Rocky Mountains, Sand Dunes, & Albuquerque

world's best shower, ever



Haha. If you’ve ever been forced to go without showering for a few days, or if you’ve just endured a night tenting in 45 degree weather with 50+ mph winds, than a hot shower paired with solid water pressure will be one of the best showers you’ve ever had. That was our thinking this morning out of the KOA showers after a ridiculous night that was more riddled with sleep than filled with it.



rain in co. springs

Once on the road, it was a soggy entrance into Colorado Springs. That meant the Rocky Mountains were shrouded with fog and haze; we were sad our first glance of the mountains was dampened by the weather. We saw some light once we parked at the Omelette Parlour in Colorado Springs.



omelette parlor

We definitely put our diets on hold for this trip, but know this: It was worth every bite. Ha.

After brunch, the weather seemed to clear some, and those majestic Rockies came out of hiding. They’re absolutely breathtaking, and even though we were unable to see Pike’s Peak, but what we did see was enough to make us smile and get us going on our way.



great sand dunes national park



Kalyn found a national park that was about 20 minutes off our path, but we figured the opportunity to see this would hardly present itself so willingly again anytime soon. Off we were: Great Sand Dunes National Park.

If you’ve never seen these dunes, my saying they are incredible does them little justice, if any at all. They’re created by sands off the Rockies, and the only place in the world these exact type of dunes are found. Pretty intriguing, to me at least. So it was there that we ate lunch, took some silly pictures, and got back on the road.



sand dunes & rocky mountains .... and jumping kids :)



best friends | enjoying the landscape!



 Don’t ask me how, but somehow we atlas’d ourselves around Santa Fe, but we were taking a scenic route and figured bypassing to Albuquerque would be just as good as anything else. We stopped for dinner at the Church Street Café, and enjoyed some fajitas, taco salad, and Pacifico to a soundtrack of a strung out guitarist ;)



albuquerque, nm!

Since our first attempt to sleep on the road wasn’t a complete success, we opted for bunking in an actual hotel tonight: Sleep Inn in Gallup, NM. It’s another early day tomorrow!

xo | cmd

On the ROAD!

get ready

And we… are… OFF!

Sam and Kalyn stayed at our place last night, and around 9:30 this morning, the three of us loaded up into her jeep and jumped on the highway for their 2^nd day, my first, on the road from Cincinnati to Phoenix.

heading to kansas

We were pretty excited when we hit Kansas City, somehow thinking we were making pretty decent headway. It wasn’t until we hit the meat of Kansas that we quickly realized that it consisted of windmills, and ……………. Nothing else, really.

No, seriously. Kansas is flatter than a pancake, literally. Aside from the windmills, there is not a single intriguing thing to see while driving straight across this state. It took all three of us to conquer the plains of KS before I struck gold on my turn and flew past the Welcome to Colorado sign before we had a chance to celebrate it. [Don’t worry, we stopped at the border of CO & NM to capture the sign!]

colorful colorado!

Once we crossed onto the grounds of CO and in spite of Sam’s urging to find a hotel, Kalyn and I were determined to camp out. We found a KOA in Limon, CO. We checked in and found our little tent plot nestled in the midst of a crowd of RV’s. Fortunately for us, there was a wooden fence no more than 8 feet long and 7 feet high behind which we claimed our spot. Against our better judgment, we unloaded and pitched a tent in 50+mph winds and a dropping temperature of 48 degrees at that point. We found ourselves with clogged tent poles with no other option than to Macgyver the staking and climb inside as quickly as possible to help prevent the whole setup from blowing away.

If you think I’m exaggerating, I promise you, I’m not. It. Was. Cold. We had two blankets, two pillows, and a sleeping bag. Needless to say, it was an interesting night.

tenting in limon, co | bad idea.

Tomorrow is back on the road: Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountains, and Santa Fe, NM!

Oh, and P.S. – Not to put a damper on the excitement of our journey westward, but today would’ve been Jena Fogle-Blake’s 27^th birthday. You are always missed, but never forgotten, friend. <3

xo | cmd-

St. Louis Zoo || Kalyn & Sam

Ya’ll know how much we love visiting the zoo (any zoo). Today we decided to take Sydni to the St. Louis Zoo, which is one of the few zoos that offer free admission while still maintaining appearances and interesting displays. Plus, the place is huge.

st. louis zoo

After the zoo, we headed back home. We made a pitstop and grabbed a new game for the Wii, just in case we needed a little extra for entertaining guests later on.

As it turns out, KP & Sam showed up and we ended up heading to base for a bit to play some volleyball by the base campground lake before heading back to the house for some old school NES Mario and calling it a day.

nes, buddy.

Saying prayers tonight for Joe & Sydni: I’ll be gone for about four days and they’ll be on their own for that time. I’m hoping all goes smoothly!

xo | cmd

Bible Study @ The Woods'

Calm Friday here at the newly established Dills residence: laundry, vacuuming, dishes, and errands. Pretty standard stuff. I managed to get everything finished in spite of Sydni’s incessant urge to help me accomplish all the tasks of the day. When it’s all said and done, even though I’m backtracking and backtracking and backtracking some more, it’s just another Mom-ism that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

t - o - y - s.

pastor ron woods & his wife debbie

Tonight we headed to our pastor’s house for the our 2^nd session of Bible Study. We’re working on a track right now entitled, “How to Raise Kids Without Raising Your Blood Pressure.” Kyle & Amy joined us this week, and brought Tessa to go play downstairs with Sydni and the other kids from couples attending. We’ve only been coming to this study group for two weeks now, but I’m developing a sincere appreciation for it, for this new church we’ve found, and for the people who have welcomed us so openly.

Kalyn & Sam are coming in tomorrow night, and on Sunday I’ll head out with them on the road to Arizona!

xo | cmd

Veggie Tales

Sydni got her first taste of Veggie Tales today, and I was reminded of why, even though they represent great Christian messages, I can still only handle those animated little characters in moderation.

Today we sat through The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s, which is the Veggie Tales adaptation of The Wizard of Oz [if for some reason you didn’t make that connection]. While I find the appropriate re-designing of little details to create kid-friendly comprehension [ex.:

Yellow Brick Road

= Yellow McToad].

Once Joe was done with work, he and Kyle came back to the house for dinner and some Wii. Kyle and Amy earned spots on the Mii board, so in the event we ever decide to invest into two more controllers, we’re all set.

Miss Sydni was more than excited to spend the evening showing off her baby to our guest. She’s such a good little mommy, that is, if catapulting babydoll out of the play stroller before using it to smack the dog in the behind is considered good mommy’ing. So we’ve still got a little work to do… We’ll get there.

TG[T]IF! [tomorrow]

xo | cmd

Backyard Swimmin'

One of the benefits of our particular townhome is that we have a pool that literally replaces a backyard. We were fearful that it would become too noisy with all the kids in the neighborhood, but so far it’s hardly been noticeable, even when the place is at full capacity.

While Joe was at work, Sydni and I decided to step outside and see what it was like. I learned today that she’s quite the little fish, and I have no doubts that with a few lessons down the road, she’ll be a pro.



lil' sunbather

 

fishy!

Joe & I watched Dinner for Schumcks tonight; it was interesting, if nothing else. I don’t think we’ll buy this one, but it wasn’t the worst thing we’ve ever seen.

Looks like tomorrow, we’re having a dinner guest: Kyle’s coming since Amy and Tessa are still out of town in Minnesota. We’re praying for safe travel mercies when they come back on Sunday!

xo | cmd

Errands Galore

Yep. Pretty much that is what comprised the entire day.

First stop: Airman’s Attic. We dropped off some things and picked up a few other things, one of which was an old desktop computer keyboard. We have nothing with which it needed connected, but Sydni has this persistant fascination with all of our laptop keyboards, so I figured she’d enjoy her own set of alpha-numerics she could hammer without getting swatted away by one of us.

airman's attic

Second Stop: Commissary. We needed some granola bars, and it’s right across the street. We may have picked up some other munchies while we were at it, but that’s neither here nor there ;)

Third stop: Redbox. Droppin’ off movies, renting some more kiddie flicks to keep her occupied while I clean at home.

my tall red friend

Fourth stop: Salvation Army. We dropped off yet some more stuff there, with my favorite volunteer worker whose jolly laugh is absolutely contagious and always seems to be on duty when I come through ridding our car of bins.. and bins.. and bins. We went inside this time, and managed to find a few little treasures of our own to take home with us, too.

Fifth stop: Post office. Yeah, I’ve been here for almost a month and am just now changing my forwarding address. Oops.

Last stop: Wal-Mart. Don’t tell Joe; we all know how much he hates that place. However, while running errands is tedious enough sometimes, adding a toddler to the mix does the opposite of saving time. Since Syd was with me, I didn’t bother hunting for the nearest hardware store or other lock and key place, because everyone also already knows Wal-Mart takes care of copying keys. What I didn’t know was that Joe’s Honda key has some sort of transmitter chip embedded inside [you’d never be able to tell by lookin’ at the thing]. Therefore, copying that key apparently would’ve cost upward $40+, so needless to say, we’ll survive off the one we have and just say daily prayer that we don’t ever lose or break it. Sheesh.

At home, we unloaded all of our days’ acquired trinkets and put them away before cuddling up for an afternoon watching little cartoon people tell us how to count and memorize the alphabet. It was … educational. Haha.  

Oh yeah, and it’s Cicada season here. Lovely.

Not really. Oh well.

yeah cicada.... yeah.

xo | cmd