Garden of the Gods

One last thing from our trip to Colorado...

Our conference was in Colorado Springs, CO.

Sooo, we took an afternoon to visit the State Park

Garden of the Gods.

It was beautiful and very fun to walk around.

However, I will say, it just "killed" my boys that they were dressed up and couldn't climb on the rocks.

Oh, the temptation and the self-control (or lack of it).

:-)

The Crew

 My Girls

 My cute Man and Me

 My guys

Our future (happy) rock climber.

note: see the guy in the background?

 Oh how his two-tooth grin just melts me!!

I have no pictures of the conference but we had a blast and the children learned lots.
We are thankful for our experience!

Seesta...

I LOVE MINE!!

We finally made it to my sisters house.

Yay!

My children were so excited to see and be with their cousins.

We finally got to meet the newest cousin -
Isaac
He is soooo yummy cute!

Cooper and Naomi

The storm we drove through was headed their way the next day so the children harvested the garden in preparation for the snow.
David and Weston

Sarah and Elizabeth

What a harvest of yummies!

Savannah

So beautiful!

Naomi talking to Cooper

Tessa and Sammy painting

More painting

Oh, my very cute nephew.

Our time with cousins was way too short but we loved every minute of it.

Colorado is the place to be...

at a conference called ICC!
(wow - it rhymed)


ICC stands for 
 Institute for Cultural Communicators 
"The mission of ICC is to shape culture through authentic communication and equip Christian students with both the competence and character they need to influence culture for Christ."
We had the opportunity and privilege to attend.
It is for ages 6 and older. They were all able to participate except Tessa and Cooper.
So we all packed up and headed out.
(Grandma stayed home with my parents)


When you have many peeps and you are traveling more than 45 minutes to your destination than you travel through the night. This is a great lesson we have learned through the years.
Here is why...
Everyone sleeps (except the driver, of course) and no one is hungry, thirsty or needs to go potty. 
(makes for a much quicker and less hassle trip)


So, we left at 3am and arrived to Denver at about noon.
We had lunch packed and decided to stop at one of our 
old stomping grounds - Washington Park - to have a picnic and stretch our legs.
(We lived in Denver for 2 years and lived just a mile from this park)

Cooper loved the swing.

Anything is better than his carseat

Little girls enjoyed the slide.

A Race!

Go. Go!

Cooper and Maggie
Does this boy ever NOT smile?

Tessa

Weston

Dani Rae

We also drove by the apt we lived in while attending Denver Seminary.

And the park we use to walk-the-dog.

Denver Seminary has relocated, but this is where it use to be.

We had a great time playing, running, eating and visiting old places.

Then we continued on our journey to my sister's...
stay tuned!

Finding the Heat (part 4)

(remember we went to California back in May while we were still getting snow here?)
After spending the morning at the Aquarium we were off to...
THE BEACH!
The Pacific Ocean...
Sunset Beach
Ahhh.
All 9 making the trek through hot sand with the final destination...

hitting the waves!

Oh what fun for us country mountain people

Coop enjoyed his "beach time" resting in his carseat 

while tanning his toe-sies.

L.O.V.E. this pic
(seaweed and all)

Dolphins! Dolphins!

They swam up close and personal.

AND gave us mountain people a "little show" as they passed by.

My toes in the sand.

Loving every minute of it!

Tess burying herself.

Elizabeth digging for shells

Maggie

Hudson

Abbi

Dani Rae

Weston

This was a big highlight for all of us.
We had a great afternoon at the beach!