Colorado 2014 - Elitch Gardens

The Deering/Ginsberg clan all have season passes to Elitch Gardens in Downtown Denver. The whole time we lived there, Rebecca and I never went a single time. This trip, they offered us guest passes so we could all go together for a day. The kids had never been to an amusement park before, so this was a real treat for them. Sadly, we didn't bring our camera that day, but Jamie and Kristie we kind enough to send us the pictures they took on their phones.

Elitch's has two sides: a water park and an amusement park. We started the morning in the water park and went over to the rides after lunch. The kids haven't been to a water park since we went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg back in 2012. While not a huge water park, it had some great stuff for everyone. Besides the standard lazy river and wave pool, it had a pirate ship with slides for the littles, a spray house that certainly lived up to its name, a couple of slightly larger slides that our kids weren't big enough for and then several large tube-riding slides. Olivia and I went down a few of those together.

After a quick lunch at the car, we dashed back in and started on the rides. There is a fantastic area called Kiddieland that had a small roller coaster and a bunch of other rides. The kids were so excited to go on their first roller coaster! I stood out with Emma and Irene and watched them go around. Ezra seemed to lose his enthusiasm for it after the first turn. :)

 After the coaster, they found the rest of the rides. They particularly loved the planes and the motor cycles.

Emma absolutely loved the crazy bus.

While the younger kids were enjoying these rides, Olivia and I went and experienced the larger roller coasters. The first one we went on was an old-school wooden coaster. She really liked that one even though it was really rough. She liked going fast and all the turns. 

The second one was called the Boomerang and it actually starts you backwards and pulls you up a steep hill and then suddenly drops you down, through the loading area and then up through a couple of twisting loops and then up another hill. Then you do it backwards. She didn't like that one nearly as much. "I bit my tongue," she said.

The last one we did together was the Tower of Doom, which takes you up 200ft and drops you straight back down. She definitely didn't like that one. I was proud of her, tho. She chose them and followed through, only making a judgement after she had ridden them. There was one more coaster, called the Mind Eraser, that I wanted to do that she was, unfortunately, not tall enough to do, so Rebecca and I rode it just before the park closed. 

While Olivia and I were off doing the big coasters, the rest of the gang went on the Disaster Canyon rapids ride. We managed to find them just before they came down the rapids in front of us. :)

At the end of the day, the kids were wiped out, but had had a fantastic day. Thanks so much to the Deerings and Ginsbergs for sharing with us!