Road Trip 2022 - Day 6

We spent the day taking advantage of all the activities at the YMCA resort grounds. We started the day with a buffet breakfast and then hit the slopes....the summer snow slopes that is! This was really well done. We had reservations at 9 am on the summer tubing hill. It's a white Astroturf hill that is sprayed down with a mist of water as you tube down. They even had a conveyor belt that you rode with your tube back up the hill! It was a lot of fun for everyone!

After tubing, we headed straight over to zipline. We had a 10 am reservation here. Kyler decided he wasn't interested, so I took his spot and I am glad I did. It wasn't super high, but it was enough to get your blood pumping, that's for sure!

At 11, we hit up rock climbing. This time, Lex joined the kiddos. It was his first time and he was surprised at how much of a workout it is and how scary it is to let go once you are ready to come down :) Levi had a random bloody nose during his climb, so he had to miss out on the majority of this activity. It took quite a while for it to stop, must have been the altitude?!?! Overall though, the kiddos did great and loved this! 

We headed "into town" for lunch. The YMCA is located in Granby, CO and the closest large town is Winter Park. Lex picked out a great little sandwich shop for us to try in Winter Park. The line was out the door, but it was worth it! Delish!

Once we got back to the Y, Levi & Lex decided to rest a bit and the rest of us went and played mini golf. We played two rounds and then went back to get the others and played another round! They had the balls and putters just set out in a pavilion where you can play anytime you want for as long as you want. Pretty awesome! 

After putt putt we were able to get a last minute reservation to swim in the pool. It was an indoor pool and no photography was allowed. It was short but sweet. They had a rock wall that the kids and Lex stayed on the whole time. You climb up and then fall back into the water. Katelyn got the whistle blown on her for climbing too high...LOL, not a surprise :)

Our last scheduled activity was archery at 5 pm. This was the one Kyler had been waiting for all day! He was so excited! They had compound bows and a few regular bows. He found that the regular bows were easier for him to handle, but weren't powerful enough to actually stick into the target. He loved it so much and can't wait to use Pappy's bows and practice more at the ranch. We all enjoyed a little target practice, Levi definitely has some strong skills in the hunting/shooting department! 

After dinner at the dining all, we headed over to play Bingo! You can't go wrong with a good bingo night, especially when you win a cool eye patch like this one :)

What a great day! There was so much more we could have done at the Y. Next time, we'd love to rent bikes (they had a bike track with jumps and all), hike the two main trails to the waterfall, and maybe do the horseback riding too. 

Road Trip 2022 - Day 5

 We enjoyed our hotel a lot in Colorado Springs! We stayed the last 4 nights in hotels paid for by Lex's Marriott points. The first two nights, the kiddos has to share a Queen size bed (okay, I ended up joining them and letting Levi take my spot because of all the fighting). The next night in Pueblo was okay, but the location was sketchy. This one was perfect! Everyone had plenty of space, it was a suite and the couch had a pull out trundle - way better than a pull out couch! Plus, we had already seen the Garden of the God's so we didn't set an alarm and just took our time waking up. We all needed this.

We enjoyed the continental breakfast, packed our bags, and watched the academy airplanes practice dragging and releasing gliders from the hotel parking lot. It was pretty cool!

By this time, Levi's rash/hives had spread and he was pretty uncomfortable with all the itching. We found a nearby Urgent Care and really lucked out. They were great and quick! We got him some medicine and headed north through Denver to check in for the next three nights at the YMCA of the Rockies - Snowmountain!

Here was our view along the way....

We arrived mid afternoon and started checking it all out. Here's a view of part of the property. They have 5,000 acres, including an overnight campground, a day camp, and 3-4 hotel lodge style buildings you see here. It's very much a "family camp" atmosphere. 

Here's a list of most of the activities they offered while we were there:

The view from our balcony:

We didn't have any activities planned for the first afternoon, so we hit up the roller skating rink, ping pong tables, and foosball in the Rec Center. 

Lex even tried roller skating for the first time! I'm so proud!! 

For dinner we went to the Dining Hall onsite, the kids were in heaven with the all you can eat buffet!! Their eyes may have been a bit bigger than their stomachs :)

We were excited to be in one place for a few days and ready to check out the rest of what the YMCA had to offer on Day 6!

Road Trip 2022 - Day 4

 We woke up bright and early on day 4 in Pueblo, CO packed our bags up and headed out to Canyon City, CO. We had a big day planned that started with a White Water Rafting Trip down the Arkansas River. We met at the Echo Canyon River Expedition headquarters in the heart of Canyon City, then they shuttled us to the river. Along the route, they prepped us with all the safety information, including what to do if you fall out. They had us all a little nervous, but overall it was a fairly mild trip. No one fell out and none of the boats in our group even got close to tipping. With this being our first rafting trip and Kyler only being 8, we stuck with the beginner & intermediate levels I, II, & III. We had a blast! This was definitely something everyone will remember!

Kyler found this giant rock at the rafting headquarters and had to have a picture with it. :)

After our adventures on the water, we swung by the Royal Gorge there in Canyon City as well. We didn't have time to enter the park, but we at least can say we've seen it. They had a zipline and a gondola that crossed the gorge. A skycoaster on one side, plus you can walk across the gorge on the largest suspension bridge in the US. We'll definitely be back. Canyon City in general had a lot of fun things to see, including a prison tour. We were all impressed and hope to visit again one day when we can spend more time there. 

After our adventurous morning, we hoped in the car and drove a few hours north to Colorado Springs where we had tickets to ride the Cog Railway up to the top of Pikes Peak. Our hotel was up by the Air Force Academy, so we opted to just tour around the Pikes Peak area before our train ride and just check into the hotel late that night. I had planned to visit Garden of the God's the next morning, but even with all that we had planned we were able to check it out before our train ride. I would have liked to have had more time to hike here, but we were glad we saw it when we did so we could sleep in a little the next day. 

Visitor Center Fun....Check out this view! The red rock formations look so tiny from here! 

More trick photography :)

Garden of the God's was magnificent! The natural creations of these rocks are hard to capture in pictures, they were much more grand in person.  We drove through the park and stopped at the lookout spots, where the kids climbed until we had to pull them down, LOL! Not really, but we did cut it short in order to prevent anyone from getting majorly injured. They loved climbing and running from rock to rock! 

Oh hey Levi, thanks for the photobomb :)

We had a 5:30 departure on the Cog Railway, but arrived quite a bit early. It sprinkled on us a bit, but not too bad luckily!

Up, up we go!

It was an hour drive up the mountain, the first half was mostly trees but then as we got higher we had amazing views. We spotted some marmots playing in the rocks, a well. 

Once we arrived, we were surprised to actually be quite dizzy. There are signs everywhere warning you about altitude sickness, so we took Dramamine, but it didn't seem to help. It was also freezing cold!! We knew it would be cold, but didn't realize how cold! Brrrr...Lex was not prepared :) 

On top of the world!! 

The train stopped at the top for about an hour. There is a visitors center at the top, with a gift shop, snacks shop, and some information about Pikes Peak to read. We spent quite a bit of time in here, sitting, resting and window shopping. Mostly because it was cold, but also because we were quite dizzy. The kiddos each got some Altitude Donuts, which are some kind of special donut that can only be made at high altitudes. Kyler thought it tasted like a churro, cinnamon & sugar, yum!

And that's a wrap for day 4. We were all tired and almost fell asleep on the ride back down the mountain. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and crashed at the hotel.