Majestic Mountains

What a view!!!

Mountain Goats

As we were winding up the mountain you can see in the pictures that we were way above the tree line.  We wanted to see some wild animals so bad and then Dennis spotted some!  There was a flock of mountain goats way off.  So, Brett turned around and went back to the area from where we had just come!

There we had a better view

They were soooooo cute!!

I think I counted 17 of them

Once again, Karissa, the boys and I just had to get out of the van for a better view!  It was sooooo cold!

Checking out the mountain goats

Karissa and her boys

By now, other people had stopped, too!

Finally, they were coming down the mountain side closer to us! 

And even closer!

How neat!!

The little one's were just running and skipping around :o)

I wasn't the only one taking pictures! haha!!

 

Our Trip Up Mt. Evans

After we spent the morning at Denver's Aquarium and then stopping by the store to get the little birthday man some toys and everybody some snacks, we headed toward Mt. Evans.  I'm not the craziest about heights, but nothing like I was years ago!  Actually I really liked going up this mountain.  There were a few places where it was straight down alongside the road and pretty scary, but majority of the time the scenery was just breathtaking!  When we started out this particular day it was sunny and as the day progressed got rather hot.  Finally, we got to the booth where you had to pay as it's a National Park.  Brett happened to be driving and because he's Active Duty Military our admission was free.  There are still some good things about America!!  As we started to climb the mountain it got cloudy and the temps dropped rather drastically.  The next thing we knew it was hailing really hard.  The ground was pretty much white!!  The temperature went down to 43 degrees, if I remember correctly.  And here we are with no sweaters or jackets!  Brrrrr!!

The first place we were able to pull off there was a waterfall with ice at the top of it!

The lake was formed from the run off water.

 

I think these next two pictures are just beautiful with the clouds over the tops of the lower mountains.

So pretty inspite of the clouds!!

 

Along the Way

As we were driving, we passed some interesting sites!

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An operating Gold Mine.  Not sure if they took tours or not, but I wish we had had time to stop to check it out!

A Sinclair gas station!  Wow!  I haven't seen one of those for years and years!! 

Beautiful Herd of Buffalo

After doing some birthday shopping, we started out on our next adventure.  Along the Interstate there was an exit that said something about a buffalo overlook!  Yeah, right!  Brett was driving, so Dennis told him to get off the exit as we needed to get gas.  After filling up the van we were going to get back on the Interstate and we saw the "overlook" area.  We did not see any buffalo anywhere!  What a disappointment!!  We headed toward the Interstate again and going down the ramp there was a big herd of buffalo right along side the road!!

Of course, I said, "Pull over, Brett!"  There were these big NO PARKING signs but I didn't care :o)  Karissa, Caden and I jumped out of the van to look at these mammoth creatures!  It was so neat to see these buffalo out roaming on the range in the wild.

What a pretty view!

A Batman Appearance In Walmart!

After we left the Aquarium, we stopped at Walmart to do some shopping for Jordan since it was his birthday.  While shopping we ran into Batman at Walmart!! 

You never know who you'll see!!

Denver Aquarium Part #7

At the end of touring the Aquarium they had a large tank/pool with Stingray's in it.  Caden loved touching them along with all the other kids!!

 

It almost looked like Cayman there :o)

Jordan had fun playing in the water . . . . .

and watching the Stingray's!

At the very end there was a gift shop and little boy's just have to have a toy.  They settled on some sharks.  How appropriate!!

Outside they had a place for pictures.  What a good family picture!

We had a fun time visiting here!  Come back to see where we ventured next!!