I went all the way to Colorado and didn't run a race?!

A couple of weeks ago we took a vacation to Colorado.  The first part of the week was spent near Boulder with family and the second part of the week was just the three of us touring all over the place.  Here was some of the highlights (with lots and lots of pictures).

Rocky Mountain National Park
The day after we arrived, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We did a lot of driving and little bit of hiking and just enjoyed the scenery.  It doesn't look like this in Ohio.

Air Force Academy
They say it is sunny 300 days of the year in Colorado and wouldn't you know three of the days we were there it rained?!  Our whirlwind trip to Colorado Springs was done in the cold rain.  First we stopped at the Air Force Academy and did a little sightseeing.  The chapel was super cool.  Anderson picked himself up a souvenir.   He still plays with it a lot.  Guess we chose well.

Garden of the Gods
I'm sure Garden of the Gods is super cool and beautiful, but it was 40 degrees and raining and I'm not going to lie, I was a bit miserable.  We did a small hike and took some pictures.  Someday I want to see this again when it's nicer out.

Olympic Training Center
I'm not going to lie, I had high hopes and was super excited to see the Olympic Training Center.  And it was sweet, expect you really weren't allowed to see anything.  We were given a tour which basically only showed us a little bit of the buildings.  The weight room and pool were awesome, but I wanted to see what the living situations looked like and also see the dining hall.  I was also hoping to catch a glimpse of some badass athlete.  I did win a quiz, picked up a prize, and bought myself a training journal for 2016.

Great Sand Dunes National Park
Great Sand Dunes National Park was my favorite thing we did on this trip.  We drove about three hours from Colorado Springs to the middle of freakin' nowhere and out of the ground were these GIANT sand dunes.  We layered on our clothing, strapped on the hiking backpack, and headed up to the tallest dune.  It was so magnificent.  Because of the time of year it was, there were very few people at the park.  We were the only people on the dune and it was so silent.  It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I got to experience it with my boys.

Pikes Peak
The last full day of our trip we stayed in Colorado Springs and were blessed with good weather in the morning.  The sky was clear and I finally got to see Pikes Peak.  We took the cog train to the top where the weather was a brisk 21 degrees with lots of snow.  This was the highest I had ever been (we had been over 13,000 feet when we went to Switzerland several years ago) but I didn't feel the elevation so much.  Guess I'm in better shape than I thought!  We only got about 20 minutes at the top of the mountain.  We, unfortunately, did not get any of the famous donuts as they ran out, but Anderson did get to play in the snow.  We wore the boy out too.  He slept the entire trip down the mountain.

Manitou Incline
Finally, after Pikes Peak, we had fully intended to climb the Manitou Incline to the top.  However, it was now raining and it was a whole lot steeper than I thought it would be.  I had plans of putting Anderson in the Ergobaby but we were worried about how we were going to manage and didn't want to spend hours out in the rain, so we climbed up a little, took a picture, and headed back down.  Picture or it didn't happen!

Right now, there are plans to return in August 2016 for an epic race Dave is planning...