With our move taking a little longer than anticipated, our trip was cut short by a few days, plus while we were there we were all exhausted. So, we didn't end up doing some of our favorite things in Colorado Springs, but we did a lot of other, new, fun things as well as spent some good down time at Grandma and Grandpa's house recouping.
Diane and I drove over on a Tuesday and made fairly good time. We made it from Tooele to Colroado Springs in about 10 1/2 hours and even more amazing than that, we made it all on just over one tank of gas. My van was rocking the gas mileage. We filled up in Tooele before we left and did not fill up again until Cheyenne, and even then I had just under a quarter of a tank.
Landon was supposed to join us the following night, Wednesday, but ran into some problems with the airline. His flight that should have only taken an hour and a half ended up stranding him in the Denver airport over night because of a delay on his original flight from Salt Lake to Denver. He was stuck in the SLC airport for about 5 hours causing him to miss any connecting flights from Denver to the Springs. He spent a restless night on the floor of the Denver airport and finally made it to us on Thursday morning.
The first couple of days we didn't do much except sleep and play at Grandma's house. After Daddy joined us and got rested then we planned a trip to the dinosaur museum.
Grandma and the Kids sitting in front of one of the statues.
This is out in front of the museum. It is not really a stellar picture of any of us, but the dinosaur looks cool.
The kids really loved seeing these big statues. Levi just kept pointing at them telling us they were dinosaurs. I worried that the kids might get bored inside the museum, but I was wrong. Our boys have been really into dinosaurs lately, so this was right up their alley. Ellen also enjoyed reading all of the signs and learning about all of the dinosaurs. The museum has a really fun kids area that we spent most of our time with the kids trying to "dig" and uncover bones, reading books about dinosaurs, and seeing which dinosaur they could jump as far as.Grandma spoiled us at the store at the end. She bought each kid a shirt, (which they all love and wear regularly) plus they each got to pick out some sort of toy. Trevor decided on a dinosaur hat, Ellen got a book, and Levi got a pack of baby dinosaurs. It was a huge hit!
Like I said, we spent a lot of time just playing at Grandma's house. Diane needed the time to be home since she had been gone for almost a straight month and was leaving with us again in a week to be gone for another three weeks. I needed the rest and so did Landon after the stress of moving. The kids needed some down time too, to just be kids in a stable environment. So, Grandma's house was a-okay with all of us. The kids played in the pool in Grandma's backyard about every other day.
The boys spent most of their time jumping in and out of the pool. 
Ellen spent most of her time walking around the yard occasionally getting in the pool. She also loved helping Grandma in her garden.
The boys didn't mind getting wet. They even liked getting one another wet. They would take turns splashing each other or pouring water over each other's head.
Grandma spent those afternoons in her garden trying to pick the "fruits" or just weeding and getting the plants back in a manageable state. One of the first nights she was able to pick a bunch of peas. We shelled them and Levi wanted to help.
He worked diligently with us for at least 15 minutes. He was so careful to open them up and make sure he got every pea out. He was very, very good help, not to mention absolutely adorable doing it.
On the weekend Grandpa got to have some time off from work and play with us. We decided to check out the Renaissance Festival that was going on that weekend.
Ellen and Levi
Ellen and Trevor. (Thanks Grandma for holding up the boys in these pictures.)
First thing when we got inside the festival Ellen noticed that lots of people were dressed up and wanted to be dressed up too. She settled on having this flower headband. (Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for spoiling our kids. They really outdid themselves buying the kids souvenirs at the festival.)
This big statue just seemed like the type of thing you needed a picture by, so we took a family picture and then took one of Grandma and Grandpa Ladwig.
Ellen was not the only one who wanted to be dressed up. Trevor quickly decided once we got there that he wanted to be a pirate, so the search for the perfect pirate store began. Once again, Grandma spoiled the boys and bought them both these do-rags and swords. The boys loved them!!!!! Not only did they wear them and carry their swords the rest of the day, they wore them the rest of the trip, and still pull them out pretty much every day.
Levi looked so stinking cute that day in his pirate get up, but he also had another attachment. The monkey back-pack was permanently attached to him so that we wouldn't loose him. We had several people comment on how cute our pirate with the monkey on his back was.
The Fair had a kids area where there was this medieval carousel. It was turned round by some girls pushing a pole inside. The kids loved riding on it.
Ellen and Levi were funny while riding. They would wave at us every time they went around. If you look carefully you can see Levi's hand waving at us in this picture.
After the kids area we sat down to get good seats to wait for the jousting contest. It was a good time for a break anyway, the kids were getting kind of hot and tired.
Ellen and Daddy
Ellen decided that I needed to wear her headband for a little bit, so we got a picture of it.
While we waited for the jousting to begin we were treated to some fun entertainment. A man all dressed in black came by and started playing a bell organ. It was really, really, cool and he was very talented. Ella's favorite number was Carol of the Bells. She recognized it from Christmas time.
After jousting we ran into this fun booth. There was a man getting tomatoes thrown at his head. He was insulting everyone trying to hit him. With very little encouragement Landon decided to take his turn at him. He was able to hit him in the arm and came pretty close to hitting his head. Landon's insult in return had to do with him not being able to see because of his glasses. It was entertaining!
While Daddy and Grandpa enjoyed the insults the kids got to go for a ride on this giant rocking horse.
After the rocking horse we were able to find a maze. Landon went in with Ellen and Trevor.
It started raining on them while they were inside so they ended up running through a bunch of it, but it made it that much more fun.
Ellen coming down the slide at the end of the maze.
Trevor's turn....
Daddy had to make a grand finale to the maze.While we were visiting in Colorado we were able to celebrate the 4th of July. We were lucky enough to get to go to the Air Force Academy for their fireworks show.
Outside the stadium they had a bunch of blow up toys set up for the kids to play in. By the time we got there we didn't have a ton of time to let the kids play, but they were able to do about three or four of the toys.
The Ladwig's have always told me that you have never seen a fireworks show until you have seen a military one, and I have to say they were right. We watched the fireworks from inside the Air Force Academy Stadium.
The view from across our seats with "Air Force" written on the stands.
What a beautiful daughter I have. She was very excited for the fireworks to start.
Levi and Mommy waiting for the show to start. As you can see, the boys wore their pirate get up to the show. Levi is drinking one of his new favorite drinks, "gator drink" (gatorade).
Grandma and Grandpa Ladwig
Trevor and Daddy
Before the fireworks began they did a 50 canon salute to all of the states. It was a little loud for my sensitive ear children, Ellen and Levi.The firework display really was phenomenal. The music was well chosen and patriotic and the fireworks were huge and there were lots of them. I will be hard pressed to see such a good show again in my life.
The fireworks were a little loud for Levi. Because we were sitting so close they music was loud and the booming from the show was fairly loud. Levi spent the whole show like this. He pressed one ear up against my chest and would either have me cover his other ear or covered it himself. I wondered if he would fall asleep, but he didn't. He watched the whole show and liked the lights, but would tell me periodically that the fireworks scared him. He still mentions it every now and again.
After the show we ended up just hanging out by the cars for about an hour waiting for the parking lot to clear out so that we could go home. We still had to pack the cars and Grandma and Grandpa's trailer up that night so that we could leave early the next morning to head home. We didn't get to bed until about 4 am.
We woke up on the 5th at around 7 a.m. loaded ourselves into the car and began driving back. Landon and I had agreed to help Grandma get her trailer to Bear Lake so Landon drove Marty's truck with trailer and Grandma and I drove the van with the kiddos. We had to go about 65 mph for the whole trip and also ended up missing a turn off due to Landon distracting Diane with wildlife outside the car. It took us 16 hours to get from Colorado to Utah. It was a long trip especially for my poor pregnant body, but we made it without too many problems.
We could not have asked for a more perfect vacation for our family this summer. It is always comforting to be in your parent's home plus we did a lot of very fun things. We are sad that we probably won't be able to go back to Colorado Springs before Grandpa and Grandma move from there, but if that is our last trip to the Springs, I will be happy for it was a fantastic trip!
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