Weekend Adventures

This past Saturday, my husband ran his 6th Pike's Peak Ascent in Manitou Springs, Colorado.  It's a 13.1 mile run (which is partly a walk) up the 14,114 foot mountain to the Summit.  He has run the marathon (up and down 26.2 miles) twice, and wished he had signed up for it this year, too!

This year he invited our daughter to go with him.  Actually, he told her she was going! Ha ha!  But, she was excited, even though she wasn't expecting a trip to Colorado just a few days before she left for college.  It gave them some special time together before she left, plus probably made the last few days of summer break go by faster.

The day before the run, they drove up Pike's Peak. Since she was going to have to drive up the next day, this drive up was her practice go at it!

Oh, and she figured out that she didn't have her driver's license with her on their way to Colorado, so..... 

....I had to airmail it to her, but thankfully, it was there the next morning at not too big of a price....probably because it was such a little thing to be sending (size wise, anyway).

On the way to Colorado, they stopped at the volcano at Capulin, N.M., took lots of beautiful pictures.  On Friday, they ate Italian food (carbs for the run) and ran through one of the "Garden of the Gods" trails, drove around the Olympic Training Center, and drove by the Broadmoor Hotel.

 Here's Joe just before the start of the race.  There were runners from all over the world!

 And he's off!

He made good time and thankfully Lauren got to the top in time to see him cross the finish line! There was a huge line of cars waiting to go up the mountain, so she wasn't sure she could get there in time.  It was pretty neat to have a photographer there for his event!

And here's the proof that he finished!  Now all of our children want to go on this special trip with him when they graduate. It will become a new tradition, I'm sure.  A few of them even want to run it!

The boys and I went on our own adventure over the weekend, but in another direction.

We went to our first and only Rangers' baseball game of this season Saturday night.  The Rangers played the Angels.

The Rangers didn't win, and this season sure isn't as exciting as it's been the past several years, but the temperature was cooler than was expected and the atmosphere at the Ballpark is always a lot of fun.

Plus, I had a special time with my boys!

I also had a wonderful chauffeur, who was also pretty much his own GPS. It's amazing how our 18 year old knows how to get around in the Dallas area!  I would fall asleep, wake up, and we would be wherever we were supposed to be - all without maps and the GPS!  We don't know where he got that gene! Ha ha!

After worship on Sunday, the boys and I headed towards Oklahoma. Joe and Lauren loaded up the rest of her college stuff, and we all met on campus and moved her in to her new "home". After worship, we ate at Lauren's favorite Italian place, along with her aunt and uncle, then told her goodbye and we left for home.

It was a crazy and tiring weekend, but lots of fun.  

Leaving our daughter for the beginning of her second year of college was much, much easier than leaving her the first year.  That first year away makes a difference.  Of course she's an hour or more closer now, and we know we will see her more often, so that helps, but also it's just different now.  She was here for three and a half months for summer break, so she was ready to go back.  She's excited about new adventures and new possibilities, and we're looking forward to seeing what God has planned for her this year!