Day 2: Garden of The Gods and Pike's Peak!

Day two of vacation was another fun and nerve-wracking day of watching Jayke spider monkey up every rock he could get near and a long nervous drive up...and back down Pike's Peak.  

First stop was Garden of the Gods.  Jayke was more than eager to climb any and all rocks possible.  He clearly doesn't share my fear of heights.  I spent most of the time yelling at him to "get down!" and "stay away from the edge!"  I finally had to give up before everyone around us thought I was a crazy woman.  I decided moving along out of the area on to the next thing was the best idea and probably the only way I was going to keep him off these rocks...and save my sanity.

The picture below looks way worse than it actually was.  It was an easy climb up the back side of this rock formation.  I was able to get below for the shot that makes it look like he is a rock-climbing extraordinaire.  I really didn't allow him to climb anything difficult at all...much to his dismay.  He was quite aggravated with my lack of willingness to turn him loose.  I kept promising there would be more rocks to climb around the next turn...we just didn't stop at them.

The tallest point in the background is Pike's Peak, our next stop.  We called to try to get a reservation on the cog train but it was sold out for the day.  Not very good planning on our part but I will take the blame for that since it was I who decided we shouldn't drive up.  Jeff was confident he could do it and I figured I could always get in the back seat and curl up on the floor board if necessary.  Jayke was nervous about it too and I wasn't very good at reassuring him since I, myself, was terrified!

We got a little lost trying to find the road up and stopped off in some park where Jayke had to attempt to take off on some trail.  Once again, I had to reign him in which disgusted him.  I don't think falling or running across a rattle snake even crossed his mind.  I kept telling him that is why I'M THE MOM!

We finally found the road to the peak and started up.  It wasn't bad at all for a long time but then...

I managed to ride up and back down without getting in the back seat and even took picture and recorded a video.  I noticed while watching the video, that you could hear me moaning and cussing most of the way.  You could also hear Jeff laughing at me in the background.  As you can see from the pictures, no guard rails and nothing but sky over that edge!

It was pretty chilly at the top, 37 degrees with the wind chill.  I don't think it was all Jayke thought it would be.  He was over it pretty quickly and retreated to the warmth of the car, after hitting the gift shop, of course.  Jeff and I walked around to see the view from different directions.  The weather wasn't that great to be able to see very far.  I'm not sure if we saw 5 different states or not but we were trying!

Here's the train I WANTED to ride up.  In the end, I'm glad we drove.  It ended up not being nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be.   Jayke slept the whole way down...some mountain explorer he is!

When we got back to Dona's house there was more excitement!  A BEAR was on the side of their house trying to get their bee hives!  WE were able to see the baby bear briefly before he was scared off by all the crazy people with rocks and flashlights.  Jayke says this was the highlight of his trip.  I imagine we were all quite a site as we were told of the bear and all went racing through the house throwing small children out of our way!  Even more entertaining when while we were watching for the bear, several of the bees got in the house and even stung one of their protectors.  Kelly's Jeff soon changed from "team bee" to "team bear" after one of the little buggers stung his face!

Bear watching

Wonder what we would have done had mama bear come charging down that hill???

Day 1: Golden, Coors Light Brewery Tour, and Lookout Mountain

Our first day in Colorado we began with breakfast in Golden at a little cafe.  I made Jeff drive down the main road so I could take this photo because it reminded me so much of something I would see in the movies.  We made our first stop the Coors Light Brewery where we took the tour to see how our favorite beer is made.  Really, we took the tour to get free beer but some of the information was interesting too.  For instance, Indiana was the LAST state that Coors was sold in.  I think the people of Indiana have been trying to make up for lost time since everyone drinks Coors here!

After the tour we drove up in the mountains where I took the picture below of the Coors Brewery.

Our after-taste-testing selfie!

After the tour we drove up Lookout Mountain...

where we took another selfie, of course!

....and a lot of pictures of the mountains...

We would have walked more on the trails but I was wearing flip flops, of course.  Mountain trails were not in my plan for the day so I was unprepared.  Probably a good thing considering my horrible fear of heights.  This was a small test to make sure Jeff would be able to drive up Pike's Peak the next day...and to make sure I wouldn't be on the floor board or walking back down!!

We stopped and saw Buffalo Bill's grave site while we were up on the mountain.  

We Out!

Breakfast at one airport before we head to another!  Heading to Colorado today with Jeff for Mitch's wedding!  It has been a LONG time since I've had a vacation...more than 7 years unless you count that weekend trip to Gatlinburg a couple of years ago.  I don't count that as a vacation, no time was taken off work.  In my book, that qualifies a vacation!

The Tooth Fairy Sucks!

A couple of weeks ago Jayke finally pulled his tooth that had been barely hanging there for days.  He was at Bob's and didn't get home until late so we just put the baggie that had the tooth in it on the counter.  I was hoping he wouldn't put it under his pillow because I didn't have any cash. I figured since he went to bed he wouldn't remember it and I could get some ones the next day.

Weeks have gone by and that tooth has just sat there so tonight I said, "Hey Jayke, why don't you put your tooth under your pillow tonight so you can get some money for Colorado?"  He said okay and went to get it.  I later asked him if he put it under the pillow in the baggie.  (I need to know ahead of time what I'm looking for so as not to wake him...I don't know if he fully believes still or not and I'm trying to keep it going as long as possible. The kid has only lost 7 teeth.)  He replied, "No, I took it out of the baggie because when I put it under there the other day... in the baggie... she never came!"

blink. blink.

"You put your tooth under your pillow before now???"

"Yea, I put it under there and nothing happened so I put it back on the counter."

This Tooth Fairy sucks!  He never told me he put it under his pillow and I check every day to see that it's still on the counter.  When did he do this?  WHY didn't he tell me he was putting it under his pillow?  The Fairy needs some warning!  I felt so bad I put a couple extra dollars under there tonight when I retrieved it.  Now, as I write this, I'm wondering two things...one...did he figure it out that it's me... since he didn't tell me and the Fairy didn't come?  Two...has he figured out a way to guilt his mother (aka The Tooth Fairy) into giving him more money?  He may just be a genius...

Our soccer club arranged for some of our kids to participate in the pre-game activities at the Indy Eleven game.  Indy Eleven is in their second season as a professional soccer team in Indianapolis.  They play at the IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium.  You can see where a couple of the players from the Indy Eleven came to our fields here.  

Well over 50 kids signed up to participate in one of 3 "elements" of the pre-game.  There was the tunnel crew, flag bearers, and player escorts.  Each kid was given an Indy Eleven t-shirt to wear during the event.   DCFC got 34 spots and Jayke and Emily were both chosen to be flag bearers.  Jayke was a little bummed that he didn't get to carry the American flag but was still excited to be able to participate.  We were playing a team from Canada so they got to carry the Canadian flag.  Emily got to carry the Indy Eleven flag.

Here are the four flag bearers carrying the flag onto the field.

Brynna, Matthew, Jayke, and Jonathan holding the flag below.  All are members of Jayke's team and Brynna plays on the other U11 team and has played on teams with Jayke in the past.

Emily, bottom left corner, holding the Indy Eleven flag.

Before they carried the flags onto the field all of our kids who were there from DCFC got to play in a mini game.  Below are some pictures of Jayke in action!

Indy scored the first goal!  The picture below shows the rowdy section that we were all wishing we were in.  They were having way more fun over there...gotta love soccer fans, they're nuts!

It was a little calmer where we sat.

The game ended in a tie.  We had a bunch of tired cold kids on the way home, but they had a lot of fun.  I want to go back soon!

Cheapest in Town...Also the Slowest!

Jayke volunteered to wash my car last night.  He must have been tired of riding around in the dirt-mobile, I haven't washed the car in almost a year.   He got out all of the stuff went to it.  I tried to stay out there with him but the mosquitos and an oncoming bought of food poisoning sent me back in side pretty quickly.  As I was laying on the bed, about 15 minutes after I came back inside, he appears in the doorway telling me he doesn't want to do it anymore.  Half of the car has been washed at this point, the front and drivers side.  I told him he couldn't just wash half the car!  And...I couldn't get up and go back out there at this point.  I have no idea what I ate that made me so sick, but it was awful!  

I've never had food poisoning and I'm hoping this was a once in a life time experience.  I was pretty sure death would be preferable to what I was feeling.  I almost called my mom in the middle of the night to come take me to the ER.  Luckily for her, I couldn't move to be able to get the phone.  Fortunately, Jayke didn't get sick since he ate the exact same thing I did.

I managed to get up and go out to check on him at one point and found that he had enlisted help.  Nolan, from down the road was down doing the lower sections and Jayke was obviously taking on the role of foreman.  He was bossing Nolan around telling him where to wash and how to wash.  I decided he had it under control and begged him to please pick everything up when he was finished.  As I lay in bed preparing to meet my maker, I wondered if the car would be clean before dark...I also though I might never find out.

Opening Weekend

We began league play this weekend. Jeff and I took The Boy to a new restaurant to get him fueled up before hand.   So far so good.  We won our first game on Saturday 5-0.  Jaykeb got to start and had more playing time than he has in the previous "friendly" match and pre-season tournament.  

Our second game on Sunday was even better!  Jayke scored a goal and had an excellent assist to Chase in our 6-3 win.  The team looked better than ever!  

It was a fun time on the side line too.  Jayke had 4 grandparents, 2 parents, one step parent and Jeff and Emily there watching him.  His dad and his dad's wife made it to the game.  I think it is the 3rd game he has ever seen him play...in 7 years.  Jayke had quite the cheering section so I'm glad he was able to score with everyone there watching.