Colorado Springs for the 4th

Finally!
After almost two years of waiting, wondering where they were going to get stationed, talking on the phone about all the possibilities, dreaming, waiting some more, Drew and Kelly are finally settled in Colorado Springs, a mere 9 hours from us in Nebraska.
I never thought this weekend would come!
It's been very rare in our nearly 10 years in the military that the Lord has graciously blessed us with friends from a previous assignment within any sort of reasonable drivable distance.
First, Matt and Jenn moved to Kansas City, unreal, 3 hours away.
Now Drew and Kelly in CO.
So sweet.

Me and Isaak haven't been to Colorado Springs in nearly 10 years either. We drove through on our way from Georgia out to California, merely stopped for the night, and headed out again in the morning. This time it was so nice to actually get to stay, and play. : )

The landscape is beautiful, but every time I looked upon it I kept thinking of the outback. Australia. Not that I've ever been to Australia, but in my mind this is what it resembles.
Totally.rugged. (said in my best Aussie accent :~) )



and totally beautiful. (facing east away from the mountains)

We tried to cram in as much stuff as our kids would tolerate. So we hit up a park on Friday and just bummed around the house, grilled out, shucked some corn. Oh yeah, and me and Kel hit up Eclipse after bedtime :)

Saturday we went to Focus on the Family, which had this amazing free indoor kids play extravaganza thingy. Slides, tunnels, hollow airplanes, squishy jump things (?), soda fountain shop, and tons more. That place is amazing. I was actually awe struck. As I stood in the parking lot and looked upon the expanse of buildings, thinking about the life changing things going on inside...knowing that it all started with one man, and his vision. And now over 30 years later what he started is reaching hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
Amazing.
I will never cease to stand in awe of what God can do with a willing heart.




Saturday night we went to Fort Carson to celebrate our Independence.

this was the view on the way to base. glorious.


I don't know what they liked more, the glow sticks or the fireworks. But all the kiddos had a blast, made it all the way through the show, no meltdowns....


the Robinsons.





this is how these two watched most of the fireworks.


4th of July 2010



Sunday we took an adventure to the Garden of the Gods. And when I say adventure I mean when I was told it was a park with rock formations that kids can climb on, I somehow envisioned...small rocks.
Not mammoth beasts of mountain jutting out of the ground.
It didn't occur to me either that the park was situated in the mountains.
Or that I should where real shoes.
Or that we would be hiking.
I attribute this stupid lack of common sense to the fact that I have a stupid lack of common sense sometimes. :)
So, off we went. Up the mountains. In my Converse shoes. Isaak pushing our sit-n-stand up hill through trails not meant for a sit-n-stand stroller.
We didn't make it very far. The first mammoth we came to along the trail was where we stayed. It was actually rather kid friendly though. Sydaleigh was able to climb up. I tried, but kept slipping thanks to my traction less shoes. It was breathtakingly gorgeous though. And we had a blast.




this would be the craziest saddest attempt at a group photo ever! we tried. :)

we rounded out the night with a rousing game of 'hit the girls with the balls'. Which, they ecstatically loved. Gotta love daddies that rough house.




And thankfully Marvelly only got car sick twice on the way home, 30 minutes into the ride back. Not too shabby.



Great great trip.

*I just have to note....Sunday night a big thunderstorm blew through and on Monday morning, we were about 50 miles outside of Co. Springs and we notice people shoveling heaping piles of snow away from their doors. Uh huh. That's right. We did a double take, not believing that it was really snow in July...but it was. Snow. Heaping piles of it in this little tiny town we passed through. It was along the sides of the road, in front of businesses, in the fields....all over. Snow. And by the time we were passing through it was encroaching on 70 degrees. And there were still piles of it unmelted. I was cringing at the sight.....