Go PSU...smelling the roses...

Alexis enjoyed watching the awesome Penn State game on Saturday. She insisted on putting on PSU cheerleader outfit, which is a 2T, but she can still squeeze into it (you can just see her belly button now...). Alexis then decided to do some more interpretive dancing in her outfit...who let the dogs out...I think she is doing the cha cha, but Eric thinks it is the cabbage patch... (sorry it is sideways - I couldn't figure out how to rotate a video file...)

SNOW!!!

We had our first official snow here in Denver last Friday Nov. 14th - it was 1/10 of an inch but it counted...we almost broke the record of Nov. 20th for the first day of snow. Alexis was so excited...she said "THE SNOW IS EVERYWHERE...EVERYWHERE..." She had to go out and "play" in it before she left for school...believe it or not, this snow was completely gone by noon...Alexis said "IT ALL MELTED..." Not enough snow yet for skiing, but Alexis can't wait to go...maybe by Christmastime... Alexis put on mommy's new snow boots...they went all the way up her leg and she thought it was funny...

The weekend was cold so Alexis asked for her ladybug tent to be put up...it hasn't been up because there is just no room...SO, it went in the only space available in the living room and we tripped over it all weekend (it is now in the basement spare bedroom...). Alexis invited the dogs in to play...she lured them in with cheese and then they wanted to stay...

Giving out the cheese...

Well, Bailey grabbed for it and knocked Alexis over...

So Bailey got kicked out of the tent...

And Alexis read a Dora story to Schnapps...

By the way, Bailey was allowed back in later and the dogs liked to sleep in there during the day...

Pikes Peak

Then we headed down to the bottom of Pikes Peak to catch the Cog Railway with one of Eric's Millersville ROTC buddies and his family. It was about an hour trip to the top and we were allowed to stay at the top for 40 minutes to prevent any altitude sickness. I took quite a few pictures on the way up the mountain through the window...

Here is a waterfall that is partially frozen.

This is the house of the man that takes care of things on the mountain...he has a long, long, long driveway.

Sign at 8,832 feet...

Sign at 10,012 feet...

Views on the way up the mountain.

Here is the cog that was in front of us...

And this is the view from 14,110 feet...pictures don't really do it justice but here they are anyway...

All of us at the top...

Daddy and Alexis in front of America the Beautiful plaque...

More pictures at the top...

The cog that we rode up to the top...

Lastly, we though this picture was cool...see the rays of sun shining onto the one spot at the bottom left of the picture...

Air Force Academy

On November 8, we headed down to Colorado Springs to take the railway up Pikes Peak. We stopped at the Air Force Academy along the way. The school is on a beautiful piece of land and was a sight to see. Alexis and daddy in front of the school...we couldn't go down to the school area, but we could go inside the Chapel.

Here is the outside of the chapel...

Alexis and daddy inside the protestant chapel...

Beautiful stained glass throughout this part of the chapel... We also saw the catholic chapel and Jewish chapel.

Alexis and daddy in front of the school...Alexis liked to look at the planes...

Daddy telling Alexis about the planes...

Fun with the dogs and Pedicures

Alexis with her two buddies...don't ask me what kind of pose this is... Now it was time for the pedicures. First, daddy painted Alexis' hand and feet with nailpolish she found. Well, then she wanted to paint mommy's feet so of course, I let her. I think more of my skin was painted but it is cold and I'm not wearing sandals or flip flops right now. Well, she didn't want to stop there...Bailey and Schnapps had their toe nails painted...

Here are Bailey's nails...I could get a good picture of Schnapps' nails because her hair is so long. Neither of them were too keen on this because they thought we were going to cut their nails... The pedicures are not over...

Yes, it was daddy's turn...and of course, he was even less keen on the idea...I think they turned out pretty nice...

Denver Zoo with Grandmom, Pappy and Aunt Michele

On the last day of the visit, we decided to go to the Denver zoo. Grandmom, Aunt Michele and Alexis on the train ride.

Now this was the most interesting animal experience I have ever had. We went in to see the gorillas and this one male became attached to Alexis...he only wanted to watch Alexis through the window and if other kids got in the way, he walked away. He would cross his arms and sit down right in front of her and just stare at her. When we tried to leave, he followed us around the side to where you can see him from the outside. A woman caught up with us and told us that he was following Alexis. Well, he was...we went back up to another window and he sat down right in front of Alexis...this was just absolutely amazing.

We thinking he was trying to say hi here...

Alexis and the gorilla just staring at each other...

Lastly, a group shot in front of the sea lions...Alexis was doing the pose...

Estes Park - even higher this time...

After Eric and I rolled out of bed after our Halloween partying, we headed to Estes Park to see if we could get further up the mountain. We took a different route to Estes Park and found this lake along the way. Alexis was more interested in skipping rocks than posing for a picture.

Alexis with Grandmom and Pappy in front of the lake.
View over the lake - I thought these clouds were just awesome!

When we got to Estes Park, the first thing we saw was all of the Elk on the golf course - so we took the path...Alexis wanted to be on daddy's shoulders...do you see what I see...

Here are the elk...see the golfers right on the course with them...the elk weren't bothered by them at all.

Here is a large male elk keeping guard.

Aunt Michele, Grandmom Fillman, Alexis and daddy in front of the mountains on the trip up...

At this point, Alexis said it was time to do "ring around the rosy"...so they did...

We made it up to about 11,000 feet...and it was beautiful. We stopped at this point because it was freezing cold and family was feeling the altitude.

Aunt Michele and Grandmom at the highest point we drove to...

Lastly, a deer we saw on the way down...