Go Wild in Colorado Springs

by Annette BenedettiMay 17, 2019

If you’ve got a family who craves equal parts nature and culture, look no further than Colorado Springs. From hiking, biking and rafting at the edge of the Rockies to the vibrant arts and culture scene to dining on decadent dishes, this is your destination for an idyllic family vacation. Grab your sunscreen and hiking boots and get ready for a family adventure. We’ve put together your vacation guide to Colorado Springs below.

photo: via visit COS

Play Outside

Colorado Springs is a mountain town, located at the base of Pikes Peak and sees 243 sunny days-per-year. It has 7000 acres of open space to explore, 230 miles of bike trails, 160 miles of park trails, and 105 miles of urban trails, giving families plenty of room to get active in the wild.

Hike

Five of the most popular places to hike in Colorado Springs include Garden of the Gods Park, which offers paved and gravel trails that take your family through soaring red rock formations where they can catch stunning views of Pikes Peak. The Red Rock Canyon Open Space is home to a variety of trails that guide visitors along the red rock canyons and ridges. This area also provides astounding glimpses of Garden of the Gods. The nearby Cheyenne Mountain State Park is home to 2,700 prairie-to peak ecosystems on 20 miles of hiking and biking trails that will keep you in awe for hours on end. And for views of the city from the top of a mesa, Palmer Park is a 737-acre wildlife preserve with plenty of trails. Finally, Austin Bluffs Open Space offers easy to moderate hikes through fantastic red rock towers.

Get Wet & Wild

When the temps rise, families can cool off while getting a little dose of adrenaline on a rafting trip. The Arkansas River is where the fun is at. Arkansas River Tours offers families a variety of excursions through the calm and white-capped currents that fit all ages and abilities. Choose between beginner trips for timid rafters, intermediate options for adrenaline junkies, and multi-day adventures for those who just can’t get enough.

Soar & Explore

Nestled between Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak, the nearby Manitou Springs is a popular spot for visiting families. You’ll find adventures above and below ground at Cave of the Winds Mountain Park. For underground excitement go on a tour of the Grand Caverns where you crawl and climb through the darkness. Once you are above the ground go on the Wind Walker Challenge Course where you take on a three-story obstacle course that is a maze of steel beams, ropes and ladders on top of the canyon. Unforgettable!

photo: via visit COS

Museums, Zoos & More

Take your kids to the “Highest Zoo in America”! Located at an elevation of 6,800 feet, your kiddos can visit hundreds of wild and exotic animals like elephants, giraffes and bears at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings overlook Manitou Springs and offer your family a glimpse into the lives of the ancient Anasazi tribe whose members once lived there. During the summer months, you may even catch Native American dances and experience real world encounters.

There are several museums worth checking out while in Colorado Springs. The Ghost Town Museum is located two miles from downtown the museum is a turn-of-the-century-town that is in a completely enclosed environment in the old Midland Terminal Railroad facility. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and Penrose Heritage museum also provide families with plenty to look at. And, in early 2020 the nation’s only U.S. Olympic Museum & Hall of Fame will open near the downtown area giving kids an opportunity to experience the exhilaration of their favorite sports virtually!

photo: by Annette Benedetti

Dine

Colorado Springs is packed with incredible places to eat! Some favorites include Four by Brother Luck (the chef was featured on Top Chef!) where you can dine on Beef TarTare, Cactus Fries, and there’s even a tiny burger your kids will love. Streetcar 520 offers an internationally-inspired menu perfect for lunch and dinner. We suggest indulging in shared plates and trying the Shrimp Etouffee, Crispy Basil-Ricotta Fritters, and Shrimp & Crab Tempura Avocado. The kids can choose from a variety of burgers and there’s even mac & cheese.

Looking for one of the best breakfasts in town? Head to the Garden of the Gods Cafe. Your mouth with water for their house-made Banana Bread French Toast made with rum caramel sauce, Chantilly cream and fresh bananas. But the Mountain Man Hash isn’t to be overlooked and you can always get Avocado Toast to stay on the lighter side. Don’t forget to grab a cup of coffee at Story Coffee, a charming tiny house-turned-coffee shop that offers espresso drinks and pastries.

One of the most unique dining options you’ll definitely want to hit is Ivywild School. This unique location that was once an elementary school and is now home to several eateries and a market place where you can buy local goods and view art. It has outside seating and is perfect for a family meal.

photo: by Annette Benedetti

Stay

Located in the heart of Downtown Colorado Springs, The Mining Exchange is a Wyndham Grand Hotel & Spa offering families a charming boutique experience. This restored historic hotel provides guests with modern amenities that are both elegant and cozy. Built in 1902 the building was originally a stock exchange for local mining companies. Now you can spend the night in a well appointed room or suite where you experience a touch of luxury and a whole lot of much needed comfort after a day filled with adventure. Choose from a one or two bed room or one of their suites. Don’t forget to book a treatment at their spa after your hike. Rooms start at around $227 per night.

Colorado Springs is a dream for families who love getting wild in the outdoors. Get ready for an incredible adventure that will leave you feeling like you’ve truly experienced the best of the state has to offer.

—Annette Benedetti

4 Under-the-Radar Disney World Secrets Every Parent Should Know

By Sandy Fritzer

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

February 21, 2019

Photo: Courtesy of Steven Diaz via Disney Parks

Walt Disney World is a vacation destination that many children dream of visiting. The lure of castles, princesses, pirates and magic is strong for children—and even some adults! In recent years, Disney has added to the magic with Slinky Dogs, Mountain Banshees and Jedi Masters to give parents even more reasons to plan a Disney vacation for their children.

For some parents, a Disney vacation is a chance to enjoy their children’s delight in the magic. For others, it’s an opportunity to revisit their own childhood delights. However, for many parents a Disney vacation is a test of their patience—and the elasticity of their credit limit. If you fall into the latter category, the following suggestions may help make your Disney vacation a memorable one for the entire family.

While there are a few basic suggestions that all parents should heed—plan naps and down time for everyone, don’t over schedule smaller children, wear sunscreen and stay hydrated—there are some overlooked tips for giving your children the vacation of their dreams and still enjoying it yourself.

Skip the Lines

If the long waits for rides are what really saps your energy and enjoyment at Walt Disney World, travel during the off peak season. The parks all tend to be quieter in January and early February or in September. Take advantage and take in a week of Florida sunshine when the temperatures are as mild as the crowds. Also, be sure to take advantage of FastPass+ and choose your rides in advance through the My Disney Experience free mobile app 60 days in advance.

Use Disney’s Secret Ride Passes

Adults that are roller coaster enthusiasts traveling with small children can still get their adrenaline up on all their favorite coasters taking advantage of rider swap passes. Never heard of rider swap? Some folks refer to it as “baby swap” and it means just that. While your party enters the ride, one adult checks in with the cast member at the entry and is given a rider swap pass for remaining behind with the smaller guests who aren’t old enough or tall enough to ride.

The pass allows the adult to enter the ride with two or three members of their group through the fast pass lane at a later time. There are usually benches or seating areas in the vicinity of the ride exit for guests waiting with smaller children. This option eliminates the need for a guest to wait 45 minutes (or more) for their party and then an additional 45 for their own trip to Mars or ride on a banshee.

Spend Your Evenings at Epcot

When evening starts to fall and you’ve had just about enough of mermaids and mice, put the kids in a stroller and head over to Epcot. Having a hotel in the Epcot area where you can walk into the park is a welcomed perk if you can swing the cost. While the kids nap in the stroller, enjoy a tasty treat from any of the Lands around the world and an adult beverage. This gives adults some time to chat, stroll and enjoy the ambience while the little ones get much needed naps in their stroller.

And not to worry, if the kids don’t sleep there is still plenty for them to see and taste while confined to that stroller! And if they do fall asleep, just walk back to your Epcot area hotel and put them to bed!

Take the Shuttle to Disney Springs

Lastly, Walt Disney World has some fantastic restaurants and 99.5% of them are kid-friendly. Enjoy a truly good meal with kiddos in tow and no concerns about anyone judging you or them. If you are out of park passes (or patience), the newly renovated Disney Springs shopping and entertainment district has several famous eateries. If Disney Springs is just a little too hip for your tastes, check out the restaurants at other resorts. They all have specialty restaurants, food items and drink offerings that marry up with the resort theme.

Disney may be built for children, but it truly has matured and adapted to become a vacation destination for all ages.

Sandy Fritzer

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Daughter, sister with all brothers, wife and mom of four: two human and two furry. Disney nerd and Harry Potter fanatic.

5 Reasons I’ll Never Give Up My Kids’ Early Bedtimes

By Jamie Engelman

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

February 14, 2019

Photo: Oh Baby Consulting

If you’re struggling with sleep in your household your situation may drastically improve with one small, but critical change: an earlier bedtime.

Many of the parents I work with have children that are resisting bedtime, waking up frequently throughout the night and rising early in the morning. While my work with parents does a deep-dive into more than just schedule adjustments, ensuring that children are getting down to sleep at an appropriate time in the evening is an important piece of the puzzle.

So what time is bedtime, then? 99 percent of the time, it’s between 7 and 8 p.m in our house. While I fully agree that all children are different and some tend to sleep better with a slightly later bedtime, most children over the age of three months do best with a bedtime within this window. So, why is that?

Here are five benefits of an earlier bedtime.

1. It’s easier to put a child to bed before they become over-tired.

There is a natural dip in our circadian rhythm during this “after-dinner hour” and this is an optimal time to capitalize on the ease of putting children to bed before they get a “second wind”. Think about how tired you might feel early in the evening. You say to yourself, “I’m going to go to bed so early tonight!” But all of the sudden it’s 11 p.m. and you’re still on the couch scrolling through Instagram and watching reruns of Real Housewives and not really feeling all that tired. So, why is that?

It’s because you got your “second wind”—your body began to pump stimulating hormones into your system to keep you awake after you didn’t climb in bed after dinner. The same things happen with our children when we miss this optimal window. While it’s certainly easier to get children to fall asleep when these stimulating hormones aren’t running through out bodies, there are also several unattractive side-effects that overtired-ness brings: crankiness, tantrums, power struggles and behavior issues. Getting your child down before they reach this stage can help reduce bedtime stress enormously.

2. Earlier bedtimes help reduce night wake-ups and early-rising.

Being overtired can also lead to frequent night-waking and early rising. With more adrenaline and cortisol (stimulating hormones) and less melatonin (the sleepy hormone) pumping through your body, it is harder to not only fall asleep but also to stay asleep through the night. If your little one is up several times a night or rises before the sun, take a look at bedtime.

3. Early bedtimes provide more restorative sleep.

The most restorative period of sleep occurs before midnight. Humans sleep in cycles ranging from a lighter REM stage to deeper non-REM stages. The stuff we’re after, the really restorative sleep, comes during the non-REM stages. It is during these phases where our brains are replacing vital cells, repairing muscles and releasing growth hormones. Non-REM sleep occurs only at certain parts of the night regardless of what time we get into bed.

While kids who have schedules that are pushed later may still get the same number of hours as a child who goes to bed at 7:15 p.m., they’ll be getting much less of that wonderfully delicious, non-REM sleep than their early-to-bed counterparts. Putting your little one down earlier in the evening will ensure they get as much of that rich, good-quality sleep as possible.

4. Early bedtimes will help ensure you are meeting your child’s sleep needs.

Most children from infancy through adolescence need about 10t o12 hours of sleep per night. Oftentimes, children who go to bed later don’t actually sleep in much later than 7 to 8 a.m. simply due to circadian rhythm patterns. The ability to “sleep in” does not actually develop until later in childhood. Therefore, an early bedtime between 7 and 8 p.m. will ensure that your little one has all the time he needs to get plenty of quality sleep before they need to be up the next morning.

5. Early bedtimes mean a more relaxing and peaceful evening for you!

When you get your child to bed before 8 p.m., the night is yours! Catch up on your favorite TV show with your partner, take a relaxing bath or head to bed early yourself! Not only will your child be more well-rested, you will be too!

Jamie Engelman

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Jamie is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and offers personalized sleep solutions to exhausted families nationwide. With a background in child development and infant mental health, keeps up to date on the latest evolutions in the field which allow her to blend technical knowledge with empathy and compassion to tailor her support.

How to Do the Metro Richmond Zoo with Kids (in Just Two Hours)

by rtjamybondAugust 22, 2017

Yes, D.C.’s Smithsonian Zoo is free and awesome and if you haven’t paid a visit you must go (Pandas!). But if you’ve been there, done that, and you need a unique animal-loving fix, consider a visit to the Metro Richmond Zoo, one of the largest and most unique in our area that’s just a quick two-hour drive south of the city. With more than 2,000 animals spread across 70 acres of land, answering the call of the wild can feel a bit overwhelming. Here are five places to get started.

#1 The Feeding Giraffes
One feature that makes this zoo so popular and fun is the ample opportunity you’ll have to interact with a variety of animals. In the African Plains section, which features addax, impala, zebra, and kudu, along with storks, cranes, ostriches, cheetahs and elephants, you can actually feed the giraffes from a special platform. The zoo houses a herd of nine reticulated giraffe and they are all too happy to nibble some pre-purchased treats from your hand. You can also feed deer, goats, sheep, donkeys and antelope in the children’s farm area.

#2 Monkey Business
Primates are a favorite here and you’ll find rows of lemurs, marmosets, tamarins, New and Old World monkeys, as well as quite a few apes, including siamangs, orangutans, and chimpanzees. You can get up-close-and-personal (but maintain a modicum of safety) through a glass window with Farley and Zoe, two goofy orangutans.

#3 Birds of a Feather…
If birds are your thing, you’ll marvel at the Chilean flamingos and African penguins, and a walk-through aviary of ducks, pheasants, ibises, and spoonbills. The kids will love being able to enter the budgie exhibit and feed the brightly-colored budgerigars, aka parakeets, from feed sticks.

#4 Cats Steal the Show
Favor cute things with whiskers? You’ll enjoy the fact that Metro Richmond Zoo is a Cheetah Breeding Center and has gained worldwide attention for facilitating multiple births of adorable cheetah cubs.

#5 Hitch a Ride
Perhaps the ultimate interactive element at Metro Richmond Zoo is the newly added Treetop Zoofari zip line adventure, where you can zip from tree to tree like Tarzan and get a bird’s eye view of the animals. But if zip lining requires a little too much adrenaline for you, take advantage of the zoo’s Safari Sky Ride, which will give you a similar view, but from the comfort of a moving seat. Or if you prefer to stay closer to the ground, you can take the safari train for a special view of India and Chinese natives, such as blackbuck, mouflon, Himalayan tahr and takin. Impress your little ones by mentioning that the takin is considered a national treasure in China, much like the giant pandas.

Metro Richmond Zoo
8300 Beaver Bridge Rd. (Moseley, Va)
Open: Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
Cost: $17.25; kids ages 2-11/$11.25
804-739-5666
Online: metrorichmondzoo.com

Have you visited this zoo yet? Tell us about your favorite part in the comments below.

–Jamy Bond

Incredible Climbing Walls That Reach New Heights

by Gabby CullenMarch 3, 2017

Trampolines? Been there. Ride a bike down a steep hill? Done that. It’s clear your amateur adrenaline enthusiasts need more than the standard rush. To help you quench their thirst for thrills, we searched high and low for the coolest climbing walls we could find. From a quick DIY to a jaw-dropping outdoor design, flip through the slideshow to see 11 incredible climbing walls for kids.

The Ultimate DIY

For anyone who wants to build a wall on the fly, may we suggest checking out the brilliant setup over at Design for Mankind? Faced with an energetic three-year-old, Erin’s handy hubby whipped up a rock climbing wall without the actual “rocks,” and it was a smash hit. If you want to DIY your own version, Design for Mankind has the how-to.

photo: Erin Loechner via Design for Mankind

Editor’s note: While we adore these walls, we want to stress that all climbing should be done under a supervision of an adult. Happy climbing!

Would you put in a climbing wall for your kids? Tell us in a Comment below!

—Gabby Cullen

Zip Over To The New And Improved Griffith Park Playground

by rtelenawfMarch 11, 2015

The only thing better than a good playground is one that just got a shiny new makeover to become a great playground. Griffith Park Rec Center Playground in Los Feliz has always been a fantastic place for fenced-in-fun, but your little guys will go nuts for the refurb that includes a zip-line, climbing rocks with hidden friends and shade. Next time you’re in the neighborhood (on the way to the Zoo?) check out this new and improved kids stomping ground.

photo credit: Nicole Castanada

Zippity Zip-Line
This place is bursting with awesome park entertainment, but the big draw is the brand-new zip-line. Kids can hop on and swing across like Spider Man swishing between sky-scrapers. It’s sure to be a hit with mini adrenaline junkies. And with soft sand underneath, newbies are cushioned from any tumbles. There are two long zip-lines, so waiting time is never long. Kids get to practice their run and jump at the starting side and zoom their way across. Be prepared to help out younger kids at the other end, since it can be tricky for smaller ones to shimmy their way back.