Air Force football is an experience like no other. From singing the Air Force song to the Wings of Blue jumping onto the field, it’s one of the more inexpensive NCAA football experiences.
We couldn’t help ourselves. The family got season tickets for Air Force Academy football. It was hard not to. We were interested in just one or two of the games this season, but when we saw the prices for single game tickets vs. season tickets, it was more cost effective to just get the season tickets. Especially when those season tickets include games against Notre Dame and Army.
Dave took the boys to their first USAFA game over Labor Day weekend while I was in Nebraska, but this past Saturday I had my own first experience.
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad takes you behind a steam locomotive through otherwise-uninhabited parts of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
For Dave’s birthday, our family took an overnight trip to the quiet town of Antonito, Colorado for a trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
More Americans will have heard of other Rocky Mountain tourist railroads, such as the Rio Grande Scenic, the Royal Gorge, or the very-well-known Durango & Silverton. I personally haven’t been to any of those other tourist railroads, but they’re all located in bigger cities/towns/communities than the two endpoints of the C&T: Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. The Cumbres & Toltec is a narrow gauge railroad and is absolutely spectacular and takes you through some VERY uninhabited parts of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
The endless fields of wild sunflowers helped keep me company on my drive to Nebraska in August. The profuse rains in eastern CO this summer have really made the area bloom. As you can see, otherwise I have nothing to look at.
Yep, we’ve been busy! For most of the month of August, I’ve been playing hostess to a litany of contractors as we are aggressively trying to complete our basement. At the end of the month I went to Nebraska for 1 1/2 weeks of work. While I was there I completed (and passed!) one of my numerous Air War College essay tests.
Okay, so I’m a little behind. A couple days after the boys’ started school, I had to go for a 10-day trip to Nebraska (more about that later).
In an ideal world I’d have loved for the boys to dress up some for the first day of school, but (a) I have sons, not daughters who are more likely to dress up and (b) kids simply don’t dress up for the first day of school the way they used to. I feel like a won a battle (not the war) with their at least wearing “nice” shorts.
Our family took a leisurely drive in the Mustang with the top down. We didn’t set a location precisely, but ended up in Cripple Creek, Colorado, a very quiet little mining town that’s filled with casinos.
There’s a tourist railroad in Cripple Creek, called the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. Trains leave every 40 minutes and take tourists on a 45 minute ride. We didn’t plan to stay long enough for a train ride, but we enjoyed looking around at the depot.
You know what else is cool, the railroad is pet friendly! When we come back to ride it we fully intend to bring Howie!
Otherwise, Cripple Creek has numerous small casinos and little else. The state voted to allow gambling in Cripple Creek in 1991. The town is tiny. It was tough to find a place for lunch in the area…most of the restaurants are in the casinos. But we did find a burger joint on called The Creek on Bennett Avenue (the main drag), that was pretty good. Dave had an elk burger which he testified was pretty darned good.
The kids have mixed feelings about having the top down. So long as we aren’t going too fast, they really enjoy it.
There are so many places to go hiking throughout Colorado Springs. I’ve made it a point to get the kids out and about 3-4 times per week this summer. The City of Colorado Springs parks and recreation website has a great listing of area parks, which is the best starting point when planning your day.
The boys would often get tired after these hikes. Jacob has recently revealed that he can’t stand “desert walks”, which we encountered on most of these hikes. We’d quickly go from aspen-kissed creek beds to sandy junipers and pear cactus. I had found a couple memes to make fun of these hikes. Here’s one that sums up Jacob attitude about the more desolate parts of our hikes…and here’s one that sums up the bike ride we took last week (which I don’t have any pictures of, and it was quite traumatic for all…so we’ll pretend that it didn’t happen).
Enjoy some photos from some of the hikes we’ve done lately….
Pulpit Rock is in the middle of Colorado Springs. We took a short walk around the base of the rock, but it was storming around us. We didn’t last long.
Our family took a day trip to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. A Facebook advertisement featuring wolves from the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center? visiting for the day got my attention. The boys were immediately interested.
Who needs a Fathead? For the cost of a single Fathead we were able to do most of this with Jacob’s room.
Each time we move, we try to come up with ways to make the PCS appealing for the boys. You know, something to look forward to. In the past we have given them gifts, and we’ve also given the boys some liberties with decorating their bedrooms.
(Truth be told, the boys absolutely love it here…they’re really enjoying the hiking and the views of the mountains from throughout our house.)
For the past two houses we were in rentals, so we weren’t able to do much with the bedrooms, but in our current house we let them have a little fun. We told the boys they could come up with a theme with which we’d be willing to paint the room. They quickly agreed on baseball-themed rooms.
I’m just sharing some You Tube videos I had taken of Timmy’s class’s “Patriotic Performance”. It’s a tradition with the school’s 2nd grade classes. Sadly, the school is so large you can’t get all the 2nd grade classes to perform on the stage at once…nor can you get that many kids’ parents/grandparents into the room to see it. There are four classes performing in these videos.
I think there were over 300 second grade students at Timmy’s school. Nearly 1000 students in all for grades K-2.
In case you’re wondering, yes, the air is VERY thin up there! I don’t know why I wasn’t wearing my jacket. I had one with me.
On July 10th my mom brought the boys to Colorado for us. They were staying in West Virginia so they wouldn’t have to endure the pain of the four-day westward drive.
I think they would have been okay on the long drive, but only because they would have been immersed in DVDs and their Nintendo DSs.
We got tickets for the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway during the weekend my mom stayed with us. It’s a great way for anyone to get up to the top of one of Colorado’s “Fourteeners.”
