Monthly Archives: March 2014

Today we decided to take a family trip down to Garden of the Gods (by Colorado Springs and Pike’s Peak).  Brittany had to work so she wasn’t able to come with us.  We took a picnic lunch down there and really enjoyed ourselves.  It was pretty busy, so we had to eat our picnic in one of the parking lots by the van.  We had a laugh about it but it was still fun!

We then went hiking all over the area, looking at the beautiful rock formations and enjoying the wonderful afternoon!

There were a lot of people rock climbing down here today as well.  Some of the places that they were hiking looked pretty scary…

What a great time we had today!  We love going places like this as a family (well, at least most of the time).  We enjoy being outdoors and being in nature.  We’re looking forward to many more experiences like that!

Today marks the one year anniversary since we arrived in Colorado!  It’s hard to believe how fast the time has flown!  We LOVE it here!

We had fun today (day 2 of our YMCA of the Rockies getaway)!  We did some more programs and activities, played in the game room (pool, etc.), played basketball on the outside courts (it was a little chilly), and enjoyed the beautiful day.

On the drive home, we passed a beautiful rock church and so we had to stop and take a look.   It’s really out in the middle of nowhere but the Pope visited it awhile back and put it on the map.

We’re home now and Brittany’s at work.  What a great time we had!  The kids said they can’t wait to back, especially the boys.  The only thing we didn’t get to do up there is go swimming because being so early in the year, they didn’t have a full staff (including lifeguards) up there, so they had to limit the number of people that could go in at a time.  There was always a long line coming out of the pool house, so we thought our time would be better spent doing other things.

Yesterday we decided to do a last-minute getaway and we found an incredible place to go…  YMCA of the Rockies!  It’s up in Estes Park (northwest of Denver right at the mouth of Rocky Mountain National Park).  We reserved a room up there and headed up this morning.  The girls went to the temple and did baptisms early and while they were doing that, Angela, the boys and I picked up some last minute things for our overnight trip.  We weren’t sure what to expect up there, but we were VERY pleasantly surprised.  They have so much to do, even in March!  They have a craft lodge, a swimming pool, rock climbing, roller skating, mini-golf, basketball, hiking, a large game room and all kinds of programs that the kids could take.

The kids really had a great time!  We went mini-golfing, which was a little difficult due to the snow up there still on some of the holes, but we had a great time anyway!  Zach and Ben took some classes on nature, how to tie knots, and survival.  We went roller skating and played basketball and much more.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful up there!  We ran into some huge elk coming back into town for dinner.  They were beautiful!  We love it out here!  Such beautiful scenery everywhere we go, and the best part is that it’s NOT flat!

It’s the end of the day now and we are absolutely dead tired.  We have a big day tomorrow, full of more activities and then we’ll head back home at about 1pm so that Brittany can go to work  🙂

Tonight we picked up at airport after her trip to Illinois.  Today she went and hung out at the school with the band folks and such and had a blast!  There were many double-takes as people saw her.  They simply said hi because they all knew who she was like she should be there normally and then realized that she really was there!  🙂  Anyway, she talked the whole way home non-stop about how awesome it was.  She did say, however, that she was glad to be back home and it’s starting to feel like home here now.  That is a great relief to us!  🙂

Today was our one-year walk-through with Lennar!  We can’t believe it’s already been almost a year since we moved here!  We had a home inspection done prior to that and gave John from Lennar a bunch of things that were found after the year of living here.  They’re going to take care of those things and we’re really glad we waited to do the home inspection until near the year mark.

We love our home and look forward to many years of enjoyment!  🙂