Our second day in CO began with a trip to Focus on the Family. This welcome center boasts a 3-story, 76-foot long corkscrew slide. Wow! It's so long that the employees provide sacks to ride in and arm bands to protect your elbows on the curves.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
Jaden and Cody tried the slide a couple times but decided their bodies were a little too big. Adley, however, thought it was just great and rode the slide over and over and over again!
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
The downstairs of Focus on the Family was called the Kids' Korner and was set up with rooms and paraphernelia from the Adventures in Odyssey episodes. All three kids enjoyed exploring this area, as they love the AIO stories. Cody and Jaden especially liked the scavenger hunts that took them throughout Kids' Korner. They completed all 3 main hunts, plus a bonus one. The lists for these hunts were very specific and quite tricky!
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
The rewards for completing the scavenger hunts were Adventures in Odyssey collectible cards. The boys loved picking out which characters they wanted.
.JPEG)
The Kids' Korner also had a puppet theater area and a virtual color-by-number activity.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
A visit to Whit's End Soda Shoppe (an oft-mentioned hangout place in the AIO episodes) made our trip complete! Our soda shoppe treats were very tasty.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
That evening, we visited one of the best restaurants of all time-- a Dion's pizza place! When I grew up in Albuquerque, this restaurant was an absolute favorite of mine. I was eager to introduce this delicious pizza to the kids. They all gave the food two thumbs up!
.JPEG)
The next day, we went on our last hiking adventure to Garden of the Gods. The park was very busy on the day we went, but even the crowds couldn't detract from the wonderful beauty of this park. Again, God's amazing handiwork was on clear display in these beautiful rock formations!
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
From the start, the kids weren't too thrilled about yet another day of hiking. Plus the warmer temperatures on this day tired them out quickly. They complained a bit at the beginning, but thankfully regained some energy and enthusiasm midway through when they had a chance to climb on some rocks.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
A beautiful day to tour a gorgeous park!
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
That evening, we included an "extra" into our trip itinerary-- a tour of the US Olympic Training Center. Originally, we had read that this place was still closed to visitors due to COVID concerns. However, on our drives around CO Springs, we happened to notice a banner saying that the training center was once again giving tours to the public. Hooray!
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
As we waited for our tour to begin, we got to watch some cool Olympic videos on this big screen.
.JPEG)
Our tour around the training center was led by an actual Paralympic athlete, a rifle shooter named McKenna Geer who won a bronze medal in the Rio Olympics. She took us into multiple buildings where we got to see lots of training athletes.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
I didn't get any close-up photos of our tour guide, but here is McKenna Geer explaining about the men's gymnastics training gym.
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
.JPEG)
We learned a lot by walking around this training center and liked knowing that many famous athletes had also walked the same campus. We were thankful we got to experience it!
.JPEG)
That tourist attraction wrapped up the last of our Colorado experiences. We spent the next day and a half driving the long way back home. The long drive was worth it, though! We definitely made a lot of family memories and marveled at our Creator-God's beautiful world.
No comments:
Post a Comment