Travel & Vacation
Travel & Vacation: Big Thompson Indian Village (Colorado)
Big Thompson Indian Village
As I was going back over a few pictures from our 2012 trip to Colorado I noticed we had a handful from our stop at Big Thompson Indian Village. We made a stop at the Big Thompson Indian Village on our way back down the mountain from Estates Park, CO. Unfortunately, after being there for several decades Big Thompson Indian Village was destroyed in the 2013 flood.
The only thing left after the 2013 flood waters went through was the sign. Big Thompson Indian Village was a fun place to stop, stretch your legs, browse the gift shop, check out their huge tepee, and more. The store had been there for many years, but we had no idea that the next time we were in the area that it would be completely gone. Floods can wipe out many homes and businesses very quickly. At this time the owners do not plan on restoring the Big Thompson Indian Village so we may not be able to stop there again, but we are thankful for the chance to visit when we did!
Inside the tepee at the Big Thompson Indian Village
The kids LOVED the giant tepee. They thought it would be super neat to camp out in it!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Beaver Meadows and Road Trip (Colorado Rocky Mountains)
Cool rock formation next to Beaver Meadows
On our road trip through the Colorado Rocky Mountains we made several stops along the way to explore. One of the stops was at Beaver Meadows. The girls did ranger training and located all the items on the checklist. We enjoyed exploring at Beavers Meadows for a little bit. It is a beautiful area.
Beautiful Scenery
On the road again through the Rocky Mountains. The red sign shows the fire restrictions. They have had some big fires in the Rocky Mountains over the past few years.
Look at that curve in the road! We will not be speeding down this mountain!
This is going to be fun!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Alpine Visitor’s Center & Trail Ridge Road (Colorado Rocky Mountains)
We just came up that road
It was the kids first time in the Rocky Mountains so we decided to take them up Trail Ridge Road. We stopped at the Alpine Visitor’s Center and the Trail Ridge Gift Store to explore and take in the views. The Alpine Visitor’s Center is on Fall River Pass at the junction of Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road. It is open daily, however, Trail Ridge Road is only open usually May to October due to the large amount of heavy snow it gets during the winter months.
At the Alpine Visitor Center you can see amazing views of the tundra. There are some educational items to look at in the visitor center as well as a bookstore, gift shop, and snack bar. The snack bar at the Alpine Visitor’s Center is the only restaurant in the park so if you need something to eat this is where you need to stop.
The Alpine Visitor Center is along Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road extends from Estates Park to Grand Lake. It climbs up over 11,000 feet and has 11 miles where the treeline ends. At the treeline you will often still see snow in the summer time, trees twisted from the winds and more. Along Trail Ridge Road you will see evergreen forests, tundra with no trees in sight, wildlife, wildflowers, and probably even some snow all from your car. As kids we used to go up past the tree line in the summer time and have a snowball fight in our shorts and tshirts. Which is fun for awhile then everyone is heading quickly back to the car to defrost.
Neat Activity for Kids: On the way up my Aunt and Uncle put a sealed bag of potato chips between the girls seats. We didn’t say anything to them other than we are sitting the chips here so they won’t get crunched before our picnic. As we made our way further up into the mountains the bag began to inflate. The girls noticed about halfway up that the chip bag seemed to be growing larger (like an expanding balloon). We didn’t make a big deal about it, but before we reached the top we heard a sudden “pop” in the car. The girls immediately insisted that the potato chip bag had burst open. Why do you think the chip bag expanded and popped open? When packaged the bag of chips are sealed air tight to help preserve the chips longer. When you go to higher altitudes the air is thinner which means there is less air pressure on the outside of your chip bag, however, the air inside the bag remains at the original higher air pressure. This causes the chip bag to expand until the pressure both on the inside and outside of the bag are the same again. Sometimes, like in our case, this will cause the bag of chips to actually explode or open when traveling to higher altitudes. It is a fun activity to do with the kids (especially if you don’t say anything to them before hand). They thought it was awesome!
Wonder what animal lives in this cave….
Looking out over the mountains from the Alpine Visitor Center. As you can see from this picture there are no trees on the mountains because it’s above the tree line. You will also see there is still snow even though this picture was taken in July.
This area gets a lot of snow. Even in the summer there is still snow sitting on this mountain.
Rocky Mountains and it’s amazing natural rock displays
A stop at the Alpine Visitor Center
Beautiful green valley below the bare mountain tops
It was colder up higher and still had areas with quite a bit of snow on the mountains around us.
As we were looking around at the Alpine Visitor Center it got dark and cloudy outside. Only a few minutes later we were getting hit with a rain storm. It rained part of the way back down Trail Ridge Road, but after awhile it was bright and sunny again.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Twin Sisters Mountain (Colorado Rocky Mountains)
Twin Sisters Mountain
The girls thought it was awesome that there was a mountain in the Colorado Rocky Mountains called the Twin Sisters Mountain! The Twin Sisters Mountain has an elevation of over 11,000 feet above sea level. The mountain can be seen from several locations, however, the twin peaks can only be seen from certain viewpoints. It got its name because at the top of the mountain there are two almost identically high peaks, therefore, it was named Twin Sisters. It had a couple other names, Tahosa and Lily Mountain, but in 1911 the Geographic Board decided to permanently name it “Twin Sisters Mountain”.
Shortly after being named officially Twin Sisters Mountain they put in a trail, lookout station, and ranger cabin. Now there are a number of hiking trails to choose from on or near Twin Sisters Mountain. There are easy to follow trails and a variety of hikes for any level. Although there is no formal campground actually on Twin Sisters Mountain there is one located nearby at Long’s Peak Campground at 9,400ft which is open year round and there are 26 sites.
Twin Sisters Mountain at 11, 428 feet
Looking out over towards Twin Sisters Mountain
Beautiful valley between us and Twin Sisters Mountain
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Beautiful Scenery on Our Rocky Mountain Road Trip (Colorado)
Beautiful Colorado Rockies
Our family enjoys going to Colorado. The scenery in the Colorado Rocky Mountains is beautiful. If you ever get a chance to drive through the Rocky Mountains do it. You’ll see wildlife and breath taking views. There are a lot of places to stop to hike, eat, camp, or sight see along the way too.
These pictures are from a road trip through the Rocky Mountains I took with my Mom, brother Josh, Aunt, Uncle, cousins and our two girls. We had a blast going through the mountains. Depending on where you go the roads can have a lot of twists and turns, but the views are worth it.
Our first sight of the mountains. We were driving to Colorado from Kansas and the girls were excited to start seeing glimpses of the mountains where we would be spending the next few days!
Driving up to Estates Park
They don’t call it “Rocky” Mountains for nothing…lots of cool rock formations
Coming into Estates Park. We stopped for a little bit to walk around, shop, and grab a bite to eat before heading on our way.
Neat statue at Estates Park
Driving up past Estates Park
Beautiful day in the mountains
Love just soaking all the beautiful scenery in as we drive
Still heading up higher into the mountains
Lots of evergreen trees on these mountains.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildlife
Elk lounging around near where we parked
I was going back over some trips that we had taken in the last few years when I came across a trip we took with my parents from Kansas to Colorado. There were a lot of fun activities and adventures from that trip so I thought I would share a little bit with you and maybe you will see something you might want to do with your family. I grew up going to Colorado for summer camp and vacation so I have made a few trips through the Rocky Mountains.
On this particular trip it was the girls first time in the Colorado Rockies. They loved it and thought it was amazing the number of animals that we saw on the side of the road and near where we were walking around. All of these animals were in their native wildlife settings, however, some were pretty close to local towns and hiking trails. They didn’t seem disturbed at all by us taking their pictures. We did keep a safe distance away just in case (we didn’t want to upset any of the animals).
The one on the left is the same one as in the first picture, but if you look closely to the right under the tree is another elk. These were spotted next to the parking lot where our car was in near Estates Park.
Mountain goat must have found something tasty to eat on the side of the road.
He looked up briefly to look at us and went back to eating again.
This little bird was making all kinds of noise on our hike and picnic.
There are chipmunks everywhere. You are not suppose to feed them, but they are very commonly seen around picnic areas scavenging for bits of food.
Two chipmunks hanging out on a ledge together
The girls want to pet or pick these little cute chipmunks up, but they are not tame and it wouldn’t be safe either. They were fun to watch scurrying around.
Elk sitting at the edge of the mountain looking down on the valley. It didn’t even turn to look at us.
Two elk eating food near where we were hiking.
Several hours later after our hiking, exploring, picnic, and other adventures we came back down the mountain and it looked like the same goat was still eating from the same area near the road. He must have found a lot of good food in that area!
A lot of places in the area have hummingbird feeders. If you want a few minutes you will see them coming and going. They are fast and pretty neat to watch.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Midwest Dust Whirlwind
Midwest Dust Whirlwind
On one our road trips while in Kansas the girls saw their first Midwest Dust Whirlwind. Some people also called them Dust Devils. In the past few years Kansas has been pretty dry so sometimes when a farmer is working his field or something else is stirring up a large amount of dust you’ll see a dust whirlwind pop up.
When the girls first saw it they thought it was a tornado. It does look like a tornado touching down, but usually happens on a dry sunny day. We were driving along Highway 34 West near Platner, Colorado when we saw this dust whirlwind. Hopefully, the Midwest will start getting some nice rain soon so these dust devils will not be as common. The Midwest is a large producer of crops for our nation and around the world. We have a lot of farmers in our family from the Midwest who could use more rain for their crops.
A dust whirlwind (or commonly referred to as a dust devil) is caused when a vortex forms from the dust that is being kicked up into the air. The dust will often form a swirling column that reaches up vertically through the air. The dust devils could last for several hours and can either be small or large enough for people to see for many miles. They are typically harmless other than you can get dirt in your eyes and hit by small particles of dirt if you walk or drive through one.
Dust Devil off Highway 34 West! Looks like a tornado, but it is made of dirt.
The farmer working his field is kicking up enough dirt to create this Dust Whirlwind that can be seen for miles.
It was amazing to watch the swirling column of dirt raising high up into the sky.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Mickey Mouse Travel Folders
Travel Folders
When we are planning for a trip I try to compile various pieces of information for that specific trip into one spot. Anything from Hotel Reservations, Tickets, Events, Schedule, Activities, Coupons, and more. If it is a trip that we have some time planning it is fun to get folders that coordinate with the theme. The kids get excited when they see a travel folder being updated. Whenever I receive a new piece of information for that trip I add it to the folder. By the time we are ready to head out usually everything is completely ready to go and waiting for us in our folder.
Sometimes the folders coordinate with the theme of the trip, like the Mickey Mouse folders for our Disney trip, while other times I just get a colorful folder and place it in a spot where I can easily add items to it. There are a few places we tend to go more regularly so I have a permanent folder for those locations. As I find fun activities, events, or get discount tickets in that area I add it to the folder. It makes it easier when we have a last minute trip. Usually the biggest problem we have is narrowing down which activities we really want to do because there is so many great activities that we enjoy!
Thankful for an opportunity to travel with the family. When everything is organized and accessible it is one less thing to have to worry about before leaving the house. Little preparations ahead of time make packing up more efficient for the whole family. Plus, it helps ensure that you have all the little items (tickets and paperwork) you need once you arrive at your location.
Mickey Mouse! Whose ready for a Disney trip?!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: State License Plate Game
2 State License Plate Game Boards
Our family enjoys going on road trips. We’ve had 40 plus hour road trips before so we are always looking for fun ways to stay busy while in the car. We play games, listen to audio books, read, watch a movie, rest, and more. One of our road trip rules is the only time the kids are allowed to watch a movie is if the trip is over 5 hours long. We found these printable State License Plate Game templates on The Dating Divas website just in time for our last road trip (which was only 19 hours long). The kids have always traveled well and actually look forward to our road trip adventures.
We printed out two of The Dating Divas State License Plate Game sheets, one for each kid. After printing out the sheets we laminated them so we can re-use them for all our road trips. Once they are laminated you can use dry erase markers OR crayons to mark off each license plate as you see it. The only one we have never seen (so far) has been Hawaii. We’ve seen Alaska a few times, but Hawaii is a hard one to locate. On one trip we got 40 plus of the license plates.
You can do variations of this game as well. If you want try to play bingo, see what different shapes you create, four corners, and more. You only get to mark them off if you actually see them and one other person must see them as well to confirm it. So if you spot a few while your sibling is resting or playing a different game you may have an advantage. This is just one of the many fun games we play on our road trips. The kids enjoy it and it keeps them looking out the window and paying attention to the many sights we are passing along the way. Thank you The Dating Divas for this awesome template! We love it!
License plates for all 50 states
Whose ready for a road trip!?
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Beautiful Flowers & Busy Bees (Charleston, SC)
Busy Bee going after some juicy pollen on this purple flower.
We enjoy going to Charleston, South Carolina. No matter what time of year you go there always seems to be beautiful flowers in bloom or planted ones in window sills. On this particular day the girls were playing at the Pirate Park on Daniel Island and we took a stroll through downtown Charleston later that day. There were a lot of pretty flowers in bloom and busy bees collecting nectar on this warm sunny day.
The bees were pretty active getting nectar from the purple flowers.
Purple flower in the park
The bee has almost it’s entire body in the flower trying to gather the nectar. You just see his back half sticking out of the middle of the flower.
Pretty yellow flowers
Walking through downtown Charleston you will see plenty of beautifully decorated window boxes.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!