Rocky Mountain High

This past week we used part of Scott's spring break to venture into Colorado. It worked out where Scott was ending his 2 week break right as the girls were getting ready to start their break. So we drove up there to see the sights and pick up the girls to bring down here for the week. We got to see all kinds of neat things while we were there. I have to say though that it really was a long drive there. As we headed north in AZ there was lots of snow in the mountains there to see. Really a pretty site to see here in the desert.
Once we got out of AZ into New Mexico the miles past kind of fast...that is until we turned onto I25. I swear that has got to be the longest straighest road in the entire country. Honestly there were NO turns in this road for hundreds of miles. When they did have that rare random curve in the road they would post all these huge yellow signes with arrows to warn you in the hopes of pulling you out of that 30 mile stare you develop as you are going. You really need to click on this picture to enlarge it to get teh idea of the long and never winding road. So as I said our drive was long and uneventfull, but I'm enclosing a few pictures to show you some of the views I had along the way there.

So after a really long drive we got to Castle Rock rock around 9:30 and just went to bed. The next morning we went down to Fort Carson to see some of Tim's friends that were there. We also stopped in the PX and there Scott found "Wacky Packages" cards. For those that don't know these they are made by Topps and are spoofs of different products. Now let me interject something about Scott here before I go on. Scott is a really easy going kid that just takes life in stride. However when he finds something that he likes he dives in head first. For example he has gotten into Lego's. It has to be the kits though, since Christmas he has bought many differnt kits that are to the theam he is into. Well we made him wait till dinner time to open his packs that we got. We picked up 2 for each of the kids. Well within the day he had all his memorized and was begging us to go back to the PX for more. We made him wait till we got back home and when we went to Wal Mart he bought a box of the packages and was able to collect all the regular cards and is now going crazy trying to get all the special cards that they make...and has discovered that there were other sets out there before this one. Anyway I'm way off the track now. After our visit to the fort we drove back up to get the girls for dinner. On the way I was just staring out the window looking at all the wonderfull sites along the way. When all of a sudden I see an elk head up in the distance on the back of a truck. I was courious about that one...as we got closer I was able to verify without a doubt that yes it was an elk head. I've added this picture just because it was one of the oddest things I can ever recall seeing on the road. Back to dinner, it was great seeing them again. Talking with them they are really missing their daddy. After dinner we drove around their neighborhood a bit and then stopped at Michaela's school for them to play a bit. Scott was so excited about seeing snow again. Every minute of our trip all he wanted to do was play in the snow! Our next day there we went out and about and played the tourist that we were. Our fist stop was the Butterfly Pavilian in Denver. This was a small quaint little place. It had 3 different rooms. The first was filled with different bug habitats, and there Scott got the chance to hold a trantula. The next room had a few marine type animals like star fish and urchin's. The last room was set up as a tropical enviroment that was filled with beautiful flowers and tons of butterflys. I'm adding the pictures for these a bit futher below. After there we went to Hamonds candy factory for their tour. The last thing we went to do was the Natural History museum. It was full of all kinds of dinosaur bones and all kinds of neat things to look at there. I wouldn't mind going back there again to spend a bit more time enjoying the exibits that we didn't get a chance to see.

Ok...I think that is enough for now. I still have some other pics to share from the ride home, but I'll save those to share with everyone when we get back from taking the girls home. That's right we have to do the trip again!