Colorado & Moab Trip

Jordan and I started our journey to Colorado on July 9th at 5am. Little did we know, the 9 hour trip would take all day long. On our way my parents van (Little Ann) had a hard time with the heat and hills by Vail, Colorado and kept vapor locking. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of that great and stressful day. Driving through the mountains of Colorado were just breathtaking. Finally around 8pm (15 hours later) we reached our destination of Colorado Springs.

The next day started off much better. We went to Manitou and saw some cave dwellings. They were really neat, and dirty (red sand & khaki pants don't go well together!). Jordan had a great time there. We were able to walk through some of them and check out some Indian dances.

The family in front of a cave dwelling

Cliff Cave dwellings Jordan was more intrigued with the "bunny ears" I was getting than the camera! What? No ears for them?

After we visited the cave dwellings we walked around Manitou Springs. It was a neat little city. There were a few interesting stores. One of them was called Poppy. It was a little hippy store. My brother Zack was in heaven there. Jordan loved the colors and the music in there. This was the sign on the door. In the store, all the mannequins had hair underneath their arms. Very interesting and comical! Personally, I think it takes away from the shirt, what do you think?
Walking around town there we enjoyed an ice cream cone, played at a park, and Jordan was spoiled by his uncles and aunt. He saw a carousel and of course wanted to ride. Each of his aunt and uncle took turns paying for his ride! At first he was a little nervous, and didn't dare move, but after riding several times, he became a pro.Here are some more pictures from Manitou and Manitou Springs.

Later that evening we rode the Cog Rail Road up to Pikes Peak. At the bottom of the summit was 92 degrees when we got there. Once at the top it was 45 degrees, and with the wind chill it made it feel like 32 degrees. The views on the train ride were unbelievably beautiful. They said that at the top, on a clear day, you could see as far as Kansas. It was a little harder to breath up there and I did get a little light headed, but it was great. The top of the summit is 14,100 feet about sea level.

Jordan and I freezing at the top The cog rail road car that took us up View from the top
Here are some more amazing pictures from the Cog Rail Road and Pikes Peak. If ever in the area, I highly recommend going!

Later that night we decided to drive to our next destination. Since Little Ann (van) had acted up on the first day, we had to rearrange a few of our plans. One was were we were going to stay the second night. This is one of those stories that is funny now, but at the time a little creepy and not so funny. We found a little place to stay at, that was in the middle of nowhere, that reminded us all of a movie named "Vacancy".

As we showed up, no one was there. The owner, that was expecting us, had gone into town. Once he returned he had us pay in cash for our room, one of the air conditioners was broken so he mentioned we would be safe sleeping with the window open, and there was just an Erie feel to the place (it didn't help that it was midnight, in the middle of nowhere, and a car full of people with imaginations running wild). I really don't think anyone slept very well that night...well, besides Jordan. He seemed to miss all the fun. Excuse the poor quality of the pictures...in all the fun and excitement I had the camera on the wrong setting! Here's some more pics of the motel.

Overall, the motel wasn't as bad as we thought it was once me all made it alive through the night!
The next morning we went to Royal Gorge...another breathtaking place. While at the Royal Gorge we did a lot of great things. We took a Ariel tram ride across the gorge. This is the tram we rode in.

There were some animals there (I think either a reindeer or elk...sorry, horrible with certain animals) that Jordan insisted were cows. He mooed and mooed as we walked past.
Jordan thought the best seat was Grandma's feet. He's no fool, he doesn't sit on the hot ground to play in the dirt!

This is the bridge that you can either walk or drive across. We walked. It was neat and scary all at the same time.

A picture of the family on the bridge.

Here is a view from the bridge of the sky coaster. It is like the one at Lagoon, but you swing over the huge, and very high, Royal Gorge! Tyler, Zack, Wyatt, Missie & Megan all went on it...they are much braver than I would have been:) Darn it, I was pregnant, so I couldn't be persuaded to go on it with them.

We also took a tram ride to the bottom of the Royal Gorge. Here is a view looking up at the tram and track that took us down.

This is a view of the bridge we walked across from the bottom of the Royal Gorge.

This is another place I would highly recommend going to. Maybe not on a day that was 100 degrees though!

Here are some more great pictures from the Royal Gorge.

At the end of the day, when we got back to the hotel (thank goodness not Vacancy), Jordan was so tired he fell asleep with the snake he got at the Royal Gorge (one of his new favorite toys).

The next day we spent hanging out in Durango. We walked and checked out the shops of the downtown area, it is a neat little town. Jordan recently has become a fan of trains, or Choo Choo's. He loved seeing the Durango Train stationed at the downtown area. He was so sweet and would get so excited every time we saw it.

We found a little Mexican restaurant to eat at for lunch. Jordan was such a good little boy and a cutie. Here is a fun picture of him being goofy.

Later that night we went and saw a play, "Dames at Sea". It was a really fun play. Originally I was really nervous on how Jordan was going to do during the play. So I packed a bag full of goodies, toys, and planned for the worst sitting next to the aisle so I could make a quick exit if needed. He did SO good. He sat and watched the entire show on his own chair. He would laugh with everyone and would clap at the end of each act. He was the perfect little boy. It made me want to cry with how well he did.

Here's a picture of him sitting on his chair waiting for the play to begin.

Here are some more fun pictures of our adventures in Durango.

After we left Colorado, our last stop on our trip was Moab. It was great because we met up with my Mom's side of the family that lives down there along with several other families that went down to visit as well. It was great seeing everyone there. We met up at a neat little park and had a BBQ.

The park was really neat. It had an area of musical instuments. Jordan loved playing on them. He was a little musician.

Here is a fun picture of my Mom & her sister Julie (my mom is youngest of 10 kids, 8 boys and 2 girls).

Here are some other fun picutres of our Moab trip.

The trip was a lot of fun. The only thing that would have made it the perfect trip, is if Glen would have been able to have gone with. Jordan and I was just spoiled by everyone. Mom & Dad, the boys & Auntie M were wonderful with helping me with Jordan. It was really cute, whenever Jordan wanted anything he would look at them with the sweetest face and do the sign for please. With that he was even able to get everyone into a cold swimming pool to play with him! He had everyone wrapped around his little finger. Jordan also did very well for all the time spent in the car during the trip (all 1500 miles in 5 days).

Thanks mom & dad for taking Jordan and I with you. We had a great time.