Today is the beginning of the last week of June and I've only posted once this month. I'm way behind so I hope this doesn't become too lengthy.
A month or more ago, I read that the Greenwood Parks Department was hosting a Mud Day and I immediately thought that Jayden would enjoy the opportunity. On Friday, June 8, we picked him up and headed to the park. The Fire Department was watering the area and many people were headed to the location.
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| After the whistle, everyone was invited to get in the mud |
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| A few splatters |
After a few minutes, Jayden left the mud and was ready to head home. As one of the older kids and without a special friend along, he probably felt uncomfortable. I noticed that the youngest kids weren't hesitant to get wet and dirty. The firemen had a hose ready to wash off the dirt when someone wanted to get clean. I was amazed at the large turnout. Obviously, this is a very popular event.
We had our bags packed and in the car and after dropping off Jayden we headed west for a sister's weekend in Colorado Springs. We had reservations at a motel in Concordia, Missouri and reached our destination before dark. The location was only a block or two off I-70 and a great place to stop. Concordia is a small town and the next morning I asked Ray to drive to where I saw a tall steeple as we arrived the night before.
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| St. Paul's Lutheran Church |
Sitting on the corner, the building is awesome in size and well maintained. Across the street is St. Paul's School enrolling through high school.
After a quick snapshot, we headed west and reached Colorado Springs by 6 p.m. We checked into the motel. Tom & Judy were visiting Judy's friend from nursing school. Gloria and Ross were at a wedding. This wedding prompted them to invite the Fowlers and Ray and me to a central meeting point where we could spend time together even though it would be a short visit.
With daylight still abundant and learning that the Garden of the Gods was less than 10 miles away, we headed out for a quick visit. The Garden was still busy with lots of visitors but we found a parking spot and went for a short walk and took a few photos.
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The Visitor's Center was swamped--we didn't stop.
This parking lot was almost full but we found a spot. |
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There are many trails to afford a view of
the formations from different angles. |
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| Garden of the Gods is a park within the City of Colorado Springs |
We moved from the motel to the house Gloria and Ross had rented with other friends for the wedding. We had use of the house for one night as the other two couples headed home. It was a short walk to the Broadmoor to take in its amenities and then lunch near the pool but in the shade.
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| The main entrance to The Broadmoor, a luxury resort |
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After our tour we of the grounds, we had lunch near this pool.
Ross, Gloria, Judy, me and Ray |
We missed having Tom join us for the tour of The Broadmoor. His arthritis limits his mobility and he decided against joining us for the walk.
Getting some advice from one of the waiters, we opted next to head to Seven Falls, once a privately owned property, but now under the ownership of The Broadmoor. This time we drove to where we could board a shuttle bus for the short ride to a drop off point. We then had to walk a good distance to the base of the stairs where we would get a view of the falls.
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We climbed 185 steps to reach the
observation platform. Look carefully.
It's at the top of the photo. |
We stopped to catch our breath at two platforms built into the stairway. Colorado Springs is about 6,000 ft above sea level and the sun was very warm so we appreciated the rest stops.
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Look carefully to see seven falls though it might
not be apparent in this photo |
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| Ray & Ross |
It's possible to take another stairway next to the falls but taking those stairs wouldn't give the observer the overall view that we did when we could see all seven falls from the observation deck.
The next day we were on our way home and stopped overnight in Topeka KS arriving home about 6 p.m. Tuesday. We figured we had spent 16 hours driving one-way and traveled over 2,000 miles for the entire trip.
We were invited to the Martin's house for Father's Day and decided to don our swimsuits and cool off in their pool. I wonder why we haven't done this before. How many times have we watched others in the pool as we sat on the deck as spectators?
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| Cooling off in the Martin's pool |
Before heading to the pool, we had a bit of a scare. Joe called that Nancy was in the ER. We had just returned home from helping set up for VBS and immediately went to the hospital. Nancy had been experiencing a very fast heartbeat and the doctor in the ER was able to shock her heart to get it back to a reasonable 72 bpm. Shortly after we arrived at the hospital she was released but spent the rest of the day on the couch in the cool house. The doctor didn't give her any restrictions but I know she was tired and weak.
I spent the past Monday-Friday helping with registration at VBS. On average we had 36 kids. They presented a program of the songs they learned including motions on Thursday evening. I thought they did an incredible job learning all the songs in four days. Kids are like sponges--they suck up everything!
