Colorado Springs- Part 2

On Tuesday, we went on the Cog Railway up to Pike's Peak. Daniel was pretty good, but it was a long ride up there- almost an hour and a half. A long time for an energetic toddler to be stuck in a small area. His Elmo backpack filled with toys & snacks were a lifesaver...that and his doting grandparents and aunt! Still, he really was so good. And there was a wonderful surprise waiting for Daniel at the top- a couple trucks!!! Would you believe it?!! He was super excited and of course spent quite a bit of time just watching the trucks. So cute. Daniel also enjoyed climbing on the rocks up there, too. The whole adventure was a lot of fun and sure wore Daniel out- he was zonked, and I mean ZONKED, out on the way back down. He fell asleep in Grandpa's arms and when those tired out, they laid him across all three laps and he slept that way for about 45 minutes. Needless to say, we were the last ones off the train just to give him that extra couple minutes of sleep!

After having lunch in downtown Manitou Springs, we walked around a little bit before it started pouring. We had wonderful weather the whole week, really- it rained every night pretty much for just a little bit, but hardly ever during the day while we were out- this was the one time it rained during the day. So after driving through the Garden of the Gods in the pouring rain, we headed back to my Aunt Cletis' house for a break. That gave Daniel some much needed wiggle free and play time.

We all took my aunt out to dinner at a great bbq place and drove through the Garden of the Gods again, since the rain had stopped. Daniel got to get out and climb around again and he loved it! So that was a fun stop. Then it was back home to bed!

Busy Day Two down, still more to go!

Wednesday, we got up early to head to see a few more places on the way to Denver. Daniel ate breakfast and started playing in the living room and all of a sudden, Ben, in the kitchen cleaning with Aunt Cletis, heard Daniel say, "deer, deer" and they went in to see and sure enough- Daniel had spotted a deer all on his own! (Now, he'd only seen a deer once on the trip during a brief walk with Daddy, so for him to see the deer and say the word was AWESOME!!) Aunt Cletis fed the deer and let Daniel help. He dropped the peanuts close to the door of course, but that was cool because it just made the deer come super close to the door- so much fun!

After a few photo ops with my aunt, we hit the road and headed to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and the Air Force Academy Chapel in the Springs, before making our way back up to Denver.