The Imperial Casino Hotel Cripple Creek

The adventure begins! We closed up the house, packed the computer, loaded the car and headed to Colorado Springs. After running a few errands, we took Skippy to a park so that he could run and play and we could spend some quality time with the little guy. We went to dinner and then ...

... there really weren't fish in the lakes and streams, that it was only a historical reference to extinct creatures of the past. Thank goodness for their grandpa John who would take them out and use his skills to demonstrate that fish really existed. One day I decided the kids would catch fish no matter what. I took them to a catfish farm and they cast their lines. All three of the kids had ...

... are offered in the many specialty stores, restaurants, and bars. Snowmass features over 3,000 acres of terrain for both snowboarding and skiing and also has a rail yard and a superpipe. Guided nature tours by either ski or snowboard are offered for free. In ...

Today Frank stayed home to make us his famous pork chili. Takes hours of love and we were all grateful. Antonio went for another long marathon training run. Chuck, Hector & Diana went foraging for Jack In The Box, an Apple store and a double feature ;) "Couples Retreat" & "Whip It" both good and more importantly cheap. Only $6.50 and you know we did the 2 fer 1 cause we're geto(boys) like that. Made it back to home base in time to see Dollhouse and feast on dinner. Great day for all.

... yesterday an 'Emergency Half-Day' was declared so everyone could go home and tune up their gear for the first turns of the season. Call in sick, take a personal day, or just play hooky - but whatever you do just get up to Loveland and revel in the fact that Winter has officially arrived!

... up to the top. It's 19 miles from the base to the top and it was sorta like the drive up to Mt. Evans, minus the extremely narrow road and lack of guardrails! My palms were sweating from time to time and my heart raced at some points in the road where there was nothing, not even a guardrail that separated our car and a 10K+foot plunge to our death! The Smokey Mountains and Appalacian's don't have **** on the Rockies ...

With our van loaded, we traveled to Colorado Springs. Right before the border with Colorado we drove through a thunderstorm. It was something I've never experienced before. The kids were asleep, amazing!
We stayed in the building where Ted's work is. It has a little apartment with a little kitchen and bathroom area.
2 days later it was my birthday. We spent the day in an outdoor swimming pool with Amy and Ella. It was a lot ...

... move around this valley. Three popular ones go in three directions, but not too far. Their "freight" is human, gleefully paying the fare to take short rides to through majestic mountains. The narrow-gauge train starts at Antonito, in the southern part of the valley. It heads up in the South San Juan Mountains, over two high passes, and descends on the western side of the Continental Divide to Chama, New Mexico. The train takes a rest and ...

... off so we inched our way up to the front of the line which took about 45 minutes so we are now very late and will be landing in PHL when we should be departing for the return flight back to ATL. Once airborne for the 1+30 flight we proceeded with the inflight service and were kept very busy as everyone one were quite needy and ****** off due to the delay. Once on the ground at PHL there was no gate so this ...

... if you stay longer at the table you never win your money back. Having said that, I did win big on the slot machines again. When I say big, I mean I clawed back the $30 I'd lost earlier. I also had a dabble at the Cripple Creek poker table. I haven't played poker for ages and my rustiness showed. I managed to lose a few dollars and chuck away my only winning hand of the session by accident - DOH! Absolutely gutted, I blame the altitude, or maybe it was the ...