Spending Your Tax Dollars in Colorado Springs

We have been working and playing long hours.  We took Katie Beth to the Garden of the Gods.

But, she could only see the little rocks.

We saw the Rodeo Parade in downtown.  And, Katie Beth met her first clown and liked him. His name was Nickels and he gave Katie Beth a wooden nickel.

She really enjoyed Nickels, but the picture doesn’t show it.

We have been to many parks and Katie Beth has been enjoying them all.  Here is a picture from America the Beautiful Park.

Getting ready for church Sunday morning, we decided to try our hand at our tradition of taking a “Sunday” picture.  It is not our best, but it is a tradition.

At work, I picked up free tickets to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, which is a AAA minor league baseball team.  We were late to the game, but we still had great seats.  The stadium is very nice and everyone was friendly.

We celebrated Karen’s ½ birthday while on the trip.  She made a command decision that she wanted a birthday away from all the Christmas season.  So, she picked ½ way through her year, which puts it on July 15th.

We went to the Wednesday night’s music in the park.  I had a great tamale.  I am not a big fan of tamales, but I do enjoy them from time to time.  This tamale was great and they are cheap.

Karen took Katie Beth to Acacia Park, which features a fancy water fountain that dances around with water shooting everywhere.

I have to head into work very early many mornings and I leave Karen and Katie Beth sleeping like this pictures shows.  Karen moved, because she heard me getting the camera.

I went to work at 4:00 AM this morning to do my part in helping monitoring and controlling the launch of this missile and the testing of our system.

We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for free, because someone had given Karen and I passes three years ago.  We had a good time.  Katie Beth got to pet a goat and a baby wallaby.

We have been enjoying some great dinners like Nosh. I had the Slider Sampler, which included a Lamb Slider, an American Kobe Beef Slider, and a Tomozz Slider.  Karen had the Thai Fish & Chips, which is Rice paper wrapped mahi-mahi, red cabbage, sweet potato fries, red chili tartar sauce.  Karen’s was the right size, but mine was way too much.  By the way, Nosh means to eat on the sly.

We even went to our second Sky Sox baseball game.  And, we got to see them win this time.  Katie Beth has able to meet Sky Fox, the team mascot.

We got to go hiking at Palmer Park with Katie Beth.  The weather was super sunny with a breeze.  Katie Beth learned about cactus.  Bummer!  Here is a picture of Katie Beth and me with Pikes Peak directly behind us.

We relaxed on our last day. We took Katie Beth to see the Uncle Wilber and Julie Penrose Fountains, which she enjoyed. This trip has been nice with Katie Beth and Karen here while I worked.  The Antlers Hilton staff have been wonderful. They have helped Karen with Katie Beth many times. One bummer for this trip is that we lost Katie Beth’s first brush that we received in the hospital. Life will go on.

I am looking forward to the next chance for travel, which is in October.