The North Pole!!

Our kids love Christmas. What kid doesn't?! A town called Cascade which is just about 15 minutes east of Colorado Springs has a super fun amusement park called The North Pole where it's Christmas all year. We weren't able to make it there last year but before Brian left for his latest TDY, we made sure to take a trip there!

I am not a rider. As in I do not do rides. I was always the one at the amusement parks as a kid holding everyone's stuff. I'm super fun, I know. I just get really nauseous and scared and for the most part I just enjoy watching everyone go on rides. I'm lame. So we started this trip out on the cars. A nice easy ride I knew I could handle, haha!

They had tons of kiddie rides that the kids just loved.

Ride on a Christmas tree? Ok!

Another mommy friendly ride..the carousel!

This ferris wheel scared the beejeezus out of me. The amusment park is basically on the side of a mountain. It's pretty hilly and this was at the top of the hill. There was a little sign saying it's the highest ferris wheel in the world. Brian said it was super rickety too. And for that I am glad I stayed on the ground!

Santa's sleigh zipline.

Such a good daddy riding yet another nauseating ride with the kids. 

We also got to spend a good 15 minutes with Santa. Here's Brady taking the "I'll be a good big brother and always take care of my little sister" oath. It was pretty cute.

After Santa they all insisted I went on this one spinny ride. I obliged and almost peed my pants. I didn't watch the ride carefully before getting on and didn't realize it basically goes on its side, goes really fast, and spins. I almost peed my pants yet again. The kids, loved it. I am a lame mom.

Since I was already shaking I figured, hey why not go on a gondola ride.

Taking selfies to distract myself from how high we were.

Another round of car rides

This is a scary, scary sight.

Some slide action

Aand we called it a day.

Layla asleep, hand in raisin box. 

Afterwards we drove to Trinity Brewing because teddy and shark were hungry.

And Daddy deserved a reward for riding all of the rides with the kids. Love you!

Our Summer Bucket List

This summer is a big deal to me. This is the last summer before we start "big kid school" so I want this summer to be memorable, fun, and just downright good. So here's what we're hoping to accomplish this summer:

• Go to 50 Parks (we're 21 in so far and I think we may hit more than 50!)
• Go to splash pads (Deerfield, Acacia Park, American the Beautiful Park)
• Go on Patsy's Candy tour. (Just did this on Friday and the kids loved it!)
• Go to the Cheynne Mountain Zoo as a family (check!)
• Go to the Bear Creek Nature Center
• Go see movies: Minions and Inside Out for sure!
• Go to a Sky Sox game
• Go to the summer concerts in our neighborhood (been to 2 out of 2 so far!)
• Hike. (You can't live in Colorado and not hike. Some hikes we want to accomplish are Pulpit Rock, Devils Head Lookout Tower, hike more of Red Rocks, and hopefully find some new ones too!)
• Do the Summer Reading Program at the library (Just completed the first challenge!)
• Go to the Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park
• Go to the North Pole (check!)
• Go camping (Our squadron always does a yearly camping trip in August so we're going to do that and hopefully go a couple more times)
• Go bowling 
• Go to the Children's Museum in Denver
• Go visit Daddy in New Mexico (check!)
• Go to Reno in July 
• Take training wheels off of Brady's bike (check!)
• Visit Estes Park
• Enjoy guests (My mom next week and my dear friend and family from Omaha in July! We'd love more visitors! :)
• Girls weekend to Fort Collins (in the works for the end of this month!)
• A weekend away to celebrate our anniversary (Next weekend! Can't wait!! Thanks, Mom!!)

I"m sure there's a ton of other things that I'm forgetting on my list but basically we want to make the most of this summer. I want to do and see as much as possible as it's almost been a year already in Colorado and I know our time is going to just fly by! So here's to a productive and fun summer! :)

Hello, Friday!

Hello! This summer has been nothing short of crazy busy so far and I can't believe how fast it is going! I'm going to do a quick post about what we've been up to since I last posted.

Layla got her 2nd haircut and of course it had to be at the princess station. Duh.

We went to the G Wings Ceremony for Brian's work. It's where those cadets that have been training for 9 months to be instructors for the glider get their glider wings. It was a neat ceremony and fun to see the cadets be awarded for their accomplishments. 

Aaand it's fun to get all dressed up too and see Brian in his mess dress!

The officers went to Old Chicago afterwards too which was fun!

Brady was insistent we take off his training wheels. I was nervous. Rascal was too, clearly.

But he took right off and has had zero issues!

Rides like a big boy now!

Oh and don't forget about Layla, she's a mean pedaler on that trike!

We took our first family zoo trip here to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The kids and I have been there a ton but this was the first time Brian got to come too. 

Layla did not enjoy taking a selfie with the giraffes but she did enjoy feeding them.

We also got to feed some elephants which was such a neat experience. Layla was quite terrified.

Brady loved it!

We had a fun squadron bbq Memorial Day weekend.

The ladies of the 94th

During grad week for the class of 2015 we sat at the stadium waiting for the Thunderbirds to practice.

Buuuttt in true Colorado weather fashion that never happened so instead we sat in a parking lot for 2 hours and read books in the back of the car with friends. Different day but fun nonetheless!

Finally weather cooperated and we were able to watch them several times during the week.

The kids loved it at first but then there was this fun pole to walk around, so yeah.

We visited The North Pole which is a Christmas themed amusement park. The kids LOVED it. And they got to spend a good 10 minutes with Santa. I'll post more later about it but it was the perfect amusement park for our kids and so cute!

And Brian got rewarded for going on the Tilt A Whirl 2 times and riding all of the spinny rides with the kids. Love you, dear!

We had a bonfire the night before Brian left for another TDY.

We took a trip to go visit Brian in New Mexico where he's tdy. I'll talk more about the trip in a later post but we visited Santa Fe which was such a neat city!

And toured some of the sights in Albuquerque too! 

We've been playing at parks every day the weather cooperates. We have a list of 50 parks to hit this summer and so far we're about 20 parks in. It's been raining the past couple of days so we're anxious to get back out there to play!

We started summer t-ball! Brady is in the 5/6 year old league which has practices during the week and Layla is in the 3/4 league. Their first games are tomorrow and they're so excited! I just hope there are no meltdowns from a certain little princess...

We've also been enjoying our weekly Wednesday night concerts in our neighborhood. Some of us are more serious about our dancing than others, haha!

Sometimes we go to said concerts in our superhero gear.

And sometimes we win prizes from the tooth fairy. You never know what you're going to encounter there!

And we've just been enjoying the beauty that Colorado is during the summer. I will never tire of this view!