^^ The alpine slide at Purgatory. I remember racing my brothers down this very track. Even with a kid in my lap, it was still tons of fun…though part of me wished I could race Ian down the track and see who would win!
^^ I wish I could have bottled up how proud Isla felt to go on this. She barely squeaked by on the weight requirement. I could tell she really thought it was cool that she got to do it all by herself. It made me so happy to see her be so happy and proud. After she got off, she told me her stomach "felt funny" when she went high up in the air.
^^ There's a place where you are supposed to stop at the end of the slide. Connor didn't even slow. He just ran into the bean bag at the end, fast as can be.
^^ I remember Honeyville as this little shack on the side of the road. It's now quite the large operation on the side of the road. I was happy to see they still had it set up so you could view bees in their honeycomb, which is quite cool. And, they still had a ton of flavors of honey sticks, which the kids found cool. Oh, and they now have a distillery, so Ian may or may not have gone home with a bottle of honey whiskey.
^^ Laying pennies on the train track. Something I did a lot as a kid.
^^ So imagine this moment. I drag all of us to the train track to smash pennies. I tell the kids how cool it is. I get them set up to wave at the train. About when the train was even with the kids, it started honking its horn. The kids freaked. Isla ran and tripped over Connor. Both were on the ground, trying to get as far away as possible, as quick as possible. Ian said the train conductor was laughing. I am sure the passengers thought we were horrible parents. Thankfully, the kids quickly got over it and were excited to go find their smashed pennies.
^^ Bar D Ranch is a ranch where you have dinner, then watch a musical/comedy show. The kids did great before hand. There was an amazing playground and the kids really enjoyed it. We also rode around on the little train they had. But, the show really wasn't geared for young children at all, so the kids were rather antsy during it. Finally, when we moved and gave them space to run around (they chose to collect pinecones) they were happy.
A little back story, my family went to Durango, Colorado every year in the summer for y-e-a-r-s while I was growing up. The last time we went, I was 17. The place holds a lot of memories and fun times for me. It was nostalgic being back there for me. And it was crazy to think of me doing the same things with my kids that my parents did with me. Unfortunately the campground we always stayed at is now a housing development. But, we still drove around in it while I reminisced.
It was nice having a few days in one place on our trip. We could take each morning slow, pick one or two things to do during the day, then hang out at our camp site in the evening. And, don't you worry, Ian was all up to speed on the local coffee places, so we hit up one in particular a couple times.
I will say, Durango gets major points for restaurants being kid friendly. We went to a brewery, Steamworks, that gave the kids chalk to draw on the ground with. And we went to another restaurant, Grassburger, that had a little kids play area…that I affectionately referred to as a corral, as it was fenced in. It really is little things like this that really help make a meal enjoyable for the parents!
After the first couple days of our trip, we switched the sleeping arrangement around and had the kids sleep in the bed of the trailer and Ian, Callum and I slept in the front on the couch and dinette. I will say, this worked out much to our advantage. Not only did Connor and Isla start sleeping better. But then, Ian and I could watch a movie together after the kids were asleep. It almost felt decadent not having any housework or work-work to distract us and us just sitting around watching movies for a few nights in a row. In fact, I kind of wish we were back there now…enjoying the cool night air, watching a movie, all the kids asleep…
Just in case you haven't already seen the other posts from our trip, here's on our way there and Salt Lake City.
You can also find me on:
Posts
I love how special of a trip this was for you. Getting to do things with your kids that you did as a kid, it's awesome.
ReplyDeleteThat slide looks so fun! I would totally have done it a few times too!
And that is sooo fun with the pennies. I have never seen that or even heard of someone doing that. It is such a fun thing and a great little keepsake!