Mile High Fun

Denver welcomed us with sunshine and 60 degrees.  We were excited to bring the kids to Colorado - a new experience for all of them.  It was along our way home and far enough south (we thought) that we could avoid serious weather.

Denver is the home of the AFC champions and Super Bowl title hopefuls, the Denver Broncos - which was obvious as we stepped foot into Colorado.  Equally as fabulous, Denver is also the home

Aren't Kia and Rob cute?!

to our friends Danielle Chandler and Rob and Kia Alkema.  Danielle has ridden RAGBRAI (our bike ride across Iowa) with us for two years in a row now.  Rob and Kia work with Family Heritage like Travis and have been friends of ours for years.  Kia has an amazing life story and I hope she writes a book about it someday.  Rob and Kia's love story is beautiful and should also be written in a book.  We absolutely love all three of them and our children do now, too.

Danielle and Parker

Danielle is an amazing fifth-grade school teacher.  She's been a nanny.  She's traveled the world.  She loves biking and snowboarding and is now taking on rock climbing (like - with helmets and ropes and stuff).  She can be crazy when she wants to be.  She's got a good head on her shoulders.  She's beautiful.  Oh, and she's single. ;-)  The kids thought she was fun and funny.   My favorite part of Danielle is her high expectations of children...especially concerning manners.  I'm not sure when, as parents, we allowed our childrens' manners to slip away, but it was obvious as Danielle would encourage a "Please" or "Thank you."  I'm confident it's a reflection of our own etiquette as parents.  We've got work to do.

Saturday was 60 and sunny so we spent it outdoors at the Denver Zoo. 

Calla and the dramatic rhino

Similar to St. Paul's Como Zoo, it was in the middle of a city park.  More like our Minnesota Zoo, it was spacious and had lots and lots of animals.  Lincoln says his favorite was the cheetah because he runs as fast as a cheetah.  Calla and Travis like the hippos most.  One hippo put on a show as he drank the water from the wading pool as he stood in it, then urinated in the pool, drank more water, then stood in the fountain to shower for the audience.  Parker liked the zebras (there were two babies with one mom and two dads) and the wild horses (she always likes horses).  Taite's favorite was the gibbons.  He liked how they swung from the trees.  My personal favorite was listening to the

The elephant show

elephant trainer.  She talked about how important it is to reinforce good behavior and ignore bad behavior (or they might get crushed, literally).  It reminded me of our children's manners.  I find myself more often correcting a bad behavior instead of encouraging and praising good behavior.  Time to take a lesson from the elephant trainer!

The countdown to service

Saturday night was our family's second mega church experience.  A 45-minute drive from Kia, Rob, and Danielle's house, the nine of us drove to Flatirons Church located in a northern suburb of Denver.  Weekly attendance is about 13,000.  Similar to our experience at Eagle Brook Church in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, we were wow-ed with the lights, great music, a sincere and challenging message, and an incredible faith story.  At our fabulous home-church, Brookwood Community Church in Shakopee, Taite has about 10 kids in his third/fourth grade class on any given week.  At Flatirons the second/third grade class had

Flatirons Children's Ministry

close to 100 kids (for just this one of four services with children's programming).  There was a zip line and climbing wall in his class.  They did play time, music, teaching time, and more play time at the end.  Overwhelmed with the amount of kids and stimulation (and volume of the class), Taite looked like he was going to cry when he walked out of the room.  The room was crazy fun for most kids, but for Taite I think it was just crazy.

Usually Trip Advisor is our resource, but it just wasn't cuttin' it for Denver.  Instead I requested suggestions on Facebook. 

An attempt at a small climb

Thanks to a bunch of Denver guru's, we chose Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs for Sunday's beautiful weather excursions.  Garden of the Gods, originally named Red Rock Corral, received its name in 1859 by two (apparently pagan ;-)) surveyors.  One of them thought it would be a great place for a beer garden.  The other was awestruck by its beauty and said, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods."  It was amazing.  Anyone could see this 'garden' from miles and miles away.  We could see it from Pike's Peak.  The kids climbed as many rock formations as they could.  One can only get so far with regular tennis shoes and no climbing gear.  In fact, signs were posted everywhere that you had to have a permit to climb in most areas.  Danielle is planning to take on the challenge this summer.  We'll probably have a couple of kids join her someday.

Ten minutes to eat

Our arrival at Pike's Peak was timely - 3:00pm.  The summit shop closing hour is 4:00pm.  It's a 19-mile drive from the park entrance to the top.  At a posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour, we'd have to boogy to get there before 4.  We were warned at the entrance that it was quite windy on top that day.  We would have to open our windows once we hit the altitudes at the timberline or we might find ourselves either blown off the road or with a shattered windshield.  It was a perfect opportunity to review what

Photo at the top of Pike's Peak

we learned about air pressure at the Math and Science Center in Grand Junction just a few days earlier! 

Windy is one thing.  Cold and windy is another.  Were we back in Minnesota?  It was freezing!  Calla curled herself up into a little ball.  We could find no other option than to open the windows and crank the heaters to 90 degrees.  At the top, we got out, spent 11 seconds looking around, then ran into the summit building.  Some

19 degrees without windchill

snacks got left in the truck so I went back to retrieve them.  I had to cover my face so I could breathe - just like I do on exceptionally cold, windy days in Minnesota.  Ten minutes after our arrival they were kicking us out.  Danielle reminded us how quickly the weather can change on a mountain top.  She said you definitely don't want to be there after sunset.  Out of respect for the employees, we hurried ourselves out of the building.  Danielle offered to take our picture by the famous Pike's Peak sign.  I wanted to cry at the idea of sitting out in the freezing cold for a picture, but I put on my big girl panties for the photo memory.  (This was one of the many integral moments persuading us to not return to Minnesota.  We headed further south for a few more weeks.) 

Pike's Peak is one of 54 fourteeners in Colorado.  It's elevation is over 14,000 feet.  Over the years there have been many discrepancies over the exact height, mostly due to the measuring technologies.  Today it is 14,115 feet.  I've decided I'd like to hike a fourteener someday.  Since it wouldn't be her first rodeo, I'm sure I could talk Danielle into joining me.  And Taite. And Parker.

After Pike's Peak, we all returned to Danielle's to have a delicious dinner with Kia, Rob, their roommate Joe, and their friend and out-of-town guest Jill.  Jill is a hoot!  Lincoln thinks Jill is "super duper funny."  We all agree.  She had us in stitches every moment - especially as she explained to the kids how to make her famous taco turds (a delicious combination of ground beef, taco seasoning, your favorite taco veggies, and cheese all wrapped up in a croissant and baked).  Dinner, games, movie, popcorn, dessert.  Too much fun.  We tried to leave early, especially since Kia is about nine months pregnant.  She needs her sleep!

Our family had been looking forward to Monday ever since Travis reminded us that Focus On The Family resided in Colorado Springs - just over an hour from where we stayed in Golden.  We got up early, ate at Snooze on the way down (which was awesome and we highly recommend it!!!), and arrived at the Focus on the Family administration building at 9:50 for the 10am tour.  I started listening to Dr. Dobson's radio shows about 15 years ago and really enjoyed them.  A couple of years ago our friends, the Sime's, introduced us to Adventures in Odyssey (if you've read past blog entries you've seen me mention AIO).  On the campus was a Whit's End Soda Shop, a huge play area, a three-story slide, and a recording studio.  The kids loved having lunch and ice cream at Whit's End.  Even more, the big kids loved the giant slide (named A-BEND-A-GO ha!).  The younger kids enjoyed the climbing areas equipped with secret passages and all the AIO characters.  But most of all, everyone loved recording our own Adventures In Odyssey episode!  I was Jamie.  Taite was Casey.  Travis and Calla were Foley (sound effects).  Lincoln and Parker watched, mesmerized.  Taite was a natural Casey - someone more serious and down-to-earth.  Casey enjoyed and spent a lot of time sharpening pencils.  Jamie was energetic and adventurous.  She hopped on a coin operated horse and raced through the hills and mountains of the west escaping the Sheriff.  I could play that part.  Once we were done, the radio show editor, Rebecca, edited the show and burned a copy for us to take home!  How fun!

Danielle's 5th grade classroom

We left around three and met Danielle at her school.  We took a tour then went out to dinner at a great place called True Food.  SCRUMPTIOUS!!!  (Another restaurant we would highly recommended!)  We were so glad she took us there.  Once again, our time came to an end.  We'd be leaving Denver the next morning.  Big hugs all around.