This past week we found a great take-a-break stop for those of you traveling I-25 through Colorado!
We were welcomed by a friendly greeter, and then viewed a 15 minute film that explains the mission of FotF to encourage today’s families. We then went through the many exhibits in the lobby, and our littles spent a little bit of time in the adorable kid’s theatre where they were showing a Veggie Tales movie that we hadn’t seen before – that was really nice as Vaughn and I could take the time to read the exhibits that interested us.
Next we headed downstairs where we spent quite a bit of time just exploring to figure out just what all was there – and it was a lot! Geared towards ages toddler to 10 (IMHO), there were several different rooms filled with everything from a toddlers jungle gym, a theatre showing different FotF films, a replica plane that the kids can climb through (and come out a secret passageway), a puppet theatre and stage where the kids can watch their own performances in a monitor (and more…), to my kids’ favorite –
Emma loved the 76 ft long slide!
the Bend-A-Go slide; a 27 ft tall, 76 ft long spiral slide that you ‘scream down’ (according to my 7 y.o,.) – even my older boys enjoyed the slide.
The basement kid’s area also features an old fashioned soda shop called Whit’s End. If you have listened to Adventures in Odyssey kids programs before, you will recognized Whit’s End as the location of many of the adventures.
Whit's End Soda Shop
It smelled heavenly and is a great place to eat lunch or have a snack!
After we tired the littles out downstairs, we headed up to the bookstore. One of our main reasons for stopping at FotF was to hopefully pick up a few more of their Radio Theatre Audio Adventures. We LOVE them for travel time!!! While we found that we already owned all the story CDs 😉 we did find a few new books that will be great for read aloud time. If you are interested in checking out the Radio Theatres, but cannot make it to FotF, you can still find them stocked at CBD.com (another company that makes radio dramas that are excellent, is Lamplighter Publishing)
We really appreciated the break to let the kids work off a little of the energy they build up while we travel, and to pick up a few more stories to enjoy on the road. Focus on the Family is a great stop – the employees were all clean cut, polite, helpful and friendly – the exhibits were all tastefully done – the kids areas are all clean, neat, and well-kept. We enjoyed our morning at the Welcome Center very much, and will stop back anytime we are heading that way! It is an excellent place to visit!