The Hyder Family: Denver Day 8

Bailey and his new prize

Yesterday was a weird day here in Colorado. It was much cooler than the other days we have had here and nothing went like we were really expecting. We started off in our morning bath and wet wrap, did a little school work, saw the doctors and had our lunch. A little after lunch, Dr. B and Dr. Elizabeth came in to look at Bailey's skin and they were so happy with his skin, they decided he could have the day off until the bedtime soak and wrap. As a prize for doing so well over the weekend and being faithful to his wraps and his skin, they brought in some big prizes for Bailey to pick through. He picked a remote control car. He was so excited...he had to open it immediately and play awhile.

Since we had the afternoon off, I let him choose what we did. He was dying to go to the Buffalo Bill museum and grave up at Lookout Moutain, so we took off in search of an adventure.

working our way out of town..bailey was snapping pics

We headed out on 70 towards the west and asceded into the mountains not too far out of town. We quickly found the exit onto the winding roads up into the hills and went to the Lookout Mountain overlook and Nature Center (which was closed on Monday...of course).

Working our way up into the MTNS

Nature Center at Lookout Mtn.

Homeschool moment..we have been talking about faulting, folding, layers, etc.

We looked around and snapped a few pictures from high atop the mountain, then wound around to the area where Buffalo Bill is buried. The spot for his grave is amazing, with views for miles from high atop the mountains. I can see why he requested that he be laid to rest there. It was amazing. Denver looked like just a little blot.

There at the gravesite is the museum and gift shop with café. We enjoyed some lunch in the café. They conveniently had veggie burgers and grilled chicken with plain ruffle chips. I think they must have known we were coming. We both finished it off while watching out the window with the most spectacular view. The gift shop there at the museum had Buffalo Bill hats and Bailey fell in love with them. He just had to have one of course.

Checking out Buffalo Bill's gravesite

Buffalo Bill and his wife are buried under the rock

This makes me laugh everytime

In the café we enjoyed lunch and a new hat :)

He had to hold the hat the whole time

still holding the hat!

yep...still holding

The wind was about 60mph~yep...still holding

Playing with the camera

Bailey took pics out his window as we drove into the Mtns

After the lunch, we heard of a place with natural hot springs, so we took off to see if we could find them. They are in a tiny mining town of Idaho Springs.

Idaho Springs, CO gold mine

This was the cutest little town. Exactly what I imagine when I think of "old Colorado". The tiny main street and cute miner homes were adoreable. I snapped a few pics of the city hall, downtown, and the old gold mine. We also enjoyed the little visitors center that had a tiny museum inside of local artifacts. Lots of beautiful gems (and of course GOLD) have been found in the hills there.

Cute little main street in Idaho Springs

City Hall

Miner St. (notice the waterfall behind it)

Just as we found the hot springs, which actually has a small hotel/motel built around it, we turned in and looked up into the mountains and snow was coming down! It was a little blizzard! Since we had traveled over 30 miles through the mountain, we decided it might be time to head back towards Denver before we were stuck for the night. Everything was covered in just a matter of minutes. Down in Denver it was only 54 degrees, but the mountains were around 34 and we weren't really that high up. I can't imagine if we had went into the "big" mountains.

We drove as fast as we could out of the mountains and made it back into Denver within just a few minutes. The snow followed us most of the way until we descended the mountain just outside of town. By this point, it was already supper time so we headed to the RMH to eat a little dinner.

A sweet group of people had made chili and veggie pizzas (using my favorite pampered chef recipe!) YUMM...it was good and we were able to go play outside on the play equipment before heading back to the hospital for our evening bath and wet wrap. It was a great day and we made lots of fun memories on our adventure.
Love to everyone!
Julie