Vacation Part 1

We recently got back from another (rather eventful) trip to Colorado. We did the same one last year for the 4th but changed it up a little bit. This year we decided to make the trip as exciting as the destination. So when we saw something fun along the way we stopped and did it. We had nowhere to be at a specific time so we meandered our way across the state. First stop was a lunch break at our friends Dru and Charity's house. They are about four hours away and made for a nice break in the first days eight hour trip. We'd yet to see their house and got the tour of it and the new one they are building. The kids got to play together which they thoroughly enjoyed. Our oldest children are three days apart in age so they have plenty of fun.

It was off to Pueblo, Colorado for the first night. The kids were pumped to stay in hotels with pools so I did all my hotel booking according to how awesome the pools were. The first night was no disappointment.  We got in too late to swim that night but took full advantage of their 7am pool hours (because you know these kids wake at 6 am on the dot almost). I liked taking advantage of the free breakfasts. I'm a total breakfast nut and loved feeding my face with everything available.....biscuits and gravy? Sure! Do I like biscuits and gravy? Not at all! But there's just something about those breakfast buffets full of cheap greasy food to just get you going in the morning.

While researching fun places in Pueblo I ran across their children's museum. Apparently they have the second best children's museum in the country. Who knew right? The Buell's Children's Museum didn't open until 11 so we delayed check out and swam all morning then headed out. The museum is downtown in a very nice building with sculptures all around. We had a lovely time exploring the building, playing with the puzzles and toys and building projects. They had a stage area with all the Sesame Street and Muppets puppets so I went digging for my personal favorite, the Swedish Chef. Low and behold they had him so we had to get a picture.

One of the other changes I wanted on this trip was to try local cuisine instead of finding the first fast food joint. It's a bit riskier with kids since you never know if they'll eat new food but I figure they hardly eat anyways so at least the adults can try new food. When we were entering the children's museum I saw a sign for Francos Bistro and took a mental note to just go there for lunch. Oh boy was I not disappointed. I might have been the highlight of the day. I got a grilled eggplant sandwich with sweet chilies and melted cheese on top. It was seriously delicious (my mouth is salivating right now). I am going to make it a point to head in there next time we are driving through town. Sean's salad looked pretty darn good too. Yes, I took a picture of my food....it was that good.

So it was a good spot to stop. Between the swimming and the museum they had a pretty good first day of the vacation. I'm going to stop here because I added a ton of pictures and I'm really tired. I'll condense the rest tomorrow.