Spring Break continued...will I ever finish?

We finally made it to Glenwood Springs, more importantly Glenwood's Hot springs pool.  The only other hot springs I have visited and swam in, was pretty rustic.  It wasn't built up, you hiked to it and pretty much just felt like you were sitting in a heated pond.  This was very different.  This was a spa pool, for all ages.  The springs feed directly into the pool, mixed with cooler water to adjust for different temperatures.  There were two different pools to choose from, one was much hotter then the other.

Here we are in the morning warming ourselves by the fire before we headed outside to go to the Hot springs.

Glenwood Springs spa

 We went in the morning, it was about 9 am when we arrived after the long walk across the street from our hotel.  It was a balmy 38 degrees.  

 In the morning, I loved how you could see the steam rising off the pools.

 By mid morning, early afternoon it had warmed up to the low 50's.

 What a scenic place to swim!

 The sides and edges of the pool were all built up with the scaly residue from the hot springs.  It was pretty cool, and very smooth.

 Anya and Hannah using the therapeutic pools.  Matt and I made the mistake of staying in this pool too long.  When the recommend no more than 15 minutes, it's now joke.  We were a little woozy for a minute after getting out.

After this we hiked to Doc Hollday's grave nearby.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a fun hike.  And then we drove home and hit a snow storm.  Do you believe it?  Still, it was a fun, quick, trip for spring break!

Anya and I ended the Spring break week by doing some work for our ancestors at the LDS Denver Temple.

It was a great Spring break!

Spring break 2: Heading down the lane to Glenwood Springs

There are a lot of little mining towns turned boutique towns along I-70 as you head towards Glenwood Springs.  These are my absolute favorite type of towns, and we never seem to have time to stop and look around.  During our drive down to Glenwood, I wanted to make a point to stop and visit these towns and look around the cute shops.

 We had to fuel up, so a fun stop in Idaho Springs to partake of some delicious Colorado style pizza was on the itinerary.

Beaujo's pizza was the bomb.  We loved their Mountain pie!

 The waterfall and water wheel across the highway from Beaujo's.

 One of my favorite towns is Georgetown.  It's this historic town that used to feed into a silver mine town called Silver plume.  Now it is full of fun boutique shops, many with a European flair.  We found a fun park in it's center that the kids just had to get out and explore.

 Old Georgetown fire house, turned apartment.

Near Georgetown is Silver Plume.  This isn't even big enough to be a town...it's more of an abandoned village.  The store fronts still look like they are from the early 1900's, and the main street and all roads are still dirt.  I loved this cute little jail house!  It was used until 1915.

 We made it to Glenwood Springs.  

This was a spa town of yesteryear.  Many East coasters would flock to this town to partake of the healing waters.  Now, it is a fun vacation spot, with an amusement park at the top of the mountain, a hot spring swimming pool and modern spa.

 We decided to stay in the historic Hotel Colorado.

Matt and I saw a PBS special on historic hotels in Colorado, and this one was mentioned.

It is definitely older feeling, but it was kinda cool to stay there for the night and dream of it's grandeur of olden days.

Historic Hotel Colorado at night.

Panning for Gold

Colorado is famous for it's start of the Gold rush.  Miners flocked here before they continued west towards California.  Argo was one of the most extensive and productive gold mines in Colorado until it closed in the 1940's due to a flood in one of the mine shafts.

We see this beast every time we drive by on I 70 heading towards Utah.  We thought it was about time we stopped and toured it.

 Our first mine we got to go inside of.

 Hard hats required.

 Even though this mine is not worked any longer, there is still gold and other precious minerals running through the mountain.  We got to see several veins as we toured the mine.

 There was a statue of a big Horn sheep up by the mine entrance.  Apparently eddy, the big horn sheep to the left...who is real and wild, likes to come down the mountain to visit his friend the statue.  

 Anya in front of the Argo tunnel or mine that is no longer safe to enter.  The water from the closing flood still drains out of this tunnel today.

 Inside the Mill where all the gold and minerals were processed.

 The highlight of the tour was that we got to learn how to and actually pan for gold.

 Cora found gold!

 Eureka! I see some gold flecks!

The boys lost interest in panning pretty quickly.  They found these burro statues much more interesting!

This was a very fun stop on our Colorado spring break weekend of fun!

Spring Break 2015: First stop GoKarts in Denver!

Spring Break!

I love spring break, it get me through the rest of the school year.  For the past several years we have done elaborate spring breaks: Disneyland in 2011, Italy in 2012, Spain in 2013, DisneyWorld in 2014,  so this year was a bit more low key.  Matt wasn't able to get any time off work to go anywhere very far away.  However, he did have a four day weekend the very beginning of spring break, so we decided to get out and explore a little bit of what Colorado has to offer!  Our first stop was the GoKart track.  Anya really wanted to do this on her birthday (the first day of Spring break), but we don't have a good GoKart track near where we live.  So, as we were driving to our many Colorado stops and hotel...Matt surprised Anya with a stop here for some GoKart Racing!

 I get motion sick pretty easy. Seriously, I can barely handle the "autobahn" at Disneyland...and those cars are on a track.  Because of that, I opted to not drive.  Cora didn't want, the boys were to small...that left Matt, Anya and a grudgingly willing Hannah as our racers for the day.

 I love Hannah's face in this one.  Don't look too excited.

 Getting ready...

 And they are off!

It was a pretty fun little stop. I think we will go again sometime, especially when the boys are big enough to drive!

Anya's Birthday!!!!

Our amazing oldest had her 15th birthday!

This means she is old enough to drive with a permit in Colorado!  I am not quite ready for that one, and I am putting it off for as long as possible!  Anya amazes me!  She doesn't let the little stuff of life get to her, she has this quiet, strong confidence about her that I so admire.  She is much stronger and more self-aware then I was at her age.  If she wants to go to a play, but none of her friends can go, she will still go.  If she wants to go to a football game, she just goes, telling me "mom, I'm sure I will find someone I know...if not then I will just meet someone new".  So amazing!  She tried out for her high school's soccer and golf teams and made both for JV!  So she had to choose which she would play for.  She ended up choosing golf, and has since been bumped up to Varsity.  She is campaigning for student council and she is enrolled as a college student at University of Colorado Colorado Springs.  

Bragging moment over, as you can tell...we just think the world of this girl!

15!

How did it go by so fast!

 Her birthday fell on the first day of spring break this year.  Lucky girl!  So her birthday was kind of an all day celebration, kick of for spring break, kinda deal.  Matt even had the day off from work!

We decided to go to a local Dinosaur resource center.  It was pretty cool!

 After the our Dinosaur experience we just didn't want the day to end, so we hiked around the Red wall canyon near our house.

 Colorado is so beautiful! 

Here is a distant shot of the Garden of the Gods at sunset.

 Every year she seems more poised to me.

 My kids sure do love a good rock to climb.

 Anya's dinner of choice was Mexican!

We took this opportunity to try out a new mexican joint.

It was yummy and they sang to Anya in spanish, she liked it!

Later that week I was able to go to the Temple with this sweet girl!  We had a great morning in the service of our ancestors.

I sure do love her and the example she is to our family!

I hope year 15 is great for her.

Watch out everyone...not too much longer before this girl is on the road!!