shanes | garden of the gods

Next stop - Garden of the Gods

$0.50 well spent

The mountains are to your right, son

Gorgeous picture!

This one's a framer!

I don't think pink goes with nature

Guess who's done with the pictures?

Time to explore

Rock sitting

Rock climbing

Officially known as Mother's Heart Attack Crack

It was such a tight squeeze, but good to know he wasn't traumatized by the cave

Up and in again

We stuck to the sidewalk

Herding the cats back to the car

Our next stop was Garden of the Gods and it was beautiful. Although, it made me realize that I enjoy the woodsy mountain part of Colorado much more than the desert. The best part for the kids was climbing through that exceptionally tight crack in a large rock. They were on their own if they got stuck, because even Avery was pushing the size limit for that space. At one point, he banged his ear on the side and fell. It took a lot of talking to get him to calm down and figure out how to free himself because I could barely get an arm in to help him. He eventually pulled himself together and got free but not without some effort. Several people clapped when he emerged. He went right back through again - no harm done.

The kids were great in the car even when we got stuck in rush hour, construction traffic causing us to take 3 hours to get home. Yuck. Luckily, Kathryn has ample knowledge of all sorts of off-key children's songs and can lead a pack of restless children in dozens of rounds of eye spy. Everyone was happy to be back in Denver at the end of the day.