Estes Park

Two weekends ago we visited Estes Park with Dan & Kristin, our new friends!

The picture above is on our way into the park, isn't it beautiful?

The four of us at the trail head.  We hiked about 7.5 miles and saw two beautiful lakes and a waterfall!

The first lake above is Mills Lake

Again, Mills Lake.

I guess the second lake looked about the same so I'm not including any of those photos.

This little day excursion is just one of many reasons we LOVE living in Colorado and why it's such an amazing place.  During the day we went hiking we had to leave Wrigley home alone for a looooong time.  We felt so bad but he actually did great and seemed fine when we got back home.  Since this was more than a week ago I just can't remember anything else worth noting, sorry!

God is good!

Hey All!  We just had a new friend over for a game night and we just really like her and just wanted to say so :-)  Thanks friend.

Last weekend we went on a beautiful retreat southwest of Colorado Springs.  The Chaplain's office sponsored the retreat and paid for all the expenses for anyone from Schriever and their families.  It was a weekend of blessings.  We took the beautiful drive through the mountain range near C.S. and arrive at the camp.  The weekend involved great food, little kids, the outdoors, a little game time, hot tub, sagging beds, beautiful wood lodge, some Mad Gab!, a horseback ride, new friendships, wilderness, climbing wall, bowling and some peace and quiet times.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to get away on a free retreat and know that the Chaplain's office worked hard to put this together for us.

Sadly our camera battery died so we only have a few pictures.  This is the beautiful mountain we could see from the camp called Horn Peek.

Excited for our trail ride

Jeremy & David taking each other on in a pillow fight on a tree trunk?!

Dorothy: There's no place like home, there's no place like home!

We have had a great weekend thus far! On Friday we had the day off together and took the opportunity to hike on the Air Force Academy base. They have beautiful paths and hikes to go on. The path we took went to a reservoir but after hiking two hours I wanted to head back! Wrigley loved every minute and didn't get tired while we were hiking.

Here we are in our AF hats!

Among other events of the weekend we were planning on going to the 32nd annual Balloon Classic. A yearly event where about 65 air balloons all take off near a lake together in the Springs. The event happens every morning during Labor Day weekend and in the evenings they do a balloon glow where they light up a ton of balloons on the ground.
David's boss let his office know her dad flies one of the balloons and we could meet up with them and maybe help with chasing the balloon when they were going to land. We were SO blessed by her dad Jim who actually took us up in the air!!! We were able to be with him in the balloon for about an hour, it was amazing.

Since there are so many balloons they take flight in waves. The first wave gets their balloons blown up and then take off. Sometimes it gets a little crowded!

Here I am helping pull the balloon out as it blows up.

1. Get in the balloon as it's being blown up and take a picture with the two Captains!
Actually Jim (balloon captain!) is retired AF and flew B-66's in Vietnam. He is having a reunion with AF buddies this coming weekend and about 4 of them were in town for this event.

2. You are told you get to ride and you should get in the basket!

Funny thing, we saw the balloon that was flying over our house a few weeks ago in this post! Here it is above.

Here is part of the first wave of balloons getting ready to take flight.

Part of this festival the balloons can touch the lake so as we were touching the lake I took another picture of other balloons getting ready to launch.
The funny looking balloon is actually the Noah's Ark balloon.

We were able to catch the wind just right and touched the water, went very high and went down and touched the water again. The crowd loves it and cheers whenever the baskets dunk in the water! We just had a blast doing this.

From the other direction the balloons go with the wind. There is no way to direct the balloon except for up and down. Landing can be very interesting.

After the flight we tailgated with the crew. There was a ceremony for first-time fliers (us!) where they told us a story of how hot air ballooning started. Then, we were told to get on our knees and drink champagne out of a paper cup without our hands. Well, while we were bending over to get our drinks with our teeth, people behind us poured champagne over our heads!!! It was a fun way to end a great morning.

The Jump

I've always wanted to skydive....so when the opportunity to skydive for $15 came around, I was all over it. The Chaplain's office on base sponsored this morale boosting trip, and a few of us from the legal office went. There were probably 60 of us total. Anyways, it was a great time...we went up to Denver and jumped with Mile Hi Skydiving. Check out this video from their website.

It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Having a man strapped to my back was probably the scariest part. Actually, walking up to the door and making myself jump out of a moving airplane was quite scary. But the freefall, which lasted about 50 seconds, was incredible. You don't get the rollercoaster stomach feeling, which is weird. After we pulled the ripcord, we did some twirls and got up to 2 Gs, which was more of a stomach-wrenching experience, but also very exciting. Overall, it was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat (especially if its $15).

On the ride to the plane.

Getting ready to land.

Jeremy and his fam.

Legal team represents!

Shane & Shane

Last night we went to a beautiful concert/worship thing with Shane & Shane.  If you don't know who they are you should get to know them!  They are two amazing artist who have written so many beautiful love songs to Jesus.  I don't know how to post a song from them but I'll let David help me do that later (or you can click on their names above)!

It was a really beautiful concert in many ways.  First, it was at the Navigators headquarters here in Colorado Springs and the concert was held in a castle!  Second, it was a very intimate setting with only six rows of people across the room.  Third, they write beautiful music!  Forth, we ran into someone we've met before!  She didn't have anyone she came with so she joined us! The headquarters is nestled right amongst the Garden of the Gods and it's just beautiful there with all the jutting out red rocks.

The one thing that got super frustrating about the night was the people in front of us.  Now, don't get me wrong... I think affection is beautiful when used in the right context and in the appropriate amount.  But, the couple in front of me where literally petting each others heads, scratching each other's back and rubbing each other's shoulders... the whole concert!!  Why!?!?!  I was getting so annoyed I had to leave the room one time to refocus so I could enjoy myself.  I honestly don't mean to offend anyone but, it's like when you're at church and that annoying couple in front of you act like they can't wait to get home and attack each other!  Also, the guy was obsessed with his iPhone and took either video or pictures for the first hour.  I understand liking a band but when it comes to the point of ruining and obstructing someone else's view ect. it needs to stop.  Man, this generation needs to get a grip!

Okay, I'm done ranting.  I really did enjoy the evening but those few things were just a little over the top for me.

Look for David's next post... it will be pictures of something he is doing literally right now that is adventurous, dangerous and totally up his ally.  We'll be excited to share!

Special Visitors

This past week my mom and sister came to town!!! It was a fun and busy week. The weather was kind of gloomy all week, and both David and I were busy at work, but I think they had a good time inspire of the busyness. They went hiking at the Crags, quasi-camped, they went to Focus on the Family, the Olympic Training Center, the Garden of the Gods, visited the Air Force Academy, hiked the Incline, shopped, visited us at work, watched the Olympics and spent some quality time with us during the evenings. Here are some pictures from the week:

My mom and I on the Crags hike!

Quasi camping which means we cooked and hung out but didn't have to sleep in a tent!

Sister and me :-)

They are gone and we miss their company. One special thing about my sweet family is that they are good at loving me! They left about 15 cute little notes around the house for David and I telling how much they love and appreciate us. Thanks girls, we love you and can't wait for the next visit.

Best Weekend Yet!

First of all... We've been seeing a lot of these fly over our neighborhood. Strange but pretty. What would they be looking at over here on the East side of town?! I did find out that an annual hot air balloon event is taking place on Labor Day weekend.

So, Friday we went camping! It was so much fun. We had a beautiful campsite with a creek right next to our tent and we could see no one else around! It was so much fun, we had great food and Wrigley had a blast and was totally in his element.

Here's Kel cookin' some yummy desert. Mmmmm :-)

David & Wrigs sitting by the fire enjoying the outdoorsOn our way home on Saturday there was a small town with a cool name, so we decided to stop. The town was about to have a parade so we stayed and enjoyed the show and candy.

Here's Darth Vadar & some other Star Wars guy.

One of our favorites was this guy on stilts with a teen tiny little dog!
Later in the day we went to the new Batman movie at the iMax theater near our house. It was really good. On Sunday we enjoyed church, meeting a few people at church (!!!!!) and REI. Great weekend and so much fun.