Moving Out

It's finally happening.

We've slowly been circling in on this move.  Slowly.  I thought it would be here faster.  But the time has finally come.  I'm not eager to leave Colorado Springs, but once you know you are moving you kind of want it to get over with already so you can start settling in in a new place.  That's how I felt this time anyway.  The movers came this week to start packing our household goods.  I had a picture of Anna looking out the window when the movers brought our stuff to this house 2 1/2 years ago.  And here's Grant (who wasn't born when we moved in) watching them come to take our things.  See pictures from our move in HERE and HERE.

I took the kids to swim camp for most of the time the movers were here (they did the packing over two days and will load the truck tomorrow).  It left Scott to handle the packing alone, but I think he was more than equal to the task...especially without kids running around.  All the little people did want to inspect the work after it was done.

Every time we move I feel like I never want to buy another thing ever again.  Our family has grown a lot in Colorado.  When we moved here we had two kids, now we have four.  This is the only home Grant and John have ever had.  John is too little to care, but I hope Grant does o.k. with this transition, and the other kids as well.  And us adults too for that matter.  I'm glad the move is now underway...although it will still probably be over a month til we get into a house in Illinois.  We'll be living out of suitcases for a while.  :)  I don't even care about that.  I'm excited things are starting to happen and we get to take a little summer vacation in the middle of all the moving madness.

The Incline

One of the must do items on my list while we lived in Colorado Springs was to hike the Manitou Incline.  The incline is an infamous hike near Colorado Springs that goes one mile straight up a mountain.  It follows an old cog railway track and it is literally straight up the mountain.  It goes from about 6600 feet to 8600 feet in about a mile. Ouch. Yes, you can see the incline in this picture...and yes, we are going to the top of that mountain...but that is only two thirds of the way up.  You can't see the rest of it til you get over that false summit.

The trail is "extreme" because it is straight up and also because it already starts so high (the air is rare).  If you are a lowlander (living at or near sea level) you are going to suffer more than usual going up.  I thought I would be able to make it up without too much trouble 'cause I'm used to living at this altitude.  But it was still pretty hard.

I've been wanting to do this since we moved here but I have been pregnant or had a small baby the whole time we lived here.  Finally I just asked my friend to watch all the kids so Scott and I could go, and I'm so glad I did.  Here I am, at the trail head (also known as "the gates of hell"), ready to go.

 

Some scenery near the trail head.  It's near the trail head to Barr trail which is a trail up to Pike's Peak.

Scott ready to go.  He hiked it last week with my brother, John, so he knew what we were in for.  He brought camelbaks for both of us, but I didn't want to carry mine.  I realized quickly that I needed that water.  He shared with me.  Thanks Scott!

Here I am climbing up.  You can't read my exhaustion in this picture, but it was there.  Oh yes!  It was there.  Climbing this reminded me of labor a little bit...not in a good way.

Just keep swimming....

 Looking down from part way up.

 A little higher up

 And at the top!!

It was hard.  That's all I have to say about that.

You can see the trail all the way down to the parking lot.

Yeah, I just hiked that (vomit).

 Me and Scott

So glad we got to go together.

He waited for me all the times I had to stop and he let me drink his water.
Good man!

After a brief rest we headed down.  You aren't supposed to go down the incline...too dangerous.  You can take a more gradual trail down (about 2 1/2 miles).  Scott and I jogged down.  It was SOOO nice to jog downhill after that painful uphill.  Like running on a cloud.

And such beautiful scenery

I'm going to miss Colorado

King of the world!

It was great to be able to hike the incline.  Glad I got to do it.  

Matthew already wants to know when he can do it.  :)

 Here is a view of the incline from Peterson AFB.  You can see it in the middle of this picture as a big line straight up the mountain.  Fun times!

Dinosaur Ridge

We visited Dinosaur Ridge last weekend, near Denver.  It's a ridge in the foothills that has a lot of dinosaur artifacts.  Years ago they were buildilng a road up on the ridge and they found dinosaur bone fossils, fossils of dinosaur tracks and a lot of other fossils.  Now there is a little museum there and for a small fee you can take a tram up on the ridge to see the bones.  Here are the kids at the museum...look out!  There's a dinosaur right next to you!

 They had a little dig site for kids to excavate dinosaur bones.  The kids had a lot of fun with that.

 Grant checking out some colorful dinosaurs

In another dig area Matthew found a fossil (a copy of a fossil).  Any "fossils" they uncovered they got to keep and even got a little bag and a description of the kind of organism it was.

 I think Anna found a shark tooth

The ridge is closed to regular vehicles (just the museum tram and bikes can go up there) but you are allowed to hike it, and Scott found a good place to park where we could hike up and see most of the stuff without hiking too far.

 Here we are hiking up

It was a good thing there were signs showing some of the dinosaur bones, 'cause I wouldn't have picked them out on my own.

 More bones

The view from the ridge to a formation called Red Rocks (looking west).  They have a big outdoor amphitheater there somewhere.

 Anna looking toward Red Rocks

 An interesting rock formation.  We thought it looked like an egg.

 And a view from the other side of the ridge (looking east now)

Scott said on this side we have a nice view of the new condos going in...the other side was better.

 And walking back down

 If you want to see what a good Daddy looks like...here's one

Scott carried lots of children down the mountain.  I just pushed Grant in the stroller.  So Dinosaur Ridge was cool and I'm glad we got to see it and that we hiked up instead of taking the tram.

Colorado Train Museum

We visited the Colorado Train Museum last weekend.  Grant really likes trains so we were hoping he would enjoy it, along with the other kids.  It had a lot of old trains to climb on and look at.

 Ringing the bell on one of the trains

 Watching a little Thomas train drive around a track

 More model trains

 And here we are just exploring more trains at the museum

 This was a train snow plow/snow breaker.  It looks scary!

 Anna peaking out on some kind of engine

 Anna found where to put the coal

 Here is John along for the ride.  It was warm.

 On the little red caboose

 One of the old Pike's Peak Railway engines

 The Galloping Goose

We got to ride on this train.  The engine is a modified car...a very old one

 On board the goose

 Look at those cheeks!

We got to ride around on the Galloping Goose for a while

 Checking out a large model train display

 Resting after a busy day at the train museum.

Those cheeks again!

Here are the other kids having a snack after our train museum visit.

I'm glad we got to see it before we moved.