Colorado Springs, Day 1

This morning we visited a local congregation for worship: Pikes Peak church of Christ. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed the sermon. We will definitely visit again next time we are here for a Sunday morning.

After worship we headed to the house to change clothes and then grab some lunch. We selected Larkburger after reading about them online last night. Man, was that a good choice! We were able to order our burgers in a beautiful lettuce wrap and the fries - oh the fries! They were skinny and coated in sea salt. I might have eaten a full pound of them if they have been in front of me, and I don't even really care for french fries all that much if they're not sweet potato fries.

We headed out to Heather and Will's cottage after lunch. They are staying about 20 minutes away in Cascade, Colorado up in the mountains. Will had gone into Denver today to spend the day with a college or Navy buddy, I can't remember which one he is. Their cottage is really cute and in a nice little residential area, but right up the street is this really awesome hiking trail that goes up, up, up....and up. A creek with a series of waterfalls comes all the way down along the trail, so we climbed and climbed, stopping to take photos and video along the way. At one point we reached an area Kate and Olivia couldn't safely keep going, so Don, Heather and I went on to explore a little bit.

Don has never been to Colorado and he was like a big kid today. He would climb on ahead of us and then turn back and yell "You guys gotta come up here!" and we would, and it would be beautiful, and then he would do it again. I think he really wanted to make it to the top of the mountain, but there was no way that was going to happen. My Fitbit said we climbed 33 flights of stairs today, and I'm feeling pretty much all 33 of them right now.

Once we made our way back down to a nice open area, the girls and Don took off their shoes and waded in the water a bit, but not for too long because the water was super cold. We rested for a little while and the girls danced around and played.

Hiking lasted about 2 hours before we were back at the cottage. Rain was starting to move into the area and the thunder was coaxing us down pretty quickly. We walked down the road a little ways after resting to eat at The Wines of Colorado restaurant. I had a bison burger and Nick chose the mahi mahi tacos. It was a pretty good meal, but the service was not all that great. It started pouring while we were eating so Nick had to run back up to the house to get the car and come back for us all. 

To say that we are all worn out tonight is an understatement. Tomorrow is Olivia's 6th birthday, so we are spending the day at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. I can't wait! It's my very favorite zoo.