Gardens, Farms, & Patches

We have had not so great of luck this year when it comes to vegetables that you don't get from the grocery store.

Our garden this year was a major flop.  Jon's thumb is still brown.  We did have a good supply of lettuce, cilantro, parsley, and cucumbers.  That was about it though.  Some how he/we managed to kill the zucchini and tomatoes.  The cucumber crop was large enough to pickle several jars of them.

A few weekends ago we went up to Miller Farms with some friends.  We met up with two other families that we went to high school and their kids.  We had six kids under the age of three.  I wish we had a group shot, but the rain won that round.  It was fun, except for the freezing rain that started picking up severely when we were out in the fields picking our bounty.  It was still fun to be with friends, but oh my we were so cold and wet by the end of it.  Next year we will pick a back up date.

The girls and I went to the Pumpkin Patch with MOPS last week.  It was incredibly windy, and unfortunately the wind cut our play time very short.  Instead of a play date, it was more like a pick-your-pumpkin-before-the-kids-blow-away date.  We did get some good pumpkins.  We hope to carve them this weekend.

Getaway

Last weekend Jon and I went on a little getaway just the two of us.  It was the first time we've done this since having kids.  It was so needed and it was a wonderful trip.  We headed to my parents house on Thursday night and on Friday morning we kissed the little ladies goodbye and headed to Manitou Springs for the weekend.  We have been saving all year for this, and it was worth every penny.  I took lots and lots of pictures.  Jon was starting to call me "Ma".

We took the back roads through the mountains, and it was perfect timing to see all of the leaves changing colors. It was soooo gorgeous!

When we arrived we stopped in at the visitor center and learned that Manitou Springs has several natural mineral springs in the area, and nine of them have been memorialized in the town with unique fonts.  The nice gentleman handed me two little cups to sample each of the fonts.  Jon missed most of the conversation and thought that there was some kind of drug test or something when he saw the cups.  HAHA!  We decided to make it a point to visit and taste all of the different springs throughout the weekend.  There were nine on the map but only eight of them were working.  Each mineral spring had different levels of minerals in it, so they all tasted a little different.  I didn't care much for any of them, but Jon liked them.  The one that was the grossest was iron springs.  It tasted like blood.  It was nasty!

We had lunch at The Loop.  It was really tasty mexican food, and they made their own sour cream.  I thought it was so delicious!   I bring this up only because Jon keeps making fun of me for noticing such things.  We strolled the main drag of Manitou Springs for several hours.  It was such a cute little town with various shops and historical buildings.  We were even lucky enough to catch the homecoming parade for the high school.  It was so fun to be part of the small town for the day,  GO MUSTANGS!!  WHOOO!

We checked into our hotel, The Cliff House.  I was so tickled to be staying somewhere fancy that I didn't have to make my bed (or anyone else's), or do dishes, or make any food ;)  The Cliff House was built in 1873 and changed owners and functions many times.  In 1982 a fire destroyed the majority of the interior and the building stood vacant for 16 years until it was restored in 1997 to its original victorian charm with all of the modern conveniences we appreciate today.  It was a beautiful hotel, and we enjoyed our stay.  We even had a wonderful dinner in their restaurant on Saturday night.

We had purchased tickets to ride the cog train up to Pikes Peak for Saturday morning.  I was a little worried because the weather was not nice at all.  It was very cloudy and drizzling.  It was really our only chance to go, and we figured that even though the weather was crummy, it would still be neat, and we would probably get to see some neat things that you wouldn't get to see on a clear day.  We were right.  The dropping temperatures meant frost and ice.  And, since the leaves were changing, the magnificent colors of fall were flash frozen and encapsulated in ice.  It was truly a beautiful sight that we saw on our way up the mountain and through the cloud to the top of Pikes Peak.  Lucky for us, the clouds were not as high as the mountain and it cleared to sunny blue skies at about 11,000 feet.  Pikes Peak is 14,110 feet high and the view from the top was awesome.  To the north and east all we could see were clouds, but to the south and west we could see all the way out to the continental divide.  Beautiful!  We were only at the top for about 45 minutes, but even we were feeling the altitude.  You could tell who the lowlanders were- they were sucking air like they had ran a marathon at a full sprint without any training.

Going back down into the cloud.

This is what happens to a water bottle when you descend over 7,000 feet in about an hour.

Saturday afternoon we grabbed a quick delicious bite in town and headed into Colorado Springs to visit the Olympic Training center.  It was ok.  There was no one there and most of it was closed.  We saw a few big gyms and the wight room.  We also went to Mass at the Cathedral, St. Mary's, before heading back to get gussied up and go to dinner at The Cliff House.

Sunday, the clouds cleared and it was gorgeous again.  We went to the Garden of the Gods and played tourist.  The rocks were amazing!  We had a nice time walking around, taking pictures, and holding hands.

We had such a wonderful time together!  We have to do this more often.  It was so necessary for us to reconnect and escape our day to day reality for a short time.  This trip will be something we will cherish forever.