Denver, Dolls & "Camelbaks"

Friday, July 6th, 2012

We had a VERY relaxing morning with us all sleeping in until 9am.  Oh, that felt great!!!  After our breakfast, Dave and the boys did a workout while Annika and I caught up on laundry.  Clean clothes are so nice :)  We did manage to drag ourselves out of the hotel by noon :)

For Annika's birthday, we had said that we could go to the American Girl Doll Store in Denver, so we all headed out. The boys popped in momentarily and had fun making up their own stories for the dolls but then we sent them on their way. Annika and I had fun exploring the store and looking everything over.  Annika decided that she would like to start collecting the mini dolls of all the historical characters so we got Felicity, Kaya and Rebecca to start.  We also bought a Felicity mystery book to read on our trip.  It was fun looking through the store and Annika had fun picking out her special gift.



in the Lego store



with Felicity, Kaya and Rebecca



While we were there, the boys headed over to Park Meadows Mall and the Lego store.  Chris and Jonathan had a grand time going through and picking out all the "specialty" pieces that they use to build tanks and Star Wars vehicles.  Fun store!  There was a 49 inch Executor Star Destroyer (only $400) which was very impressive...I personally liked the huge R2D2 :)

After our very hot hikes at the Badlands, we thought we might invest in some camelbaks for the kids to wear while hiking....so we checked out Dicks and REI.  After finding what we like and also finding some great things on clearance, we checked out.

We then headed down to Colorado Springs, Co.  On our drive, we had a lot of rain which was so good for Colorado and we did not mind as we were in the car.  It was only about 1 1/2 hour drive to Colorado Springs.  As we drove in, we stopped in at the Air Force Academy.  It was a very impressive campus  snuggled right at the base of the mountain and we had fun taking pictures as we dodged raindrops.  They are expecting 1,200 cadets to arrive tomorrow.  Josh says he thinks he would like to go here.  We will see what the future holds.

We tried our first Price Line for a hotel tonight and got a beautiful suite with a kitchen at Residence Inn by Marriott.  It was very nice to make a meal in the kitchen (did I just SAY that?):  lots of fruit (mmmm), pasta and chips/salsa.  What another wonderful day that the Lord has blessed us with!