Playing Tourist in Our Town

One of the blessings of military life is living in different places and getting to be "tourists" in the town you live. I've never lived in a touristy place until now. It's both great and overwhelming. Great because there are so many things to do here and overwhelming because there's SO many things to do here. And quite a few things are a little spendy!  We've only been here a month and only done a handful of things (mainly in Colorado Springs) and there is just so much more to explore  here and in the state of Colorado! Here's some of the places we've been:

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

We got a family membership here since we love our zoos!  This place is a lot of fun! And quite the workout for mama pushing the stroller!

You can feed the giraffes,

Stare at the elephants as long as you please,

Admire the amazing view of Colorado Springs from the zoo,

Pretend to fly an airplane above the elephants (Brady seriously looked like he was at home in the cockpit...scary!)

We liked the elephants, what can I say?

The Airplane Restaurant

This was one of the weirder places we've been but I decided to include it since it's a different kind of place and the kids really liked it!

This restaurant is right by the Colorado Springs airport (and Peterson AFB) and is all things planes. My kids really enjoy plane themed things so we went with some friends to go check this restaurant out.

You can even eat in this old airplane. We didn't because we had too many people but it was pretty cool! The food and the service were..ehhh but it made for a pretty neat experience. The restaurant could use some updating but the kids were in awe of all the airplane things around them, including the airplane themed menu.

 Colorado Rockies Game

We drove up to Denver a couple Friday's ago because the Colorado Rockies were playing the Minnesota Twins.

This was the kids first major league game and Brady thought it was pretty neat.

Layla just wanted ALL the snacks. She kept saying "I want sandwiches, popcorn, lemonade, and ice cream." Like over and over. So much so that the people behind me were like, "I think she's hungry." Yeah, you haven't met Layla before.

We watched more of the game and Brady did awesome. Layla was getting a little restless (aka kicking the person in front of us) and even though I kept profusely apologizing and holding Layla's legs to stop her, the dirty looks didn't stop so I decided to take Layla for a walk.

Little stinker got her ice cream.

And instantly became a huge fan of baseball. "Go Baseball!"

Then the music started playing and she was dancing like a fool.

Layla dancing with some drunks. I almost made this a separate post in which I would have titled, "Reasons to Not Bring Your Children to a Major League Baseball Game on a Friday Night."  The amount of drunk people were just a little crazy. We even had a group of men stop and scream "LOOK! THERE'S KIDS HERE!" Yeah bud, it's 7:30 on a Friday night.  Anyway.

We made it till about the 8th inning and then we called it quits. It wasn't the smoothest of trips (huge traffic jams getting to the game, rain, restless children, drunks, and we lost Layla's baby blanket, wahhh!) but it was an experience and I'm glad we went!

 American Classics Marketplace

Finally went to my first antique mall! That was on my 30 Before 30 list. This was my favorite find but sadly, none of the pieces fit our home. (That is completely sarcastic if you couldn't tell).

 Spruce Mountain Open Space

We're always looking for family friendly hikes and this was one we found online.

The kids seriously love hiking plus it wears them out! Win, win.

I was TERRIFIED to stand near the edge. Having kids has made me even more of a wuss than I was before. 

Daddy took Brady's picture near the edge, trying to give me a heart attack.

And it wouldn't be a hike without snacks, duh.

 Memorial Park

I didn't do this park justice with just this 1 picture but they had a ton of playgrounds and a lake we could wade in and a ton of trails.  So much to do in this park!

 Focus on the Family

They have this really cool indoor playground area, a huge bookstore and theater. We went on a rainy day and the kids had a blast. Behind Layla that's an airplane you can walk around in!

And they have fun slides too so Brady was in love!

And lots of cool tunnels to crawl through.

We can't wait to discover more that Colorado Springs and Colorado in general have to offer!!

And if you have time, please Vote for me! for Top 10 Military Blog, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks to all who have voted!! :)