5:45 AM wake up thanks to Monica! Cranky children with too little sleep! Cartoons and colored Cheerios later, we packed up and went driving. We drove around devil's thumb Ranch resort and Spa. Looks fun for future knowledge! Then, found a trail - Creekside trail! No snow - Sophia just wants to build an Olaf.
We walked about a mile and the girls really perked up! We found lots of pinecones ("more more!" Monica exclaimed) sticks, mole hills, water and lots of false morels. Shaw could barely contain himself from going full out mushroom hunter on us!
We drove back into town, grabbed some gross, greasy McDonald's breakfast (still serving breakfast during our lunchtime? Crazy! ) and took it to a beautiful playground right across the street. It was complete with lovely bathrooms, huge play set, rock wall and moose statue. We played for about an hour and the girls were exhausted! So at 11 AM it was naptime for Monica and me (construction going on in the condo next to us - Bah! ) while shaw and Sophia explored and scoped out future adventures with the hope of Sophia crashing in the car!
Monica took a beautiful 3+ hour nap, and Sophia slept for 1.5 hrs in the car. After Sophia awoke, she fulfilled a dream of making an Olaf (from the movie Frozen) snowman! We all then congregated back home to regroup.
Snacks of Turkey roll ups and grapes commenced, then we were off! Sophia was so excited for the next adventure - the pool! The Lodge had a great facility with changing rooms, showers, towels, 3 hot tubs and a sauna. This pool had THE COLDEST water I had ever been in! I think it took a good 20 minutes to get used to the temperature. The girls absolutely loved it. Sophia is happiest in a pool. She would probably spend all day, every day there if she could! Poor Shaw with his stitched up fingers still came into the frigid waters with us, but had to keep his right hand from getting submerged. He is getting very good at using his left hand for everything though!
We took showers, warmed up in the sauna, changed at the condo, then went out in search of dinner. This is when we discovered the dreaded mud season! We had researched and researched different restaurants and knew exactly where we wanted to go. We drove the 10 minutes to another town to go to the Cheeky Monk, a nicer bar that focus on Belgian beers, only to find it closed (NOT on the website)! It was however in a super cute little ski town that had some fun steel drums for the girls to play on. Unfortunately, on our way down the stairs from the door of the locked Cheeky Monk, Monica tripped and feel head first down 2 cement stairs! Poor thing scratched up her head. She and I snuggled as shaw and Sophia raced off to get the van. Luckily we were prepared, and shaw had thrown his Bug Out Bag in the van before we left KC so we had our end of the world first aid kit. We ran to the condo to get the kid's Ibuprofen I packed to take the edge off for poor Monica. The girls (and Shaw!) Were all getting very hungry so we hunted down another restaurant off our list - a Hot Dog restaurant about 5 minutes from our condo. The dreaded Mud Season hours hit again. It was closed! Again, not on the website. Things seems much more hopping when we first arrived on Memorial Day, and we figured that is probably the usual for small Colorado towns in late spring - busy and open on the weekends, closed during the week.
We found a fun little bar and grill called The Library a feed blocks down that was really family friendly, and had great outside seating! The girls split a full sized order of chicken fingers (shaw did not stipulate the kid's size! ) and we each had the Buffalo chicken wrap. Shaw decided to get the hottest temperature and he was sweating a few bites in! :) We then headed back to the condo to walk around, climb some rocks and "mountains" a bit before getting the girls down for a early bedtime.
It is amazing how exhausted we both are at the end of the day! It takes all our energy to get the girls to bed and we collapse on the couch! We are going going going all day and it is beautiful. It makes watching the food network and HGTV for a couple of hours a huge treat after the girls are passed out! Ready to stay another day of adventures!
