2012 Vacation Day Eight: Our Favorite Day

 After a week of vacationing it was bound to happen, Brandon and I got grumpy with each other.  The details have faded from my memory, but it had something to do with having three kids and only knowing where two binkies were AND an air mattress that wasn't fully pumped up.  Neither of us were sleeping very well and so we had a late night snack/talk at the jeep.  We got our differences sorted out, ate pudding, and went back to bed.

 Brandon woke up early in the morning and went for a 4 mile run.  He came back not even winded (punk) and in a better mood.  He said that as fun as the day before had been it had involved too much driving and not enough exercise.  He also said that he was committed to having fun again.  I agreed.

 Brandon and David started making breakfast.  I have to say it was wonderful to have Emily and David come with us for our vacation.  Having two extra adults around made everything so much easier.  For instance, David and Brandon were able to make scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon while Emily and I wrangled the 5 kids.

 While breakfast cooked I organised the clean laundry.  The three oldest kids wanted to help.

 Then we enjoyed the yummy breakfast.  We finally figured out that the best way to feed the girls was to sit them on our laps and feed them off of our plates.

 After breakfast we headed out to see the sights around Colorado Springs.  Our first stop was Garden of the Gods.  If we had come on our vacation one week earlier we would not have been able to go to Garden of the Gods.  A large wild fire had come dangerously close to the park and so it had been closed.  Some people had even tried to tell me not to go on vacation because of the fire.  I'd said we were going no matter what, and at the very least we could hang out with the refugees who'd lost their homes.  All the worries were in vain and the park was open by the time we got there.    

 Our first stop was the visitors center where I got one of my traditional squished pennies (the best souvenir ever and it's only 50 cents!)  We could have watched a movie about the park for $5, but none of us wanted to try to sit through a movie with all the kids.  Instead we had fun with the free fudge samples in the gift shop.

 Then we started enjoying the Garden of the Gods.  It was so cool to walk around these awesome rocks.

  Brandon and David acted as shurpas to the two youngest boys.  

While me and Emily pushed the older kids around.  

 The park is basically next to a residential neighborhood, but there is lots of wildlife in it.  We saw a deer and lots of birds.

 The land for the park was owned by someone who never built on it.  When he died his children deeded the land to Colorado Springs.  There one stipulation was that it would always be free.  Brandon made the comment, "It's like Facebook.  It's free and always will be." 

 I was really happy to see the red stone.  Some how it made everything feel more like one of our vacations.

 We took a break from walking around and everyone got snacks.  All the kids were good and ate fruit cups before eating their pudding cups.   

 Then we let the kids play around a little bit.

 Charlotte and Lydia found this little cave and spent a long time playing in it.  They threw dirt in the air and ran from one wall to the other.

 They had so much fun.  I had to pull them away when another family wanted to take pictures there.

 We went back to the car and had another parking lot lunch.  Thanks again to Brandon and David for putting together the sandwiches.  We decided to split up for the afternoon.  Emily and David wanted to go check out main street Manitou Springs.  We wanted to go explore a cave that was a little out of their price range.

 Then we drove through the rest of the park.  We passed Colorado's version of balanced rock.  The girls were already asleep (it had only been 5 minutes!) so we didn't even stop the car.  I just snapped this pic from the car and we kept on driving.

 We had originally planned to go to Cave of the Winds, but Charlotte and Lydia needed a car ride nap.  So we decided to go somewhere further first.  We drove up the canyon and saw the effects of the recent forest fire.  In the back ground of this picture you can see the burned trees.  We also saw lots of signs thanking the firefighters for saving communities and homes.

 We were getting tired so Brandon pulled over and we took a nap.  We were very lucky that none of the kids woke up when the car stopped moving.  I don't know how long we were asleep, but it was probably close to an hour.  I used a bag of diapers and some clothes as a pillow.   

We felt much better after our naps, and were able to finish driving to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Contrary to the sound of the name, the fossils do not glow.  However, they do have giant petrified redwood tree stumps so it is still a really cool place. 

 The stumps are huge and are way cooler than the stupid petrified tree in Yellowstone.

 According to news reports from the 1800's there used to be hundreds of stumps dotting the valley.  Unfortunately most were picked apart by souvenir hunters.

 But there are still several of them remaining.  We went on a walk to see some of them.  As we were walking we noticed large storm clouds coming our way.

 We tried to ignore them and continued to enjoy the awesome fossils.

 But soon we realized we were actually in pretty big danger.  We were in the middle of a field, with a metal stroller, and their was lightning coming toward us.  We ran a half mile back to the safety of the jeep.  I was pretty convinced we were going to die, but we made it back safely.

 Then it was time for our usual routine of diaper changes for everyone.  The kids were such good sports to handle being changed on the car seats time after time.

 It was getting close to dinner time so we decided to head back to Colorado Springs and meet up with Emily and David.  It rained on us as we drove back, but we thought the storm was just affecting the mountains.  However the storm followed us to the city.  We all hung out under the tent porch while it rained. 

 Brandon made dinner in the rain.  We'd planned pasta which was a good thing because boiling water on the camp stove was probably the only thing we could have done in the storm.

 The rain was pouring down really really hard. I'm so glad that our tent has a large porch.  We were able to eat dinner without feeling like we were stuck in the tent.  I'm also glad we water proofed the tent a few months ago.

 Despite the rain Brandon and I still wanted to go to Cave of the Winds.  This was the thing I had been looking forward to the most and I didn't want to miss it.  Plus I knew it would be dry inside the cave so the rain wouldn't really be an issue.    We grabbed the kids and ran through the rain to put them in the jeep.  Then we drove up a canyon to the cave entrance.   

 We bought our tickets and waited for our tour.  The girls played in this car.  At one point Charlotte was playing in the car while Lydia was walking around with me.  Someone walked by Lydia and she got scared and ran up to me.  I told her, "he wont hurt you.  Say hi."  Lydia was too scared to talk so she just waved.  Then from the corner I heard Charlotte loudly say, "Hi."  That pretty much solidified my idea that Charlotte is the gregarious twin and Lydia is the timid one - at least when strangers are involved.

 Soon it was time to go into the cave.  I kept both girls with me because it's a federal offense to touch anything in the cave.

 But some parts were a little cramped and I had to put them down.  They loved running through the narrow spaces.   

 Brandon had Derrick.  We were lucky in that the cave allowed babies in front packs (but not back packs because they would probably get their heads bonked.)

 The cave is very accessible to people who can walk.  They've smoothed out the floor in most places.  They also show you parts of the original tour from the late 1800's.  If we'd wanted to see this cave back then we would have had to climb on our hands and knees for 4 hours and climb up this rope ladder, among other things.

 Of course back then we also would have been allowed to pull off a soda straw for a souvenir.

 Eventually both girls got to be too heavy for me so Charlotte migrated over to Brandon.  He was holding her when they turned off all the lights and let us experience total cave darkness.  The tour guide was ready to flip the lights back on if the girls went nuts, but the girls actually remained pretty calm.  They were happy when the lights turned back on though.

 There were lots of cool formations.  Our guide told us a way to tell the difference between the formations.  Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites are on the ground and you might trip over them.  This formation is shiny from the oils in tourists hands.  We weren't allowed to touch it because the oils have actually plugged up the pours in the limestone and made it so it is no longer growing.  But there was another rock that we were allowed to touch.  

 This was my favorite little group of formations.  It was called the Asian garden.  

 Charlotte and Lydia loved the tour.  Occasionally they got a little bored or scared but we'd ask them to point out the rocks or lights and they would started saying, "rahck" and "ight" over and over again.

 Derrick, as you can see, was asleep.

 The website had recommended we all wear jackets. I wish I had left mine off because walking through a cave while carrying a toddler is quite a work out.

 After 45 minutes the tour was over.  Brandon and I had each paid $18 for the tour.  It was by far the most expensive thing we'd done on our vacation, but it was totally worth it.  We figured that since our 3 kids got in free it was an even better deal.  We raved about how much fun the tour had been as we walked back to the jeep.

Throughout the day we'd lost the last two binkies.  So we made a quick stop at Walmart to buy more.  Then we went back to the RV park and put the kids to bed.  This is the view of the walk way to the tent area.  I liked how secluded it was from the rest of the camp.  We were close to the bathrooms and laundry area too. If they can figure out how to get some shade back there this will be a very nice tent area.  

All the kids went to bed easily.  Brandon and I stayed up getting the jeep ready for an early departure the next day.  It took us until nearly midnight to get everything organized.  Then we crawled into a fully pumped up air mattress and fell asleep.  We both agreed that this had been our favorite day so far.