COLORADO PART 2: COLORADO SPRINGS + DILLON/BRECKENRIDGE

after we finished at the zoo on day two (i love rhyming), we fled from the big city to colorado springs. i was so impressed by my dad; he'd morphed into mr. ultimate travel plan-man (here i go again) this spring and spent weeks preparing an entire itinerary for our trip, each days' agenda scheduled down to the hour and our reservations and tickets were already booked and in hand. not only was he organized - he absolutely nailed it with each activity! he'd secretly planned things we'd always dreamed of doing but never thought we'd be brave enough to try or lucky enough to have the opportunity. plus, it was honestly pretty relaxing to not have to worry about planning anything and just be along for the ride. :)

thanks, dad. you really rock.

so as per le agenda, we spent day three white water rafting down the arkansas river.
as tough and wild as i want to sound, i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a ner. vous. wreck. the entire morning before our afternoon rafting session began. even though my dad continued to reassure us that we were on the level 2/3 "family-friendly" raft ride, i was just sure our trek would turn into one of those white-water rafting nightmares i'd seen on t.v. my apprehensions were solidified after we loaded into our raft and then were delayed 30+ minutes after our guide noticed a group of passengers stranded upstream in need of rescuing (closure: everyone was safe and in healthy condition - phew!). but alas, i worried for nothing and our journey was nothing but a relaxing, giggly, splashy, slightly bumpy float down the river. we were begging to do it again before we even reached the unloading dock. towards the end of the course as we were easing our way to shore, our guide let me sit up on his special seat in the back and steer the raft! i'm practically a natural and am now considering spending my time working as a white water rafting guide next summer. ;) if only i knew how to swim.

we felt pretty studly in our wet suits, ready to conquer all great bodies of water

we lindharts have an allele written on our familial genome that codes for rock obsession/fascination. michelle would spend hours collecting pea gravel from our driveway as a child. and thus, we couldn't pass up a stop at the "gold mine rock shop" across the way from the echo canyon river expedition base.

we've had a running family joke for years about my sister michelle and her obsession with segways - she is dead-set determined on having one someday and talks about them nonstop. on day four, my dad surprised her (jenna & i were already in on it) with a segway tour through the garden of the gods in colorado springs. michelle lost it; she was so thrilled - to say the least - on cloud nine the rest of the week (it made up for her disappointment with the lack of meerkats at the zoo. an odd and strangely pleased one, she is). as ridiculous as they look, segways are pretty darn exhilarating, and my dad, jenna, and i may or may not want one now, too. we get it now, michelle, we get it! it was such a fun way to experience such a fascinating, breathtaking

natural park.

i spy pike's peak! it's so frustratingly hard to take a photo of the mountains that i'd deem accurate. with no form of depth perception in-photo, it's impossible to capture how truly fascinating they are.

after our segway day (segday?), we traveled to dillon, colorado and spent the evening and following day unwinding and touring dillon and breckenridge at our leisure. we became more and more exhausted as the week went on, so we were ready for a couple days of r & r before making the 15-hour trip back home.

breckenridge is such a cute little ski town tucked away in the mountains. we rode both the gondola and ski lifts and spent day five admiring the scenery. we went to one of the ski resorts and took a ride down the alpine slide. one of the best ways to see the sights!

we also spent day 5 eating. we are foodies.

so many special memories on our exciting adventure to the mountains. thanks for a great week, colorado!