Stef's Visit, round 2 (part 2)

Friday, we started of the morning with a trip to Belleview Park. I had just heard of this park from some people in my ward so after lazily getting ready for the day, we headed out. We came here because we were told there was a small train ride and petting zoo, for cheap.
It was just a cute electric train with a cute old man as the conductor. We bought our tickets and went for a ride.

Ellie's first train ride.

Here's one of the few pictures of me. Usually because I am the camera woman.

Ellie and mommy on the train.

She had such a great time pointing out everything as we went by, waving at everyone we passed, and saying "choo choo" each time she thought about it. It was a short ride, I'm sure not even 5 minutes but that was good enough.

Right next to the train was a small barn. As you enter, there were some pets in their cages you could look at before entering the petting zoo. Of course they give you the warnings about the goats and making sure the kids aren't too loud or chasing the animals. And be sure to wash your hands after.

Ellie made all the animal noises as we walked up to each one. She wasn't afraid to pet a single animal, which sometimes can be scary with ducks and chickens around. 

She loved this sheep.

They had one of the softest sheep I had ever felt. Actually, the helper told us they use to call it a "geep". The helper told us this because when it walked over to us, I said "Ellie, come look at this goat" cause I only saw the head and face. Stef said, "That's not a goat." That's when I looked at the rest of it and realized it was a sheep. The face and head looked like a goat's but the body was definitely sheep and the wool was super soft.

Nice cow (well, calf).

Look carefully at the picture below of the ducks. The white ducklings have tufts of down feathers on their hands. The helpers at the zoo said they will keep these or rather as real feather grow in these will be replaced by regular feathers as well. I knew there were chickens with crazy "hair" but apparently there are ducks as well. 

Swimming ducks.

This little goat was hungry. Can you tell?

We headed home for lunch and naps before heading out on our next adventure. The last time Stef was here, we drove up to Buffalo Bill's grave too late and we barely got to see anything and she wanted to go back. We walked around the grave and the gift shop and looked out across the plains from the hillside.  

How... do you do?

Our plans had them been to meet Jake in Golden with some friends to have dinner and go to Music and Movies in the Park again (they were showing Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader) but after driving down the hill and into town, it started to rain. There was a good chance it stopped before the show even got under way but with a small child, we thought better to be safe than sorry. So we headed back to Denver to meet Jake and our friends for dinner at the Cherry Cricker. Ellie and I shared the appetizer platter; chicken strips, fried mac and cheese, cheese sticks, etc. Then back to our house for games, talking, and a little "Better Off Ted."

Earlier in the week, the Colorado Wattersons had invited us to a family lunch at one of kid's house in Colorado Springs. Stef was ok with that so we went. They are always good company and Ellie loves playing with the kids. Nya was so nice to play with Ellie and gift her some dress up clothes and a Tinkerbell purse.
Kara told us about a hike nearby so we headed off there before driving to Manitou Springs.

Starting our hike up Helen Hunt Falls.

In case you didn't know, Ellie is a big girl now and wanted to do half of the hike herself. The other half, she only wanted mommy to carry her. Yeah for mommy.

When we first arrived, people (of other ethicities) were down playing in the water. Apparently they ignored or couldn't read the sign that said "Keep out of water." This water feeds the Colorado Springs water supply. Ellie was a little upset that after we told her she could play in the water (before we saw the signs), we couldn't after all.

What a cute family pic.

Girls picture

 Then we headed into Manitou Springs to walk around and look at the shops. This time the entire arcade area was open and in full swing. Some nice people let Ellie snag a ride on the extra horse.

After a diaper blow out and some more window shopping, we started back for home.  We stopped in Castle Rock for some dinner and to buy diapers (apparently 3 isn't enough for half a day's trip). I had seen Black Eyed Pea Restaurant and so we tried it.  It was pretty good food, or we were really hungry. It was probably a good mixture of both considering most of us ate less than half of the main dish.

Stef flew home right after church the next day. It was a short visit, but we had lots of fun for such a low key trip. We love having visitors here (have I mentioned that before?).