Category: Driving

Royal Gorge Bridge

Royal Gorge and Cañon City, Colorado With Kiddos

Published on by Cheryl LockLeave a comment
The secret to smiling faces? Skittle bribes, all dang day long.

Happy August, friends! The month started out on not such a great foot for us, so we weren’t in our normal headspace when heading out on this quick getaway. (Well okay, I wasn’t!) At the end of the day I’m so glad we did go. It’s always a good idea to take some time to get out of your own head, recognize what’s so special about your life, bond with your kids, show them new things and, as one friend put it, nature is always healing 😉

The Details

Lodging (Price: $692 for 3 nights)

We stayed at this Airbnb in Cañon City, which was a sweet little three-bedroom place with a large dining area and kitchen. It might have been a tad overpriced for the location (it was about 20 minutes from the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, which was our main point of interest for this trip), but we still had a blast. It was all one floor (no scary stairs for littles!), and the layout actually allowed us to put Emilia in her Pack and Play at the back of the house so Lotte and Grace could have separate rooms if they needed them (which one night they did).

The backyard was cute, too, with a grill and little table area under a covered patio, where we grilled out and had dinner on our final night.

Entertainment

The kids have a book called Good Night Colorado, and the Royal Gorge Bridge makes an appearance as one of the MUST SEE places in Colorado. When we were planning a final farewell to summer trip (the girls start school on August 16th!), we knew we didn’t want to go any farther than 2.5 hours (exactly how far Royal Gorge is from us), but that we wanted adventure on a low-key, kid-friendly level which, despite the RIDICULOUS photos, the Royal Gorge offers.

This is an amazing place for families … as long as no one is afraid of heights! Travel tip: Most of the attractions, the playground and the visitors center, etc., open at 10 a.m., but the bridge itself is open at 8 a.m., and tickets are cheaper then. (We paid $83 for the four of us over 2 years of age.)

There was also no one there early in the morning, which was delightful, and the weather was so lovely. By the time we ended up leaving around 10:30, it was getting pretty busy and incredibly hot. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been the amazing experience it was if we waited until 10 a.m. to get there.

As it was, we had the best time.

Grace and her insects 😉 She was besides herself to find two HUGE butterflies on the way in!
Despite our children’s faces here, we all had fun <3
Makin’ herself right at home <3
Man, oh man.
This girl was spottin’ tiny green frogs in the grass and slithery lizards running in the opposite direction. She’s a gem at this age, and so easy to please!
Feeding the fish.
They have every kind of adventure activity you could imagine here — zip lining across the gorge, climbing the gorge, white water rafting in the gorge, riding a train through it, etc. We didn’t do any of those with the kiddos, but the Gondola is included in your entry ticket price, so we did take that, and it was thrilling!

We give Royal Gorge Bridge a big ole’ thumbs up! They have a campground, “glamping” cabins, a dinosaur museum … honestly, we could have spent a week here and not been done exploring. We definitely hope to get back!

Our Friday afternoon was spent hitting up Centennial Park, which had a fantastic splash pad and playground and access to the Arkansas River and was about a mile from our Airbnb. Then it was ice cream at You Scream Treat Emporium.

On Saturday we hit up Skyline Drive — a very narrow 2.6-mile drive with the most amazing views and … wait for it … DINOSAUR PRINTS! — and then did a short hike — the Royal Gorge Overlook Loop — to take in the Royal Gorge bridge from a distance.

Nothing to see here, just a mom trying REAL hard not to drive off a cliff!
More skittles bribery in action.
Dinosaur prints! (And yes, Lotte does have dinosaurs on her outfit and she is also holding a stuffed dinosaur, so you can imagine the happiness this activity brought!)
Chris ran up a steep, short trail to snap this pic. (Insert Wow emoji here.)
We accidentally ended up taking the road for drivers for our hike (the hiking trail runs right next to it), but it turned out for the best because there was no way our double stroller would have fit on the other trail.
This girl lives for a Dada snuggle <3
This gorgeous view. So humbling.
Back at the parking lot we had a quick picnic — with this ridonc view — before packing up and heading home.
My crew. They super cute.

We stopped for coffee at The Bean Pedaler in the cute little downtown area before heading home. All-in-all it was a very successful — and beautiful — trip, and I’m so glad we did it. It’s a good reminder that it’s often worth doing something to get yourself out of your head. And travel memories are, for the most part, never a bad idea.

And now it’s back-to-school mode over here! This is the girls’ final week before heading back, and I’m so grateful for our summer trips to Seattle and New York, plus this one. I’m grateful the girls had fun experiences with camps and playdates with friends and neighbors and lots of unstructured playtime at home.

We also celebrated a 6th birthday.

The birthday girl requested a trip to the Denver Aquarium on her special day.

It was one for the books. Hope you guys are having an awesome summer, as well <3

BIS BALD, FRIENDS!

Seattle With Three Littles Day Two — Olympic National Park

Published on by Cheryl LockLeave a comment

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Back to our second day in Seattle, where we rented a car and hopped on a ferry (with our car!) to head on over to Olympic National Park.

If you’ve been a visitor of this blog for a while, you already know that we’re big fans of National Parks! (See Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mountain National Park, Moab, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia!) It’s always a goal of ours to introduce our kids to these beautiful places in America, and to help them gain an appreciation for nature and their surroundings.

We sure are lucky to have these things available to us.

Anyway, back to Day Two. It’s a trek to head to Olympic National Park from Seattle. We caught a 30-minute ferry to Bainbridge Island and then drove another 90 minutes to the visitor center and then to do the Moments in Time Interpretive Trail. That’s a lot to do with three littles, but the car we got was comfy and they snacked and watched videos (and, shockingly, napped on the ride back to the ferry at the end of the day) and all was good. We almost bailed on the trip when the weather looked iffy (it turned out perfect!) and seemed like too much effort, but I’m so glad we didn’t!

Chris and I were discussing how, in most cases, the things we almost bail on usually turn out to be some of our favorite memories. It’s a life lesson, for sure.

Anyway, here’s a bit of what we saw!

Back on the ferry!
And back in the car!
And a short two hours later, we arrived!
Grace’s love of insects is contagious, so these slugs on the way to the visitor center were obviously a highlight!
The visitor center at Olympic National Park is so kid friendly and amazing — it’s a must-hit!

After the visitor center it was about a 30-minute ride to the Moments in Time Interpretive Trail, which was unbelievably gorgeous. (And, by the way, FREE! Entry into the park was totally free, too, but you can — and should — make a donation online!) The bluest water, the mossiest rainforest, and all the bird chirping you could ever want in life.

So incredibly serene.

Nothing better … am I right?!
Oh it’s just Emilia, livin’ that ferry life 😉

Back at home we made dinner for the girls to eat out on the deck, while Chris and I ordered sushi from Umi Sake House, which was every bit as sensational as advertised.

After Emilia was down, Chris took the older girls for a jaunt on the pier (which we could literally see from our living room window), where they took in the sunset view and played a bit of soccer.

And that was our Day 2 in a nutshell. Our third and final day is comin’ at cha tomorrow … and it was also a big one 😉

Bis bald, friends!

Seattle With Three Littles — Day One

Published on by Cheryl Lock1 Comment

Happy Memorial Day, friends!

We’re back from our long-awaited trip to Seattle and Olympic National Park, and I can confirm … if you’ve had Seattle on your bucket list for a while, BOOK THAT TRIP NOW!

We had the absolute best time on our little 3-day stay. We planned to fly in late on Wednesday, after the girls got out of what was supposed to be their last day of school before the summer. The school ended up closing two days earlier, though, for renovations. We tried switching to an earlier flight but they were booked out. So we didn’t end up getting in until around 9 pm (on what was NOT our best flight), but luckily the Airbnb where we stayed was only about 20 minutes from the airport.

The Details:

Accommodation: We stayed at this Airbnb, which had very many amenities. It was right on the water, and was walking distance to literally everything a tourist could want. There was a 24-hour doorman, garage parking, a pack and play and highchair and childproof locks on the doors. There was a small balcony facing the waterfront, a shared hot tub and a rooftop. All the things you could possibly want for an awesome stay.
Price: $1990 for four nights

Airport transfer: We set up a car service from Starline Town Car & Limo Service to pick us up at the airport and drop us back off, and it was totally and absolutely worth it. With the five of us, three carseats, a double stroller and all our bags, it was a lot less stressful knowing that we’d have door-to-door service in a car that would definitely fit all of our things, and that we would definitely have a ride for our 5:30 a.m. pick-up to head back home.
Price: Approximately $300 (this included tip, taxes and other fees.)

Car rental: We rented a car on Friday to drive into Olympic National Park. We had to get a big one, obviously, so that’s always a bit more pricey.
Price: $260

Food: We spent about $500 for food, most of which was coffee. (Not really, but we did do a bit of a “coffee crawl” around the city, which I would highly recommend.)

Coffee from La Panier in Pikes Place.
Fresh ingredients Chris picked up from Pike Place Market to make ….
This insanely delicious meal!

Entertainment: We spent about $150 on entertainment, including ferry rides, Olympic National Park and a ride on The Seattle Great Wheel.

Olympic National Park was a 30-minute ferry ride (with your car!) to Bainbridge Island, and then about 90 minutes from there … and worth every second!
One of our favorite activities was the ferris wheel!

In other words, it wasn’t the cheapest trip for three days, but we were prepped for that going in and had saved up. We knew we didn’t want to scrimp, since neither of us had been before, and knowing that ahead of time helped us not feel guilty spending while we were there.

It was also the first time the girls traveled with their own money from their allowance. This was clutch when Lotte would point to a $20 useless trinket and I could say, “Sorry, you don’t have enough money for that!”

Day One:

You know who doesn’t sleep in after a late travel night? ALL THE CHILDREN!

We knew we’d all be dragging a bit on our first full day, so we decided to take the morning slow and walk around the neighborhood, including seeing the waterfront and Pikes Place Market.

Seeing the original Starbucks is like a celebrity sighting 😉
There is a lot of construction happening around the waterfront right now. We definitely want to head back in a few years to see how it all turns out!

After a short rest (and Chris shopping at the market for fresh ingredients for our dinner), we grabbed a ferry to walk to Alki Beach.

We took a bit of a detour on our walk back to the ferry from the beach, but we did get to head down this gorgeous road, so bonus?!
Emilia discovered her love of ferries on this trip <3

After our afternoon walk/beach trip, it was back to the Airbnb, where Chris cooked up his delightful pasta dish for dinner and the girls hit the hot tub with Chris. Friday morning we would be heading out to Olympic National Park … can’t wait to share that adventure with you tomorrow!

Bis bald, friends!

The Goat, the Farmhouse, the Paint Mines & the Birthday

Published on by Cheryl Lock1 Comment

Welp, friends, No. 39 is in the books.

This past weekend was my birthday, and Chris really stepped up the celebrating. We’ve had a visit to the Paint Mines Interpretive Park in El Paso County on our bucket list for a few years now, so we used my birthday as an excuse to finally make it happen. After all the fun we had over the past two weeks with the Connors visiting, I wasn’t sure we had it in us to keep up the celebrating, but boy was I wrong 😉

The Farmhouse Airbnb

We started the festivities on Friday by staying at this farmhouse Airbnb which included, much to the girls’ delight, a bunch of farm animals (Starling the Goat was a family fave), a hot tub, a pool table and a swing set. It was the perfect spot for cupcakes and revelery.

Starling the Goat was so happy to greet us.
The girls discovered a love of hot tubs when we stayed at the Airbnb in Winter Park, so it sure was lucky this place had one, too.
Happy birthday to me! Love these cute faces the most.

Paint Mines Interpretive Park

Saturday was my actual birthday, and we were up early to have breakfast, take the hot tub for a spin, pack up and get on the road for the Paint Mines, which was about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying.

We didn’t really know what to expect with this visit, but it turned out to be even better than we could have imagined. There are multiple loops to pick from, and even though I wouldn’t call the trails stroller “friendly,” per se, Chris was able to use our beloved Strolley (aka the off-road Radio Flyer) throughout, which was especially helpful since Grace isn’t necessarily into 2.5-mile walks these days 😉 I carried Emilia in the Ergo, and we had tons of snacks and sunscreen and water at the ready. We got there around 10:30 in the morning and ended up leaving around 1, which seemed to be when the park was really starting to get busier. Admission is free, so I can imagine it would be quite the destination. My advice would be to get there early if you plan to go.

Here’s a bit of what we saw …

Always up for adventure, this crew of mine.
Just the most gorgeous, open-air, expansive views!
I was all too happy to snuggle up with this one for a couple of hours <3
Lotte’s poses are all some version of dances from her ballet class, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Grace wasn’t quite about the posing for most of the day, but Lotte was all too happy to oblige her mother on her birthday.
Despite her sassiness during our visit, Grace said that the Paint Mines was her favorite part of our trip. Oh, preschoolers — try to figure ’em out, I dare ya!
According to the website, “The Paint Mines are named for their colorful clays that were collected by American Indians to make paint. Brightly colored bands, caused by oxidized iron compounds, are found in varying amounts throughout the many different layers of clay.”
The next photos are part of a series I like to call: “Me and my Emilia” <3
Chris really took his role as picture-taker very seriously for this trip, and I’m not mad about it!

You guys, if you think this was too many photos … well I really did my best to edit down what I posted, which was HARD! If you’re in the area and have the time, a visit to the Paint Mines is well worth a stop. It’s free and beautiful and can take as long or as short and you’d like. It’s kid-friendly (enough!), and will provide with you the backdrop necessary for 12,000 awesome photos. Go, I say, and be prepared to leave in awe.

And that was my birthday weekend, my friends. I’m sad the past two weeks are coming to end, because they have just been so much fun. Luckily, we have a trip to Seattle coming up at the end of May that we’re very much looking forward to.

Until then … bis bald, friends!

2021: A Year in Review

Published on by Cheryl LockLeave a comment
They can’t all be good photos, right?!

Welp, friends … there goes another year. As the photo above indicates, we’ve had our highs and lows. I think the year didn’t quite pan out the way most of us were hoping it would, but still, there were bright spots to be found.

Here’s hoping 2022 brings you and your family all the happiness and cheer that you deserve! And here’s what we were able to get up to in 2021 …

April

We dusted off our travel boots for the first time in more than a year (!) this past April for a trip to the mountains. We headed to one of our favorite low-key spots — Granby Ranch — and the older girls even tried their hand at skiing for the first time.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Lotte, Grace & Emilia cuddled up on our couch in the cabin.
Chris and the big girls posing on frozen Grand Lake.
They look a little weathered here because this was after their lessons … but I HAD to get a pic of the two of them with their adorable little set of skis!
We wrangled the kids to take a quick selfie when we got out on the lake in Grand Lake.

June

By the time June rolled around, Chris and I were fully vaccinated, and we were able to start hosting some of our favorite people at our house again. We also went on a fun mountain/lake hike, Lotte continued her adventures in skiing and started running (well, that was pre-June, but I blogged about it in June!) and we continued to find adventures everywhere we could in the great Colorado outdoors. We also spent Father’s Day in one of Chris’ favorite places.

Grandpa came for his first visit in more than a year!
Lotte started track!
Evergreen Lake, Evergreen, Colorado
Evergreen Lake, Evergreen, Colorado
Me and my JMU girls 😉
We sure do love a good splash pad!
Just a dad and his trio of ladies.

July

The end of June and beginning of July was a busy time for us, as we packed up the car and hit the road for our trip out East! We started in Colorado and made out way out to New Jersey and New York and then back, stopping in a number of states along the way. (You can find all the gritty details here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Cody Park, Nebraska
Cody Park, Nebraska
The Bean in Chicago!
Brigantine Beach, NJ