Colors of Fall

I love fall. I love taking drives with my family. I love Colorado. I love combining the three of these things. Coming from a place where there weren't really any deciduous trees at all, I absolutely LOVE taking drives with my family in Colorado in the fall. Aspens are so amazing this time of year! I love watching as Pikes Peak's lower half starts looking like it's on fire. Everywhere you look there are splashes of color among the dark green Pines. When I was driving to Cripple Creek for jury duty a couple of weeks ago the leaves had just started to turn, so the following week I convinced Zarik that we should go out that way and take a drive. I'd also found a cool scenic drive website that gave us a great idea of a route to take. Here's a glimpse as to what we get to enjoy every fall.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Wednesday we decided to take the kids to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Zarik and I have been there once before, about 4 years ago, and I brought it up as something fun to try with the kiddos. Since they're both under 3, they were still free, while the basic museum was just $11 for each of us. Not bad! Our favorite part was the space exhibit. There's a TON for the kids to do in there and they loved it! They liked the animals too, but I think there were a few too many of those exhibits, lol. All in all it was a fun day!

Random Wanderings

*NOTE* This is the third post I've done today on activities we've done this summer. So don't forget to scroll down and check the others out!

Lately we've discovered that one of our favorite things to do is take random road trips. Just in the last two weeks we drove out to Buena Vista just to see the river and get some coffee, to the Denver Aquarium, and finally on a loop from Woodland Park through St. George to Tarryall Rd, then took Tarryall to the Reservoir, then up to the 285, then down Pine Valley Rd to Deckers, over to 67, and back to WP. Ok, ok, just look HERE to see where we went. Anyways, here are some videos and pictures from our trip to Tarryall:

Walkin' around the shore of Tarryall Reservoir


Throwing Rocks in Tarryall Reservoir


Aren't they cute?


Mika in front of the Reservoir


Urijah found some things to play with on the shore


Pretty Girl


On the Road Again...


Self Portrait (hey, I gotta get myself in here somehow!)


Pit Stop!


Mmmm...Ice Cream!


Adventures in Feeding...


...on the Road

Fishies!

One of the things we really wanted to do this summer was visit the Denver Aquarium. Although it doesn't compare to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (really, what aquarium does?), it's very cute, has a good amount of sharks, TONS of fish (Dori was in almost every other tank - a real crowd pleaser, lol), and you can pet sting rays!

Mika wasn't quite as excited as we thought she'd be - I think the bigger fish and some of the dark "tunnels" scared her - she did LOVE finding all the Dori's, haha!

A video of Zarik and the kids in front of one of the big tanks


This video is dark, but I think the effect with the sharks is cool


Our friend Sean joined us. Group shot!


A random trout


Look! Dori!


We see you! (this was a bubble where you can look out of the bottom of the tank.)


Hi Mika! (ditto)


See Dori behind her?