fit for a king. We definitely want to go back!
My California Eggs Benedict with bacon, avocado, and grilled tomatoes. Yum!
Thoroughly stuffed it was time to move on to the days' adventures. The kids were begging to go back to the pool, so that's just what we did. The weather report for the day was a bit sketchy with some afternoon thunderstorms promised-- but at least for the morning it was just beautiful!!
Once they'd had their fill of that pool, we headed down to some more pools plus the lake and the man-made "beach." Leave it to me to find us a beach of some sorts to kick summer off!
They had kayaks and paddle boards to try so Jon took each of the kids out for a ride. Leah was last and was so anxious for her turn. She finally got loaded in and looked terrified! By the time they made it back to shore though she was already wanting to head back out!
The brave kayakers out on the lake. That water was freezing!
The kids couldn't decided if they wanted to the lake or the beach or the other pools at the resort (which also had a slide), so we just bounced back and forth between all of them. Can you spy Pike's Peak right there in the background?
With Jon on swimming duty I got lots of time to cuddle and play with this little baby who loves the sun and the water every bit as much as her siblings! Around 2 p.m. the thunderclouds rolled in and with lightning in the vicinity the pools closed up and it rained (literally) on our fun. Thankfully we'd already gotten a couple of solid hours of fun in and the kids were hungry for lunch anyway!
We headed downtown to Sonterra Grill which is a really unique Southwestern restaurant with lots of local awards. Jon got some amazing adobo chicken tacos with this crazy pumpkin seed pesto and ginger carrot slaw. I got the fish tacos-- and everything was super flavorful, and not like any Mexican food I'd ever tasted! We got there around 3 p.m. and the restaurant was pretty dead, so we basicallly had the whole place to ourselves. And with 4 kids-- that was a really good thing!
I'd been wanting to check out this Wild West/Ghost Town Museum I'd been hearing about, so with the on-and-off-again rain, we figured it'd be a good idea to take things indoors away. We headed over to the museum which was luckily only about 5 minutes away from the restaurant.
Even mention the word "ghost" to my kids and they absolutely freak themselves out. They love to be deliciously scared. So the fact that we were walking through a "ghost town" had them super jumpy-- add that to the fact that there were talking mannequin "outlaws" inside this jail and it was pretty hilarious to watch them!
Lots of old West artifacts-- including this stuffed two-headed calf in the left corner. Lucy was in heaven because she had just finished reading the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series so she had fun picturing different scenes from the books.
Whoa! Run away carriage!!
Outside they had some hands-on panning for gold that the kids could try. Zach was really hoping to find the mother lode but unfortunately he did not. It was getting late and the kids were exhausted from our little staycation so we loaded them up in the car and headed back up to Parker.
Monday morning I taught a special Memorial Day Body Pump class at the gym--which is more like a fancy country club, and then afterwards there were games and swimming and a free barbecue going on. We changed into our swim suits and got us a free picnic! Unfortunately those thunderstorms must have followed us because after about 5 minutes of being there they started up again. We decided to wait out the rain and sure enough after about a half an hour the sun came back out and the kids were allowed in the water!
The rain had scared away most people, so actually, the kids had this bouncy water slide and the pool to themselves! There is also a diving board there and Lucy and Zach jumped off of it probably 20 times. This will be a great pool to get to use this summer!
Next up we met Jeremy and the kids at a fun park in Castle Rock called the MAC to play for a little while before heading to dinner with them.
We met Auntie Kylene and baby Jamison at Red Robin (which sports this amazing view) and had a delish dinner with 4 adults and 7 kids!! We were just a little outnumbered, but thankfully our dinner outing went very smoothly. We had such a jam-packed, adventure-filled Memorial weekend I'm tired even just thinking about it! Thankfully, the kids only have TWO more days of school left before our summer really truly begins, and with the whole crew at home it's sure to be pure chaos!
