Ice Castle

So. On Thursday, we drove down to Dillon, CO (technically a little over 2 hours away, though traffic made it take longer) to see the Ice Castle there. It was pretty darn cool (and cold, lol). Here are some pictures (click on them to make them larger):

We booked tickets for the 4:30 entry, knowing that sunset was scheduled to be around 4:47 that day. Given that, we were able to get our bearings in the daylight but still enjoy the castle after dark. Some of us went down one of the little slides (and ended up with wet behinds, lol) and crawled through the tunnels. Some of the tunnels were more squeezy than others and I'm told that the ground you crawled on was quite icy and uncomfortable. Regardless, 4/7 of us tried at least one of them out. :)

(Top left is Asher crouching rather than crawling...below that is Nathan's dad belly crawling to get back out...below that is Nathan worming his way in.) 

Here's a panoramic shot I took inside while waiting for people in tunnels:

Next up are some "people pictures"...clockwise from top left: boys with grandparents waiting to enter, boys with me inside, Nathan trying to stay warm, Micah and Asher trying to stay warm, and me and Nathan in front of one of the awesome lit walls after dark.

The wall kept changing colors...which made it difficult to pick a favorite shot of the boys with their grandparents:

Beyond that, after dark, we discovered this larger, cooler slide. The lights changed patterns and colors, and we all managed to get through the line and down the slide...fun! (Oh, and this one had sled type things to go down the slide so your butt didn't get wet.)

And here are a few more photos of the amazingness of the structure...

So...a few notes, if you plan to go also...

• I'm told that they continue to "grow" the structure throughout the winter, so going later should result in a larger castle. As it was, we went during the first full week they were open, but that's the time slot that worked for us and we were plenty happy. 
• When they advise you to bundle up and dress for the weather, they mean it. Definitely layer up and wear boots, people. I'd say about half the people we saw were in full ski-like gear, most of the rest were, like us, bundled mostly appropriately, and then there were some who were clearly not dressed warm enough and probably cut their visits short because of it. 
• Like I mentioned, we planned our visit so we could see the castle both in daylight and after dark. It was great, and I highly recommend that. Look up the sunset time ahead of time and plan accordingly. If you can only go during one or the other, I'd go when it's dark.
• If you're going with a group, it would be helpful to have a plan for meeting up if you get separated (if that matters to you). If all of your sons and your husband are dressed almost entirely in black, it's not easy to find them in the crowd, lol. If I went again, I might put a running light band on each of them (those types you just wrap around your arm so you're visible to traffic). 
• If you have little ones, they recommend *not* bringing your stroller, and there's good reason for that. Bring a simple sled instead...works great.
• The concensus from my group was that warmer gloves would have been better. Given that they all did have decent snow gloves, maybe bring some hand warmers for pockets? (I, personally, was wearing fingerless gloves, knowing that I'd get cold but wanting full access to my camera/phone.)

I think that's it. Overall, we were inside the castle for a little over an hour and then followed some signs to hot drinks across the street and warmed up. We then bundled back to the car and drove 40ish minutes to Idaho Springs where we stopped for dinner before heading the rest of the way home. Yay!