3rd day . . . RAIN and REST

Thursday came upon us, waking up to cloudy and raining skies with the high being only in the 50's!!!! We all adorned our long pants and jackets (or at least I did). Because we were embarking upon The famous Donut Mill in Woodland Park. Peter, Erin's oldest son, was explaining to me their portions and he promised he wasn't joking. When we entered in the aroma about hits you off your socks with donuts, sugar, cinnamon, and other baking concoctions! Peter wasn't exaggerating one bit because their donuts are huge and their portions Texas sized! To explain though, this family run business started their pioneer work in Texas and in fact loves Blue Bell Ice Cream so much, they drive their own refrigerator truck to Brenam and receives that delectable, icy, artery filling cream by the buckets and drives right back to Colorado and serves this wonderful ice cream in the middle of their woods! So Texas sized portions, they know all about. I felt I was in great company. Zech ordered a small portion (covered the whole plate) of sausage gravy and biscuits and a donut. I split his order with him and we were both very stuffed. Great food and great company. They have a map with push pins to place where you are visiting from and needless to say it was covered and I mean no where to put another pin. I must say this place was a great treat. We drove back home to just chill that day. It rained and rained some more and Erin and I were in heaven. What I mean was we were able to just talk and chat and visit about good things, hard things, scripture, friends, memories, and more. What a great day Thursday turned out to be!

2nd day continues. . .

Coming out of the land of Narnia!

Whit's End Characters! (they are characters indeed!)

After the rain, hail, and chapel adventures, we headed out to our cars, made sandwiches, ate, and then buckled back up for just a few miles south to Focus on the Family. Erin and her family had told me of their adventures here but it's hard to imagine unless you've been there. I was expecting a large bookstore (I was right there), and a little play area (this is where I was wrong). The place is enormous in which we only decided to go to Whits End (A fictional place set in the Adventures in Odyssey episodes put on by Focus on the Family) and the bookstore. Whits End starts for the children up 4 stories high to slide down a 75 foot winding slide going in and out doors as well landing down into Whits End. You (their parent) are waiting for them and this is the pic I got of Isabella. Sarah and Zech's pic turned out too, but this girl screamed all the way down. By far the loudest of the bunch! You go through different compartments of Whit's end from theatrical stage and dress up, to Narnia! (Narnia isn't part of Whit's end but it's a fun place after all and fictional!) All seven of the children, my three and her four, adventured through and through until we ended up at Whit's End famous Ice Cream shop and of course you have to finish out the adventure with this treat. So Ice cream we had and the children ventured on some more trying to find all the hidden objects a listing had provided for them to discover. The slide had to close somewhere in this adventure due to another thunderstorm outside and since the slide goes in and out it has to shut down in case of being struck by lightening. After all the kid fun, the adults ventured upstairs for their kind of fun, book store!!! The only thing I ended up buying was Adventures in Odyssey first CD they ever came out with. I believed the kids would enjoy listening even more now that they have some hands on experience and I was right.

2nd day Adventures

Unfortunately or fortunately, you decide, I had lots of individuals tell me I had to go here or there when I went to Colorado. Some of the places I completely understood just by their words. Like, "You have to go to Pike's Peak" (that ones a given, although we didn't actually go up it due to my equilibrium), but others like, "you need to go to the Air Force Academy", I didn't understand. I thought to myself, "Why in the world would I want to go to the Air Force Academy???" However many people stressed that it is a must see, so since it was free, I say, yeah, let's go! Wasn't thinking it was going to be something to write home about but I was WRONG! Wow, was I ever wrong. You see I live near an Air Force Base and so I can somewhat see what happens in the air force by the environment and people I live around, but the Academy is totally different.

We drove up into a woodsy, curvy drive, going up and up and then down in a valley is this massive group of buildings and a chapel beyond your belief over sprung by a huge mountain to it's east and just beautiful. As we went in, we immediately heard over the intercom that the next chapel touring was in the next 5 min. So we got into line thinking this was great timing. However as we assembled outside the rumblings of a storm and lightning were off to our southeast. The tour assistant asked if we wanted to postpone in case it rained but several of us were stubborn and persisted with going on! So off we went and when I tell you no more than a minute had passed when the sky opened and poured out it vengeance on us. It hailed pea size hail and rain that I'm pretty sure was bigger than the hail! So we took off running for cover, but did I mention that I had on sandals that day (not thinking I was going on a hike! I was trying to dress fashionable!) and I didn't run very fast, but finally made it under cover. We opted for the movie instead first of the academy, its beginnings and why its there. It was fascinating. Then we walked around the museum a little and it finally stopped raining. So we approached the tour of the chapel on our own and hoping no more rain. The pictures are glorious but as everyone who told me when I asked why I was supposed to go look at a chapel? Well, you just have to go and you will understand! It's beautiful and breathtaking.

2nd day of Amazing Views!

Did I mention in my last blog the amazing views you see there? Here is what I mean:

This is a beautiful rainbow, the colors were just glorious after one of the afternoon rains they received.

Trees and mountains everywhere! Seriously everywhere I looked they had these beautiful trees and mountains with cliffs and beautiful granite colors!


This is a picture of Pike's Peak. I'm not kidding when I say as I pulled out of Erin's neighborhood EVERYDAY this is the picture that greeted me EVERY morning!

This is a picture out her kitchen window. She gets to do her dishes and stare out at the majesty of it all. And she wondered why I did so many dishes while I was there (I loved doing your dishes Erin!)

It's beautiful!

This is called the balancing rock (The kids are making sure they hold it up!)

The kids and I took off for Colorado this past week and wow, I never expected such awe inspiring views that I received. Now I have to caution you that where I live is not at all awe inspiring (in my point of view). The kids had rented some movies, brought along their ipods, and their DS games, but also found time to amuse mom along the way! I had so much fun laughing with them and really enjoyed my time with just them. About 9 1/2 hours later I pulled into Colorado Springs and had chatted with my friend as to where she lives and directions and such. I was following them but started to feel the effects of the altitude, the weariness of the drive, and it was pouring down raining. As I was driving through the winding roads that take me up to 8,500 ft, I was praying to the Lord to help me make it there. He blessed me as I pulled into their driveway and I stepped onto the most beautiful sight I've seen in years. Trees, mountains, houses that are not copied but each one unique, Pike's Peak, rolling fog, and my friend! I love seeing my friends and hugging them. It's was so nice to reunite and know that I had made it to Colorado. After 9 1/2 hours anywhere was actually great to get too!

We visited that evening and had yummy Chicken Enchiladas. Unpacked, settled in and all went to sleep. The next day woke up to a beautiful 44 degrees! Wow, what a change from the 100 degree weather we have here. Erin fixed another delicious entree of blueberry pancakes with syrup or chocolate chip if you like! After the kids played legos (as Zech would call it Lego "Heaven" due to the fact she has 5 boys, 4 of which are always building with Lego's), and Josiah took his nap, we packed a lunch and headed for the Garden of the Gods. I belted myself back in my Yukon and off we went down the mountain and through the woods and then beyond a big Rock the view became spectacular (all the views there are) and the rocks that form this beautiful museum type quality of the Garden of the Gods. The man who discovered it wished it always to be free and donated it only on the condition it would remain free to all those who came to view the spectacular rock formations. There was a rock with a passage ways, rocks to climb, and we even saw a rattlesnake and I didn't run screaming! We had lunch around 12:30 and in the background it was quickly beginning to rain. My family and hers all packed back in and up the mountain in the rain we ascended once again. It rained every afternoon we were there, however it broke up almost every evening after dinner for Erin and I to take a walk around the neighborhood. The first night at the end, it started to rain again. However good company, beautiful view, and great conversation (in the midst of me running out of breath because of the deep hills and altitude) I didn't mind getting wet! We all showered and tucked ourselves in for the next day! Enjoy the pics!

Summer

Summer always seems to fly by! They say time flies when your having fun, and yes we had a lot of fun this summer. Gracie has been an added blessing to our family during the day and we are truly enjoying her beautiful smile and happy attitude. However she does occupy quite a bit of my time and therefore the reason for the blogging break.

Our family adventured out with two trips this summer. As always somewhere in our year we try and visit family down in south Texas. I went with a new attitude this year to not have anything planned and just wake up each day and figure out what we were to do. It worked! Amazing that all my well thought out plans don't always need to happen. God is good and He allowed us a very relaxing vacation to enjoy family and friends.

During our trip to South Texas we were able to meet up with some friends of long ago. They are precious to us and it was great to catch up with them and where they are at in their lives. Some have been through many heartaches and some have had many joys, but they are all walking closely with our Lord and Savior and that is what matters. Our Sunday School group that Mike was a director of when him and I married, had a reunion of sorts. It was great to see the men and women of faith that truly lifted us up as Mike surrendered to the Ministry. Three more since then have surrendered their lives to full time ministry as well.

This summer also held many projects for us. We as a family continued our history readings of America's history from the Civil war on. We also engaged ourselves in many older movies: Gone with The Wind, Sound of Music, Sergeant York, and some Three Stooges. I introduced them to some I Love Lucy and a few more. We've enjoyed our summer and sad to see it end.

Back to the Blogging!

I have taken a long absence in blogging due to mental writers block, summer, too much going on, and more. However as of today I am back. I have every intention on blogging at least once a week, but this week and most will be more!

Summer:

In a nut shell was a lot of relaxing, some school, a visit to see family, swimming, projects, a visit to Colorado (more on that later), watching Gracie, some rain, visits from other people, and more. Not a lot to report on our summer. We slept in, ate junk food, watched movies (some old, some new, some in between), attended camps, and played lots of computer games, Wii, and nintendo (too much for Momma's liking, but oh well).

School:

We officially started today! However a little shaky as Isabella headed off to camp, Zech just did Math and Science, and Sarah joined the ranks of high schoolers today studying bible, history, and english lit!

I'll blog more tomorrow, but wanted you all to know I was back online!