Colorado July 2nd

Our plan for today consisted of going to the North Pole, eating Mexican food for dinner, and scoping out the starting point for the Pike's Peak hikers...

First, the North Pole, Home of Santa's Workshop, a Christmas themed amusement park about 20 minutes from the Hastings cabin.  This wonderful little place holds lots of special memories for me...just like sleeping in the loft.  I remember my grandparents going with us here every summer, and waiting in line to drive my Grandpa on the car ride.  I remember visiting Santa with my Grandma, riding little ponies, and feeding goats.  There was a giant jumping castle to jump on, the Candy Cane Slide, and the jerky little roller coaster, and who could forget the Christmas Tree ride, the view from the top of the Ferris Wheel, and what use to be the Wicked Witch's Haunted House....

Above, left to right, Felicity, Silas, Abigail, Sarah, Shawna, and Phoebe.  Below, the BFF Hot Mom's "selfie of the day", before the riding fun began.

The first ride of the day for all of the kids was this fast spinning, frontwards and backwards, ride below.

Next the cars!  Silas drove Mandy.

Abigail drove David.  Phoebe drove Eric and Sarah drove me.

EVERYONE went down the big Candy Cane Slide several times!

The next high-flying, spinning, ride we rode made a few adults bellies feel not-so-good.  Eric will be avoiding this ride for ALL years to come, so will Traci.

We ALL visited with Santa!

"Hot Moms" want pedicures, chocolate, big chewy Nerds candy, college basketball tickets, an all-inclusive Hot Moms ONLY trip to Tulsa and Pawhuska, OK, jewelry, and more sleep for Christmas this year.

Santa found a reason to give Mandy a Noogie.  Maybe he had heard stories of her childhood days...

"Cool Dads" want new tools, lawn equipment, running shoes, and NFL football and Cubs or Royals baseball tickets for Christmas.

Below all the kids touching the frozen "North Pole".

AAHHhhhhhh, hugging around the North Pole, love birds.

And, who doesn't want their picture with the giant Coca~Cola Polar Bear???

Our whole Bestie group, pictured below, in Santa's Sleigh..... Traci, Phoebe, Steve, Silas, Stacee, Sarah, Mandy, Abigail, Shawna, Eric, David, and Felicity.

Then the Christmas Tree ride.  Felicity and Silas rode this one together.

Sarah and Abigail rode together and Phoebe and Shawna rode together.

We rode some Reindeer on the Carousel.

We each took a few turns on the little jerky roller coaster....

We packed a fantastic picnic lunch to eat in the park that day, but we forgot the bread for our sandwiches.... Not to worry, we had "Cool Dads" with us.  They are strong.  They are funny.  They are smart.  They are fun.  They love their families, and friends who are just like family, and they are problem-solvers!  David and Steve thought quickly and were able to talk a food stand worker into selling them some hamburger buns and we all ate the best sandwiches ever!  

After lunch, it got a little rainy so we spent a little time in the arcade winning tickets to buy some silly prizes.  Felicity bought a cute Santa lips/beard whistle.

After the rain we rode a few more rides, like the Scrambler.  Whheeeeeeee!

And the tallest Ferris Wheel ever!

The views from the top are Ah-Maze-Ing and a little frightening, especially if you ride with someone like Eric who likes to rock the seat a little when the ride comes to a stop.

Lastly we all took a turn on Santa's Sled Zip-Line.

Five of the kids were still small enough to ride this Cowboy Bouncing ride.

And, a short train ride all together...

Then it was on to dinner!  Just what Steve had been waiting for... All. Day. Long.  Mexican food!

After a delicious meal in Woodland Park, we drove to the Craggs hiking area.  We did a short hike to look around there.  (Cool Dads would be leaving from this hiking area in the early morning tomorrow to hike up and down Pike's Peak.)

On our drive back to the cabin from the Cragg's that evening, just a few miles outside of Divide, CO, we spotted a BIG BEAR up on a hillside.  Steve and Eric quickly pulled the vehicles over so we all could get a better look at him.  Although we did not get any great pictures of him, it was very cool to see him.  He was BIG!  Below, in the middle - top area of the grass (black spot) is the Bear.

After seeing the Moose the night before, now a Bear, we thought it couldn't get any better... But then we came across a HUGE HERD of ELK just outside of Divide.  Steve and Eric pulled over again for us all to look and take more pictures.

That night back at the cabin after the big girls were tucked in and laughing together in the loft, Mandy read the two littlest in our Bestie group a story before they were tucked into the bunk beds in their bedrooms for the night.  What a FUN day it had been for us all!  Tonight we all went to bed tired but with full hearts knowing that we have some of the best friends in the world.