North Pole, CO

We were going to head up Pikes Peak after Garden of the Gods but it looked like it was going to storm so we decided not to. Instead, we stumbed upon North Pole, CO and Alexis finally saw where Santa lives. They had an amusement park rides and Santa's shops to explore in.

The carousel had Santa's reindeer - Alexis rode rudolph.

And the cars with daddy.

And I can't believe she got on this ride but she loved it and it even went backwards. Daddy wasn't enjoying it too much but Alexis had a blast.

Daddy went on the sky ride while Alexis went shopping.

We went on a train ride around the park and saw Santa's reindeer.

Garden of the Gods

On Saturday, we went to the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, CO (near Colorado Springs). These are giant red rock formations, which were really cool to see. We started at the visitors center. After we saw the rocks, we visited Manitou Springs, which was a really neat town for shopping and playing around.

This formation above is called kissing camels.

Alexis enjoyed walking on the ledges where you were allowed to climb the rocks.

Sitting on a rock for mommy to take a picture.

Mommy and Alexis are standing at the bottom of this huge red rock.

Mommy and Alexis sitting underneath mushroom rock.

Visitors to Denver

We have been lucky to have friends vacationing near Denver and have stopped by to visit. The Bradys were vacationing in Wyoming in late August and stopped by on their way back to Texas. Dr. Brady was Eric's boss at Fort Hood and we miss him and his family a lot. Walt and Jane Brandt were here in Colorado for vacation and stopped by on their way to the airport. We went to The Fort for dinner and had some nice time to visit. Faith worked with Walt in Maryland at SAIC in her first job out of college. He continues to be her mentor. Walt, Jane, Faith and Alexis at The Fort.

The Brady Family with Faith and Alexis. They brought their dog Snickers who Alexis just adores.

Dance Institute

Alexis is now back to dance here in Denver. As she says, she is practicing for the "big stage." After being in 3 recitals already, what she remembers is getting on the stage and doing her big recital. She is going to a small studio right near our house. I wasn't too sure she was going to like having to wear a "uniform" but all of the studios here in Denver seem to require that - Alexis was not too sure why she couldn't wear her tinkerbell and snow white leotard, but I told it was the big girl dance outfit and she bought it. She has a wonderful teacher and with her 2 1/2 years of dance, she let her try the 4/5 year old class and she was great. Thanks to her wonderful teacher for the past 3 years (go Lisa's Dance Connection in Temple, Texas!!), she knew all of the positions/steps and is now adding on. First position

First position plie

First position eleve

Second position

Princess ballerina walk - practice balance...

Everytime they put their tap shoes on - they have to walk to their spot without making any noise --believe it or not, they actually do a pretty good job (practice for back stage at the recital)

Heel dig

Toe tap

They are tapping their toes really fast...

Shuffle

Shuffle again

CU v. WV Game and Rockies Game

Last Thursday night, we headed to Boulder to see CU play WV. CU won in overtime - WV missed a field goal (it hit the upright) and then CU scored a field goal - it was awesome. All the CU students stormed the field. In the picture below you can see all the students on the field behind Alexis and mommy. Daddy took a picture of WV walking off the field as the CU students were storming the field. Alexis, of course really liked the band (see them in picture below forming BUFS) and she also liked when the buffalo ran across the field. On Friday night, we went to one of the last Rockies games and they had fireworks after the game. Alexis did not even like the pink and purple ones this time - she screamed the whole time for Nana and Grandmom. The Rockies won, but unfortunately, they won't be going to the playoffs. The close-up picture is from the Rockies game with Alexis' stuffed Dinger (the Rockie's mascot).

Estes Park

Last Saturday, we ventured over to Estes Park, which is surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest. These both made for a nice drive on Trail Ridge Road although we couldn't go too far once the road was closed for 7 foot snow drifts. The first picture is actually at the end of the day - beautiful sunset. We didn't get to see too many elk but we did come across two herds and Eric got close and personal with one on the golf course. The pictures that are by a lake are the walk we took around Bear Lake, where the scenery was magnificent. The picture of mommy and daddy was taken by Alexis -- took several tries until she finally got the mountain in the picture. The picture of the chipmunk was also taken by Alexis. Alexis finally got to see snow here in Colorado when we reached the road closed sign - she just wanted to "stomp" the snow and throw snow balls off the edge. She was having a grand old time and her pants were soaked on the bottom from "stomping" in the snow but she didn't care. I guess it is time to get a pair of snow pants because Alexis is just waiting for the first snowfall here in Denver so she can build a snowman. We ended a fun day with dinner at a pub and mommy tried an elk steak and daddy had buffalo meatloaf.