Jenny's House - Broadmoore Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods

June 1, Saturday

Lynzie made everyone pancakes for breakfast.  Then we all got ready for the day.  Aunt Melissa fixed Kira and Sofie's hair.  They love it when she does their hair.

Then we drove to see the Seven Falls at the Broadmoore.   It was about a 45 minute drive and near Colorado Springs.  While we waited for the shuttle to go to the falls, Kira suddenly got sick.  We put c-bands on her wrists and loosened her hair.  That seemed to help and she was able to do the falls with us.  

The shuttle took us up to the falls and then we still had a twenty minute walk to get to the falls.  While we were hiking up to the falls, it suddenly became windy and rainy!  Crazy.  We stayed on course and ten or so minutes later it was sunny again!

Here's some pics of our hike up to the falls. 

Melissa and Jenny.

Melissa and Sofie made up a song to help the rain go away.  It worked.  :)

And here's the beginning of the Seven Falls.

It's pretty cool how it turns like that!

This photo is from website: https://www.sevenfalls.com/discover/about-the-park

So you can see how all 7 falls connect...

Then we climbed the 224 steps or so to see different views and levels of the falls.

This is a section of the falls.

Lynzie, Sofie, Isak and I hiked ten more minutes passed the falls.  

Then we all headed back down the mountain and stairs.

Jenny and Forrest.

Cute Lydia, Melissa and Lynzie.

It's a pretty mountain backdrop!

Lydia was very attached to her Aunt Melissa.  I was kind of jealous.  :)

Funny Isak with the mirror.

Noah wanted a pic.

After the falls, we drove to downtown Colorado Springs.  We ate lunch at Thunder and Button.  

It's a cute downtown area.

We got some chocolates and caramel apples at the Chocolate Factory.

Then we went to the Visitor Center for the Garden of the Gods.  

After the visitor center, the Packard's headed home.  Kira was not feeling well, so she went home with them.  

The rest of us explored the Garden of the Gods.  Parking was tricky, but we found a spot and it was worth it!  So cool.  We loved seeing all of the orange/red rock formations.  Noah loved climbing the rocks whenever he could.  
I took a lot of pictures:

Heart!

Isak and Lynzie talked.  I loved seeing relationships grow while we explored.

Do you see the kissing camels?

Then we headed back home.  I checked Isak and Kira for fevers.  They both had a temp of 101.9!  I went to Walmart and bought a couple bottles of Tylenol, socks for Kira (she had holes in most of hers), milk and stuff to make caramel apples (because we loved them so much from the Chocolate Factory) and rice crispy treats.  I got 17,000 steps that day!

June 2 - Sunday

Just Sofie went to church from our family.  I stayed home with the rest of my kids and Lydia too.  She had a bit of a cough.  It was so fun to spend time with Lydia.  We played with magnets and did a mini nursery.  We watched a Book of Mormon video and sang a lot of songs with actions.  Like Popcorn Popping.  She knew them all and was so cute and fun!  

Jenny has a dog name Dalinar.  The kids had fun playing with him!  

Isak played memory with Lydia.

We read books.

Noah rested.

And built a temple out of magnets.  

I got to spend time with Forrest too.  He's so cute!

The girls liked to play with him too.

We ate and played games.  

I took some kids to the park.  Isak and Kira's fevers came and went.  Lots of Tylenol...

The girls followed Lydia around.  :)

See how cute and adorable she is?!

Lynzie and I made the caramel apples.

Jenny and Craig made delicious chicken enchiladas.  

Lydia with her favorite Aunt.  Lydia liked me though...but only if Melissa wasn't available.  😂

Craig threw the football with Isak.  So Isak was happy.

Dinner time.

Okay, so making caramel apples was harder than we thought it would be.  Haha.  But they were delicious.  

June 3, Monday -

We had planned to go to the swimming pool, but all of the pools were still closed!  So we didn't know what to do.  Isak and Kira were still not feeling 100%.  So we took it slow.  Isak made his ham and eggs in the muffin tins for breakfast.  Lynzie made pancakes.  Yum!

Jenny lives across the street from the park.  It's awesome.  So we went a few times...

Here's the kids resting...

Sofie and Noah playing with the magnets.

Then we went to McDonald's to get a treat and so the kids could play on the indoor playground.  

Then back to the outdoor park.  It was hot weather, high 90's and dry...not humid like Tennessee.  

Sweet Kira made mazes and drawings in her notebook.  She was quiet, calm and sadly, coughed a lot.  I just love her.  

In between park outings, we played Pandemic and Star Wars.  Both were a lot of fun!!  We had rice and sausage casserole for dinner.  Isak went to bed at 6 p.m. but woke up at 3:15 a.m.!   I stayed up until 10 pm playing Star Wars with Jenny, Melissa and Lynzie.  

June 4, Tuesday -

I was tired from Isak waking me up at 3:15 a.m. and helping him.  But I woke up at 6:10 a.m. and said good bye to Melissa and Lynzie.  Then I got ready, packed and we left at 9:10 a.m. for an 11 hour drive to St. Anthony, Idaho.

A few pics of Jenny before we left.  She has this sun room that I just love.  

And here she is on her cute front porch with Lydia and Forrest.  Thanks for letting us spend time with you Jenny!  We love you and your family!!  And we're glad Melissa and Lynzie were there too.  It was just a great time!

Summer Road Trip - 2024 - Travel Days

May 30, Thursday - Travel Day 1 

We were packed and loaded by 9ish a.m.  We had a pretty good travel day.  We started the drive with a prayer and listened to a general conference talk "Words Matter."  Then we did our own thing.  I listened to a podcast, Against the Odds - The Rescue of the Thai Soccer Team.  It kept me awake and was fascinating.  I also listened to the biography of the Wright Brothers.  

Isak and Sofie both took Kids Dramamine.  It helps so much.  We ate at the Five Star gas station.  The boys loved the corn dogs.  

There was lots of stop and go traffic, but we eventually made it to Kansas City, MO.  We ate at McAlister's.  I got the pecan berry salad.  Kira ate two grilled cheese sandwiches!  We stayed the night at Home 2, room 311.  We arrived at 9 pm and were all asleep close to 10 pm.  

Isak wanted a picture of all of the stuffed animals he brought on the trip.  He brought the most.  :) 

May 31st, Travel Day 2.

The kids are ready and waiting for me to finish getting ready.  We left close to 9 a.m.

We prayed and listed to the general conference talk "Pray, He is There."  I finished listening to the "Wright Brothers."  I loved learning about how they invented the airplane.  They failed and failed, but never looked at as failure.  They just adjusted and learned from it and kept going!  They were patient, methodical, practical and thrifty in their inventions.  I loved the book.  I started listening to the book "Creativity."  I also started the "The Cartographers."  It's the book we're reading for my sister's book club.  The kids and I also started listening to "Mark of the Thief."  

We ate at a gas station with a Sonics.  The boys got corn dogs again.  We tried the chocolate fried pie.

Sofie must have ate something blue and asked me to take her picture.  :)

I-40 was closed for part of it and so we detoured on a dirt road for about 4 miles.  For a while, there was no gas stations and restaurants for a long time.  Made me a little nervous!  But thankfully, we were fine and arrived at Jenny's wonderful home in Pueblo, CO around 6 pm.  

Melissa and Lynzie were there too.  It was so great to be together.  And see baby Forrest!!!  I got to meet him and hold him.  He's a cutie!

We ate sloppy joes and got settled for bed.  We were so happy to be in Colorado and spend some time with Jenny's family, Melissa and Lynzie.