Family Travel

Check-out oodles of adventures in Colorado including where to find the best family travel getaways & Denver kid friendly activities.

Events: Easter Egg Hunts Galore & Star Gazing!

Easter Egg Hunts March 31 – Easter at Copper Mountain. EGGstreme youngsters 7-11 years old are invited to participate in the annual Center Village Egg Hunt at 10 a.m. featuring a whopping 50,000 eggs. Big “kids” can hunt for special “Copper Eggs” hidden on the mountain, while little bitty peeps have their very own hunt around Copper’s Climbing Wall at 11 a.m. The event also features photo ops with the Easter Bunny at West Lake in Center Village, tons of egg-cellent prizes, and a noon egg decorating party with all of the leftover treasure from the hunts. Children’s Museum of Denver March 30: The annual Spring Festival features the “Bunny Trail EggVenture” with indoor and outdoor activities, animals from the Urban Farm, story times with the Big Bunny, arts and craft station...

Welcome to SpRinG BrEaK, 2013 Edition

Late(ish) nights, unkempt rooms, uncontrollable raucous, random stickers clinging to the floor, leftover pizza, evaporated Lucky Charms (minus the marshmallowy yummies) crispfused to the table and a never ending pile of seriously dirty laundry. Still sounds like college, doesn’t it? I know what you’re thinking – too many charms in my bowl, but hear me out.

Events: St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Easter Egg Hunt Round-up and more!

 Denver’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  On March 16, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in (green) style by heading downtown to LoDo between Speer Boulevard, 20th Street, Wewatta Street and the alley between Market and Larimer Streets. The parade starts at 10 a.m. and packs the sidewalks of Blake Street with green-wearing revelers, as well as a myriad of other St. Patty’s Day apparel to celebrate the Irish. denverstpatricksdayparade.com ArenaCross. Air! Danger! It’s what makes Arenacross the premier indoor, off-road motorcycle racing championship. March 15-17 this event at the Denver Coliseum will  give  fans the on-track feel of horsepower and gravity. Fans will be treated to an exciting new competitive format in 2013 with a pair of high-octane 12-lap Main Events during each night of racing on the ...

Choose Your Own Denver Adventure – Local Ideas for Spring Break 2013

The budding of life brings a fresh, new beginning – a soliloquy of nature resounding the promise of hope and new life. I absolutely love spring break in Colorado…a glimpse of what is to come, interrupted briefly by the grand finale of heavy, wet spring snowstorms, culminating just in time to let our hearts fill with joy at the arrival of gorgeous Colorado summer weather.  Springtime in the Rockies is a sight to behold, and by far my favorite season of the year!

No-excuse guide for outdoor fun: Family-friendly deals and events!

I was born and raised in Canada where winter sports are a way of life. My earliest memories are freezing on subzero chairlifts and flooding our garden to make an ice-skating rink. My parents even met when they were on the same curling team. If that isn’t a Canuck love story, I don’t know what is. When I married an American, we spent our first Christmas in Calgary. My family gifted The Husband with hockey skates and the implicit instructions that any of our future half-breeds should be born on the blade. And they have been. Between skating, skiing, sledding and snowshoeing, we go full-throttle year-round. But here is what surprises me: Though many Coloradans are lovers of the outdoors, so many families with younger kids hunker down for winter. My friends cite a number of reasons...

Events: Family Room Tour, Totspot Sunday, Outdoor Divas and More

Award-winning children’s musician at the Denver Public Library.  On March 9, award-winning musician and author Jim Gill is bringing his Family Room Tour to the Denver Public Library at 2 p.m. He will strum energetic rhythms on his banjo while everyone claps, sings, dances and even sneezes along to the silly and inspiring musical games that he creates. This interactive concert is free to the public and suitable for kids birth to three years old.   denverlibrary.org; Denver Central Library, B2 Conference Center, Broadway and 14th. Totspot Sunday at the Denver Art Museum. March 10, 10 a.m.–noon. Calling all families with little ones! Join the museum for Totspot Sunday, where you are invited to participate in special programming on the second Sunday of every month! In collaboration with Buntpo...

Friday Night Lights: Ullr Nights at Snowmass

We take our children’s school seriously, yes we do. While we’re not above giving our kids a “powder day” every once in a while, we try not to take them out of school too often. So it was out of character when we picked them up early on a Friday afternoon to drive to Snowmass. You see, we live on the Western Slope, so neither traffic nor distance was an issue. We just wanted to get there. We wanted to experience Ullr Nights. Ullr Nights Ullr is the Norse god of snow and winter, and each Friday night through the end of March, Snowmass celebrates snow and winter with Ullr Nights. From the Vikings who roam about the new Elk Camp Lodge and provide a backdrop of flame to the evening fire show, to the extensive smorgasbord-like feast available in the restaurant, Ullr Nights has a fun Scandinavian...

Events: Family Magic Festival, Free Concerts and More!

The Ski Joring & Crystal Carnival, Leadville (March 1 – 3). Ski joring is a competition where a horse and rider pull a skier at a fast pace through a course that features gates, jumps and rings. The skier is timed through the course, and penalties are assessed by missing gates or jumps, and by missing or dropping any of the rings. Additional activities include a children’s parade, Nordic and winter mountain bike races and more. YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Family Magic Festival. On March 1-3, family members will witness and learn amazing magic tricks through demonstrations and instruction.  Take a peek inside a real magician’s bag and learn tips and trick for your own magic show.  Other activities include swimming, roller skating and crafts. All inclusive rates include 5 meals, activ...

Spring Break Ski Deals

I am always looking for a deal and my kids don’t often get to return from Spring Break with a fantastical tale about where they go to go on Spring Break. There are some amazing deals right here in Colorado for ski vacations! Vail Vail has some amazing things you can do beyond skiing/boarding. You can check out the amazing moves from some of the best snowboarders in the world at the Burton US Snowboarding Championships. They will also have several bands and other fun things to do Feb 25th – March 2. (OK, so that’s BEFORE spring break – but still fun!) Keystone Keystone still offers the kids ski free promotion. Where if you stay two nights or more at one of their resorts, your kids can stay and ski free.They also have a lot of other family/kid friend events and fun th...

Events: Mammoth and Mastodons, Colorado Garden & Home Show & More

Colorado Garden & Home Show. Sure, we’re in the throes of winter but nothing says “hello spring!” like the Colorado Garden & Home Show. An impressive 400,000 square feet of the Colorado Convention Center will transform into a virtual marketplace of garden and home improvement ideas Feb. 9 – 17, 2013. More than 600 companies from 25 states and Canada will introduce new technologies and trends in landscaping, gardening, energy-efficient heating and cooling products, window treatments, siding, flooring, lighting, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, patio furniture, gutters, sound systems, storage systems, greenhouses, decks, spas and more. Kids 12 and under are free.  Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age. On Feb. 15, return to the Ice Age at the Denver Museum of Nature & Scien...

Events: Children’s Museum Ballet, No Dogs Allowed & More!

Colorado Ballet at the Children’s Museum of Denver. Colorado Ballet dancers will perform short excerpts from classic ballets like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker at the Children’s Museum of Denver on Feb. 10, 2013. Children will learn the fundamentals of ballet, how stories were translated into dance, the use of pointe shoes and tutus, and men’s roles in dance. Activities included with Museum admission and goes from 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. http://mychildsmuseum.org No Dogs Allowed at the Arvada Center.  From Feb. 7 – April 13. Leaving the Bronx for a day at the lake is a rare treat for Iris and her close-knit extended family. Despite Papi’s instructions to pack light, Mami brings enough food for a week and Iris sneaks in the family dog – after all El Exig...

Denver’s kid-friendly, sophisticated activities for the whole family

Grumpy, bored children rank right up there with obnoxious in-laws and ex-lovers as the worst companions with whom to grab a drink or slice of pizza. And in the case of kids, they don’t even have to be yours to ruin a potentially fun evening on the town. We take our kids with us everywhere in Colorado, but engineering kids’ activities is about more than just giving them something to grab onto and pummel into submission. The best casual family outings are the ones you want to repeat, and the secret lies in keeping parents just as happy as the little ones. It’s why few parents will jump at the chance to revisit Chuck E. Cheese or the Children’s Museum, “Disney on Ice” or the latest Pixar cash cow, a few weeks after their last visit. So, in the spirit of ...