Mark & Rhonda's Visit {Visit Down "South"}

Monday morning (the day after Easter so you can get a mental timeline going), we headed down "South".  It's not really waaay South Colorado but it's more southern than where we live(d).  Why do I feel the need to over explain things?

We first headed to the Garden of the gods to eat our lunch.  It was a beautiful day!  We didn't hike too far but did go a little off the beaten path to eat lunch.  Of course, there really isn't an off the beaten path because people are everywhere but it was off the main path.  There I go over explaining again.

Kissing camels - otherwise known as this is the only rock formation name I know

These birds know a good things when they see it.  They "visited" us while we ate our lunch.

As I'm looking through my pictures, we apparently made a pit stop in Golden at some point.  At least that's what everyone's clothes are telling me although in my head I'm not sure it exactly makes sense.  However, we are adding it in here.

The Air Force Academy was next but with the threatening weather of rain, it was a short trip which was then cut off by the rain.  We got to see what we wanted (except of the visitors center which was closed) so no loss there.

After our busy day of tourism, we had dinner at Chris' and Mark's brother's (John) house.  We ate, talked and then headed back home to get our rest for the next day of adventure!

John, Mark, Chris

Easter

After church in the morning, we headed up to Chris' cousin, Tiffany's, house.  Mark and Rhonda haven't seen Tiffany since their wedding and, truth be told, Rhonda and Tiffany don't really remember each other because, well, it was a wedding.  Rhonda also had never met Uncle Royce so it was like a reunion with a side of introductions.

In addition to Shawn, Tiffany, Kylie, Cameron, Uncle Royce, Aunt Bobbi, Mark, Rhonda, Chris, Elianna and I there was also John, Cindi and Jared (friends of the family).  14 of us total.  Fun times!  This was apparently the best picture we could get of us all (after John, Cindi and Jared had left) with Uncle Royce behind the camera.

Kylie and Elianna decorated some eggs which after about decorating 2, Elianna was done with that.  Not sure why other than she didn't like waiting for them to be finished getting their dye treatment.

Despite the fact the all of the kids, with the exception of Elianna, are over the age of 10, they still have an Easter egg hunt each year.  The kids were so sweet to Elianna and let her get most of the eggs.  I absolutely adore the picture of Jared (2nd picture below) helping Elianna get an egg out of the tree.  He's 16 and still has a sweet bone left in his body - unheard of!  

Jared helping Elianna

And then this happened after the Easter egg hunt 

Cindi and Aunt Bobbi jumping on the trampoline

Chris sliding onto the trampoline to join in on the fun

The small hole in the middle of the trampoline turning into a rather large hole and everyone falling through.  Best time of the day!  Hilarious!  Thankfully no one was hurt - except our sides from laughing so hard!

Aunt Bobbi also put together an obstacle course of sorts for the kids.  Each adult had a "station" and the kids had to run to each station and do something.  At the end they received a certificate.

This sums up the rest of our day - craziness . . .

. . . and apparently laziness!

Easter Egg Hunt in Glendale

Oops!  I forgot to post about the Easter egg hunt we went to in Glendale.  Probably because it took longer to get there than the actual hunt actually took.

We were still living over in Aurora when the Glendale hunt took place, so we zoomed over there arriving just at 10am when the hunt was supposed to start.  Thankfully we were not the only family rushing in late so they waited a few extra minutes before starting.

There was a bigger kids field and a littler kids field with eggs all over them.  When they said "GO!" all the kids rushed their respective fields.  It was funny to watch the little kids - they immediately rushed to the opposite side of the field to grab the eggs - walking past lots of eggs right in front of them.  *I'm sure there is a lesson there to be learned*  Elianna got a decent amount of sugar eggs but did not grab the Golden Egg which means you got more sugar a special prize.  Bummer!  Maybe next year - fingers uncrossed.