June in Review

Also in June.......

What summer is all about
Relaxing somewhere outside with a good book is what summer is all about!!  Whether it be at a park, the pool or on CSU campus while Brody gets some work done, it's all the same!  And I've done lots of it so far.

Beautiful sunset

One of the things I miss most about Cache Valley are it's gorgeous sunsets.  We don't get them too often here in Colorado, but I'm always happy when we do!

Nacho bar
We had a fun time one evening with our friends when we decided to have a "Nacho Bar" for dinner at the park.  We brought chips, nacho cheese and an array of toppings including meat, sour cream, salsa, olives, jalapenos, etc.  I was in charge of the dessert, so I chose dessert nachos!!  It seemed pretty fitting.  Dessert Nachos are made from cinnamon/sugar tortillas with toppings like ice cream, chocolate and carmel sauce, strawberries and bananas.

Played a round of croquet while at the park

Me, Chelsey, Nicole & Piper

Drive-In Movie
We headed to the drive-in one weekend with the same friends.  You have to get there at least 3 hours before the movie starts to avoid waiting in a monstrous line, so we brought dinner and games to keep us occupied while we waited.  It was fun to watch the sunset while we were there as well.

Cool bathroom
I took the kids I nanny for to a park one day and discovered the most awesome bathroom!!  Certainly the fanciest park bathroom I'VE ever seen!

Evening Walks
The evenings this month have been the perfect temperature for a walk around the neighborhood.  We've been talking Sal for lots of walks and sometimes we go with our friends Nicole & Casey, the dogs Salomon & Foxy and of course their adorable baby girl Piper.  I'm so glad they are still up for anything, even after having a baby!

Anberlin concert
Went to a concert at a small venue here in town one night called the Aggie Theater (because CSU used to be the Aggies!)  A few weeks prior, we just happened to drive past this venue and when I saw that Anberlin was coming June 27th for only $16, I immediately bough tickets for both Brody and I.  Anberlin is one of my favorite bands, I would say in the top 10 for sure.  They were fabulous live, and we really enjoyed the 2 bands that played before them as well.

It was fun to sip on a Coke and listen to great music all night.


Crazy storm
We had a crazy storm one night that only lasted an hour or so, but it got pretty intense in that one hour.  We were driving home from visiting our friend in the hospital who just had a baby (Chelsey - the one I threw a shower for a few weeks ago).  We were on the freeway during the worst of it.  It started hailing like I've never seen before.  They were golf ball sized and coming down extremely fast and hard for a solid 7 minutes or so.  I thought for sure they were just demolishing the car (we were in our Casey & Nicole's car), but luckily there was no harm done!  It was so loud and it built up about 4 inches of slush on the road instantly.  Here's the video I took while that was going on.... {also with footage of driving through a huge puddle}

When we finally exited the freeway, we saw flooded roads, braches scattered everywhere and power lines down.  It was quite the little freak storm!  When we got home, I grabbed my rain coat and umbrella and went out and played in the river that was rushing down our street.  I just love storms!

I also managed to snap a photo of lightening!!  (OK, it wasn't as easy as just "snapping" a photo - it took about 70 tries, 68 to be exact, before I got it - but it was totally worth it!)

Bath time
And last of all......... you guessed it - a picture of Salomon!!  Getting a bath this time.  Summer baths (including a hose, the backyard and flip flops) are soooo much better than winter baths (including the tub, filling up a cup 1,000 times, and wet bathroom rugs -- maybe we need to invest in one of those shower hoses).

Weekend in Colorado Springs

We spent the weekend in Colorado Springs with our friends Michael & Christie (and Jon & Carrie for part of it).  They both grew up in the area, so they knew all the good spots to take us!

We started off by visiting a little town called Manatou Springs -- which was kind of like a mini Sedona.  We walked around the shops, ate lunch at a quaint little European cafe and drank straight from one of the natural springs.

Cool buildings/art

Next we headed to Garden of the Gods, which was awesome!!  It's just a place with a ton of interesting, natural rock formations.  We were planning to climb a few of those rock formations and we came ready with all our gear and everything, buuuuut it had been raining off and on all day, so we decided it probably wouldn't be the safest idea to climb on wet rock.  It did, however, make for perfect temps while we were walking around looking at all the sights.

Carrie, Jon, Me, Brody, Christie, Michael

This rock is called "kissing camels" but to me it looks more like a camel kissing a triceratops

{a lot of these pictures are just different views of the same rock formation -- but they look cool from all angles}

Pike's Peak is a famous "14-er" of which there are many in the state of Colorado - it just means it's over 14,000 feet tall
The incline (located to the right of the caption) is also pretty famous in this area - it's basically just a path of stairs leading straight up the mountain
The crazy switchbacks aren't anything special, I just thought they looked cool

Balancing Rock

After that we checked out the Broadmoor Hotel, which is a very famous, very fancy and very EXPENSIVE hotel located in Colorado Springs.  It's a 5-star, 5-diamond rated hotel (wikipedia explains it like this: Hotels and restaurants that are considered to be the "best of the best" receive a "Five-Diamond rating" In 2011,^[17] out of more than 60,000,^[18] 124 hotels and 55 restaurants received the Five-Diamond rating. Only three have consecutively made the list for 35 years  --  The Broadmoor was one of them.)  They had everything there, including over 700 rooms, their own water park, bowling, 18 restaurants, a pond with ducks and paddleboats, a spa and 3 golf courses.  It was like it's own little community!  Just for fun, we looked up to see how much the rooms are.  The tiniest tiny of rooms is $300 per night but most are in the range of $500- AND, get this, they are completely booked until November!!  A lot of famous people have stayed there too, they have an entire hallway with pictures of all of them, including every President from the last 5-6 Presidencies, actors, athletes and everyone in-between.

A mama duck and her babies!!  {and I think that couple on the bench are making out}

This next picture is a view of the Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker - which is exactly what it sounds like.  Inside that mountain is a command center built to withstand a 30 megaton nuclear explosion.  No joke.  I'm not making this up.  I swear.  Go google it if you don't believe me.  Here, I'll do it for you, how's that?  ;)  So.... if you ever find yourself in the midst of a nuclear war, head to Colorado Springs :)  They don't let anyone get near it, so this is the only picture I have.

The next morning, we took the dogs to a really cool, beautiful park and walked around on the trails for a while.

Isn't this the most beautiful park you've ever seen!?

A view of Pike's Peak

{side note -- this park is located in the Black Forest, which was on fire just a few weeks ago.  It wasn't the largest fire there ever was, but it was the most destructive in Colorado history.  It burned more than 500 homes!! So sad for the people who live in this area}

{side note #2 -- I just realized that this post is full of links!!  Sorry about that.... Or maybe it's a good thing?  I can't be sure}

It was a very fun trip and I'm glad we were able to make it work!!

Camping at Red Feather Lakes

I had a week-long break between my job at the Elementary School and my nannying summer gig and I was reeeeeally hoping to take advantage of the time off and go on a 3 day road trip to some awesome location here in Colorado, but sadly, Brody's new job put a stop to that whole idea. They were so indecisive and unclear about when he needed to come in and fill out paperwork for the background check and when he would ACTUALLY start working (that's the government for you - I guess I'm not surprised), that it just ruined any chance of leaving for 3 days at a time.  I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that I was sad.  Maybe more sad than I needed to be.  But I got over it eventually

So instead, we settled for a quick (less than 24 hours) camping trip to Red Feather Lakes (which is just an hour away).  And as soon as I got over my disappointment about the original plan, I had a lot of fun.  It was super pretty up there, so that would help lift anyone's spirits! (And Brody was really sweet about the whole thing and did everything he could to make me happy, so that helped too!)

When we got there, we set up camp.  We found a great spot -- it was very open with not too many trees (which I don't love) but our site was probably the most secluded (which I DO love).  It was up on a hill with a little ridge surrounding it, so we couldn't see anyone else.  We even had to park our car at the bottom of the hill, so it really felt like we where completely on our own.  {the pile of sticks laying all around are trees that have been killed by pine beetles}

Next, we enjoyed a hiked through the meadows near Lady Moon Lake

 

Salomon, of course, was in doggy heaven

I was kind of obsessed with this little rocky mountain

 

Just sittin on a rock

A balancing boulder - we were I was scared that it was going to come toppling down on us at any moment

Aspen trees are my favorite!

I loved the contast of the dark green pine trees with the light green aspens. Soooo pretty!

After that, we headed back to the campsite for a delicious tin-foil dinner

At sunset, we went for a walk around West Lake (where we camped) and then spent the rest of the evening playing games, sitting by the fire enjoying good company and beautiful scenery.

We had a great time and really enjoyed this specific camping location, so I have a feeling we'll be back soon!