What a Fun Trip we had on our 9 day trip to Colorado right after school got out in June 2023! Here's the day to day but FIRST, here's a brief overview:
-Frisbee Golf
-Quarry Exhibit Hall in Vernal, UT (Dinosaur Fossils)
- Vernal Temple
-Fantasy Canyon
-Popped Car Tire which really was a bummer
-Glenwood Adventure Amusement Park
-Glenwood Hot Springs Resort
-Elitch Gardens Amusement Park
-Water World Waterpark in Denver
-Movie "Spiderman Across the Spider verse
-Grand Junction "Bananas fun Park"
-Colorado national monument. We did tons of little pullout hikes, plus a hikes called "Canyon Rim and Window Rock" and "Devils kitchen"
Day 1
Left Right on time at 2pm which was great. Stopped at constitution disc golf Park in Roosevelt to play a round of Frisbee golf. It was fun minus the mosquitos 😁. Then we had dinner at Marion's Variety which was so fun! Totally an old fashioned malt shop type of a place which was yummy and really affordable. We got to our hotel (Quality Inn) and went swimming and then to bed. I love that we're so close to Walmart (1 minute).
Day 2
Spent the day in Vernal today. After breakfast we headed to the quarry exhibit hall to see all the dinosaur fossils. We recreated a couple pictures from past times being there which was fun. That place blows me away.
We then did a 2 hour drive with a bunch of stops with hikes and petroglyphs which was fun. One of the stops had huge crickets EVERYWHERE. You could hardly step without killing one. ALL OVER the road, all over the hiking trail etc. I Google lensed then and they're "Mormon crickets". Crazy!
We went to dinner at Denny's and then back to the hotel for swimming.
Day 3
Well, today didn't quite go as planned. It started off good though. We went to breakfast, then church (they actually had fast and testimony meeting today since they had stake conference last week and it was seriously so good. Caden got up and bore his testimony again (he did last week in our ward too) but this time he did it impromptu and did great!).
We went to the vernal temple and headed to fantasy canyon. Fantasy canyon was great minus the mosquitos and biting gnats! They were awful. We headed towards Glenwood and were on a dirt road for a long time and then noticed our tire was leaking air. We got out and saw it had a large hole in it!
Our car didn't come with a spare tire (there's not even a spot for one), only a tire repair kit. We used a fix a tire can which didn't do anything. Then we tried the sealant that came with the tire kit which didn't do anything so we had to fill it with air and drive as long as we could before stopping to fill it again. We were in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday with no place to go that was open even when we got to a town. We had to stop 10 times (literally) to fill the tire with air before we made it to a store that had a tire repair kit (plugs). Again, every tire place was closed on Sunday.
We plugged it which only made the leak a little slower. So we went on stopping when we needed to to fill up. We finally arrived at our hotel to find out it was the same one we stayed at last time and we didn't even know it. We got settled and after getting the kids to bed Darrin and I went hot tubbing.
Day 4
We got our tire patched first thing in the morning after going to a couple places and calling several more to see if they had our tires and could get us in. We finally got it patched to hold us over until tomorrow when we could get an appointment and the right tires. It was kind of a rough morning waking up early and running around but it worked out.
We went to Glenwood adventure Park! It was a little chilly but the perfect day! Not crowded at all, got to ride everything as many times as we wanted, loved the new roller coaster and the former mine drop now the crystal caverns. Darrin and the kids loved the speleobox cave simulator and I got a kick out of watching them 🤣.
After the park we grabbed dinner at Arby's and headed back to the hotel to swim before bed.
Day 5
We packed up, had breakfast and Darrin went swimming with the kids while I took the car to Walmart to get new tires. He checked out and I picked them up right after getting the tires which only took an hour and I was grateful for that!
We really loved our hotel called holiday inn and express rifle/silt. The breakfast was amazing and the room saved pool/hot tub were perfect!
We headed to Glenwood hot springs resort. I cannot believe how expensive it is. $43/adult and $28/child. It was fun though and a great way to spend the day.
We headed to Denver after we spent 4 hours or so at the pool. It was a 2 hr. 45 minute drive and it was a gorgeous drive!
We got to our hotel, comfort suites and got settled.
Things I'm grateful for today:
We got a rock chip in the windshield while driving and it was really scary but only left a small mark!
Parker dove and hit the bottom of the pool today and got scraped up but it could have been a lot worse!
Darrin's employee discount worked on our tires!
Day 6
Elitch Gardens Amusement Park. The cheapest way to get in was buying 2 season tickets @$75 each which got us free parking and each pass got I'm 2 guests free so we all got in with two season passes for $150 parking included which is a killer price! It was a fun and hot day. We enjoyed the amusement park. It didn't really have anything unique at it but it was really fun! The crowds were average. Waited a few times for about an hour but there were other rides mostly the kiddie ones we got right on or only had to wait one ride-cycle.
Last night I was awaken by 2 kids. Parker woke me up at 2 unable to stop coughing and asked for help, then Spencer at 4 which a terrible earache. I'm so grateful I had medicine that could help them both get back to sleep! I'm also thankful we all survived today with a smaller amount of sleep!
Spencer didn't complain about his ear again until tonight! I'm so grateful he was ok during the day.
Austin literally ate a thing of butter this morning at the hotel breakfast. He unwrapped it, ate it and said "Mom, this is really good!" And that's when I noticed what he was eating 😝🤣.
It didn't start raining and thundering until we were leaving the park! What a blessing!
Day 7
Today we decided to try out the water park here in Denver despite the unsure forecast. It's called water world and it is HUGE!! Although it was quite cold (68 degrees to be exact) we braved it and had a blast! We got right on every slide we tried for 3 hours until the lightening started, and then the rain, and then a downpour. We waited an hour which is when they closed. They gave us a raincheck to come back any time until end of season 2024 so we'll see if we get the chance.
Tomorrow is an even worse forecast. We did have a great time though! Still so much more to do there though-bummer. After that we went to a movie "Spiderman Across the Spider verse-so good but WHAT the cliffhanger?!? We got a large refillable popcorn since we hadn't had a real lunch. We refilled it 3 times and finished it. Kind of sickening 🤣. Spend $100 for our family to go to a matinee movie too-also sickening 🤢. But we had a great time.
Then we went to mod pizza for dinner. When we got back to the hotel we put the kids to bed and went to Mom and Dad's room to discuss the next few days. We decided since the weather here is rotten the next few days and same with Colorado springs where we were planning to go next, we'd go to Grand junction Colorado. The weather there will be nicer and it's on the way home.
Day 8
Today we drove from Denver to Grand Junction. We were going to go to Colorado springs but the weather is just lots of rain and lightening storms so we headed this way instead. I'm really grateful we didn't book our Colorado springs hotel etc yet since we wanted to see how we felt. We drove the 4 hours to get here and then went to Bananas fun Park here. They have go-karts, laser tag, Lazer maze, bumper boats with water, mini golf and our pass also included $5 arcade tokens per person. We seriously had blast.
Everything was really well done and we got to do everything as much as we wanted. We got there around 2 and stayed until 10. The arcade was a really good one so we even bought some more tokens. They had a special that was buy $20 worth and get another $20 worth free. She accidentally gave us $80 worth rather than $40 though so it was a lot! We got a ton of prizes too.
We left at closing which was 10, still hadn't had dinner so we grabbed a family pack of 50 chicken nuggets at Wendy's, checked into our hotel, ate and got the kids to bed past 11pm 😬😴. Our hotel only had rooms with 1 king bed available so all 5 kids are sleeping on the floor. So grateful there's enough room for that! We actually gave them a choice. A hotel with one king bed and a pool and hot tub or a hotel with 2 queen beds with no pool or hot tub. The vote was unanimous.
Day 9
Today we spent the day hiking at Colorado national monument. We did tons of little pullout hikes, plus a hike called "Canyon Rim and Window Rock" and "Devils kitchen" both 1.5 miles. The driving was beautiful too! We really loved it there! We saw lots of lizards, lion ants, flowers galore, big horned sheep from afar, arches and echoed a lot off the rocks! After hiking we grabbed dinner and went swimming and hot tubbing at the hotel until bedtime.
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