This, that, and life's joys: CO pix

We had an awesome time in CO. I'll just go back through day by day and give the highlights. Let's see. Before we even left our flight got cancelled and we were re-routed through Chicago. I was trying to avoid Chicago but that's where we ended up. It wasn't too bad though. It was snowing when we got there. We were afraid we might get kicked off the plane, or at least separated, because we were laughing so much through the safety spiel. "If you come to an exit sign, you have come to an exit."

R picked us up and we went to her house for lunch and met the cats and ferrets. I'll have to get some pix or vids of the ferrets uploaded. Then we went to the riding stable that she volunteers at for special needs kids. She is a "side-walker" or horse leader, depending on what they need. JT volunteers occasionally too.

Thursday we went to the base and had some "name tapes" made for ourselves/our children. I got J a real army hat and his own name tape made for it. He loves it. G got one for one of her boys and K doesn't have kids so she got her own name to go on some army stuff that someone gave her. I think she got a hat too.

On our way there we were quite taken with the prairie dogs that live on the side of the road. I was snapping pics like crazy and had no idea what I might get. R doesn't slow down for anything! Can you see them? The little mounds are their homes. They are close to the fence. They are so cute when they poke their heads up and look around.

That afternoon we went to Garden of the Gods. It was a place where native americans came to worship, thus the name. The rock formations are awesome, like God just squeezed stuff up between His hands.

Yup, R was with us.

"The Ladies," though R didn't think we were always ladylike. Ha!

It was starting to get cloudy.

This pic reminds me of our own Smoky Mountains but the Smokies are less than half as tall as Pikes Peak.

Pics don't show the magnitude of the formations. This is leaning back and looking up. Birds live in the holes. If you look closely you can see the evidence of that.

This formation is called "Kissing Camels".

Closer up to the camels.

More formations at Garden of the Gods.

I love how the clouds are settled into the mountains here. You can see the mountains just above and behind the clouds.

Friday morning we headed to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Railway up Pikes Peak. We could only go 6 of the 9 miles because of the snow, which is what we did last year. It was snowing and the town looked like a Swiss Alps town. The trees were flocked with snow and it was beautiful.

It was on every detail.

We eventually got above the clouds and it was bright and sunny. The push pin looking thing is on the window of the train. It's not part of the scenery.

We got above the tree line, too. (That's someone's hat in the bottom of the pic. These were all taken from the train, through glass.)

We did stop and get out part of the way back down.

Same spot, looking up the tracks.

After the train we walked around and shopped in Manitou. R and I made the other two try the spring water. I was a good sport and drank some with them. I think they both gagged on it but you just can't go there and not try it. It's bizarre.

On Saturday we went into Denver to meet my nephew and his wife for lunch. They had been skiing and wanted to see R and JT before they flew home. JT was on call so he couldn't come but we met them and went to lunch. Then we did some shopping at Old Colorado City. A lot of the shops were closing so next time (ha!) we want to spend more time there.

We flew home on Sunday after being thoroughly checked in security. My jelly was confiscated along with K's hair spray. G got through just fine. We must have been quite entertaining to those on the planes with us. People kept sneaking looks and smiling and laughing. Maybe they thought we were famous or something. I'm sure it had nothing to do with our laughter and comments. K got extra cookies and a nickname of "Miss Pink" from one of the flight attendants. Ladies, king me!!! Discharge!!! And the rest of what happened in CO, stays in CO.

It was cold when we left CO and warm in TN. Yesterday we had some severe storms, tornado warnings and LOTS of rain. This is behind the store where I work. That's the river on the rise.