A New Adventure

After serenading my neighbors with the Hallelujah Chorus the past few weeks, I thought about writing out the entire Messiah oratorio for you... how boring. Instead, I'll just share this verse from Isaiah 9:6, which served as part of the inspiration for the majestic Christmas song: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Is He your hero this Christmas season?

Speaking of boring, there are only 4 pictures below... I know, seems weird. But there's people in them - does that count? Let me explain, as I did do some adventuring, but I left my camera at home. Saturday morning I woke up excitedly, thinking it would be the perfect day to explore some trails I hadn't gotten too at Craters of the Moon. But after checking the park status online, I found that the road was closed due to snow. "Perfect!" I thought... until I called the park ranger and he informed me that there was not enough snow to go cross country skiing either. Bummer. But, not to be discouraged, I headed out to get some hot chocolate (it was in the single digits you see) and wait for the local ski shop to open - they would know were I could find some good open trails. But alas, nothing had enough snow to cross country ski, so maybe next weekend. Always being flexible, I was prepared for a brand new adventure.

So off I headed... seemingly everyone else was going the same way. But let me tell you - the sights I saw were unique, different, crazy, many unbelievable, the smells were unlike any mountain trail and the sounds were unlike any echoing cave. At one point, I even stopped to ask for directions as I was in completely unfamiliar territory without a compass or any sense of direction. "The lacy fabrics are right over there by the bolts of velour" the lady informed me. "Of course" I thought to myself. "But did she say 'velour'? And I suppose I look like I know my fabrics, right?" So off I headed in the direction she pointed, all along, remembering the eternity of hours I spent playing hide-n-seek in between the bolts of fabric while the girls picked out flowery fabrics and impossible patterns. Well, until the clerks yelled at us for running around, helping mold my loath for fabric stores. Sorry Mom - didn't find the fabric you were looking for, so off I headed to the mall. Yuck. A whole two hours of shopping and all I found were... ahem, that's a secret. And if I was ever offendable, I'd say the clerk who asked, "Are you one of those guys who can't think and listen at the same time?" probably came close. Think of my plight - here I was, shopping for my lovely sisters, surrounded by 40 quadrillion untamed smells wafting from every bottle and clerk. I can't even fathom how that was scrambling the neurons flying around in my brain as she tried to explain some worthless coupon deal that would require me to come back and spend more time deciphering between 'butterfly flower', 'coconut lime verbena' and 'moonlight path'. At least crayon colors like 'red-orange' make sense. But moonlight path? How does anyone know what a moonlight path smells like? What if there's a skunk on your moonlit path? Did they take that into account?

But enough about shopping (here I come, Ebay.com). Here's a few pictures from the weekend.
This definitely has the appearance of 1 seat and 2 people... and no seat belt, Ryan!
Alysia and Ryan demonstrate how Ryan allegedly got shot with his nail gun.
...turns out, Alysia had nothing to do with it.
Saturday night, the Lewis and Daniels clans stopped over for games. Tyler demonstrates his enthusiasm. (If you click on the picture, you can actually see his eyes - but I assure he was soundly sleeping.)
I promise - we did have fun! The pictures just aren't representative.

Operation Food and Fun Colorado

Are you tired of listening to Mr. Grinch? Well join me on my latest mission, Operation Food and Fun Colorado as I explored Colorado over the Thanksgiving break.
...because every mission needs a classification. If you do not have the appropriate credentials, please don't read any further lest the FBI show up on your doorstep!
After traveling for hours through Wyoming for most of the night, you realize that missions aren't always what they're cracked up to be! So then you start taking random blurry pictures of oil wells...
...and mountain tunnels, because there really isn't anything else to do. With a well aligned car, you don't even have to steer, except to avoid the deer and coyote's grazing on the center line.
After arriving in Colorado Springs and catching a few winks of sleep the beautifully warm Thanksgiving day started out with a huge breakfast casserole and Mission 1: Garden of the gods.
Do you see the camels kissing?
Pikes Peak - a mission for another day.
Playing basketball, I always new Benji was a giant. But if you find the little people just to the left of his right shoulder, you'll understand why I want him on my team.
Mission success without a cloud in the sky!
This is the north side of the previous picture.
An attempt to be artistic.
You can see two rock climbers on a mission to scale this rock.
The Siamese twins...
...framing Pikes Peak.
...because every mission requires a handstand (next to Balanced Rock).

From Garden of the gods, the mission continued with friends where I met some more people and enjoyed a huge Thanksgiving spread of, well, lots and lots of food followed by games.
In between matchbox car crashes, I had this little trooper trying headstands too. Next time I'll have to get him to face the camera.
After a few more winks of sleep, our mission continued to Mission 3: Pikes Peak - America's Mountain. The words for "America, the Beautiful" were penned after the author viewed America's beauty from the top - hence the claim to be America's Mountain.
Some views along the way. Look close and you'll see the road winding up.
You can see the Rockies in the distance.
Interesting changes in the mountain as we headed up...
...and up and up (you can see the rocks from the previous picture getting smaller).
Yup - there are many tall mountains in Colorado. Hmmm.... maybe a good place for my next long-term mission...
...we were so high up, you could hear the planes flying over head!
Looking down on Colorado Springs. You can see Garden of the gods in the foreground and if you look really close, cornfields of Kansas in the background.
Another good view.
Like every other mission, no risk, no reward as Benji gets close to the edge.
Steve checks out the edge...
...followed by all three.
Snow is slick in Colorado too.
My right foot must be at 14,116 feet...
...but even the camera is getting a little tipsy...
...and the thin air is clearly affecting our cognitive capabilities. Better get these boys down to lower elevations...
...so down the mountain we went...
...spotting a battalion of sheep running down the steep slopes. If you look close, there's at least one big horned sheep, a first sighting since I've been out West! That alone made the mission successful.
Not an ideal place to slip on the icy snow, although the 2,000 foot slide would be quite exhilarating.
One last shot of the blue lakes below, before we passed them on our way down.
After meeting up with Aunt Cindy and my Cousin Mandy, we headed off to the Mr. & Mrs. Starr Kempf residence for a look at their crazy windmills.
This wasn't in the AAA tour guide, but when you infiltrate with the locals, your mission is always more successful.
Now they just need some Christmas lights shining on them.
The magnificent Helen Hunt Falls - it almost looks like you could slide down it, just not this time of year.
Winding our way up through some old mining roads that included some tunnels...
...and a view of the lights in Colorado Springs. From here, we headed to the pastors house for more food and fun, followed by a few more winks of sleep.
Our first mission (Mission 7 if you're keeping track) on Saturday was the Peterson Air & Space Museum devoted to Cold War defense. While they didn't have a ton of planes, we did get a personalized tour of this EC-121 Constellation...
...with all of it's radar detection capabilities for locating incoming ballistics off our coasts during the Cold War.
I tried to tell this guy the Cold War was over, but he wouldn't take off his headphones.
The cockpit didn't look too comfortable, but who cares when you're flying right?
I saw the air pressure gage here somewhere... now where was it?
A 1/10th scale satellite that helped detect incoming ballistics.
This satellite kept track of nuclear radiation in space so we knew who was testing nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, there are no more public tours of NORAD, but here's a little depiction...
...along with a spring that the buildings are on to weather a nuclear storm.
The cover for 10 nuclear warheads.
Being a Missileer isn't all it's cracked up to be as you sit in this windowless secured room...
...just waiting to...
...flip a switch and launch a nuclear missle.
In the words of our tour guide, it's amazing how freely we threw nuclear radiation into the air just off our coasts.
Sometimes I'd like a few rockets under my car like this plane has.
The old Colorado Springs airport terminal with Pikes Peak in the background.
Airplanes and handstands - does it get any better?
After picking up Aunt Cindy and Mandy, we headed to Focus on the Family and Whit's End - where kids of all ages can play!
Whit and Whittier...err Aunt Cindy.
This brought back memories from the 80's and some of the original Adventures in Odyssey.
Who knew they had planes at Whit's End?
That's right - Mandy and I could enjoy the "76 feet of twisting, turning, bumpy fun" on the slide - being short does have advantages!
Mandy exits the static filled slide.
A true cast of characters...
...performing handstands on stage.
Opening the wardrobe doors to Narnia!
Aslan standing watch in Narnia.
You might not get it.
Mission 9 brought us to the US Air Force Academy with high hopes of seeing the Chapel. Having called ahead, we should have been able to get in...
...to see more airplanes.
A view of the campus with the Chapel in the background.
The Chapel from the backside.
Astounding architecture.
The entrance. Due to a wedding, the main Chapel was closed, so I just peaked through the front door.
Downstairs we found the Catholic and Muslim sanctuaries. After some delicious Chipotle's, we headed to Seven Falls.
They had all of their holiday lights up.
Seven Falls is, well, seven falls - very creative. Alongside the falls are stairs so you can enjoy the beauty all the way up.
Ready for pictures of falls with lights on them? If I can't decide what pictures I like best, I just post lots of them...
Is this a short joke?





Holding onto the railing is advisable unless you want to risk stumbling down 100 stairs.
These pictures are taken from a different vantage point.
A little blurry, but it was cold!
Can you find the Aunt in the tree?
Mission Accomplished!