Carter's Birthday Trip

We started out on our drive Saturday morning with sandwiches, Funyuns (Carter's favorite - they make the car smell great as you can imagine), and the Polar Express movie to keep the boys quiet and happy.

Jack's new love is trains and he is delighted by saying, "Choo choo!!!!" any time you dare to ask him, "What does a train say?" OR "What does a dog say?" OR "How about Santa?" They all say "Choo choo".

Now I know.

Our first stop was to the Garden of the Gods Visitors Center. A brief run into the gift shop and to see the buffalo....and then we were on our way.





Next came a walk into the actual park, which will continue to amaze me, no matter how many times we visit. It's beautiful and spiritual and I love that our children adore it, too, despite it's lack of neon, computer generated effects, characters, etc. It's just nature....simple and breathtaking. This is what I love about Colorado. It begs you to get outside. How could you miss this?!

The kissing camels.







Crazy rock climber.

Even crazier.

Pikes Peak in the distance.





The leaning rock.


We then ventured into historic Manitou Springs.

It is such a quaint little town, with all of the outdoor appeal and beauty of Boulder, it seems, but much less pretentious.

We ran into this small district of shops and outdoor pavilions that is just amazing. It's packed with old fashioned arcades, food stands, and more. Caroline and I kept referring to it as a video game cemetery. Many small rides and games end up here after their glory has been lost on PS2's and XBox 360's.

We immediately threw Jack on one of these quarter rides and he was scared.

So, we tried another. A Choo Choo!!! Still scared.

Time for games. Skeeball is a favorite in this family.

Dance Dance Revolution. Never gets old.

It seemed only fitting to take some black and white photos considering our surroundings.



Many games we had never seen before.

Several were $.05 and $.10. Where can you find that these days?!

Some from our generation. Carter didn't find the love.



Carter was "clammy", as he should be on this Love Tester.





Caroline getting busted looking at the peep show machine!

This one seemed much like the one on "Big".

Super old.







Jack was a good sport, despite having to sit in the stroller while big brother played often. All sorts of people treated Carter to their tickets due to this day being his birthday.




This concludes about 1/2 of our first day. More tomorrow!