All packed up and ready to go! 

The girls are ready and excited to roll! Everyone has their blankets and their toys! Remember this picture towards the end.

Momma has her coffee and the girls are getting a little impatient because dad is taking so many pictures.  Let’s get outta here!

We made it exactly 37.8 miles before we were forced to make our first stop.

This is the view from our first stop.  We’re south of Castle Rock.  I told the wife we should just build a house on this corner.

Here’s why we had to make our first stop.  Changing a poopy diaper on her lap is a pretty veteran move by the wife.  

And we’re back on the road and roaring through the Springs.  The wife and I both think that’s Pike’s Peak in the background, but we also admit we don’t know our Colorado peaks as well as we should for living here the past 9 years.

The past week’s storm must have been a bit heavier to the south.  I always love driving when there’s snow on the ground, but none on the roads.  This is south of Colorado Springs and it’s about 55 degrees outside.  Good road trip weather.

Some big windmills south of Pueblo, but the wind was surprisingly light.  The wife gets vertigo looking at stuff like this.  Big construction cranes do it too.  She’ll look at them and be like, “Whoa.”    

Colorado is really beautiful.  These are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  My best guess is this is Culebra Peak.  Again, we wish we knew our peaks better.

We’re on our way to our first stop, the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  This road looks like it goes to the middle of nowhere.  It feel like it too.  By the way, the girls are getting itchy to get out of the car.

Here’s the sign as we enter the park.  Lunch time can’t come quick enough for the girls.

This is the view of the sand dunes from the visitors center.  They’re the highest sand dunes in North America and the tallest dune is 750 feet.  They’re really weird because they look so out-of-place.  We were going to eat lunch at the visitors center, but we were told by the people with the badges we could eat there “as long as we could guarantee that we wouldn’t spill one crumb.” Um…you see we have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old with us, right?  Do you want us to pick the winning Powerball numbers for you too?  We get it.  We’ll leave and find somewhere else to eat, even though it’s a little windy and chilly outside.   

LOOK AT MY NEW COLORADO HAT!!!!!

We found a picnic area in the park, bundled up, and had lunch outside.  The cold never bothered me anyway! Everyone is happy!

Littles and I getting rid of some energy before we get into the car.  There are about 20 deer in this picture.  Can you see them?

Tiny is glad she got to eat.  

Bringing Littles’ bike along was a solid move.  Get rid of that energy from being cooped up in a car for hours!

“I can’t believe my eyes!”  That was Littles’ response to finding out we had a DVD player in our Honda Pilot.  We’ve owned the Pilot for about a year and have managed to keep the DVD player a secret until now.  Littles was getting pretty antsy with about an hour left to go.  “Frozen” took care of that.  She didn’t say two words the rest of the way.

Too bad I didn’t bring my board!  It didn’t matter, the season is finished here anyway.  A couple of years ago I rode Wolf Creek.  The snow was up to the bottom of the blue sign.    

Littles is still mesmerized by the fact she can watch a movie in the car.  I don’t exist to her right now, only Elsa and Anna do.  We’re waiting for mom to check into the time share.

Tiny is still in good spirits!

Everyone is happy to get out of the car!  Littles is 3, so she’s so happy to get out of the car that she’s grumpy.  3 year olds make tons of sense.

Here’s where we’ll call home for the next little while.  It’s not much to look at from the front…

…but the view from the back will do just fine!

Here’s a panoramic view.  Time to kick back and relax.