Starting Wednesday became my few days of rest. Spent the afternoon with the kids. Went in the lazy river and then watched a thunderstorm come in.
Thursday we picked up the Jeep rental through a company called NU. Couldn’t leave the state but we weren’t planning on it. Started our day at the zoo visiting my spirit animal the Aye Aye. A lemur with a really long middle finger. Then a stop for a go kart ride. Finally arriving in Estes park at the advice of Kristin and Greg. Rocky Mountain National park was amazing. The views stunning and so fun to see the animals at the side of the road.
Stayed the night at Saddle and Surrey an adorable motel with so much space and a. Full fridge. While dates it was clean and totally a throwback to good ole kitchy America. A great choice
Winding down the trip we went shopping in the adorable town of Estes. Kate got a beautiful cow backpack for school.
Other things we did
Air Force Academy free planetarium show was well worth the trip. Learned so much about astronauts. They had a nice visitors center. Being a cadet certainly seems like hard work.
Manitou Springs had some Pueblo homes. We drove by but didn’t stop since the thunderstorms were lingering near by and a zip line didn’t seem like a great idea.
Garden of the Gods surprised John he expected small rocks when in fact they are huge formations
Pikes Peak - a nice drive to the top of Pikes peak. 
top took about an hour. Some scary switch backs but getting to the top was worth it.
Patrick got whiffed by lightning he and Kate both heard static when the clouds rolled in. No strike but he certainly felt the residue. His hair stood up for a bit of time afterwards.
a stop at Top Golf to play angry birds was a fun way to end the day and sit out some rain. A rainbow reminded us we made a good decision.
We snuck in a visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal animal sanctuary at sunset ended our time in Colorado. Bison coming right up to the car and deer everywhere. Didn’t get to see the prairie dogs as they must go to bed early. But overall a good trip.
