Castle Rock Colorado & Golden Colorado

Castle Rock, C0

By Ally

We arrived in Castle Rock Colorado during the evening. We set up and started off on a search for dinner. We found a happening hamburger joint called “Crave”. It was so full of people that we had to wait a while for a spot to sit. When we took a look at the menu the food choices were crazy. A hamburger patty with donuts as the buns. Peanut butter, bacon and jalapeno burger and a cheeseburger over a grilled cheese sandwich. These are only a few of the crazy options. Crave also had some burgers that weren’t as weird and so our family went for those. 

Castle Rock

The next day we went hiking to “The Castle Rock” that sits up on a mountain in the middle of town. It was a very minor hike, but still fun to get out there and hike a mountain!  Finally mountains! :-) 

After this we spent the day at our exciting RV Park which is created for kids. It was called “Jelly Stone “and there are many of these scattered throughout the United States.  They had a jumping pillow that the kids thoroughly enjoyed jumping wildly on. Mom got whatever sickness I had a few weeks ago so on Monday so we just hung out at the RV Park once again to just rest. It was Dad's birthday, so Mom made  Dad's favorite desert, "banana cream pie".

Dad's Birthday !

Tuesday Mom contacted her friends the Sherrie’s who lived in Arroyo Grande eight years ago. Mom hadn’t talked to them in years. So when we spent a park day with them we talked and talked and caught up on each other’s lives. Wednesday Mom  still felt under the weather so we rested again at the RV site and played on the jumping pillow and dyed Easter eggs.

Focus on the Family

Narnia Room

 Thursday we took another long drive to Colorado Springs and went to the headquarters of Focus on the Family. It was very kid friendly and had a two-story slide and an ice cream and soda shop. They also had a room that was set up to look like the “the entrance to Narnia” 

After hanging there for a while we drove to the Olympic Training Center where the Olympic athletes train. Sadly, we missed the last tour for the day so we just looked around the front of the building and acknowledged that these talented athletes worked here, and then we left. 

On the drive back home we saw the great, snowy, famous mountain Pikes Peak. This mountain is very popular with skiers. That night we had dinner at the Sherries house and got to meet the whole family and had a wonderful time fellowshipping. (Mom was bummed that we forgot to take pictures! Next time) When we were at their house temperatures dropped significantly and our two sliding doors froze shut! Friday morning we woke up to see snow out side our windows! The snow had fallen two inches during the night and still lay untouched. This changed soon after us kids got outside. We played with the snow a full hour and enjoyed this rare opportunity. 

Mom felt a little better and took us kids on a thirty-minute drive to The Garden of the Gods; an area of unique, red, massive, sandstone rocks. It was gorgeous to see the towering rocks that stood proud over the land and to see so many amazing rock formations. After this we went to a quaint town called Manitou Springs and walked around the shops and saw the many natural springs sprouting from the earth. It was getting dark so we picked up Stake n’ Shake and drove home. Saturday we packed up and took a short hour drive to our next stop:

 Golden, Colorado near Denver.

 

Golden Colorado 

By Ally 

The first day we arrived was a Saturday. We pulled up at an encore RV site and when we first saw it we automatically said “Nope!”  It was probably the worst RV site we have seen so far. Dad made sure to get another RV site for us to stay at  and luckily it was right across the street. It was a great site with little bunnies everywhere and an amazing trail that literaly was steps away from our RV.  Since we had so much food at home, we decided to eat a home cooked dinner that night then went out to Denver Colorado to eat the best Ice-cream in the world: Little mans ice-cream. All of us enjoyed the Cookie Monster ice cream with little bits of red velvet, chocolate and peanut butter ice cream sandwich cookies inside of a creamy vanilla ice cream. YUUUUUM! 

Sunday morning was Easter Sunday. We woke up at three in the morning to go to the Red Rocks Sunrise Easter service. It was very dark as we drove up mountains to get to the Red Rock amphitheater which was only a couple miles from our RV site. The stares were still out and were sparkling brightly in the velvet sky. When we got to the amphitheater there were many people already in the bleachers and we were lucky enough to get a spot before they were all taken. A concert began and a band called Cadence played their music. Skylar Kaylyn, a lady we actually met and got to listen to in South Dakota, also played with her band called  Citizen Way . Once the concert part was over the sun began to rise and the big red rocks of the amphitheater were illuminated by the morning rays of light.  

After the sermon was over we went home to open up our Easter baskets!! Mom had ordered chocolate bunnies all the way from our favorite candy shop in New York!

Top of Flat Iron

 Once we enjoyed our goodies  we drove to Bolder to hike the massive mountains called “The Flat Irons.” It was probably the biggest steepest  hike I have ever been on. Snow was still on the mountain tops from a week ago but the sun was out and shining its  warmth. The rocks were massive and altogether beautiful. After this long three and a half hour hike we were very tired and extra dirty so we went back to the RV to clean up. That night we picked up our Cousin Brandon from his college and took him out to dinner at Woody's Woodfired Pizza a popular place in Golden Co. It was a great time catching up with our cousin since we hadn’t seen him for four years and many things have changed since then. What a wonderful conclusion to an Easter Sunday.

Thursday Dad took us kids on a “Field Trip.” Leaving Mom at home “ she called it a teacher work day”, we went to NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory.) This is where scientists study how to make renewable energy ,they replace a whole lot more energy than they consume. Our tour guide named Ashley was very happy to show us all the things that happen in NREL and was also interested in our RVing life.  We also went to the Coors Beer Factory to take a tour there. We learned what beer was made out of (barley, yeast, water…. ect.) and what they used to season it (Hops). We walked around and saw the beer being made and packaged. At the end they let the adults have three samples of beer from the factory and unlimited soda for the kids. We took an advantage of that! :)

Celestial Tea Tour 

Friday Dad also took us on another “Field Trip” to the Celestial Seasoning Tea Tour. Here we smelt and felt the ingredients that go into their tea and we also got to have many samples of their tea as well. They took us around the factory and we saw how they packaged and made the tea. We entered into the peppermint tea room and the smell was amazing, and almost overwhelming. Saturday morning we packed up and left Golden, Colorado and drove up the massive Colorado Rocky Mountains. The Rockies were still covered in snow and at a place we just stopped off to use the restroom and play with the snow. So fun! We enjoyed the scenic drive all the way to Moab, Utah.

Oklahoma- OK City, Amarillo Texas, Santa Fe New Mexico

Oklahoma - Oklahoma City
By Sandy

We stayed in a little RV park right next to Oklahoma City. It was next to Panera Bread where Wes and the older girls worked during the day.  We went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial . It had a Memory Lake and  many metal chairs placed around it indicating who died during the bombing. 

We had dinner at Cattleman's Steakhouse which is in the National Stockyard Exchange.  The Exchange was the nations primary source for meat processing and packaging .  Now it is filled with Cowboy apparel,  a place to buy and sell cattle  and a popular place to grab dinner. 

Oklahoma City is close to the historic Route 66 , so we drove the hilly road to a fun place called "POPS" .  It is a store  off the side  of the road filled with every flavor soda imaginable! The kids loved it of course. 

 We decide to skip the Science museum and Zoo this week because it was spring break and everything was super busy. So we went to a huge mall and watched the Cinderella movie .  ( Collin wished we could of watched the Avengers, poor only boy) ;-)

Amarillo Texas- By Ally 

We arrived after a four hour trip from Oklahoma to Amarillo Texas. The reason why we stopped off here is to break up the eight hour drive to Santa Fe New Mexico and of course Amarillo Texas is also a really cool place to stop off! It is so “Texan” because of the flat lands, cows, barns, and red dirt. Even the air smelt like cow! We felt so relieved to get out of Oklahoma city! :) When we got to our campsite we observed the cute little store that the RV office had that smelt like maple syrup. :) The little kids played at the pond. It was so much better than Oklahoma city. After exploring the small cute campsite we were picked up by a limo to be driven to a stake restaurant called The Big Texan, ten miles from where we where staying. The restaurant provides a free limo pick up when you eat at their restaurant! The limos were " old school limos" and it was a neat experience to ride in one . The Big Texan was known for its “Free” 72 oz steak…… well, you get it for free if you eat it under an hour. That is a lot of steak in just one hour and for only one person! We didn’t take the challenge but sat and watched people suffer through the challenge. Ha ha ,no one accomplished it. We ate a yummy dinner. I had a buffalo burger with a steak stew that had okra in it. Good grub. Mom actually got a 8 oz steak and she really liked it. :) We took the limo back, and then the little kids and Dad swam in the pool at the RV site and Shelby, Mom and I exercised in the gym. The next morning we packed up to leave… (We all thought it was sad to leave so soon) and drove a mile up the road to Cadillac Ranch!!!!! Cadillac Ranch is land that someone owns; it has Cadillac cars buried halfway into the ground and t people are invited  to come spray paint the cars. Kind of weird, but really fun. We bought some cans of spray paint and went all out on the cars. It was a really cool thing and we all had a great time. After twenty minutes we hopped back in the RV covered in spray paint and took the next four hour drive to Santa Fe New Mexico.

The Limo we road in

Cow Girl Tori

The Limo Ride 

Santa Fe- New Mexico
By Ally

We got to Santa Fe on a Sunday because we spent our Saturday in Texas. While driving the landscape changed. Massive mountains dotted with “Puffball bushes” as Mom calls them. They are little green shrubs that literally dot the tall brown and red mountains. They are everywhere! Santa Fe has very high altitude of 7,000 feet above sea level. Colin got a bloody nose the moment to got there, our lips began to chap, and it was more difficult to breath because the air was a lot thinner. It took us a while to adjust but by the end of the week we were doing just fine.

Setting up didn’t take too long and after doing so Mom looked up a place called “The Pantry” to go eat dinner. It was a small little place but their food was amazing! Shelby and I got a chicken bacon avocado chipotle wrap. The best wrap I have ever had. Yum Yum. :) After eating we drove to downtown Santa Fe to just check it out. The first thing we noticed is that all the houses were Adobe Style. All of them. And that bushels off dried chili peppers hung from each side of the doorways. We walked to the plaza and roamed around the little shops. Dad lead us to the Supreme Court Building and made us pose for a picture. :) We got tired after a while and went back home. The next day was Monday and was an online school day for Shelby and I. The internet wasn’t great at our RV site because it was kind of out in the mountains. So Mom dropped us off twenty five minutes away into town at a Panera Bread. We spent the day there doing school. Tuesday we did school in the RV. I was going to dissect my crayfish for biology outside on the picnic table but that day was really windy and all my stuff blew everywhere. So I dissected my crayfish on the small dinner table in the RV. :) It all turned out well, though while I was doing the dissecting some of the insides flew in my face…. yuck.. :P Wednesday was online school day once again and Shelby, Dad, and I worked at Panera Bread. Mom picked Shelby and I up after we were done and took us kids back to downtown Santa Fe. We were going to go to this very well know chocolate shop called “Kakawa Chocoate House” but the prices were very high for just a piece of chocolate. We instead walked around the shops and bought postcards. Thursday was a lighter day of school and in the afternoon we went back to downtown to go to the Palace of the Governors. This is the oldest building in Santa Fe that is still being used. It used to be a building for governors of the state to meet and many of the states decisions were made in the building. They still use it this way to this day, though now it is also a museum. So we went to the Palace of the Governors and saw the museum exhibits then walked just over the courtyard to the History Museum of Santa Fe. Once we were all "museumed" out we went back home and had a campfire whose wood was all the way from Maine! While Shelby and I were doing the laundry a retired couple arrived and it was their first time Rving. So we helped them out and settled them in. They were extremely grateful for the help. :) Friday we took a forty five minute drive to Los Alamos where the first atomic bomb was made during World War II. It was a very scenic drive where we got to see plateaus and snow capped mountain tops. We went to the Los Alamos Science Museum which is like the only thing to do in the small little town. We learned about the Manhattan Project where they built the first atomic bomb to stop World War II. To this day Los Alamos is the main place where brilliant scientist work do further research on atomic bombs for the U.S.A. Dad had to go on a meeting for his work so we left him at the museum and drove a half hour to Bandelier National Park. Here we took a hike through mountains in a valley and explored the cliff dwellings that the Native Americans once lived in a long, long time ago. These cliff dwellings are caves that the Native Americans carved into the mountain sides for shelter. It was a perfect place to live because there was a river running through the area and we even saw a herd of deer eating in the tall grass near by. Those deer would have been dinner for the Native Americans. We also saw other remains of Native American houses and other cliff dwellings. It was getting late so we drove back to Los Alamos to pick up Dad and drove back to Santa Fe and to our RV. We packed up and left New Mexico to Castle Rock, Colorado.