Summer of Stay-cations

Well, it has been a crazy summer.  Lots of very hot days and rainy nights.  I can't believe how quickly July and August flew by.  We had lots of fun doing things near home.  (This is going to be a long post with lots of photos.)  Here are some of our "stay-cation" adventures.

We are so happy to be living so close to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  

The boys absolutely LOVE feeding the giraffes.

Shaden got this awesome hat from his Aunt Margaret & Uncle Nick.

Chris's parents came and visited us.  We love seeing them and were so glad we got to go up to Cripple Creek with them.  We took a train ride while up there and went on a tour of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine.  The train ride was so much fun and the perfect amount of time to keep the boys entertained.  We saw a ton of old mine sites and the weather was beautiful.  Jayce and Shaden loved the train whistle and got so excited when they heard it echo a bunch on one part of the ride.
The mine tour was very educational and interesting.  I wasn't sure about riding in the rickety elevator down, down, down into the mountain.  We all had to wear hard hats and the mine was around 60 degrees.  The guide demonstrated some of the old equipment and I couldn't believe how loud it was.  The boys were so good during the tour.  Yay!

Waiting for our train.

 Ready to ride.

 Jayce was looking at everything.

 So was everyone else.

 Self portrait (and some random guy in the background).

 One of the mines produced 14 million dollars in gold... just think what that would be worth today!

 Train hats and trains as souvenirs.

(Photo by Don Allen)

Down in the mine.

(Photo by Don Allen, Thanks!)

Our next adventure was Alpine Sliding up in Winter Park.  Unfortunately Chris and I forgot 2 things in the car... #1 Our camera  #2 Sunscreen.  Oh well.  It was a blast!  If you haven't been Alpine Sliding, you are missing out!  You ride up part of the mountain on a ski lift and ride back down on a sled (with a brake) on a track.  The boys were such great and would run to get back on the ski lift as soon as we reached the bottom.  Shaden was having so much fun when the lift closed for the day he was very upset and almost passed up having ice cream.

Another adventure we took was to visit the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster.  Shaden got to hold a live tarantula named Rosie.  We also got to pet a horseshoe crab, starfish, and a sea cucumber.  My mom went with us and Shaden kept telling her that he didn't want to eat the spiders and other bugs.  There is a large room where they let the butterflies fly around free.  The butterflies were beautiful!  And some were huge!  There was one bigger than my hand!  The boys also managed to find a turtle that was trying to make a run for the door.

Giant Praying Mantis outside.

 Shaden and Jayce being butterflies.

 Shaden holding Rosie.  He was so brave.

 Look at all those creepy crawlies!

 Here you can see our sunburns from the Alpine slide.

 Finding Nemo.

 This butterfly was HUGE! Also, I didn't see him until I almost bumped into him.

 Trying to catch a glimpse of the shiny part of her wings.

 My mom (Nana) and the boys.

 Shaden and the turtle that was trying to make a run for the doors.

 These wings were so cool.

 Shaden was such a good sport for me making him try everything on.

 Jayce was having none of it.

Chris had to work some wicked long hours for three weeks after his time off, so one day I took the car and the boys up to my parents' house.  My mom and I took the boys to a water park near her house and let them run around.  Shaden surprised me and actually ran through some of the water getting his face wet on purpose.  Jayce was content running to the water and back to us.

It was a great summer... now I'm ready for some fall fun!