Air Force Academy

One of the biggest highlights of our trip was our visit to the Air Force Academy.  Jacob's goal is to be accepted there and attend after high school!  It is extremely hard to get in, but he has a vision  and has made goals to make it happen.  He has an extremely challenging junior year coming up - packed with challenging classes, he practices shooting regularly with the hopes of being on the shooting team there, and he runs and works out to meet the fitness requirements.  I am so amazingly proud of him for how he is determined and working hard toward his dream.  He has turned into a man in front of my eyes.

This is the famous chapel on the grounds. Absolutely beautiful...

This display in the visitors center describes the process completely.  Jacob had the dream, he is preparing, and this fall he will start the year long application process.

While there we watched the famous lunch formation - it was impressive watching 1200 soldiers march in unison to the beat of the Air Force theme song... 

Another view of the inside of the chapel...

Jacob - I am so proud of you!  I am supporting you one thousand percent!  May this truly be the path God is leading you on and may your dream come true!

Estes Park Cont'd.

This is the quaint, charming home we rented while in Estes Park.  It was quite nice, but we were there during record heat and the house had no air-conditioning.  None of us slept very well, and we spent our days in front of fans trying to stay cool... of course, most of the time you don't need air conditioning in Estes Park, but the week we were there had record high temperatures!

 Part of town...

Because of the lack of air-conditioning and the stifling heat, I couldn't bring myself to drink coffee in the morning, so I bought some iced coffee instead, and Hannah fell in love with it.  Ever since then, she starts her day with a cup of iced coffee!  

 Okay.  The food adventure of the trip  (there is always at least one).  We went to visit Danny's brother Donnie in Fort Collins and he took us out to eat at a local chain for breakfast.  It is called Snooze.  You walk in the door and are assaulted with the smell of bacon frying and the tantalizing, sweet smells of pancakes cooking.  They only serve breakfast and lunch, so they do it right!  

We had varieties of pancakes and eggs - from eggs benedict done three different ways (totally gourmet) to pineapple-upside down pancakes, red velvet pancakes, sweet potato pancakes sprinkled with pecans and ginger-maple syrup.  I am talking mouth watering, gourmet, melt in your mouth pancakes.  We all agreed it was the best breakfast food we had ever eaten!  We loved it so much we found another Snooze in Denver and went there the following week!!  

 We also took a couple of hours and went to a shooting range and shot handguns - even me!  It was really pretty cool, but I most enjoyed just watching the kids do it.  

Rocky Mountain National Park

We had one day set aside for driving Trail Ridge Rd., which is the highest paved highway in the country, but the day we had set aside turned out to be a rainy, dreary day.  We decided to go ahead anyway, and ended up getting some beautiful pictures.  There was something magical about driving up the road and looking down on the misty clouds that hovered around the mountains.  We felt like we had stepped into the Lord of the Rings book and were looking down on the Misty Mountains.  We practically expected to see an elf running the slopes or a dragon coming around the corner!

No words are sufficient to describe the beauty of these mountains.  We were absolutely awed.

Personally, I fell in love with all the evergreen woods - I guess it reminded me of the woods that I grew up around in the mountains of Northern California.  I really felt like I could just become a mountain woman and live in these woods forever...

Here is Jacob just staring out the huge window looking at the spectacular view from the Visitor Center.  When we reached the top of this drive (at approximately 12,000 feet) I have to say I felt very lightheaded and dizzy.  It went away after a few minutes... 

 Yes - this is snow!  At the bottom of the park the temperature was in the 80's.  By the time we reached the top it was in the 40's!!  

Colorado - First Few Days

  The power in our home in Maryland had gone out during a Friday evening summer storm, and we were living with partial power from our generator. By Saturday morning it was clear that our power was not coming back on, and our flight to Boston  connecting to Denver kept getting delayed.  Danny checked the flights online and kept on checking them until it became clear that we would not make our connecting flight.  We needed a quick decision, and after changing our flight and even the airport we flew out of, we had flights but we had to leave in less than an hour!  

Fortunately, we were mostly packed, though I did have to pack wet laundry in my suitcase that had been sitting in the washer since the power went out.  I wondered in the back of my mind if our whole trip was going to be this doomed.  I say this, not only because of the power outage, but because we were only going by the skin of our teeth to begin with.  Colorado had been battling record heat and some horrendous forest fires.  The home we were renting for week two was in a town under pre-evacuation orders.  We wondered if we were meant to go at all.

But we did.  We arrived after midnight in Denver on a hot, summer night.  The next day, we grabbed a bite to eat at Ted's Montana Grill (where we dined on yummy, juicy buffalo burgers) and then headed out to the go-kart track before leaving Denver behind.

Jacob and Hannah were the only ones that drove the karts - but these are no ordinary karts.  These karts went 45 mph!  Danny, Ryan and I sat and watched on the sidelines in the un-airconditioned warehouse, fanning ourselves with menus but loving every second of watching them race around the track.

After leaving Denver, we headed over to Boulder for a few nights. Our first morning there Jacob and Danny went to visit the beautiful campus of the University of Colorado.  During this time, we also walked around Pearl Street Mall and saw some very unique sights.  Below is picture of a soldier-who-looked-like-a-statue trying to tease Hannah.

This is a picture of a guy who we had seen playing his guitar in the street for money.  We snapped a picture of him in the ice cream shop, mostly for the cute kitten on his back.  Just a glimpse of the kind of characters that littered the streets of Boulder.

While in Boulder we also went to see the movie Brave!  A wonderful, humorous movie about Hannah! haha  Yep, this is a story for another time...

Dad doing some cookin' at the Estes Park rental, where his brother Donnie and his family came over and spent the Fourth of July with us.  We spent that day strolling the streets of Estes Park and hanging out at the house.  Owen and Olivia, their two kids, were absolutely adorable!

Olivia was shy at first, but soon warmed up and fed us all "cupcakes" that she had made out of coasters.

That same afternoon there was a car show that Danny and the boys walked through.  

Owen down by the rocks in Estes Park.  What an absolute cutie!

And this, I have to say, is my favorite shot of the entire trip.  I bought a frame to frame this one.  It is just a wonderful picture of Jacob sitting on a rock by the river, gazing off into the distance,  a wonderful snapshot of his peaceful, serene nature.  What the picture doesn't show is that I was sitting on his right, after he ever so carefully helped me climb down to this spot just so I could put my feet into the icy cold water (which the day before had been snow on the top of the mountains that melted and now flowed in a rush through the small town of Estes Park).  

Later that week...

Danny and the boys had the adventure of a lifetime.  Truly.  They rented ATV's and went up a trail in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Little did we know what would happen that day!  They had gotten bored on the easy trails, and even though they were warned that the advanced trails were not for beginners, they decided to try them anyway.  Apparently, Jacob was going up a hill, hit a rock with his machine, it tipped back on him and then tipped over completely.  Danny said it all happened in slow motion - he was horrified as he watched the machine threaten to come down right on Jacob's leg, but Jacob leaped nimbly off and rolled away, saving his leg from being crushed. When they told me about it afterwards, I am sure I turned pale... but I thank God for watching out for Jacob.

Meanwhile, Hannah and I wandered through town and shopped all day.  We ducked into an Irish pub for a bite when it began to pour, and in between drops we took a carriage ride through town.  We spent time choosing souvenirs for us and gifts for our guys.

Donnie and Owen spending some time down by the river.

This was a hilarious moment!  Hannah had been sitting down on a ledge by the river, and she asked Jacob to help her get up, and then got the giggles.  She laughed so hard that she just couldn't get up!  I do so love these moments...

Olivia spotted a butterfly on her leg as she licked away at her ice cream from Dairy Queen.

To be continued...