T.W.G. :: vol 25 :: Tiger Run Resort

KS-WA2014
 
Tiger Run Resort :: Breckenridge, CO

Chapter 1 : The Drive
We drove over 600 miles to get from Wichita to Breckenridge, CO.  It took us about 9.5hrs to do it, including all of our stops, and we got stuck in some traffic going through Denver and then there was a bunch of construction after that, so the last 90 minutes took about twice as long.  Bleck!  But we made it, and even though both my dad and I feel a little crippled being in the car that long, we are both glad we are here!  Trees!  Mountains!  Ahhhhhhhhh!
The kids did great, we only heard "Are we there yet?" and "How much longer?" 16 times.  Not too bad for getting them up around 6 and plopping them in the car.

The ride was fairly uneventful!  Dad and I both made sure that we did NOT miss I-70, like we did a couple years ago....and we all know how that turned out....record breaking hot temps, scenic road, major fires, fuel pump dies, tow trucks down very dusty roads, a 2 night stay over in Limon....basically a bad start to our trip.  We were determined NOT to jinks ourselves again!

We started up a new game of The License Plate game, but it became really hard to play when we were the only ones on the road!!!

   Although we did have a few moments of panic when a warning light came on in the truck that was a red trailer crossed out.  I checked the manual to find out what it meants and that particular symbol was not in it.  So, I called the dodge dealership who finally had a technician tell them that it meant my trailer brake wasn't working and that I needed to get to a dealer to get it checked out.  Before calling the nearest dealership, I called Royal and asked him what it meant.  He told me to pull over, pull out the trailer plug, plug it back in, restart the truck and I'd be good.  The light just meant that the plug had come loose.  Hallelujia for easy fixes!  It would of been really embarrassing to pull into a service center with my car loaded with kids and animals (more on that later) and a 28ft trailer and them be all like, "Uh....try plugging it in."  So, with our red crossed out trailer problem fixed we were back on our way and crossed into "Colorful Colorado"

Dad and I purposefully stopped and got gas 10 miles before we got to Limon because we like to pretend that city doesn't exist.  And we figured if we stopped there, something would blow up, or a windshield wiper would fly off, or the A/C would go out, or we'd get a flat tire, or something that would happen that would force us to stay there, and well, we weren't having it.  A much more beautiful part of Colorado was calling our names!

Jayden and I spent a bunch of time staring out the window at this cloud.  It kept changing shape as we were driving along.

It was way better than staring out the windows on the other side of the truck where a big storm was brewing :)


Chapter 2 : Animals
Not only do we have Sam, the best traveling dog around, with us, but we also have Jayden's hamster, Scurry.  Royal still has not warmed up to the animal and wasn't willing to clean his cage (he'd have to touch him) and feed him (unless he was feeding him to Scooter), so we got a little travel box for Scurry to ride in in the car.  And so far, he seems to have done just fine.  He burrows himself a cave and pops his head up when we stop.  :)

Chapter 3 : The Campground
This is one NICE campground.  The sites are all really nice, there is a clubhouse with an indoor pool and hot tubs, a rec room with video games, a fitness center, tennis courts, a basketball court, big playground, and a gravel trail alongside the river to take a walk.  All the campground roads are paved, so it's great for riding your bikes around too.  And there are mountains and trees everywhere you look! 

As soon as we pulled in and got the trailer unhooked and set up, we took the kids to the pool.

Chapter 4 : Breckenridge Fun Park
The whole reason for driving so far the first day was to specifically get to Breckenridge in order to stay 2 nights, so that we could spend an entire day up on Breckenridge.  I've never been snow skiing here, but let me tell you their Summer Fun Park is awesome.  We got the day passes so we could do as many rides as we wanted and I'm pretty sure those passes paid for themselves in the first hour.
We parked down at the base of the mountain and rode the Gondola up to Peak 8.

First up on the kid's list were the alpine slides so we go straight on a chair lift to the top of the slides.

View from the chair!

Willow isn't quite old enough to get to ride by herself, so her and I were a team for the day, but after the 2nd trip down I was no longer helping her with the accelerator/brake handle, she did all the speed control and only managed to almost flip us once when we were racing Jayden down the hill.  :)

Willow and I seemed to spend some time at the bottom waiting for Papa and Jayden to make it down.  Jayden 3 out of 5 times got stuck behind a really slow girl and ended up taking forever to get down.  By the end of the day he was getting a little frustrated and started yelling at the girl in front of him, "Can't you go any faster?" "Just push the lever forward, you won't flip over!"  hahaha

Jayden and Papa stuck in a train behind a very timid and slow girl.....Not. Happy.  (Either of them. ha!) 

Willow and I even spotted a fox and 2 kits (one of the kits had a squirrel in it's mouth) on one of our rides up the chair lift!

Jayden, much to my dismay, really wants to be all independent.  He keeps taking the dog for walks, by himself.  Taking off on his bike and making friends in the park, by himself.  And then up on the mountain, he wanted to ride up in the chair lift all. by. himself.  He's breaking my #1 rule of No Growing Up.

We then did a quick gem panning on our way to the coaster ride and the kids got to keep their bags of beautiful rocks and gems.  I'm sure Royal will help us identify them when we see him next month.  :)

The coaster ride was pretty darn fun.  Once again you get to control how fast you go down, but since it's set up like a roller coaster there's no flipping off the track so you can go super fast down to the bottom.  It was awesome and we did this one a whole bunch of times.  Jayden rode once with Papa and then thanks to his tall dad, he met the height and age requirements and could ride by himself.

We also spent some time over at the bungee trampoline.

Both kids were a little timid the first time around, but soon Jayden figured out how to do a flip, and Papa and I figured out who would launch kids the highest.

Way, way, way high.

and coming down!

The last thing we did on our way back down the mountain was stop by the maze.  You had to take this ticket in with you and find the letters M-A-Z-E and then find the finish.

It was a super fun day.  We all got sunburned and as soon as we got back to the park I took the kids over to the pool and then we showered up and got ready to hit the road in the morning to get just a little bit closer to Washington!