Woodland Park - 1st Camping Trip of the Season

Camping in Woodland Park, CO
We thought it would be fitting to celebrate the opening of camping season for our family at the same place we had our last trip of last summer.  Woodland Park.  Our last trip of the season last year was mid October and we got a foot of snow a week and a half later!!! Woodland Park is near Colorado Springs, has a very low elevation compared to most of our camping so we could count on the weather being pretty decent.
Funny thing about weather: we've been in the high 70s and 80s recently (very unusual for April) and this weekend the temperature plummeted on us!!! Never fear, it hasn't stopped us before, so off we went.

We "kidnapped" Austin, Jadeyn's 5 year old cousin so he could have a buddy for this trip.  The boys had a BLAST!!!!

We took the RZR our through the forests and trees and rocks and sand!  

The boy of course got to drive!!

FISHING TIME!!!
The lake was full of adventurous exploring, dirt, mud, climbing, occasionally paying attention to the fishing pole...

We caught a little crayfish which always brings a lot of entertainment!  Jadeyn loves these things and quickly made it his play thing for about 40 minutes.  He kinda tortured it a bit, let it swim, caught it again, tried to force feed it a few worms and bugs!  Austin wouldn't have anything to do with it which was kinda funny.

Dinner time is usually pretty entertaining with Jadeyn around, 

but together, these two really hammed it up!

The Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park was much better than we were expecting!!!  We all love learning about these amazing creatures and to hear the history and about the means of discovering their bones has always been fascinating.  We had a great tour guide who really animated the adventure for us.  I was so proud of my boy.  People in the tour group were not asking any questions and Jadeyn would quite often raise his have and ask the most in depth questions: When do the baby T=Rex's leave their mamas? How did they get the dinosaurs in this building?  How are the bones sticking together?

BIRTHDAY BOY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JADEYN!!!!

Jadeyn is FOUR YEARS OLD!!!!!
To celebrate his big day we took our traditional birthday trip to the Denver Zoo where Shawn, Steph, Austin and Chloe joined us for the festivities.

Here is the required (and much enjoyed) "hippo" picture! It's kinda like the Lion drinking fountain at Hogle Zoo for those of you who may remember that one. No matter how many times you have been to the zoo, you have to have your picture taken on the Denver Hippo or the Hogle Lion! :)

The kids ran around like crazy ones all over the zoo. They would run ahead and "take cover" behind bushes or walls to surprise us! So, on a day that was supposed to have threatened snow and rain, the morning was spectacular!! The sun was shining, we got to take our jackets off. The animals were active enjoying the sun. It was perfect. Once noon hit, so did the clouds and the wind. Were glad to have had an early start to enjoy a beautiful April birthday.

The cake!!!! Since Kevin and I absolutely love to cook and baking is even better, we enjoy the annual tradition of making Jadeyn's cake. I wasn't sure we could top last year's shark cake, but we tried! It took, well, about three hours due to only having one cake pan to cook two layers and experimenting with the fondant, etc. Star Wars was the theme of course and Jadeyn was right in the middle of it helping with the preparations. He was such a sweetie telling us several times that he loved us and thank you for making such a nice cake!! As a finishing touch, I made Ewok cupcakes!!!

I made a birthday banner for Jadeyn to use for all birthdays to come!

Jadeyn truly understood presents this year as well as surprises. He accidentally came across a few of his presents early and then promptly told us that he doesn't know what he is getting for his birthday, he forgot what he is getting because its a surprise. For example, he followed Kevin down to the basement and saw his new bike: "Thanks Dad, Thanks for getting me a bike for my birthday!" When we told him it was supposed to be a surprise, he said "I don't know what I'll get for my birthday, I hope I get a bike, but I don't know!"

He loved all the Star Wars, Cars and Transformer gifts!!!!! And his bike, well he was so excited! He and his cousins headed out to their back yard and raced around the patio. He got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was just so strange to see him on a bike, its like he grew a couple years in just a few minutes.




We spent the night at Shawn and Stephanie's and succeeded in making their house look like a tornado hit it with how much fun the kids had! Jennifer and her family were hoping to come, but snow on I-70 prevented them from coming. I could just imagine what the house would have looked like with five more boys!!! :)





















Such a fun time! Then we topped it off with an outing to Bass Pro Shop and lunch at the Olive Garden. All three kids nearly fell asleep at their plates!!! THAT'S a way to celebrate!