A week ago, we left off with our Sioux Falls soccer tournament. During that weekend, I started a course of steriods to attempt to fix my inner ear problem and those 9 days were AWFUL. Some people like the stuff but I couldn't stand it. Yuck. Then, knowing we had a vacation scheduled, a family friend physician ordered an MRI for me so we could go with peace of mind knowing there wasn't something more serious going on. So, at the end of June, with a clear MRI under my belt and the steriods behind me, we headed off down the road to Colorado Springs for a week.
The night before we left, however, we made a quick trip to Cabelas for some last minute supplies and when we returned home, our neighborhood looked like a hurricane had come through. Trashed vehicles, broken windows, branches and leaves and debris everywhere. Turns out we'd missed a massive hailstorm. The kids immediately began gathering hailstones from our yard that were between golfball and baseball size (I wouldn't have believed there was hail that big unless I'd seen it with my own eyes). Meanwhile, Mark and I began assessing the damage to our house. Yikes. Finally got our windows replaced last week and the new roof is going on this week. This was just one interesting photo I got:
The damage didn't deter us, though - we went on vacation anyway! This was our first hotel in Colorado Springs - nights 1 and 2.
Day 1 was spent traveling and at the Castle Rock outlet mall. Oh happy day! :) Day 2 was spent at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. LOVED it. ALL of us. By the end of that day, I would have been happy had that been the whole vacation. At the entrance of the zoo was the giraffe exhibit where we could actually pet and feed the giraffes. AMAZING.
(Jack on the left, Noah on the right)
They were such sweet, funny creatures. Hilarious with all their tongue action.
(This one below was the baby of the bunch)
The zoo had a chairlift you could take up the mountain for a great view:
On the way back to our hotel, we found this house for sale. And promptly bought it. Oh I kid. But seriously, GORGEOUS houses around there.
Day 3 we went to the Royal Gorge about an hour away. SO WORTH the drive. This is the view from the middle of the suspension bridge (that's a river waaaayyy down there):
On the bridge. Quite the experience. The thing MOVES, people. And moves even more when cars drive by on it. Yes, they allow cars on it. Amazing.
That little dark spot over yonder is a tram-thingy that runs across the gorge on a cable. We went on that too.
Another shot from the bridge:
Looking the other direction:
I could have stood there forever taking in the scenery. It was spectacular.
Jack (our fisherman) got a bang out of this sign.
The boys on the aforementioned tram car:
That's a view of the bridge from the tram car . . .
Then to top off the experience, we took this funky traincar thing DOWN into the gorge to the river . . .
At the bottom.
Looking at the bridge from the bottom.
The railway going up/down the gorge wall . . .
At the bottom.
Looking at the bridge from the bottom.
The railway going up/down the gorge wall . . .
Mid-June, we headed to Sioux Falls for another soccer tournament. This one was really special, though, because Grandpa and Grandma Roisum from MN joined us, and so did Great-Grandpa Bill from Worthington (and he's 87!!!).
