A Week with Family

 This is the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo where you can feed giraffes and get close to their faces (and tongues). It's really a cool way to view giraffes!
Dave and I were really impressed with this zoo. The animals, the education about elephants, the layout...it was all really cool.

 Grizzly bear!!!

Tokay Gecko

 One thing we loved was the reptile house. They made it into an art gallery with reptiles on display. Their goal was to help those people who are creeped out by fast crawling, slithering creatures. For the lizards they had colored sand and beautiful ceramic vases. For the snakes they had colored glass beads/gems and beautiful pottery in their cases.

 The children's zoo wasn't anything compared to the new one at Phila Zoo, but it was very fun with lots to climb on and play around. The kids had fun being spiderman while Dave was Dr. Doom.

We had a girls day where Marilyn, Lilia and I did a tour of Glen Eyrie Castle. It is currently the headquarters of The Navigators ministry, but they give out tours. The tour is worth every penny. The story is neat, but General Palmer, who built it, was unbelievable brilliant for his time. He put electricity in his castle the same time much of New York City was getting electricity.
The was followed by a tea. We had a great time sipping tea together and enjoying delicious sandwiches and treats.

We celebrated Dave's birthday also. Lilia iced cupcakes.
Dave, Al and Alex went to a minor league baseball game. They had a great time. Dave caught a foul ball and Alex got to keep it. They sat in the sun all morning, but by late afternoon the snow was falling.
Pete, Julie & Blake joined us for dinner at the Brindley's. As we sat around the dinner table eating the best salmon dinner I ever had, snow was falling outside and sticking to every surface. (pictured below)
Thankfully out there the air is so dry that the snow is melted by the next day. That was a relief with how long, cold and snowy our winter was back home!

Lilia and Alex loved hanging out with Lily the dog. They took her for walk, fed her, snuggled with her on the couch and taught her a jumping trick.

On Friday Pete took me snowboarding at Winter Park. Dave and the kids hung out at Julie's. The kids raked pine needles (their favorite chore) and played with all the dogs.
Winter Park is HUGE! Of course it's way bigger in height, but also in the number of trails. They probably have about 3x as many trails as we do on any given mountain.
The sign to the right said that our elevation was 10,806 ft. It was a little warm that day so the conditions weren't the best, but it was amazing getting to experience the mountain and enjoy boarding with Pete.

Overall we had a really great week! We loved getting to experience Dave's parents new life out in Colorado. They are connected to a really great church and love the lifestyle out there. I'm so thankful we had so much time with them! We also loved spending some good quality time with Julie, Pete and Blake!