Colorado Trip July 2008

On June 28, 2008, Jay, Marki and Austin traveled to Colorado for a 8 day vacation. We had so much fun. Here is our story.

We first traveled to Colorado Springs to visit Marki's cousin, Layne and her husband Tony. They have lived in CS for several years now. They have a beautiful home that has a mountain park in their back yard. It is so cool that Layne and her sweet puppies can take hikes in the mountains whenever they want to. After dinner we headed into the mountains for a hike. Austin took off up several climbs and had a great time beating us to the top.

It was so cool. What an ideal place to live for an exercise enthusiast. You can actually mountain bike, climb and hike right out your back door.

The next day, Monday, Layne took us to the Garden of the God's to go hiking and exploring the rock formations.

Marki had the opportunity to travel here when she was about 12 years old. This is such an inspiring place to be. The rock formations remind you of Christian shapes and people and things..

We were excited to go around the next formation and find such beauty.

Your imagination could flow with suggestions of what different rocks looked like to you.
Austin kept saying they looked like rocks!

The picture on the left reminds us of Mary leaning over the manger and Joesph below on his knees praying and thanking God for giving him the chance to be Jesus earthly father

These praying hands are perfect place to sit and pray yourself.
Although if you look at the top it kind of looks like many people dressed in clothing from Jesus' time looking out over the garden.

Austin had fun climbing as far back into the rocks as he could go.

Twin Peaks was a fun place to walk and climb around. The rocks have been on postcards before.

When you look through the rocks as below you will have Pike's Peak

Castle Rock was balancing on jus a small amount of the
The rock above is a picture of the formation called Ship Wreck. It does look like a giant ship going down.

fBelow....U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs

I loved the art. They had a picture for each event.

Austin and Dad had fun getting their picture made with the roal keeper.

Colorado Springs Air Force Academy. They were having a walk by test. That was cool.
The falcon was seen heading toward the Cathedral.

Inside and outside the Cathedral at the Air Force Academy. .

After the Air Force Academy we headed for Winter Park. Anthony was staying there. The next day we headed for the National Forest which was about an hour from Anthony's hotel accommodations. We saw some beautiful scenery..but these flowers were gorgeous.

This meadow was surrounded by Mountains on the N and S. The snow capped mountains in the back ground was everywhere we went.

When we found the snow we had a great time. We went to the top and slid down. WOOPS!!! Kelsey cam down the way it shows in the pictures. She was on her buttock all the way down. It was so much fun playing in the snow.

The snow escapade was right on the continental Divide. It was chilly due to all the snow.Kelsey and Anthony got plenty of pictures of themselves. Have they changed?After we left the continental divide we headed even higher. We ended up at 12000 feet point. We had to hike up a mess of steps to the 12000 point.
The above shot is the 12,000 spot. We had lunch up there. It was really unique having lunch at 12,000 feet. That is a first!!

Kelsey found the bike she wanted. Of course it was PINK!

MORE TO COME. This is time consuming. Can you believe we still have more pictures? We haven't shown the soccer game and baseball game pictures yet.

We went to this OLD resort area that is now a tourist place in the Rocky Mountain National forest. Austin becomes the MOUNTAIN MAN!!!!!

Marki really did come on this trip. She was usually taking the pictures. We were hiking to the old resort area. The houses were log cabins.

We came upon a hiking are and it led us to a water fall area. It was not so talk but really moving.

It It was very exciting to listen to and see the waterfall. The picture on the left is water rushing down the mountain. The picture of Anthony and Austin is at the top where the water is forming.

The Moose were so much fun to see. Anthony loves seeing them. We were on our way out of the forest when we happened upon a traffic jam in the middle of the forest. The people were all stopped on the side of the road to see the Mother with two little ones. Everyone had their cameras clicking!

Austin got to ride the lift at Winter Park. Below you can see the alpine slide. The kids all did it and had fun. But it just wasnt' long enough.

I think I will make anothe blog with the rest of the pictures from Denver.