Horn Creek - Day 4

On Day 4, we decide to all get up together, have our breakfast, and then head over to the Horse Barn to visit the animals there. The kids LOVED that place. Gabby kept saying "neigh" to greet all of the horses and Oliver enjoyed pretending he WAS a horse. He also liked naming them... or rather having us come up with names for all of them. That takes some creativity folks because there were a lot of horses and our boy is a very thorough boy.

Daddy and Gabby watching the horse eat

Sitting on the haystack

Mother and Daughter

Very beautiful baby girl! I loved that wall as a background too!

Daddy and daughter

After the horse barn, we headed into the little town of Westcliffe, CO which is the closest town to Horn Creek. We were looking forward to spending a little bit of time sitting down during the drive since we were all pretty pooped from all of the walking, running, playing, etc. we'd been doing all week. Much more active than we normally are! Also, I forgot to mention that for our anniversary the day before, Matt and I took some time in the afternoon, while his parents watched the kids, to go to the rec center. I played my first game of racquetball and really liked it (even though Matt won each game) and I decided I wanted to keep up with my workout schedule and do some weight training after our games. So all of that added with the increased walking up and down the mountains left one tired mama! One of our missions in town was to find me some caffeine!

Our first stop was at a great playground we found right away when we pulled into town. We got out and played for a while in the perfect weather. It was a nice relaxing change of venue for everyone. This playground has the most amazing view (which I failed to get a picture of) but imagine looking up from the slides and swings to realize you are in the valley of a beautiful mountain range which is set against a cloudless blue sky. Breathtaking!

Oliver conquering the tunnel slide

After the park, we headed to the grocery store to purchase the aforementioned caffeine, and a few other fun items and then went on to a cute local cafe to get some yummy and inexpensive ice cream cones. Who says you can't eat ice cream right before lunchtime when you are on vacation! We sat outside on their patio to continue enjoying the beautiful weather. We walked down the town's quaint main street for a little while after our ice cream, eventually coming to a fun looking library. Our kids are fans of libraries and they quickly found the awesome kids section filled with many fun books, puzzles, giant foam building blocks, tan grams, and more. We enjoyed just sitting and focusing on playing with our kids there!

After lunch back at the camp and naptime for the kiddos, we looked out our window to see some boys doing something I still can't believe I let Oliver do. Although it really didn't turn out to be too dangerous, I was still a little nervous his first time down. Check out the video below.

The view from the top!

It turns out one of the other families with young boys had brought these trucks with them to the camp last year and discovered this awesome roll down the hill game... which Oliver fell in L-O-V-E with! I was so proud of him for going down all by himself! Once again, my big boy shining through. I think his Daddy was just as proud that I actually let him do it! But as Matt keeps telling me, boys are different than girls in their need for adventure.

Oliver looking on in excitement in true boyish fashion!

Again (and again, and again, and again...) please! Fortunately, the family just left the trucks out there for the rest of the week so he got to ride MANY more times. And Gabby even got to go down a few times... with Daddy holding on to the back on that one!

Another yummy dinner (with a very happy little girl)

... and a very silly little boy!

After dinner and Round-up, the camp hosted a bonfire and a family movie on the big screen (Horton Hears a Who). The kids were out right after Round-up and Matt and I were still feeling worn out, so we skipped on the bonfire and movie spent some down time together before hitting the sack early for a (much needed) goods night's rest.