Going to Colorado Springs

On Sunday morning after going to our new church, Our Lady of Fatima, we drove to Colorado, Springs. It's about an hour and a half away and we wanted to see the Garden of the Gods. It wasn't actually a garden but, it was ginormous boulders. At first sight, I thought that they were small mountains. One of the descriptions said that in around 1400 B.C the first settlers came to Colorado. We could see Pikes Peak (14,000 feet above sea level) off in the distance. Maybe someday we'll hike up it. While we were walking on the trail, we saw a guy that was sitting on top of one of the boulders. My mom thought he was crazy! So she took a picture of him. After five minutes of walking my mom turned around and headed towards the car, while Caleryn, my dad and me wanted to go further. We didn't see not much more, although we did see a cave. When we got back to the car, we went to the store to buy a new pin. I've been collecting pins every where we go and my mom attaches them to the back of my chair. I didn't want to go in, so I just let Caleryn and my dad pick something out for me. Next, we drove to a ghost town museum. By the time that we got there, it was already four o clock and the place closes at five so we kinda had to hurry. Luckily it was close by the Garden of the Gods when my dad looked up where it was at on his cell phone. Once we got there, my dad had to pay the person who owns the place in order to get in the exhibit. The coolest thing about it was that they set up different rooms of a what would of been in a town and what it would've looked like back in the late 1800's. There is one thing I learned by just by being there is that it was definitely not very accessible back then. They did have a ramp to get on the boardwalk to see inside the places but I don't think they would of had ramps back then. I think Caleryn was scared of the jail cell when we walked passed it. The dummy they had in the bed started talking all the sudden and spooked her out. My parents definitely has a weirdo on their hands but she makes me laugh a lot. Before she was born, my dad's humor started to get a little old for me. Luckily my dad's sense of humor is still going strong after being my dad for sixteen years. Anyway, after we were done looking at all of the places we went to the movie theater to see a documentary movie after Caleryn and my mom watched it. I think my mom left to actually go find Caleryn who, I found out later, actually snuck back into the store to go help herself to some candy! The part on the movie that I remember the most is that when settlers from the original thirteen colonies first came to Colorado after the Louis and Clarke expedition, people found gold. Which sparked a gold rush. After we watched the movie, all of us went back into the store to pick out another pin for me. I also bought a shirt too. The next place we went was to go visit Caleryn's friend, Sabrina since they were in Colorado, Springs for a vacation. Sabrina has been Caleryn's friend for over two years now. They started becoming friends when Caleryn first started school in Texas. They would come to each other houses and play for a few hours on the days that I did school with my mom. When we got to the lodge where Sabrina and her parents were staying at and met them, Caleryn and Sabrina ran all over creation and the funniest thing is that they would come by my wheelchair and tell me to go along with them. Meanwhile as I was following Caleryn and Sabrina, Sabrina's parents talked about what they think about Colorado so far and which places they went to for their vacation. They said that they went to the Denver zoo up in the mountains. When we had to leave to go eat, it was hard to separate Caleryn from Sabrina. The first one to cry was Sabrina and then two minutes later Caleryn pouted and started whining. Eventually they both hugged each other and said bye. The whole day was fun for me and Caleryn except when Caleryn had to leave Sabrina. I really liked seeing them play and I'm looking forward to watching them play again someday.

We will definitely be going back to Colorado Springs because there is so much to do and see there. Our next trip will be at the end of May since we have a scheduled reservation to see the Shroud of Turin and we want to be able to go on the train all the way up Pikes Peak at 14,000 ft. Sabrina's parents said we also need to see Seven Falls as well so maybe we can just get a hotel for the night and stay longer.

The Dinosaur Ridge

Last weekend my dad, Caleryn and me went to Dinosaur Ridge. Once we got there, all of us got out of the car to check out the store. My dad asked the store clerk where the exhibits were at. She said that they were all along the mountain in front of us. So my dad drove the car to the start of the mountain and parked it. They did have tour buses but they wouldn't allow us to get on it for some reason. After walking for only five minutes, Caleryn got tired of walking up the hill and wanted to sit on my lap and have me drive her lazy butte! I actually didn't mind it, even though it was a little hard to grab the joystick and keep a good grasp on it and hold on to her at the same time. Every time we would stop by an exhibit on the side of the road, my dad would read the info on the sign to me and Caleryn. The first favorite site to see was a hill on the side of the road that has wave marks (fossils) in the rocks. The description about it said that it used to be at the bottom of a sea; and the sign also showed a picture of how big the sea was. It looked like the United States was at one time separated in two! I think the info said that it was 68 million years ago when all of Colorado was covered with water. It's kinda weird that the highest state in the United States was once underwater. Then for the second favorite exhibit to see was the 200 million year old boulders that used to be a part of a mountain but eventually the mountain eroded away and now all you can see left from it is huge orange boulders. Then, about 90 million years ago, the modern Rocky Mountains started to form into what we see today over millions of years. We did see footprints of dinosaurs, crocodiles and other animals which was kinda neat. It was neat to see all the different layers of rock, one layer being volcanic ashe. The mountain was one time a flat beach and now it's lifted up into the air onto its side. Caleryn silently grabbed a rock from the side of the road (which you are not supposed to do) and held it in her lap. My dad didn't take the rock away from her because he didn't want her to throw a fit in front of the people walking past us. As we were heading back to the car, my chair kept on wanting to go left because the road was a little slanted. So my dad decided to push me to the bottom of the hill. Caleryn and my dad went back to the store to pick out something for me while I stayed in the car. They got me a shirt and a pin so that my dad can attach it to my mechanical chair. Caleryn was of course dying to play in the sandbox. She wanted to play in it ever since we first got there! My dad let her play in it for around ten minutes and then we left. All and all the Dinosaur Ridge was pretty cool and the thing that still astonishes me and my dad was that Colorado used to be underwater! It is just mind-blowing!

This same weekend we finally found a good place for Mexican food, which apparently is rare here, and it happened to be downtown so we got to see some sites around town. We also finally found a new church to go to for Easter services and check it out. It's a lot smaller than St. Anthony but we kinda like it and Caleryn will start going to school there as well.