Doing Denver Thygerson style

After Ragged Mountain, Terrisa and family stayed on this side of the mountains to have a Denver adventure. It was a good time to see some things that we had not seen before, and revisit a few of our favorites.  (Warning: super long post.)

We rode to the top of Pikes Peak on a cog train (yay 14er!).  It was fun; I was worried because the day was overcast and you sort of pay an arm and a leg (or your first born child) to ride the train, but luckily the peak is so high we were up and over the clouds and enjoyed a beautiful blue day at the top!

Ella & Lizzie in the train - 

 

 Rachel resting on her seat.

 Summit!

  

By the way, it was freezing and windy at the top.  Can you tell?!

 The "America the Beautiful" monument; the author penned the poem after seeing the view from Pikes Peak.

 

 Hey!  We're in a cloud!  (on the way down)

 Once we were at the bottom, it was just a hop, skip, and jump over to Garden of the Gods.

(Rachel, Sage, Juliana, and McKinley)

 

 

 Aunt Terrisa said "smile," and this is what Rachel did...diva? Haha.

 

Day 2 was downtown Denver, visiting the Art Museum and touring the state capitol...

Caleb carving soap in the studio -

 Ella sculpting -

 Rachel sculpting -

 McKinley sculpting -

 "climbing" the cardboard wall -

 Kendra and I having a ball in the Western wing -

 Dressing up in the play area (all my Incan Queens...and a knight?!)

 

 

The outdoor art (giant broom sweeping up some trash)

 Walking to capitol - the gold dome is almost re-finished!

 Cayden, Ronnie, Curtis, Ella, and Jamie in the Mile High Step (well, the original one.)

 Old school telephone booths inside the capitol (Curtis inside). They are not functioning, but our guide said they are often still used just for people to have a quiet place to talk on their cell phones.

 All of us on the grand staircase!

 Day 3 we headed to the mountains to tour a gold mine, and boy did we find a winner!  The Phoenix Gold Mine was definitely not your typical tourist stop.  It was off the beaten path, run down, and awesome!  There was an old dog keeping up with the group, the crusty old owner was around to answer questions about mining back in the day, and for only $1 extra you could get a bag of sunflower seeds to feed the fat pet chipmunks.   I loved it! 

 

After the tour, we could pan for gold in a pretty little creek on the other side of the dirt road - it was fun!  No one made any huge finds, but we had fun for a long time!  This is before McKinley fell in a few times an got soaking wet and muddy.  Also this is before I saw her with her pants around her ankles. 

Me: "What are you doing?"

Kinley: "Going peepee in the water." (Well, naturally.)

Me: "Ah!  You can't do that, there are people in the water!" (Sorry everyone.)

 Jamie, Cayden, and Caleb hoping to strike it rich.

 Ella found some very pretty rocks!

 That's Rachel and I to the left, the Lizzie and McKinley center.

We finally got all of the gold-diggers out of the water so that we could go to Kendra's house for the birthday girl (Jody's) dinner and head off on our next trip to Lakewood Amusement Park, an old-school place in the heart of ghetto Denver.  The kids loved it!  I stayed with the younger crew in the "under 42 inches" area, and they had a blast.  I heard the older kids did too on the "big person" side. :)

Day 4 was the 4th of July, and we all slept in a little. :)  Yay!  We had an easier day swimming at the pool and playing tennis, watching movies and then heading over to the Parker fireworks.  (Yay, low wildfire threat this year so we got to see fireworks!)  It was a great show and McKinley especially was excited.

Ha!  She had fun most of the night, but passed out cold in the middle of the super-loud fireworks display.  She must have been beyond tired.  I think everyone was, because the next morning, the earliest riser (of the kids) was Caleb at 9:40, and Ella wasn't up until almost an hour later.  That is unheard of around here! 

We enjoyed living the high life for a week with all the cousins! The only down side is that now that the adventures are over, it will take the kids a few days to adjust to "regular" life again like going to library and taking naps. haha. Yay for summer fun!