Garden of the Gods

Back in April, Cory's mom and sister visited us. We visited a bunch of places, one of them being Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods, with a short visit to the nearby Manitou Springs.

After Garden of the Gods, we decided to fill up our little tummies with some...wait for it... Rudy's BBQ! Is anyone shocked? Whenever we go to Colorado Springs, we have the idea that we may try some place new and just end up at Rudy's. The meat is so dang good! How could we not stop and eat there?

Then we headed to Manitou Springs. It's a little town with a cute downtown area. They had a bunch of little shops and a penny arcade, which Chloe loved the most.

For some strange reason, I am either really good at getting pictures of what we do or I forget all together. There's no in between. So this is the only picture that I got in Manitou Springs, Chloe riding the helicopter. She loved it.

In Colorado, there are so many wildfires, including in the Colorado Springs area. As of Sunday, Manitou Springs was evacuated. It's sad that so many people are displaced from their homes and possibly losing their homes to the fires. If you think about it, you can pray for rain, the people fighting the fires and all the people who have been evacuated.

Snow!

When we found out we were moving to Colorado, there were a lot of things I was looking forward to. But, in the top 5 was snow. I love everything about it, except getting a toddler dressed in snow gear. I think plenty of parents would agree.

The other weekend we had the biggest snowfall since we have lived here...22 inches. It was AWESOME! I loved it. Cory stayed home and worked, Chloe and I played in the snow, then watched movies, drank hot chocolate (or as Chloe would say, "hot chwoklate") and ate snow.

More snow is coming this week, according to the weatherman, but it's probably only a light snowfall. Hopefully there will be at least one more big snowfall before spring really hits.

Mini Photo Session

I have been wanting to do a mini photo session with Chloe in Colorado. And, the opportunity came when I had my parents' camera and few minutes before going to dinner with friends. I found a little spot near a school. I am always surprised at the amount of open space Colorado has between all the housing developments. I am also enjoying the amount of open sky in these pictures.

I love seeing Chloe tromping around the field with her tan body and chubby arms.

Yay, I finally figured out how to change the size of pictures on blogger. I'm learning more and more about this whole web formatting thing-a-ma-jig.

Bellview Park

A long, long time ago, in July...

Chloe and I went to Belleview Park with some friends. The park was lots of fun for the kids. It has a stream where the kids could play, dig and catch the occasional water creature. I had fun too, but the heat is a real downer for me. God did not create me to enjoy extreme heat, and by extreme, I mean warm for most people. Once it hits 80 degrees, it's hot. If it goes above 85, I will be hiding inside the air conditioning.

Chloe loved playing in the sand. I didn't love cleaning it up for days.

The park also had a petting zoo and a small train ride. Petting zoo and a really hot day doesn't mix well, so we went with the train ride. Of course Chloe loved it. I think it was her first train ride.

Chloe has discovered how to make her silly face, a.k.a. akward pictures. Oh well, this is a good remember of her and what she thinks is funny at this time in her life.

Speaking of "this moment in time", this is another phase Chloe is in...her cheese face. I think it's cute, but not cute enough to be in all pictures.

If you are wondering where Cory is, he wasn't around too much this summer because of his work travel schedule. I felt a bit like a single mom at times, but am glad I'm not. When Cory was home, we just wanted to chill as a family and didn't take many pictures of us lounging around in our dark apartment, wearing pajamas, and trying to avoid the heat.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Earlier this summer we took a trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in Colorado Springs, with some friends. This was Chloe's first zoo experience. Unfortunately, Cory was out of town at a camp so he missed out. The night before we went, I told Chloe we were going to the zoo and she was like, what in the world are you talking about crazy lady, what's a zoo? Once we arrived the next day, it took about 30 seconds for her to understand what the zoo was.

Chloe pretending to be a spider in her web, or me trying to get her to pretend.

Chloe with her best Colorado friends, Maddie and Taylor. I can't remember what kind of eggs they were, maybe turtle eggs?

Eww... BIG. NASTY. FISH. I hate fish, they are disgusting, but some are tasty.

So, that was part of our trip to the zoo. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of myself or any other adults or animals. Hmmm... I'll work on that.