Garden of the Gods

Austin, Melissa, and Claire are here for a week--Yipee!!  Frontier had their flights on half-price, so they decided to take advantage of the cheaper price.  They are such bargain shoppers. I am so happy to see them!  Austin and Melissa love outdoor activites, so we went to Garden of the Gods to do some hiking. There are a lot of really neat rock formations here.  There are miles and miles of trails, some on cement sidewalks and some are just dirt paths. 
 

 We had the stroller for Claire, but she wanted to walk for the first part of our hike.  She lasted for quite a while before she got tired and was ready for a ride.
 

 The boys head down the path!  Ryan enjoyed pushing Claire.
 

 We climbed on some rocks, and Claire proved herself to be part mountain goat.  She wasn't about to be left out.
 

 

 Everyone had fun touching the rocks and feeling the different textures.  There were lots of little holes and it was fun to see which ones were big enough to stick our whole hand into.
 

 

Claire thinks she can scale this big rock!  And she's doing a pretty good job of it with a little help from her Mom.
 

 She found a hole just her size and was ready to go inside.
 

 

You can see some of the neat rock formations in this picture.
 

The handsome Palmer boys stop to take a break on this brick wall.
 

 We saw many beautiful flowers!
 

 This part of the park is named Balancing Rock.  It looks like one little push is all it would take, and it would come tumbling down.
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 Blake and Melissa hold it up!
 

 Austin and Blake look like they are carrying a heavy load.
 

 Queen of the Hill!
 

 Ryan poses by another fun formation!  He had fun climbing on all these rocks.  What a beautiful world we live in!
 

On our way out of the park, these two deer slowly meandered across the road right in front of us.  Then they stopped and Melissa got these pictures out the window.  It was like they were posing just for us. What a great afternoon!  We love it when Austin and Melissa are here!