Family Vacation to Denver

Jordyn has been wanting to go to Elitch Garden's in Denver for a very long time. Every time she would see the commercial on tv she would beg to go. Cody & I decided that it would be fun to take a family vacation for a few days there and finally check it out. It was a VERY interesting trip!

We left Thurs July 21st after Jordyn passed her finally day in Level 2 swimming. We made it to Denver around 5 o'clock, checked into our hotel and decided to hit the mall and then get some dinner.  We went to eat at Yard House which is Cody's all time favorite place to eat. We order an appetizer 1st, then dinner not too long after.  Cody is never one to really venture out once he finds an entree that he likes, but that night he decided to. Our appetizer came 2 minutes before our meals. The waitress felt bad that it came so close to our meals that she said she was taking the appetizer off our bill. My meal and Jordyn's meal was so amazing. Cody's meal had absolutely no flavor, and was very very dry. Cody told the waitress about it and she ended up taking it off as well. He ended up ordering what he normal does (it was amazing) and we still weren't charged for it. We were completely prepared to pay for it, but she said no!

Dad & Daughter being goofy

 Friday morning we had to stop at the School of Mines so Cody could get some Alumni gear! We had a great breakfast at a little shop in Golden and then made our way to Elitch's!

Poor peanut not feeling well

Aspyn wasn't feeling very well when while we were in Denver. She slept alot Friday. It was so hot, so the time that she was awake she mainly drank her water and wanted to be held. 

Jordyn and the Rasta Bananas

 We saw these "Rasta Bananas" and immediately thought of Brieanna!

Jordyn loved these Tea Cups. I was ok with them for the 1st minute. After that I was about to get sick. Jordyn was able to do a lot of the rides there that were for people 42" and shorter. Luckily she was wearing her "tall flip flops" so she was just that much taller! Most of the really fun rides that Cody and I wanted to go on, you had to be 48" and taller, so we didn't go on very many "adult" rides. Cody did go on the old wooden roller coaster. I have no desire to go on those old wooden things. Way too creepy! After we went on all the rides that Jordyn could go on, we decided it was time to check out the Water park part of Elitch's. Everyone else had that same idea. There was absolutely no place to sit, NO shade, no lockers and Jordyn couldn't go on any of the good water slides. She was pretty limited to the kiddie pool that had small slides and water sprayers. Cody and I decided to not change into our suits, but let Jordyn get into hers and let her play in the water for a little bit to cool off. She loved it and had a good time! She was in the Wave Pool and loved jumping over the waves. I can't wait until she can actually do that in the Ocean!

After awhile, we rode on one more water ride and decided to call it a day. Aspyn had had enough, Cody was on the verge of heatstroke and I was just plain tired. Jordyn would've gone for another 5-6 hours I'm sure, but she was happy that she had been able to go.

Our plan was go back to hotel, cool off & change, then go to dinner. When we got back to the hotel we were notified that the power in that area was out and that it wouldn't be on until about 8:30pm (it was about 5). Since we were still very hot and just wanted to cool off, we hit the mall for a very large iced tea and Sprite for Jo, some cold water and cereal for Aspyn. Once we were finally cooled off we found our way to On The Border mexican restaurant for dinner. We ordered and sat there and waited, and waited and waited. We mentioned to the waiter that we had been waiting for about 45 minutes from the time we sat down until then. He went to check on our food and were told that the kitchen had lost our ticket! He was very apologetic, told us he could ring it back in and we would be 1st in line to get our food. Since we really weren't in a huge hurry, and Aspyn had fallen asleep we re-ordered and patiently waited for our food. It actually came out pretty quick and was so yummy!  The manager came and told us that for our inconvenience we were getting our entire meal comped! We tried to at least pay for something, but he would have nothing of it!

Once we got back to our hotel around 9 o'clock the power still was NOT on and that it was now going to be at least 11:30 before it was.  A security guard let us into our room (since our key cards weren't working). The room was so hot and muggy. So, at 9:30 Jordyn hit the pool in the dark! She loved it! Around 10:30 the power came on & we all were able to finally get to bed.

The next morning we went down to the office to check out. The hotel was giving out vouchers to guests  for the huge inconvenience of the power outage that they could use at a future date and any of their hotels. Well, when we got there to check out they had already ran out and wasn't able to get anymore. Instead of mailing us one, they said that they were able to refund us 1 nights stay! The night that they refunded was actually Friday night which was the more expensive night!

Since Jordyn didn't get to do a lot of swimming and water theme park time at Elitch's, we thought it would be fun to maybe hit Waterworld (an all water park theme park). But 1st we made our way to Idaho Springs to eat at Tommy Knocker Brewery! They have the BEST buffalo burgers, root beer  & Cody's favorite beer is brewed there! Plus it's an old mining town and very fun to walk up and down Miner street and look in all the fun stores! Then we made our way back to Denver. We got to Waterworld and could not find a place to park. People were illegal parking, parking on the grass, on the baseball field. The line to the ticket booth was so long, as were the lines for the water slides. After discussing it with Jordyn we decided to skip Waterworld and go back to the mall and do "glow in the dark" golf! It was so much fun (and cool)! Jordyn had so much fun! Toward the end she figured out what she needed to do and did really well. Cody and I hadn't mini-golfed in a long time, so it was alot of fun for us as well! After 18 holes of glow in the dark mini golf, we let Jordyn go to Build-a-Bear Workshop and make an animal! Of course she loved it and fell in love with the cat that she created!

We finally made it back home Saturday night at about 10pm. We were exhausted, and so glad to be home! It was a fun trip! We all had a great time and enjoyed being around each other as a family! We've never really gone on a vacation with just the 4 of us, so it was something new. Jordyn can't wait until we go back to Elitch's and Waterworld again. She definitly says that we aren't staying in that same hotel again! We only complained about Cody's yucky meal that 1st night, everything else was just luck that it was comped. It all ended out ok though!  We can't wait until next year when we go again!

The next month is going to be just as busy as the 1st part of the Summer. We have a couple of festivals these next 2 weekends, then my dad will be coming over for the Delta County Fair. My mom will fly over during the Fair so us girls can do a little school shopping for Jordyn. Jordyn will start soccer again mid August.  Toward the end of August we will be driving to Vegas to go to the Drift races with a bunch of friends and then Jordyn starts Kindergarten! WOW!!

I'll definitely try and keep up with all our happenings! Until then......adios and lots of love!!