Vacation Day 7

Okay, so today is Monday and day 7 of vacation was Saturday. Saturday, we went to the Royal Gorge in Canon City, CO. It was one of the most beautiful places we went. It was also the best coupon deal of the week. The regular admission to the park was $24 per adult, $19 per child. I bought a pass for 4 for $31. A savings of $55!! When you are in the park all of the rides are free except for the sky coaster. I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

A view from the bridge...I was very nervous up there!

Click to enlarge this to read the sign

These men were working on the bridge...this gave me THAT feeling in the pit of my stomach!

This is what was below those men! UGH!

Karlee was very brave this day, she still really didn't feel that great.

This is an incline railroad that takes you straight down to the bottom of the gorge.

A view from the bottom.

Eli was dying to go on this sky tram...there is no way I would ever get on there. J took him and they said it was fun.

A view from the sky tram.

Looking up at the bridge from the bottom of the gorge.

On the way back to the hotel there were 2 serious accidents on the other side of the highway. The traffic was backed up over there for miles. I felt very blessed to be on the side that was moving but also it reminded me to thank the Lord for giving us safety the whole week.

Yesterday, we drove home. It was a 12 hour drive, which is long, but the kids were great and the roads were clear. It is good to be back home. I have been unpacking and doing a ton of laundry today.

Thanks for going along on our vacation with us!

Vacation Day 6

We planned on the family going on the Cog Railroad to Pikes Peak today. Karlee was still sick enough that I did not want to risk her being on the train and having a relapse and we were stuck for 3 hours. So, she and I dropped J & Eli off for the train and went to Manitou Springs for the day. That is the town at the base of Pikes Peak. It is full of little, overpriced tourist shops. It was fun to stroll together and we both bought a souvenir. She bought a zip up hoody and I bought a perfume decanter.

Here are some pic's from the guys outing. Eli said this was, "The best man to man time they ever had!"






Blessings!

Vacation Day 5 Continued

Another great tip from the hotel staff here. Gold Camp Rd. outside of Colorado Springs is an absolutely breathtaking drive. At first I was very hesitant to go because it is a narrow dirt road and there are no guard rails. But I was quickly sucked in by the beauty. This was a nice low key thing to do this afternoon. We are going to stay in tonight and hope Karlee is able to get out tomorrow feeling better.

Here are the pic's!

Vacation Day 5

Karlee woke up feverish and her throat was worse. So, J & I Googled quick care facilities in Colorado Springs. We are recommending Integrity Urgent Care if you ever find yourself in need while you are here. We called and talked to them about prices and they were honest and kind. Also, the office was very clean and the service was quick. On the way we saw another quick care facility and stopped in to save a few minutes driving. J went in and talked to them and they quoted him a starting price of $180.00. He told them we were on our way to Integrity and they had quoted us $94 with a strep test. They were not willing to match the price so we went up the road. The funny thing is that Integrity was a much higher scale facility for a better price.

Karlee now has some antibiotics and will probably be ready to go by tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for your prayers!

We are going to go for a scenic drive this afternoon and I will post some pic's tonight if we get any good ones.

Blessings!

Vacation Day 4

Day 4 was cold, and Karlee has a sore throat, so we chilled out this morning. We didn't get around until lunch time. Then we headed to the (FREE) Focus on the Family headquarters. We were not sure what to expect. It was really great! First we split a large pizza for $12.00, then we went through the children's areas. They have a wonderful set up for children!

After that, we went to the American Numismatic Association Money Museum. Eli loves collecting coins, so this was a real highlight for him! This was $5 for adults and free to kids. It was well worth the $10.

Here are the pic's!

Focus on the Family children's area

Who can resist putting their heads in these things? Certainly not us!

You walk through a wardrobe to enter into Narnia.

The highlight for the kids, they got to record their own episode of Adventures in Odyssey. They offer this for free and give the kids a copy of their episode on c.d. If you ever go there be sure to go and sign your kids up for this as soon as possible. There are only a limited number of sessions available each day. We were excited to get the last open slot!

J did the sound effects!

Here are some pic's from the money museum.

That's all for today. Please pray for Karlee to get to feeling better and for protection for the rest of us. We will probably take it easy tomorrow, hoping that Karlee gets some needed rest and healing. We have two big activities planned for Friday & Saturday, hopefully we will be able to do them.

Blessings!

Vacation Day 3

Today we woke up to sunny skies! Hallelujah! The weather is still chilly with a high of only 47 today. That is fine because my very smart husband insisted that I pack the winter coats, hats, and gloves. I was insisting that he was being over cautious. I was WRONG! Thank you, J!

We ate our FREE hotel breakfast and then we took off to the FREE Garden of the Gods park. It is an awesomely beautiful place! You can see that we are in our winter coats and with them it was a tolerable and beautiful hike.

After that, we went to Five Guys Burgers for lunch. This was the splurge for the day. I had never been there and I had heard lots of great reviews. It did not let us down. That was a great lunch and we all left stuffed!!

Then we were off to the FREE Olympic Training Facility. There is a short tour that is really interesting and takes you through some of the workout facilities. The movie they show is really inspiring and gave me goose bumps more than once. We were all very impressed with the facilities.

I am including quite a few pictures in this post, but when I uploaded today's total there were 101, so consider yourself lucky I narrowed it down to this many!

The kids petting a buffalo beard, don't ask why, we don't know.

The family with Garden of the Gods in the background.

The next 10 pictures are all at the Garden of the Gods park.

Oops, how did THAT get in here?!

Olympic Training Facility

A view of Pikes Peak from OTF

Michael Phelps was here 3 months ago.

We are back at the hotel for an hour or two of relaxation and then we are going to go to Subway for dinner. We will buy a sub and get one free and each have a half. This should be a $7.00 meal to make up for lunch. All in all, today was my favorite day so far.

I am blogging about all of the deals, coupons, and free stuff not to brag but to give tips for others who want to take a family vacation but think they could never afford it. It can be done very economically with the right attitude and preparations.

Speaking of economical, when we were out on the trail I noticed that all of our winter coats were bought for a deal. Mine was $3.00 at a garage sale. Karlee's was $4.00 at a garage sale. Eli's was $3.00 at a garage sale, and it came with a light jacket he can wear for fall/spring and then it zips in for winter. J's was FREE, a gift from his dad. All of our gloves & hats were also bought either on clearance at the end of the season, or garage sales. I think we look pretty cute for bargain shoppers, don't you?

Blessings!