It costs how much?!?!?!?

When I was younger and people of an "older generation" would go on about how things were cheaper "back in the day" my eyes would go into perma-roll and my mind would begin to wander...like to that scene in Top Gun where they are all playing volleyball....mmmm, Iceman....mmmm.....no shirts...mmmm. **I digress**

So let me just preface this by saying if you keep rolling your eyes like that they will stay that way...



Man, things were cheaper back in the day, weren't they?



I am in the midst of planning our family vacation and holy crap, things are expensive. If all goes according to plan we will be going to Colorado Springs the first week of June. I am getting all the details ironed out and doing a lot of research so we are not surprised by prices when we get there. I want to be prepared so it is not all "hey kids, sleeping in the car is F-U-N!!" We are planning on doing all the good tourist stuff like Seven Falls, Royal Gorge, Garden of the Gods, and most importantly to some, the North Pole themed amusement park. I also wanted to take the family on the cog train up to the summit of Pike's Peak. I went in college with a friend and loved the scenery and the view. And Natalie wants to ride a train! So I was looking into it and do you have any idea how much it costs to ride a basic old train up a mountain? $30...per person!!! For that much I expect an in-ride meal, with desert. And not a crappy desert like a cookie with one chocolate chip. I am talking cheese cake piled with syrupy cherries. And maybe a light chocolate drizzle. I don't ask for much, really.
I haven't decided yet if we are going to spring for the tickets or not. If we do we are going to have to cut out something else, and I'm not sure what that would be. I wouldn't mind cutting out the North Pole, but I know Nat will get a kick out of it, and it would be kind of selfish to plan the whole vacation without any input from the other travelers. We are already not going to tour the cave because someone might get scared down there, or worse fall into one of those bottomless pits. See, I'm making sacrifices too!
So all of the prices are a little daunting to me. Not to mention the $4-a-gallon gas prices that will probably be hitting about the time we are leaving. But really, in the end it will be worth it. Some of my most favorite memories from being a kid are from our annual summer vacations. I want to create those kind of memories for my kids too. When Natalie is 28 and has a family of her own I want her to be able to say, "Hey, remember that vacation we took to Colorado? We had so much fun listening to Dad bitch about driving and Mom bitch about the price of everything and then we just had to sit in our car and look at the mountain because we couldn't afford to actually go up it and Vanessa didn't sleep at all because she wasn't in her own crib so she screamed and we were all tired and I threw so many tantrums you thought about leaving me and pretending you didn't remember that you had two kids when you went and the whole ride home we all kept asking how much longer till we could get out of the stupid car because we were restless and Mom was pregnant and getting car sick."
Ahhh! Good times!!! I sure am excited!!!