Garden of the gods

First off, can I just say that I am not this behind in blogging on purpose!?  I have literally been uploading pictures individually for at least a week and a half.  Between Blogger having issues, our internet being slow, and our ancient computer being on it's last legs...it has been FRUSTRATING, to say the least, to get these pictures posted.  UGH.

Secondly, I should say that there are a lot of pictures to this post!  A few weeks ago we drove about 30 min south of our house to a tourist spot called "Garden of the Gods."  It's a gorgeous site with beautiful red rock formations and miles of paved paths for people to enjoy the natural beauty.  We packed up the car on Saturday morning, no showers, no make up (for me, obviously), and took off right after breakfast.  Now if I had been thinking ahead, I would have realized that this would be an amazing photo opportunity!  I would have showered, put make up on, dressed Jersey in a cute, girly outfit, and had Tyson wear something other than a skull and crossbones shirt that someone gave us (it was almost Halloween so I figured if he was ever going to wear it, this might as well be the time).  Poor outfit planning on my part...mom fail.  Oh well, we still got some cute pics.  Enjoy!

One of the "starting" poitns for some of the paths.

Fist family photo...and I'm wearing a hat and sunglasses in every picture.  Like I said, poor planning.

Boy heaven: rocks to climb, trails to explore, and dirt to play in!

Jersey had to sit in the stroller most of the time, but she was a trooper!  I keep trying to tell her the sooner she starts walking, the better it'll be for everyone.  Then she'll be able to get down and explore more easily!

I may have failed with outfits, but I did have the genius idea to bring Ty's scooter with us!  He looked SO CUTE scooting all over the paths.  Not to mention, he was exhausted by the time we left after working his little legs so hard!

In case you can't read it, we thought this plaque was pretty cool.  It explains where this land came from and why it is what it is.  The plaque explains that it is dedicated "by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public."  Pretty cool, eh?

It's also a hot spot for rock climbers to practice and show off their skills.  Ty was quite fascinated, but couldn't quite understand why we wouldn't let him do it (over my dead body!).

Just strollin and scootin'.

Just one of many gorgeous scenery pictures along the way.

Me and my main squeeze ;-)

Me an my "secondary" squeeze ;-)

Fall colors with snow capped moutains...so pretty.

Occassionally the little legs needed some help going up hill.  I can't believe how long he lasted scooting around!

Ty discovered a little "hidden" path off of the main path and loved exploring to find out where it went.

...which eventually was just a dead end.  But even dead ends are an exciting adventure for a 2-year-old. (Which, P.S., side note, he's going to be 3 in January!  That's so crazy so me!)

Dirt pile!!!!  Bliss.

Just the girlies.

Another family attempt.

Finally we found a great little enclosed spot full of leaves where Jersey could get down and crawl around and play.

Happy camper!

After many attempts, this was the best one we could get of the two of them, lol.

Eating leaves.

Trying to figure out how all of these fingers coordinate together!

Aaaand back to simpler things...like eating leaves.

The two best buds.

Pretty girl.

So much to see and touch and eat!

Daddy time.

Well, there you have it!  Sorry it took FOREVER to get this post up.  I have at least 4 or 5 other posts I've been waiting to do - sheesh!  Hopefully they won't take a decade to upload like this one did.  Happy Thanksgiving week!!