Garden of the Gods

Our Spring Break was a little bit of a bust.  

We had planned to visit Colorado Springs at the end of our week off of school.  

The hotel room had been booked and the activities planned. 

We were excited to get away and spend some time together as a family and 

to visit a place that we had never been.

Well on the drive to Colorado Springs, Weston started to have a very hard time breathing.

By the time we were at dinner he was in tears.  

He didn't want to eat and he just wanted to see a doctor. 

He had several breathing treatments in the car but it wasn't helping.

So we found an urgent care, then we took an ambulance from the urgent care to the hospital.

The hospital became our home for the next two days.

We only had one car on our trip so there was a lot of driving between the hotel and the hospital.

Either Matt or I would stay with Weston 

and the other would take the other kids out to experience the sights.  

It was hard to be spread apart and to be in a strange place.

We are so glad that Weston improved and was able to check out of the hospital after 2 long days.

He was so sad that he missed the family trip to the Garden on the Gods.

So on his first morning out of the hospital and the last day of the trip we went back to enjoy this...

 The Garden of the Gods.

This is one of my favorite names for any tourist place.

So clever and it lives up to it's name.

 This really is a spectacular place were the rocks just come out of the ground.

 More than 100 years ago a man owned all of this property.

He wanted to give the property to the city of Colorado Springs but

he wanted it to be a free thing for all people to be able to enjoy.

When he passed away his family gave the land to the city 

with the promise that it would always be free to the public.

 What a nice gift.

And my kids LOVED climbing the rocks.

We had to drag them away.

 This was our second trip to Garden of the Gods.  

We had gone the day before when my sister Janna came down to go with us

 and to visit Weston in the hospital.  

Which by the way was very nice of her.

But it was just as much fun the next day. 

And a reminder of how grateful I should be when we can all be together.

 If you come to Colorado Spring this is definitely a place worth stopping.

Our family loved it.

And what's better than something free?