NinaPapa Visit Part 2

Here's our little bird friends!!! There really are three of them, but one of them is very shy and ducks whenever we come out the front door. They look very angry due to their coloring, but they are very quiet and interested in us (except that shy one). Now they're starting to sit on the edge of the nest. I think they're thinking about flying away soon, which'll make Evan super happy since he hates the mound of poop they leave on our front porch. Oops.



Back to our NinaPapa visit!

Tuesday was Evan's birthday, but he still had to go to work. :( So, we went to visit some more fantastic sites in Colorado Springs! We started with The Garden of the Gods. It was a gorgeous day and not too hot when we went in the morning. Elisabeth was excited about getting to climb some of the rocks again and going on a couple of trails.
Jana and Elisabeth climbing through a crevice in the rocks.
Keith pushing Julia in her stroller.
While Jana, Keith and Elisabeth climbed Balancing Rock, I stayed down below with Julia. Julia had a rather extensive conversation with this nice lady that lasted 15 minutes.






After The Garden of the Gods, we headed over to the Air Force Academy. The Academy is located right under the mountains and has some of the greenest scenery in the Springs. You can tour the chapel on base and there are a few trails that visitors can walk along.
The Chapel.
The chapel was very interesting. The first floor is a protestant chapel, which is gorgeous with its ceiling and stained glass windows and biggest organ ever. What I didn't realize, was that there are 4 more chapels on the lower floor--the Catholic chapel, the Jewish temple, the Buddhist chapel and the Muslim chapel. I wasn't sure how they could make the other 4 chapels as beautiful as the protestant one, but I was pleasantly surprised. Each one is so breathtaking that I had a hard time deciding which one I liked the most. We didn't get a chance to see the Muslim chapel because Julia started getting restless on the tour, but I will definitely be making a trip back.



We celebrated Evan's birthday with dinner at Famous Dave's and then presents and cake at home.

Here's my every day, folks. When I look down, this is what I see...
Keith and Jana got Evan a steam cleaner for the carpets. Look at him, he's the most excited carpet freak ever!!!
Keith is holding the phone so that Kyle, Matt and Ethan could sing Happy Birthday with us. I must also note that it was Ethan's half birthday, and now my little man is 2 1/2! (Oh, and look at Julia's face in this picture...she is only barely keeping her cool while she waits for her piece of cake. And, yes, she did scream when Evan got the first piece instead of her.)



Wednesday, we hung around the house a bit and relaxed. After lunch, we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The cool thing about this zoo is that, not only is just half an hour from our house, but it's actually built into the mountain. So cool!!!

Oh, and also, you get to feed the giraffes. For $1, you get 3 crackers to feed to them. How awesome is that?!

Julia loved the giraffes. She kept yelling out in her Julia language for them to come see her.
She had a long talk with this giraffe who put his chin on the fence to listen to her. It was super cute.
Elisabeth loves meerkats.

Watching the otter exhibit. They were most active when we saw them.



They had 6 gorillas at the zoo. This poor baby gorilla was desperately trying to get one of his family members to give him some leaves. Eventually, one of them caved and gave him a snack.
This was the silver back. He was all business.


Jana and Keith left Thursday morning. We said a sad good-bye as they drove off to South Dakota to visit Mt. Rushmore before they headed back to Illinois. We had an awesome time with them here, and I had a rough day after they left. I realized that we won't have visitors until fall, and that is a long time from now. It's just still hard being here all alone. I've joined some groups and have a routine going with the girls, but I miss having friends and family at my disposal to visit and see on a regular basis. I still have to remind myself that I've only been here two months tomorrow. That's not very long in the grand scheme of things if you think about it. I mean, Evan was gone longer from us then we've been back together. It was very sad the next day because Julia kept looking up at the loft where Jana and Keith had slept on our futon. She'd point and jabber like she was asking where they were. :(

So, if you want to visit us, come on out! We have a futon now, so we have somewhere for company to sleep! And, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in America, so we'll keep you busy with sightseeing! :)

Captain Bonnett

On July 10th, Evan was officially promoted to Captain. We had heard it was going to be late, especially since one of his co-workers, who was ahead of him 3 months for promotion, wasn't promoted until 6 weeks or so after he was scheduled to due to some delay in paperwork or whatever. Evan's was only a day behind, so he was really lucky! When he found out, Evan told his boss that Jana and Keith were coming to town to visit for a week, so his office had a formal ceremony of the pinning ceremony. We'd always planned on having Elisabeth participate in the ceremony, but now his parents would get to watch! On Monday, the 13th, we all went to the base for the ceremony. Elisabeth was very excited and nervous about pinning the Captain bars to Evan's hat. He practiced with her the night before, and she did a really good job when it was time.
Here's Julia walking into the courtroom. She's getting really good at walking while holding someone's hand, but still isn't too keen about trying it solo yet.

Where we sat.
That's Evan's Baby JAG sippy cup the guys in his office gave him his first week. :)
Someone's excited!
Evan's boss and I pinned the Captain bars to his jacket, while Ebeth worked on his hat.
Evan surprised his parents by asking them to put his new shoulder boards on his shirt.
Taking the oath as a Captain.




How many times did I say "Captain" in this blog? A cash** prize for those who get it right!!!



**by "cash prize", I mean an email saying you are correct.

NinaPapa visit--Part 1

Evan's parents came out to visit this past week!!!! They came in Friday afternoon and stayed until this morning. Elisabeth was excited to get to show them our new house, introduce them to her neighborhood friends and take them around town. The weather was super cooperative the entire time they were here, so we got to do everything we had planned. First on the list...visit Elisabeth's favorite neighborhood park!


Jana and Elisabeth hanging out on the equipment.
Julia loves to swing!






On Saturday, we took the Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak! I won't lie, I was stoked to get to go to the top of the mountain we see down our street everyday! We had reservations to take the train at noon, and it's an hour ride on the way up. Julia did an excellent job on the train and dealing with the increase in altitude (14,ooo+ feet!). The temperature was in the low 90s when we got on the train at the bottom of the mountain, but when we reached the top, it was in the low 60s! I took a million pictures of the view, but I'll only show you the ones with people in the foreground. :) It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to do it again in a different season (maybe fall with all the trees in full fall garb!)

Julia was quite impressed with the rock selection for her tasting pleasure at the summit.








After we came down from Pike's Peak, we drove a few miles to the Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs. I have been looking forward to visiting these ever since we moved here. I am so interested in Native American history and how they built these homes into the mountains. We were able to explore the insides of the dwellings and they had a museum as well.




The following pictures are of baby carriers the women used!!! They slung their babies until they were around 2 years old! I found the reading information quite interesting, especially since I was slinging Julia as I read it!

Julia was not too happy to go back into the car, as you can probably tell. :(




Sunday, we took at trip to The Royal Gorge in Canon City. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, but it was probably my favorite trip of the week. The Royal Gorge has a bridge over a mile long that crosses the gorge that you can walk on. Once over, there are lots of activities including a tram across the gorge, a little old west town, a petting zoo, burro rides, an incline train all the way down to the Arkansas River, and the steepest hills ever! We had to take turns pushing the stroller because I about died 6 times. Elisabeth has recently started being scared of heights, so the bridge wasn't her favorite, but she had no problems with the tram or the incline train. Being in Colorado, surrounded by mountains and hills, I'm thinking she'll eventually get over her fear. :)

Julia cruised the seats in the theater while waiting to watch the 17 minute video about the gorge.
Panning for gold.
There was a gun fight in town involving some cowboys and indians.

Look at this woman's shoes!!!! How gross are they?! Jana and I were discussing the extreme ugliness of them (look at them! they are the weirdest sandals I have ever seen!), and then realized she was European, which explained her footwear choice. Bleh.
In the tram.
The tram we rode.
I could not get over this skirt Julia wore! The ruffles and her fat, fat legs were beyond adorable! She had all the toddler boys attention that day!
Our view descending in the incline train. Standing only!

The girls checking out the Arkansas River.

That's how we got back up!


I shall post more soonish!