Trip to Colorado

Brian had a conference in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we decided to make a family trip of it. We left on Saturday morning, and learned a painful lesson about cutting it too close with timing at the airport--our flight departed at 8:45 a.m. and when we arrived at the gate at 8:43 a.m., the plane was already pulling away. This was just the beginning of our displeasure with United Airlines. I understand that we should have been at the gate long before 2 minutes prior to departure. However, I have been on numerous flights where departure was slightly delayed because they were waiting for a passenger who was running down the concourse. And was it too much to ask that they wait to actually depart until 8:45? That two minutes would have put us on the plane. C'mon! Oh well. Thankfully it was only two hours before the next flight, so, we were delayed but not terribly.

We spent Saturday and Sunday with Brian's brother Kelly and his family in Boulder. They took good care of us--fed us well, and Cole had a blast with his cousins Cosette, Tyler, and Oliver. Cosette and Tyler, though they are much older than Cole, were great playmates for him.

The cousins: Cosette, Tyler, Weston, Cole and Oliver as we headed out for our Sunday afternoon walk. Kelly is in the background.

















Brian and I with Weston on a pretty bridge not far from Kelly and Bonnie's place.

Monday morning we headed off to Colorado Springs. Imagine Brian's happiness when he (a St. George native) discovered these beautiful red rock formations at the base of Pikes Peak at a lovely place called Garden of the Gods. This picture of him and Weston is actually a pretty cool action shot--check out the binky near the bottom of the photo. Weston had just dropped it when I snapped the picture.




































We had also hoped to drive to the summit of Pikes Peak, or at least as high as they'll let you go this time of year, but when we arrived at the base of the drive we were informed that they don't let anyone head up later than 3 p.m. and it was 4 p.m. So we missed out on that view. Instead we spent the rest of the afternoon in Manitou Springs, a quaint, touristy little mountain town at the base of the mountain. It reminded us of Park City, except not quite as uppity. :) We ate dinner at a place called Bob's Barbeque Pit and they had some seriously tasty barbecued ribs.

Tuesday morning we had hoped to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but by this point in the trip Weston was not handling our imposed sleep restrictions very well. We decided to spend the morning closer to our hotel, exploring the residential areas near the C.S. branch of his workplace. As you might have guessed, our decision to take the entire family along on this trip was not only for a fun vacation, but so that we could all get some exposure to Colorado Springs, as it is very likely that Brian will transfer there in the next year or so. Anyway, coming from California we were floored by how inexpensive the housing is. There were some really great neighborhoods with nice homes for around $200,000. In our book, that's a STEAL. So, that would be a big plus about moving there. After lunch I took Brian to his conference and headed with the kids to the downtown district. We had a fun little event on our way down there though...Cole regularly gives me status updates on his bodily functions so unfortunately no red flag went up in my head when Cole told me several times that he just made "stinky bubbles". Then, he said, "I put poo-poo in my Pull-Up!" You guessed it, he wasn't actually wearing a Pull-Up. So we had a little detour to the hotel to clean up that mess before we could go downtown. In general, having him potty trained is nice, and he usually surprises me with his ability to control his bladder and bowels, but sometimes accidents happen. Oh well. :)

Wednesday I did get to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with the boys. For the record, when they say "mountain" zoo, they mean "mountain" zoo. This zoo is built on the side of the mountain and you pretty much hike your way through it. It's gorgeous, though--reminded me of what I'm missing out here by the beach. I do enjoy the ocean, but I think if you forced me to choose, I'd go with mountains. I love them. Anyway we got a little taste of weather variability in that Tuesday the temperature hit 80 degrees, and then on Wednesday, while we were at the zoo, we got some snow flurries. They didn't stop us from finishing our zoo visit, but we drove back to the Denver airport in a full-on snow storm and almost missed our return flight. Ah, the joys of travel.

So, we're back home--glad to be here for awhile, but we got a nice taste of Colorado Springs. From my side, I think it's somewhere I'd be happy to settle down. Brian still is feeling out whether he'd like the work that's available there, and we're not going anytime soon, but it was fun to see what things are like out there.