Fort Collins Adventure (day one)

I threw it out into the universe a few months ago that I wanted to go to Fort Collins some time this summer. I also wanted to go to several other places but because Summer is Nathan's busiest time of the year at work with traveling and such I figured we wouldn't be able to go any where. This is fine with me because it is just one of those things we can't get around and it makes traveling during the school year just that much more fun for us. :)

Well, Nathan surprised us all by telling me on Thursday that we are going on a trip and to have the van packed. I did, and on Friday night we headed to Fort Collins, a total suprise to me since I thought we were going camping! Hahaha. We stayed at the beautiful Hilton downtown and when we got there, my man had an entire itinerary planned and printed! He loves schedules almost as much as me! :)
So... Here goes our Saturday Morning:

We went to the Discovery Science Museum and learned all about the pioneers and went upstairs to check out the Dinosaur exhibits and the energy exhibits. Here are a few highlights...

click to make larger

Then we went to Noodles and Co for lunch. I haven't been there since Hilary took me there almost 6 years ago! Oh, and I really liked it!

Then we followed a bunch of crazily dressed bikers to the Tour de Fat at New Belgium. Apparently Fort Collins has this trade your car for a bike program to promote bike usage in their city. Since it is a college town you can probably guess what some people were dressed like...I had to cover the kids eyes only once! Haha. They had food and music and it was an all around good time!

We then went to the Campus and checked it out...Booo! Go Buffs not Rams! Haha.
They had their annual flowers in bloom where you could check out the beautiful colors and pick which ones you wanted to plant yourself. The perfumes were beautiful from all of the flowers there and to see the vibrant colors in the seas of flowers was amazing.
On our way back to the van we saw this bear of a dog. If you have heard Bridget scream at Abby (Keegan's dog), this scream was nothing compared to that. The dog looked like it was going to cry. It was pretty funny.
After that horrific scare we went and walked through a few little bike trails. I am SOOOO glad we brought the single stroller because Bridget wanted to walk the entire time and it would have been more of a hassle than a help.

We went to IHOP for dinner since kids eat free and headed back to the hotel for some hot tub fun. The pool water was a little cold, but that didn't bother the kids.
We quickly ran up to our room and took bubble baths and finished our evening with Fudge Striped Cookies and Hot Chocolate.
What a fun day and because our hotel was free our total cost for day one was $25.89!