Colorado: Day 5/6

The last couple of days of our vacation were pretty relaxing. On Thursday we did a little shopping in Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. On Friday Mav and I went paddle boating on the lake at the resort and then we found a really good Southern BBQ restaurant in an old firehouse building for lunch. I will miss the beautiful views from our room and from the balcony of the resort! FYI: the middle pic is a view from our room, which happens to be the mountain that contains NORAD (notice all the antennas on the top of the mountain).

Colorado: Day 2/3/4

This week is flying by!!! On Monday we went downtown Colorado Springs and walked around. They have a ton of eating places (of course we found a brewery) and some cute shops down there. I found THE best store full of purses, shoes, and jewelry! I fell in love with this leather wallet but just couldn't make myself fork out the $70.00. I knew I would think about how much it cost me EVERY time I used it! :) We headed out on a bus tour on Tuesday afternoon and made a stop at the Garden of the Gods (pictured above). These sandstone rock formations are really close to town and some are actually named. The one farthest away in the pic is named the Three Graces because it looks like hands praying. Wednesday night we were taken to the Flying W Ranch, which was by far the funnest thing we have done. They served us a spectacular dinner and then the Flying W Ranglers (band with bass, guitar, fiddle, mandolin) entertained us for an hour. They were all very talented and the show was awesome!

Colorado: Day 1

Wow, it has been a long day already! Mav and I left Bismarck this morning at 6:30 a.m. and arrived in Colorado Springs somewhere around 8:00 a.m. We had the whole day to do whatever we wanted, so we decided to take a small road trip to the Royal Gorge. I was actually really excited to go out on this mega huge suspension bridge, which overlooks a beautiful river gorge. As it turns out, it wasn't my favorite place to be. The gaps between the bottom floorboards on the bridge (which afforded you with an excellent 1000 foot view to the river straight below) and the actual swaying of the bridge didn't work out so well for me! We managed to make it almost to the other side and then all I wanted to do was get off!!! But it was an awesome feeling to be up so high above the gorge and the views were amazing!

This weekend Mav and I are off to Colorado Springs!! Mav has a conference there next week and I am tagging along! We are staying at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, which looks like a gorgeous place to stay. Our 7th anniversary is next Monday (July 20th) - what a way to celebrate!!! Check out the resort we will be staying at: www.cheyennemountain.com

Here they are!!! I know that this is a massive slide show of battleship pics but I just couldn't decide which ones to leave out! My dad made the three battleships and my uncle Greg (pictured in some nice sunglasses) engineered the "Yellow Submarine." As you can see from the pictures, the guys had a really fun time and did their best to completely demolish the battleships! The next day, Epping held their Buffalo Trails Day parade and my dad and two uncles all participated. I know that Gary was very excited to drive the fire truck and was disappointed when he found out the sirens didn't work! And it was all about the candy for my dad...he bought two giant bags of tootsie rolls and enlisted some local kids to throw it out the windows of the car. It was a GREAT weekend!

Boys will be boys...

Happy 4th of July! We spent the majority of the day/early evening lighting off fireworks with friends and family. A bunch of our friends came over and had a blast throwing bottle rockets. I was just glad that they didn't start throwing them at each other! I have heard many stories of their bottle rocket wars...
Our annual (we missed a few in there somewhere) Navel battle is scheduled for next weekend and I am soooooo excited!! I can't wait to hang out with our family and friends. We are going to have so much fun blowing up the three battleships my dad has built and the submarine that my uncle contributed to the fleet this year!

Mav and I are sooo excited to start this blog (ok I am, not sure about Mav)! We have been so busy this summer and thought that this would be a great way for everyone to stay connected! The most exciting thing that has happened to us is that we have decided to start the adoption process! We are so excited to add to our family and are anxious to finish all the preparations for this process! We attended an adoption seminar in Fargo and have met with our social worker in Bismarck. We have started the home study process and have maybe two/three more meetings left before we are officially approved! Hopefully this blog will be a great way for everyone to stay posted on this exciting adventure and keep up to date on all of the other things happening in our lives!