Soccer and Such

This past weekend Dan's sister, Sheila, and her husband, Ernie, came for a visit. They were so good with the girls and Anna keeps asking when "my Ernie" is coming home even though we dropped them off at the airport this morning.

On Saturday we got a babysitter and went to the Rapids vs. Galaxy soccer game. They are BIG Galaxy fans.

Oops. Rapids won.

Sunday we went down to Colorado Springs. We stopped and looked at the very unique chapel at the Air Force Academy. Everything is wing-shaped!

After that we went to the Broadmoor for brunch.

What a huge yummy spread!

We had to walk off some of that delicious food. The grounds around the hotel are gorgeous.

There was even a playground.

This is the same place Dan and I stayed at two weeks ago. Apparently we can't get enough!

Sandbox

Part of the playset we had to do ourselves.

Filling the sandbox!

It is only partially filled as my car can handle only so much weight and sand is heavy!

But they don't care.

They are having the time of their lives!

Flower Power

It's time to do a little update on Mia. She is doing much better. The move, the construction, and realizing that she was adopted (she always knew this but didn't understand it until now) was a bit too much for her. It's hard to tell with her how much behavior is personality and how much is adoption/trauma related.

She is still having trouble going to sleep at night. She gets a reward when she goes down easily. Yesterday she wanted to pick flowers for her reward. She always wants to pick flowers everywhere we go but I usually don't let her because they are in someone's flower bed! But our neighbors haven't landscaped their yard yet.

So with their permission we harvested a few weeds flowers.

Although they were just weeds they actually looked very pretty in the vase.

Thank you neighbors!

Picnic in the Pines

This past Saturday we went to a monastery for a fundraising event. Part of the money went to the monastery and part to the people who lost homes in the fire nearby.

We stopped and visited the injured raptors first.

Then the girls rode some ponies.

The petting zoo was a big hit. Anna was not afraid of a single animal. Quite a difference from last year!

Anna rode in one of the trucks that fought the Black Forest fire...

while Mia bounced in this.

Both got their faces painted. This is the first time Anna would allow it!

We also had a fabulous barbecued lunch, went on a scavenger hunt and played a few other games. It was a really nice outing.

First Ice Cream Cone

Anna enjoyed her first ice cream cone! She ate it s l o w l y and it was really hot outside. She didn't notice you could eat the cone. So we said, "All done," when she had licked the ice cream all the way down to the cone and she was happy to throw the "cup" away.

Mia was much improved from last year! She got almost nothing on her face after eating the entire ice cream and cone. The condition of her brand new white shirt and shorts was a different story!

While We Were Gone

While we were enjoying our anniversary trip, the girls were busy going all kinds of exciting places!

First they went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (our favorite).

After that it was Garden of the Gods.

And the next day the Firefighters Museum!!

They certainly didn't have any time to miss us!

Anniversary Trip

This past weekend Dar and Sean came out for a visit! Bill and his family came over Saturday.

On Sunday Dar and Sean stayed with the girls and Dan and I went down to Colorado Springs for an anniversary trip. 33 years!

We love this hotel. Dan usually stays there for a week in April for the Space Symposium and I sometimes join him one of the nights. But this year we were on vacation at that time. So we bought two nights at the hotel at a charity silent auction.

We just relaxed on Sunday after going to church. We actually got to pay attention without little monsters children distracting us.

It was rainy and cloudy when we woke up Monday morning. Our plan had been to drive up Pikes Peak, but instead we had a leisurely breakfast and then went to the Olympic Training Center.

The tour was great and we got to walk around and see a lot of the facility.

My favorite part was this...

What else says OLYMPICS better than that!

It was still drizzly when we were done but we decided to go up the mountain anyway.

At 9,000 feet we stopped here. It was really foggy but there were lots of people walking down to a lake to fish.

At 11,000 feet we stopped here. There were kids gold mining. I was thinking Mia and Anna would like this. Dan was thinking, who are Mia and Anna? He is able to really get away from everyday life!

We saw a marmot above the treeline. Dan gives all the kids and grandkids a stuffed animal for their birth or adoption. Mia's was a marmot. That's the reason we knew what it was!

We got to the top!!

We were way above the treeline.

Look at that amazing view!!

Truthfully, we could see nothing from up there! But we actually had a really nice time. I slept on the way down. Thanks goodness, because I do not do well in the passenger seat driving down a mountain.

We had a beautiful dinner that evening overlooking the lake at the hotel.

The next morning Dan golfed and I went to church and had a pedicure. I really was hoping Mass would be in this cute little chapel, but it was locked.

We had lunch and then headed back home so we could spend some time with Dar and Sean before they left. They were so sweet to allow us this little break!