Leanin' Tree Art Museum

Sculptures: :-) :-) :-)

Art Museum: :-(

BEST: I loved the saddle cuz you could actually climb on it! The mountain lion was cool cuz it's a cat and I love cats. I liked the white tail deer, also.

WORST: Inside the museum are a bunch of pictures. Some are boring; some are fun. They all looked about the same.

If families go there, do like we did and look for pictures by Bill Hughes. They all have special light and a lot have mountains or water. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt!

Arvada Vineyard Church, Arvada, Colorado

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the Arvada Vineyard is a place that everyone should visit,

the Sunday school teachers are friendly, and so is everyone else....



the classes are fairly interactive and extremely fun.



it's located in the arvada middle school....

Arvada Vineyard Church, Arvada, Colorado

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Ways this church is similar to our Vineyard in Brecksville:

• There are classes for different ages.
• We read stories from Bibles.
• We do crafts alot of weeks.

Ways it is different:

• There's too many people to know everybody.
• We sing new songs I haven't heard before.
• The Arvada Vineyard has a big gym to play in.
• The Arvada Vineyard is at a school; the Brecksville Vineyard is at an office place.
• We go have babysitting and play while the parents have class on Thursday night.

Families should come to this Vineyard--because it's fun to learn about Jesus here. The teachers like the kids and they're good at teaching.

Stagecoach Inn -- Manitou Springs, Colorado

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The Stagecoach Inn is a nice place. Out front there is a real stage coach that you can climb into and onto. I never realized that stage coaches were so narrow! The inn had lots of different food choices. The drink cups were HUGE, even the kid cups (which were the same size as the adult cups!)

Stagecoach Inn -- Manitou Springs, Colorado

Since Daddy is out of town for a week or so, after we finished exploring Garden of the Gods (or rather, when we all got tired and decided to come back another time!), we went looking for a restaurant to get some dinner. We ended up in the town of Manitou Springs, the opposite side of the park from Colorado Springs.

It has a wonderful, historic downtown area, filled with all sorts of kitschy shops: tourist traps, music box store, glass blowing studio and store, old-tyme photographer shop, and on and on and on. I would love to go back and just wander around. It looks like it would have interesting things...and best of all, I would bet the prices are high, meaning I wouldn't actually BUY anything!

Although I think the kids would have preferred familiar fast food, I made them choose something nicer. We ended up at The Stagecoach Inn. It was an interesting log and stone building, with a real stagecoach out front.

The service was excellent. The waitress interacted well with both kids (mine) and grumpy senior citizens (at a nearby table). The menu was fun to read (with many dishes described from the perspective of stage coach passengers or the honored stage driver). The food was good, although the meat of the stuffed steak I ordered was a little tough (and, no, I didn't order it well-done like usual. I actually ordered it medium well, figuring the stuffing and the sauce would hide any pinkness!) The atmosphere was fun---over-the-top "historic" western themed.

It was fascinating to look more closely at the Stagecoach out front after we finished. It was MUCH smaller than I had imagined a stage to be. It would indeed feel quite crowded with 3 people on each facing seat, especially if any ladies with full, long skirts were aboard. It moved quite alot when Jakob and Anna climbed in---which I imagine would help cut down on the jolts of a rough road. I would guess, however, that the stage would rock quite a bit, maybe causing motion sickness for some riders.

Here's the website:
http://www.stagecoachinn.com/

Stagecoach Inn -- Manitou Springs, Colorado

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I wanted to eat some place like McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King--those sort of places. But Mom said we could do that anywhere. So we drove past lots of restaurants and this was the best sounding. I liked the way it looked also. And when we were walking to it, I saw a barn chicken in a window! We even got to sit by the chickens inside, but they weren't real.

First we had dessert--a big, gooey chocolate cake with chocolate syrup all over it. (Thanks, Uncle Vaught, for teaching Mommy to get dessert first!) I liked my food. I got chicken fingers and fries.

After we were done, we got to sit in the stagecoach [sitting out front] and have pictures taken. If everybody in our family came, one would have to drive and one kid be up front. They might get cold or wet but they would have enough space. The ones inside would be warmer but squished! I'd rather take a long trip in our truck!

Garden of the Gods -- Colorado Springs, Colorado

This is a favorite place of mine. I first spent time here 6 years ago when I was out here in Denver with then 15 mos old Anna. It is a little surreal to be driving through suburbs among foothills, and all of a sudden see giant red rock twisted into a variety of pillars, skinny side-by-side walls, and huge office-building-sized mounds.

I was a little disappointed this time to find that a number of areas we could freely walk on 6 years ago are now off-limits as the park attempts to revegetate the areas. This also means that it is not as easy to get close to the formations now.

However, we followed a few red sand pathways (already marked with plenty of shoe and boot treads) right up to the base of formations where registered climbers were working (having fun?!) We sat for awhile watching two fellows who were working their way to the top of one of the skinny walls. One climbed higher, hooking in rope as he went, belayed from below. Then they clipped in to safety hooks, the top fellow pulled up the extra rope and proceeded to belay the lower climber from above. I hadn't seen this type of leap-frog rope climbing before.

I'm looking forward to returning to this park before we leave the Colorado area. I want Randy to experience this place...plus it would be fascinating to see it near sunset. I'll bet the rock REALLY glows then!

A few "warnings" -- If you are a "flatlander," remember to carry plenty of water and drink, drink, drink. This park is at a higher altitude than you are used to and with the extra exertion of walking around, you need plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

If you are a photographer, this is a difficult place to visit because every few steps there is another "must take" photo opportunity! This may drive your family completely CRAZY! (Try to take at least a few with them in the picture--maybe that will help?!)

Another tip that might help---in addition to looking for the already named formations, have your kids look for other formations to name. (Kind of like looking for shapes in clouds---everyone will likely have different opinions.) Here are two we found:

This is a different view of "Kissing Camels" (one of them minus its hump) that we decided looks like a mama guinea pig nuzzling its baby. The other one we called "Grumpy Guy."