Saturday
We spent the morning at the Cave of the Winds for a 90 minute "lantern" tour in the cave. We each carried a bucket with a light inside. Our guide was quite the story teller in the darkness of the cave.
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| Let the cave tour begin! |
Next we were off to the Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch and time to hike & climb on the rocks. Amy (Melissa's college roommate who lives in Denver) and her son, Jackson met us there. After several hours of hiking and climbing we all headed back to the apartment complex to swim.
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| Picnic in the Garden of the Gods |
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| Landon & Owen holding up Balanced Rock |
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| Melissa and Owen under Steamboat Rock |
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| Time to hike and climb |
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| Landon with new friend, Jackson, climbing! |
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| And Owen! |
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| Melissa with Amy - such a dear friend from college. |
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| Kissing Camels |
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| Pool and hot tub time |
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| We DVRd the Iowa Football Game and enjoyed the evening cheering them on! |
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| Celebrating Melissa's August birthday. |
Sunday
The Royal Gorge was our destination on Sunday. First we took the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. It was a fantastic trip along the Arkansas River. We really enjoyed the open car to view the sites and the Royal Gorge bridge that we went under.
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| Picnic lunch time beside the river |
Rafting.......no pictures but it was GREAT! The six of us and a guide rafted the Big Horn Sheep Canyon. We all got wet through the level 2 and 3 rapids. Landon and Owen loved it!
Royal Gorge
To finish the day we went to the Royal Gorge Bridge. We rode the gondola across the gorge and then walked back over the bridge.
MOD pizza for supper. We found this pizza place soon after we moved to CO. It's like a Subway for pizza. You designate the sauce of your choice then all the toppings on your made to order pizza. It's baked in a wood stove and pesto it's ready before you know it.
Monday - Labor Day
We took the cog train up to the top of Pike's Peak. We boarded at 10:40 and returned about 1:50. We had thirty minutes at the top. It was in the 80s at the bottom and 35 at the top (wind chill of 20!)
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| Time for another day to explore Colorado! |
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| A waterfall viewed from the cog train |
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| It was COLD! |
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| Owen enjoyed a nap on the trip back down. |
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| Beautiful scenery from the tram. |
A trip to Papa's office at USA Basketball
Tuesday
We spent the morning at the Olympic Training Center. The tour was informative. It was fun to see other areas of the OTC than the areas used for the U16/U17 training.
And just like that it's time to send them back to Iowa. Back to the Denver airport for a 3:10 flight.
We LOVED having the Kahlers in Colorado.
