Denver, Colorado, Mount Rushmore, Vail, Colorado, and Moab, Utah

After I quit my job as a cashier at Albertson's my aunt, Richelle, called me wondering if I would like to join her on a trip with her boys in Denver at the end of July..  I said "heck yes" and started looking into flights and all that travelling fun stuff. I can't remember how, but somehow, my week long trip with Richelle was lengthen into driving back with her to Arizona to stay with my mom and dad and see their new house. So I ended up being on vacation for three weeks. And I had a fantastic time!

 

One of the first things we did in Denver was visit the Butterfly Pavilion. It started out as just me, Richelle, and Carsen, but when Jake and Derek finally woke up we headed back to the hotel to pick them up. We all had a great time at the Butterfly Pavilion. I enjoyed the butterflies and the aquarium, not so much the bugs and spiders and stuff...

 

I think Richelle's favorite part of the Butterfly Pavilion was her up close and personal visit with not one, but two butterflies!

 

 

After the Butterfly Pavilion we walked up and down 16th Street Mall and had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. Our final event of the day was attending a Colorado Rockies baseball game. I lost my phone and missed most of the game while looking for it (it was at the lemonade stand where Richelle asked me to get her a drink from...) and then my "hot dog" turned out to be a burnt polish sausage, yuck, BUT the best part of the night was the rain. It stared pouring raining and we all got soaked! After we were all thoroughly drenched in water it was time to leave. While we were leaving the stadium Richelle had to save me from a cane wielding crazy man who insisted that I cut him off, which if I did and that crazy man is reading this, (I'm sorry for cutting you off, I didn't see you through the hundreds of people all trying to leave at the same time...)

 

 

After the baseball game we looked at the weather report for the next couple of days and saw rain forecasted everyday. So, we decided that we would drive up to South Dakota and see Mount Rushmore.

 

 

 

We got there just in time to see the light ceremony. Unfortunately for us, we had no idea what the light ceremony was so we sort of missed the whole thing... But it was still fun to see Mount Rushmore at night.

 

 

The next morning we got up and each picked one thing that we wanted to do that day

 

I picked seeing Mount Rushmore one more time, Richelle picked visiting the Cosmos, Jake picked the Alpine Slide, Carsen picked mining for gold, and Derek picked fishing (no surprise there)...

 

 

(photo bombed by Carsen)

 

 

 

I had never heard of the Cosmos before this trip but it was suggested to Richelle by Kimbra who has visited it before and was sure that we would love it... Basically the Cosmos is a spot in South Dakota where gravity is weird.

 

 

Even though we were on level ground, we were tilting and unable to stand up straight.

 

After We visited the Cosmos we went mining for gold. We had several tiny specs of gold that one of the workers helped us find but our mining bucket got tipped over so we pretty much lost all of the gold. We did find one more teeny tiny spec of gold, worth millions I'm sure...

 

The final activity of the day was driving through Custer State Park. Richelle paid for the animal route pass, but we never saw a single animal. Not one goat, buffalo, elk, or moose. We were all disappointed. The boys found a fishing spot and while they fished, Richelle and I cleaned out the car.

 

 

We drove back to Denver that evening.  

 

We spent the next two days driving through the Rocky Mountains.

 

 

 

 

And we drove by the Stanley Hotel where Stephen King got his inspiration for his novel, The Shining. I wanted to take a tour through the hotel, but I was vetoed.

 

 

 



 

On our way to Vail, Colorado we drove to the top of Mount Evans, the highest mountain in North America.

 

 

We stayed the night in Vail, Colorado in a two story hotel room, which Richelle's boys loved.

 

 

Richelle loved it too since she got her own room with a king size bed and a door that locked and she got to leave me with the boys in the loft.

 

The last stop of our week long vacation was in Moab, Utah.

 

We drove through Arches National Park briefly, but the boys were done being in the car so we dropped them off at the hotel to rest, and Richelle and I went out to dinner.

 

 

 

 

The next day we drove home and I stared my two week vacation in Arizona.

 

I had a great time with Richelle and her boys, it had been awhile since I had spent so much time with them and I know that there were a few moments of high stress for all of us (sorry about the bouncy ball), but I think that we all had a great time.