Drive in

There are so many movies coming out this summer.  We got a start on our summer viewing with Monsters University at the drive in.  Cute, cute movie!  Fun, fun night!!

One more

Just one more picture from our trip.  Last year when we went to Denver, we found a yummy malt shop, Gunther Toody's.  The kids were a little bummed when we said our hotel was so far from downtown Denver.  It probably wasn't that far really, but Denver is huge and SO much traffic I wasn't about to venture downtown to go to the malt shop.  As we were driving to our hotel, there it was right by the hotel, another Gunther Toody's.  The kids got their malts, and those hamburgers were delicious!

Owen's Choice

I think it is funny when I gave the kids all their own pick for a place to visit on our Denver vacation, they all chose something to do with animals.  These kids love animals.  Owen chose the Denver zoo.  I love the Hogle zoo, but this zoo was awesome!!  They had so many different animals, and they were all up and playing and active.  Their enclosures were beautiful.  Denver, you've got a fantastic zoo!!!

 These tigers were so funny.  One would hide in the trees, then jump out on top of the other one when they didn't expect it. 

 Owen decided if he ever came upon a polar bear, even he would feel short. 

 This is a snapping turtle.  I don't think he does much, he had moss growing all over his back.  Gross,  but I loved all the fish at the Denver zoo, they were all so much fun to look at. 

 Davis, and his reptiles.  He was so excited to see this komodo dragon, he was literally shaking.  We walked all around the reptile house and saved this guy for last.  Davis wouldn't even look his way, until he had seen every other reptile, he wanted to save it for last. 

 These rhinos were swimming.  Just back and forth into the pool. 

 Once Gator heard they had "mango's" at the zoo that is all she looked for.  She was on a mission to find the "mango's. 

 I remember the hippo at the Hogle zoo from when I was a kid.  They haven't had a hippo for years.  This guy was funny.  I just remember the old hippos sitting in the water, but this one was in and out and swam for a little bit. 

Davis's Choice

Davis didn't even have to think for 5 seconds when it was his turn to decided on an activity.  Last year, when we were in Denver for the football games, he saw an advertisement for an animal sanctuary at our hotel.  And ever since then he has wanted to go there.  This place was so cool.  It is another "zoo" I guess.  But this all started with a guy being given a jaguar when he was 19.  Now it is 720 acres and hundreds of animals.  It was fun to read about these animals and their stories of rescue.  Some came from private owners, that didn't realize what went into taking care of such large animals.  Some others were circus animals.  They take in abused and neglected and abandoned animals, or they take in animals found in the wild that otherwise went have been killed.  These animals were so fun to watch.  They were playful and it was a feeding day, so that was a bonus to going when we did.  It really was an amazing place. 

Ally's Choice

I let each of the kids pick one place they wanted to visit on our vacation.  Gator chose the Butterfly Pavilion.  Which we were all under the impression that it was just butterflies, but it was so much more.  It was a zoo of sorts, focusing on invertebrates, their homes and the role they play in our environment. 

Bees inside a tree making honey.

Lots of sea creatures

 There are over 1,600 butterflies in the "tropical rainforest" of the pavilion. 

 Davis Gator and Clark held Rosie the tarantula.  I said no thank you and walked right on by. 

This plastic spider in the gift shop was more my speed.  I got Owen to hold this one too. 

Waterworld

A couple of years ago, the boys were watching the Travel Channel's episode of "The Worlds Best Water Parks".  They featured a park in Denver that has been on our bucket list since they saw that show.  So when we were talking vacations for the summer this was the first place they wanted to go.  We had a blast!!  It was huge, we were there from open to close and we still didn't get to do everything.  But we did get to do everything that the boys had researched and really wanted to do. 

 Gator loved all the kid pools.  This one, she had to herself pretty much.  It was called "Wally's World"

 I think this one was one of my favorite's.  It was a lot of work to carry the tube up to the top, but it was so much fun to ride down the "Colorado River" together in the tube. 

 Davis was the only one brave enough to do these speed slides.  He says brave, I say crazy!

 This was at the top of our list, and it's the only that we really had to wait for.  It is called, the Mile High Flier.  It is a water roller coaster and it was very worth the wait. 

 The other slide, we had at the top of our list was called Revolution.  It was actually at the boys top, and at my scarey stay away from list.  But I went on it, and I think it was my favorite.  Lovely picture of me just about falling off the tube huh. 

 No way were the boys talking me into going on this one.  I let them do it alone.  It was like a skate board half pipe thing, and it was awful, but they thought it was great!

 The park was so huge there is a tram to take you from one end to the other.  This was at the end of the day, and we were exhausted, but I think it's my favorite picture of the whole day. 

Closing down the water park in the wave pool.  What fun memories we will have of this day! 

Our Denver trip

We just got home from vacation in Denver.  We had a blast!!  I took so many pictures and we did so many fun things, I'm going to separate posts into days.  We drove out to Denver on Monday.  And by the time we got there, we were tired and Gator was dying to swim, so we just spent the evening by and in the pool.  If we didn't have tickets to other places, we could've just swam at the hotel the whole week.  We always have a good time swimming together.