ODO: 1200 Miles

Sooo... I'm becoming increasingly lazy about putting the pictures in correct order.  I hope you'll excuse my laziness.  I'll blame the altitude and Accutane.  Most of these first photos are from Santa's Workshop at the North Pole.  Here's the post from our visit two years ago.  On our last visit, we stationed ourselves in a front part of the park, and let Brady rotate through the same 4 rides again and again.  I was on a mission to try the sky ride and the train this time, but we ended up visiting pretty much every corner of the park.  This was mostly because Brady wanted to ride the big white ferris wheel, which could be seen from the highway as we drove to and from our cabin at Triple B Ranch.

They had this little area to feed the deer.  One little girl kept saying, "I can't believe we get to see Santa's real reindeer!"  I was really proud of Anna Belle for mustering up the courage to feed the animals.  She particularly loved this deer, but got her feelings hurt pretty badly when it sneezed on her.

This photo was from late in the day, and Anna Belle was exhausted!  She ended up putting her feet up and laying down on the motorcycle until the ride ended.  

Brady's the deer whisperer.  The animals really flocked to him.  He even stuck his arms through and hugged the necks of a lot of these deers.  I felt bad for the animals, but they seemed to like it and keep coming back for more.

Brady was THRILLED to be on the ferris wheel.  With most rides, he would exclaim, "This is SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!"  With that said, he definitely liked the ferris wheel the most.

We went on the sky ride, which I tend to call a gondola (apparently there's a difference).  Loading on and off scared me a bit, but the kids did great.  Brady didn't lose his crocs - success.

Anna Belle really loves having her face painted, but she wasn't so sure about this air brush process.  Brady wanted a butterfly, but we convinced him to get a Tiger.

We stayed at Triple B Ranch.  We scheduled a 9:00 am ride and a 3:30 pm ride.  Each kid got to ride for 15 minutes each time.  The earlier ride was in the small arena, since they were still clearing the Chrysler event out of the large arena.  Brady is such a natural around animals.  I feel like he should be Cesar Milan's protege.

On our visit to Manitou Springs, Grammy got play guns for the kids.  They both love Anna Belle's little 6 shooter the most.

Our mornings in the mountains were in the low-mid 40's.

SO CUTE

Urban Spoon and Yelp are awesome resources on vacation, for restaurant hunting.  We went to the tiny town of Raton and ate at a really good, family run Mexican restaurant called La Cosina.  The daughter waited on us, the mom bussed our tables an the other daughter cooked.  This little park was nearby, so we let the kids out of the carseats for a bit to snap photos.

Sorry for the total lack of order in pictures.  When we arrived to Triple B Ranch, they were hosting this huge Chrysler Fleet Sales event.  Look at that vista?!

The ranch has a good little petting zoo.  Anna Belle liked that the animals weren't wandering all around.  I think everyone liked the pig the most, with a black miniature horse in close second.

Both kids have learned to blow dandelions on the trip.

Our little cabin, the Foreman, was a great fit for us.  At 11:24 PM on our last night, Grammy heard a trash can tumble.  She got out of bed to find a mama bear and 2 cubs nearby.  They left by going past our car and around our cabin.  She's wanted to see wild bears for a LONG time, so this was really a big deal.