Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Family Road Trip Part 1
We began out trip late Thursday evening after work to get a head start on the 8 hr drive to Colorado Springs.
We finally made it out of town around 7 pm and drove into Goodland, Ks at nearly 10 pm. About 2 hrs into the drive our girls started asking the dreaded question..."when are we gonna be there?"...and we knew then it could be a long week!
The next morning we woke up and it was snowing. The girls were very excited to see snow, but we were not since it would most likely slow down our travel time. Fortunately, it didn't seem to last and once we were an hour or so into Colorado it had pretty much stopped.
We were very thankful that we broke up the drive to Colorado Springs as we were able to get there by noon on Friday. We ate at this really cool restaurant that had a actual plane built into the building and we were able to eat in the plane...and play in the cockpit.
We then went to tour the Cave of the Winds that afternoon.
We chose a hotel in Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs and after settling into our room and resting for a little bit, we went down and had dinner at a fondue place in downtown Manitou Springs. It was a really fun experience to enjoy as a family.
It was EXTREMELY cold in Colorado and on Saturday we were not able to go do the sightseeing activities we had planner because it was just too cold to be outside. So, we improvised and found a mall where the girls and I got pedicures.
Chris was very patient and to reward him we found a local spa and set him up for an massage appointment. While Chris was at his appointment, the girls and I headed to Target to stock up on a few supplies, including a couple of long sleeved shirts. We were not expecting such cold weather and we had clearly not packed enough warm clothes.
That evening we met up with my good friend Lauren and her husband Adam for dinner at a local eatery. We enjoyed seeing her and meeting Adam, as it had been long overdue.
Once we were done with supper, we headed back to the hotel to let the girls swim in the pool before hitting the sack early as we planned to leave the next morning extremely early!
We had the vehicle packed with everything except the clothes we were going to wear, which made it super easy for getting up at 4:15 AM. Our goal was to scoop up the kids and hopefully get some driving time in while the kids slept in the car. Unfortunately they didn't fall right back to sleep as we originally hoped for and both Maddie and Brooke fought car sickness with all the curves and elevation changes that come along with driving in the mountains.
Sunday was our long driving day as we were going from Colorado Springs through Utah and down to Las Vegas. It was over a twelve hour drive with bathroom breaks and we went from frigid 12 degrees in the mountains to 88 degrees in Vegas...so we did a lot of shedding of clothes throughout the day. The mountains were beautiful and we saw them at sunrise, which was awesome!
We made a quick stop at Grand Junction, CO for gas and to get the girls changed out of their pj's before heading into Utah. Maddie had asked to change seats with me at Grand Junction and I had informed her that she would have to keep daddy company since I would be in the back an most likely fall asleep. She assured me that she would, but when I woke up...I woke up to a car full of sleeping kids! Maddie had apparently gone to sleep about 15 min after the other two girls and I had, leaving Chris to fend for himself to stay awake by eating twizzlers and guzzling energy drinks.
I immediately switched seats back and saw why it was so difficult to drive in Utah. It is the most barren country EVER! It was canyons on the right...
and barren land on the left.
There were no towns along the highway, which surprised us as it was Interatate 70 and ever exit said "no services available". It was a good thing that we had filled up with gas before we left Grand Junction because I'm not sure what we would have done. There was no signs of life at all...no towns...no houses....no trees...nothing! And to say driving in Kansas is boring...I would have given anything to have been driving in the plains at that moment...at least it's green! We had packed fixings for a lunch, which came in handy at this point, since there was no pulling over for a happy meal anywhere.
The drive was much more bearable once we got to Salina, UT (ironic, huh!)
and we made good time getting into Las Vegas around 5:30 pm that evening. We were thankful that we had gotten up early and the kids did relatively well on such a long day of driving. We were thankful for iPads and vehicle DVD players, as they kept our kiddos well entertained throughout the day. I don't know how we managed road trips before them!
Well...that is the start to our first family road trip. Stay tuned for more!
We finally made it out of town around 7 pm and drove into Goodland, Ks at nearly 10 pm. About 2 hrs into the drive our girls started asking the dreaded question..."when are we gonna be there?"...and we knew then it could be a long week!
The next morning we woke up and it was snowing. The girls were very excited to see snow, but we were not since it would most likely slow down our travel time. Fortunately, it didn't seem to last and once we were an hour or so into Colorado it had pretty much stopped.
We were very thankful that we broke up the drive to Colorado Springs as we were able to get there by noon on Friday. We ate at this really cool restaurant that had a actual plane built into the building and we were able to eat in the plane...and play in the cockpit.
We then went to tour the Cave of the Winds that afternoon.
We chose a hotel in Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs and after settling into our room and resting for a little bit, we went down and had dinner at a fondue place in downtown Manitou Springs. It was a really fun experience to enjoy as a family.
It was EXTREMELY cold in Colorado and on Saturday we were not able to go do the sightseeing activities we had planner because it was just too cold to be outside. So, we improvised and found a mall where the girls and I got pedicures.
Chris was very patient and to reward him we found a local spa and set him up for an massage appointment. While Chris was at his appointment, the girls and I headed to Target to stock up on a few supplies, including a couple of long sleeved shirts. We were not expecting such cold weather and we had clearly not packed enough warm clothes.
That evening we met up with my good friend Lauren and her husband Adam for dinner at a local eatery. We enjoyed seeing her and meeting Adam, as it had been long overdue.
Once we were done with supper, we headed back to the hotel to let the girls swim in the pool before hitting the sack early as we planned to leave the next morning extremely early!
We had the vehicle packed with everything except the clothes we were going to wear, which made it super easy for getting up at 4:15 AM. Our goal was to scoop up the kids and hopefully get some driving time in while the kids slept in the car. Unfortunately they didn't fall right back to sleep as we originally hoped for and both Maddie and Brooke fought car sickness with all the curves and elevation changes that come along with driving in the mountains.
Sunday was our long driving day as we were going from Colorado Springs through Utah and down to Las Vegas. It was over a twelve hour drive with bathroom breaks and we went from frigid 12 degrees in the mountains to 88 degrees in Vegas...so we did a lot of shedding of clothes throughout the day. The mountains were beautiful and we saw them at sunrise, which was awesome!
We made a quick stop at Grand Junction, CO for gas and to get the girls changed out of their pj's before heading into Utah. Maddie had asked to change seats with me at Grand Junction and I had informed her that she would have to keep daddy company since I would be in the back an most likely fall asleep. She assured me that she would, but when I woke up...I woke up to a car full of sleeping kids! Maddie had apparently gone to sleep about 15 min after the other two girls and I had, leaving Chris to fend for himself to stay awake by eating twizzlers and guzzling energy drinks.
I immediately switched seats back and saw why it was so difficult to drive in Utah. It is the most barren country EVER! It was canyons on the right...
and barren land on the left.
There were no towns along the highway, which surprised us as it was Interatate 70 and ever exit said "no services available". It was a good thing that we had filled up with gas before we left Grand Junction because I'm not sure what we would have done. There was no signs of life at all...no towns...no houses....no trees...nothing! And to say driving in Kansas is boring...I would have given anything to have been driving in the plains at that moment...at least it's green! We had packed fixings for a lunch, which came in handy at this point, since there was no pulling over for a happy meal anywhere.
The drive was much more bearable once we got to Salina, UT (ironic, huh!)
and we made good time getting into Las Vegas around 5:30 pm that evening. We were thankful that we had gotten up early and the kids did relatively well on such a long day of driving. We were thankful for iPads and vehicle DVD players, as they kept our kiddos well entertained throughout the day. I don't know how we managed road trips before them!
Well...that is the start to our first family road trip. Stay tuned for more!
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