For the kids fall break this year, we decided it would be fun to go out and see Adam’s cousin Kevin and his wonderful family out in Colorado. However, after we contacted them to make arrangements we learned that it was going to be a crazy busy weekend for them – and so we re-thought our plans and decided we would go out another time when we could spend more time together. But since we had Colorado on the brain anyway, we thought we’d check our condo’s to see if they had any openings! Lucky for us they had several openings at their Springs Colorado location which was only a 5 hour drive for us! Saweet! We always love any chance we get to get-away. So we made some arrangements and on Wednesday evening after the kids got out of school and Adam got off of work we set off on our fall break adventure!
Adam and I have actually been out to Colorado Springs once before when Brans was just a baby, but for some reason google maps was taking us a different way than we remembered. Instead of going up Provo canyon and through Strawberry, our directions were taking us through Spanish Fork Canyon which also took us on an off the beaten path road which we discovered was another canyon! And although the roads were super curvy and we feared we might have some sick kids on our hands, the canyon was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately though it was also very foggy though so not great for pictures. But Adam did get the one below.
At one point during our drive to Colorado Springs though we ended up having to stop for what appeared to be a bad accident. It was about 9:00 at night and we were hoping to be at our condo at around 10:30 but this delay really slowed us down. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes – and then talked to a fireman who said it was going to be another 45 minutes! So Adam checked google maps and was able to find an off the beaten path dirt road that would only take us 30 minutes – so we opted for that instead. We were sure glad we did too – as it really only took us about 20 minutes and we were on our way again. The kids were troopers though and luckily kept a good attitude even despite the delay.
It helps when they are asleep for most of it too. đ
This is a picture we took of one of the vehicles involved in the accident. Notice that the trailers TWO wheels are completely missing! We heard it was like that on both sides. Yikes! Luckily the people in the truck were not hurt. We don’t know what happened to the other car though.
We arrived at the condo about 11:00 that evening and immediately put kids to bed and unloaded the car. Then the next morning we all slept in, had a nice breakfast of wheat pancakes, and then we decided to hit the outdoor heated pool! Boy was the walk over in our swim suits cold though! If I remember right we only had a high of 46 that day! Brrrrrr.
One of my favorite things about the condo was its location. Beautiful mountains with amazing fall colors surrounded our condo in every direction. AMAZING! I wish these pictures did the colors justice.
All of us really enjoyed the heated pool that morning – even despite Mom’s idea to do impromptu “swim lessons.” I made each of the boys jump into the deep end and practice “ladder climbing” to the surface, as well as blowing bubbles in the water, going under the water, and swimming and floating on their backs. Luckily Adam bribed them all with “shark rides” on his back if they did as they were told and that seemed to help them gather the courage to practice the things they learned from their swim teacher this year. We also gave each of the boys some goggles and then played games with them where they had to look under water and tell us how many fingers we were holding up. Adam made the game even challenging later making Branson multiply the numbers on his two hands and Harry add them. It sure made the boys more comfortable putting their faces and heads in the water though which was our goal. Branson also got good at swimming under the bridge (our legs) and holding his breath. Good times were had by all in the pool and the best part was getting to soak in the hot tub afterwards.
They had an indoor swimming pool too – but we only went once after we discovered it was COLD! đ
We had fun checking out the arcade room and game rooms though and we took full advantage of the game closet where you could borrow board games and puzzles to do during your stay.
We ended most nights with rootbeer floats all around or hot cookie and ice cream sandwiches. Yum!
