Glenwood Springs

Over the weekend, we discovered one of our new favorite vacations: Glenwood Springs! We ended up leaving Friday around 3:00, took the boys from Benson's teachers quorum some fried chicken, beans, and potato salad dinner on the last night of their 50miler. I don't think I have ever seen 40 pieces of chicken disappear so quickly, or a group of 14-15 year old boys so grateful for food. Then we continued on our way to our hotel. We arrived at around 9:30, and since the pool closes at 10:00, what do we do of course, we race for our swimsuits and jump in!

The next morning we rode up the side of the mountain on a tram

to explore the Glenwood Springs Caverns. The cave was discovered in the late 1800's and turned into a very high societal attraction, where people would pay a lot of money, and actually dress up in formal gowns and tuxedos to crawl around in the caves.

(I guess we were a little under dressed)

Apparently the grand finale, is when the cave opens up to the largest cavern in the US, full of cool formations, but of course Peyton and Kennedi couldn't last the 70minutes without a potty break.

After the tour, we stayed all day at the adventure park. I have to say that this was the perfect size amusement park, there were only about 6 major attractions, no crowds, and the only ride that we ever had to wait in line at, was the Alpine slide.

We filled our day with bull riding (complete with an injury)

One arm up and everything!

rock climbing,

Racing down the mountain on the Alpine Slide,


4D movies,


Laser Tag,
Paroosing (is that a word?) the Gift Shop,

Getting into a little trouble with the Law:



and the ride that made everyone's weekend, the Giant Canyon Swing. Umm, yes, they need to come up with a better name. But seriously, this swing was AMAZING! It literally launched you up to 50miles an hour over the valley of Glenwood Springs. There is nothing between you and the Colorado River - which is 1,300 feet below - except a small, little bar that I had to keep asking them to push down tighter against me (to which they responded, "Mam, you can actually have a few inches between your lap and the bar and still not fall out" - very comforting=).

All I'm going to say is that the expression on Talie's face says it all! The first time Ashlynn rode, she kept her eyes closed the entire time! I'm not sure how many rides she went on before she actually opened them. But the kids ended up riding it about 30 times, and Benson and I probably got in about 10 each, so I think we definitely got our money's worth.

We ended up staying until about 8:30, when we finally dragged everyone out of the park and stopped at a yummy Chinese restaurant on the way back to the hotel, where we watched a documentary on Bear Attacks. Hmm, great footage for children to view right before bedtime=). But all in all, I would highly recommend Glenwood Springs to anyone, and we didn't even make it to the hot springs.