Fourth of July!!

 On the fourth of July we went to Rock Ledge Ranch, a small ranch in COS that was putting on a fourth of July celebration.  They had a lot of educational/historic buildings and displays.  It was fun, but very hot (100 degrees) and not that stroller friendly, so we didn't last long.  I don't know if I'll go back, but we had a good time seeing it.  Here is General Washington in a Revolutionary War camp. The costumes and reenactments (and costumes!) were the best part.

 Here are Matthew and Anna inside one of the Revolutionary War area tents.

And playing old timey checkers.  I was mildly irritated that the stroller wasn't allowed in most of the buildings especially since it was so hot outside.  Oh well.

 At the hay ride wagon.  We didn't actually get to ride on it.

 At the blacksmith shop.

Matthew rides a plow (or something)

 The Victorian's (maybe?) playing croquet

 And Abraham Lincoln.  First he greeted the Civil War troops, then he met the Revolutionary troops (in this picture).  Worlds collide!!

 Checking out a teepee.  

Later we drove over to a nearby movie theater that overlooks The Air Force Academy.  The Academy was doing fireworks and we thought we could avoid some of the traffic if we watched from the theater - we also saw Cars 2 before the fireworks! 

Matthew and Anna getting ready!

 And Grant.  He stayed awake for the excitement.

 Here we are looking at the lights from the stadium...waiting for the fireworks to start.

The firework show was great!  Unfortunately we got mixed up in a lot of the Academy traffic and it took us about an hour to get home...and a lot of that was waiting in the parking lot.  :)  Part of the fun of Fourth of July!!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Grant!!

 

Grant turned 3 months old on Thursday!  He is getting so big!  He weighed in at the doctor today at 14 lbs, 13 ozs.  Just shy of 15 pounds!!  He likes to smile at people and blow bubbles.  He is also getting very grabby and likes to try and hold or grab things (like my hair) with his little hands.  And he loves watching what Matthew and Anna are doing.  He also likes sitting in Daddy's lap to play.  He's getting very social, which is a lot of fun.  He's such a sweet little baby, even when he's waking me up every hour for a night feeding.  I'm hoping he starts sleeping more at night soon.  :)  Happy 3 Months Grant!!

Pikes Peak Cog Railway

 We took a train to the top of Pikes Peak this weekend.  I'd never been up there before and the views were amazing.  The train ride was also a lot of fun, although I was getting a little tired of carrying Grant by the end of it.  He's growing big!  Pikes Peak is 14,110 feet tall and, as I found out, only the 31st tallest mountain in Colorado.  There are quite a few here that are 14,000 ft or taller ("fourteeners" they are called). But it's out there on the front range and really stands out.   We had great views of Colorado Springs from up there.  The train ride was about nine miles each way and pretty steep. 

Here are the kids standing by a model of the cogs on the train.
This was before we headed up.

Heading up.  This was the downside of the train.

And this was the upside.  That meant Grant, Ma2 and I had to try really hard not to fall into the laps of the people sitting across from us for most of the ride.

The scenery along the way was beautiful, although we couldn't see half of it very well.  And the train didn't turn around to go back down, so we had the same view coming and going, but it was still cool.

Scott held Grant for a while to give me a break.

More scenery going up

 And here we are at the top!!

Lots of views.

That's Colorado Springs way down there.
If you look closely you can see the red rocks of Garden of the Gods (lower left side) in a spot of sun.

I was feeling a bit lightheaded up there.

No trees up there 'cause it's above the treeline - permanently frozen ground a few feet below the surface prevents trees from growing above a certain elevation.  We discussed whether "treeline" or "timberline" was more commonly used.

We went in the summit house to use the bathroom (bathrooms work differently at 14,000 feet) and get some donuts.

And here we are enjoying our supposedly world famous Pikes Peak donuts.  They were pretty good.

And the ride back down.  Grant seemed happy about it!  The train ride was great and Pikes Peak was really beautiful!!

Cave of the Winds

 This weekend we went to Cave of the Winds near Colorado Springs.  It was busy but we were still able to get in there.  The caves were cool!!  Here are Matthew and Anna trying on some hats and getting ready to go in!

 The entrance

 Some pictures inside the caves.  As you can imagine, it was dark in there and hard to get a good picture.  Scott held Grant in the baby bjorn the whole time.  Grant was very good until the end of the tour, when he started screaming.  :(

 Matthew was so happy!

 There were a lot of low clearance places.  I like how Anna is also ducking, even though her head is well below the cave ceiling.  :)

 

Matthew likes this picture.  This is the hole people used to have to climb down to get in the cave.  Glad we don't have to anymore.  Looks treacherous.  

Scott and I were discussing that we have been in three **natural caves since we've been married and all of them with his parents.  We went to one in Okinawa called Gyokusendo (see pictures HERE).  That was a very wet cave.  The stalactites seemed to grow so fast they had to cut them off.  Or maybe they don't have the reverence for stalactites that we do here.  :)  We also went to Carlsbad Caverns together in New Mexico.  This was back when we were newly married and making our first military move together - Florida to California.  I didn't blog back then or take very many pictures, but here is one (below) of us in Carlsbad Caverns!  Exciting!

**We've also been in one man made wine cave and the underground caves used by the Japanese soldiers on Okinawa in WWII.

Caves are pretty exciting, huh?  More so if you are there.  We had a good time!

Flying W Ranch

Last year Anna had a cowboy/western birthday party and a few days before the party we found out we would be moving to Colorado, the real wild west!  And this past weekend we went to a chuckwagon dinner and a little western town called Flying W Ranch.  It was a lot like the Bar J Ranch that I've been to a few times in Jackson, WY, and sure enough, it turns out there are in some kind of chuckwagon association together.  It was so much fun!  I love anything western, so I loved it.  Here is Matthew practicing his cattle roping.

 And the rest of us watching.  It was a pretty area, right up against the mountains.  I guess everything in Colorado Springs is right up against the mountains.  :)

 Almost!

 And Matthew got one!

 Roping cattle, as it turns out, is pretty hard.  I was very impressed by the people there who could do it so easily.  None of us had too much luck, except Pa2 who was able to rope Matthew!  Pretty impressive!  And a moving target no less!  Disclaimer: no Matthews were hurt during this event.

 Here we are on the very little train that goes in a very small circle around the ranch.

 And by the teepee

 In the teepee!

 And here's Matthew getting a shoeshine courtesy of Ma2.

And all of us waiting for our shoeshines!

Grant slept through a lot of it, until dinner.  We had a nice chuckwagon dinner with BBQ beef.  BBQ chicken was also available, but looked down upon by the true blue chuckwagoneers (that might not be a word).  They also had for us, cowboy baked beans, a baked potato, strong cowboy coffee (or lemonade for the faint of heart or non-coffee inclined),  fresh biscuits and spice cake.  It was all very tasty and lots of fun!  Then they had a cowboy music program.  I thought I would know more of the songs, but I didn't.  I liked their instrumental ones the best.  It was a great time and hopefully we can go back sometime!

Major Guptill

Yesterday Scott was promoted to Major! He was selected to be promoted over a year ago (read about that HERE) but because of the backlog of promotions it took over a year for his line number to come up. But it finally did and he was officially promoted! Scott's parents were able to come into town for it, which was nice. The ceremony was at Scott's office and we weren't allowed to take cameras or cell phones in, so no pictures yet. A public affairs person took pictures for us, so hopefully we can get those soon. Scott's commander had lots of glowing things to say about him and it was a great day, and a well deserved promotion! Here are Scott and I after the fact. Hopefully more pictures to come soon! Congrats Scott!!