Bear with me as I catch up on blogging. Throughout the next few blog post you'll see that we've had a lot going on the past few months. As if having a baby wasn't enough, we added several visitors, vacations, holidays and a deployment in the mix.
The Army graciously provided us with two weeks of block leave around Thanksgiving this year. We opted to spend one of those weeks in Colorado, since this would be our last vacation as a family of three, and before Shane deployed. It was a great trip! The first few days we spent in Colorado Springs visiting the Olympic Training Facilities, Focus on the Family, Air Force Academy, Garden of the gods, and the two males went to a World War II aviation museum together (while I shopped!). Then we made our way through a snowstorm to Vail, Colorado to stay with and visit family, and for Shane to ski a few days.
The Olympic Training Center had a really interesting tour. We watched Olympians train in the weight room, swim in the Olympic size pool, and got an up close look at several of their gymnasiums. It was a neat facility and history of the olympics.
Matthew, like his parents, enjoyed several nights at a Embassy Suites during our vacation. We love their huge cooked-to-order breakfast, 2 bedroom suites, and happy hour reception in the evenings. Staying in Colorado Springs and Denver marked Matthew's 6th & 7th cities to stay at Embassy Suites; he thinks he is a pro at hotel living.
We all enjoyed seeing and playing in Whit's End at Focus on the Family! Shane and I also enjoyed watching videos of their history, and visiting the large gift shop, all while reminiscing about listening to Adventures in Odyssey when we were growing up.
Although it was freezing and windy we visited the the Air Force Academy. We mostly wanted to see their famous and beautiful cadet chapel, however, we lucked out and were there during the cadets lunch formation. Shane watched intently talking about how he loved being on "this" side of things - post graduation. He said he endured plenty of the freezing lunch formations during his four years at West Point. It was interesting nonetheless, and brought back memories of our dating throughout his military academy experience, and when my brother attended the Air Force Academy many years ago.
The next stop was Garden of the gods. We decided to take a slow driving tour of the Gardens instead of taking walking trails around during that cool November day. The red rocks, and views of pikes peak were beautiful.
While Shane spent two days skiing Vail Mountain, Matthew and I did the walking tour of both Vail Village and Beaver Creek with my cousin Andrea and her children. The weather was cold, but the buildings and scenery were gorgeous. Although toting around a 1 year old in his ski jacket, while being 8 months pregnant in the cold/snow proved to be a challenging task; thank goodness for my wonderful husband and our great family who helped a tremendous amount! We enjoyed every minute of our vacation to Colorado and will cherish those fun memories while we are apart.
