Colorado

Yep, we took two trips in March. Ryan is a great little traveler.
Donna, Ryan and I had to go get our Colt fix. He is changing so fast. We headed to CO!

Highlights: photos will be in a slideshow at the end.

Bailey Yard in North Platte, NE

We made a pit stop in North Platte. This rail yard is pretty cool. More interesting then I thought it would be. The visitor center is called The Golden Spike Tower. You can go up in the tower and view the happenings within the yard. If you are or have a train enthusiast in the family it is worth stopping at.

Here is the description from the Union Pacific website:

Union Pacific Railroad's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, is the largest railroad classification yard in the world. This massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles. Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars. Of those, 3,000 are sorted daily in the yard's eastward and westward yards, nicknamed "hump" yards. Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 feet for those heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.

Hiking the Catamount Trail near Green Mt Falls

The first morning we were there Lynn wanted to go on a little hike. Supposely an easy enough hike for a 4.5 year old to handle. So we say "sure". Hahaha. Holy smokes, I didn't know if this 29 year old was going to make it. It was only about a mile up to the falls but it was steep. It wasn't so much the physical strain, my lungs were burning. I had not aclamated to the thin air of 7800+ feet above sea level yet. I kept telling myself "this is great excerise, this is great excerise." We made it and it was a great hike. Love being outside.

The Cog Railway

In 2007 and 2008 we drove up to the top of Pikes Peak so this time we decided to experience the Cog Railway up to 14,000 ft. It was a nice relaxing way to travel up a mountain. Beautiful scenery. Ryan enjoyed riding a train. There was not as much snow at the top as I thought there would be this time of year but it was -10 windchill with very high winds. BBBRRRRR! It was awesome weather at the base of the mountain, 75 degrees. So we walked around a cute historic town, Manitou Springs. This is where Donna found the chaps for Ryan.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out at Lynn and Michael's house. We celebrated Colt's 1st birthday even though it isn't until May 1. We wanted to see him open his gifts. He was on the verge of walking so that was fun to watch. Brings back memories of Ryan learning to walk.

We also took Ryan to his first wave pool. He wasn't too impressed. He would much rather swim in calm water. He took a couple BIG gulps of water in the wave pool. He loved the lazy river. It had a strong current so we just moved right along.

Sandhill Cranes
On the way too and from Colorado we marveled at a magnificent sight. Hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes along the Platte River in central Nebraska. I have never seen anything like it. The birds were on migration from the southern TX area to as far north as Canada. During their migration they make a six week stop in NE. During the day they feed in the cornfields then at night they fly back to the river. The fields were FULL of these big birds. Here is a nice article about the Sandhill Crane migration through NE if you are interested.

**This is not my photo** Taken from the internet. The next are mine.

We had a wonderful trip. Can't wait to go back in July.

Ben was in TX wild boar hunting while we were in CO. I have to ask my dad if he has photos that I can post from their trip.