Colorado Mini-trip Day 1

Back in January, my husband booked a trip for a conference.  After booking it I looked at the calendar and decided that Zachary and I were going to tag along too.  Little did we know in January that we were going to be buried up to our eyeballs in all things for his new office.  Luckly God did and knew that we needed a break.  So last Wednesday we hopped on a plane at 5:30 am and arrived in Colorado at 7:22 am.  We had 4 whole days to not worry about one thing back at home.  Again, God knew that we needed some peace & quiet and there was no better place in the world to get that than in Colorado Springs, CO.  Holy Cow! It was so peaceful and serene. 

Before we left I promised my nephew to take TONS of pictures.  He knows his Aunt Howie never leaves home without her camera!  As we were waiting in the airport, my "Aunt" Renee walks up to our terminal.  We were shocked to see her and to see that she would be flying with us. When I went to take her picture I realized my battery for the camera was back at home on the charger. TALK ABOUT DISAPPOINTMENT!  So we took a lot of pics with our iphones.  Then we spent about 2 hours trying to find the nearest camera store to buy a new battery.  Easier said than done. By the time I would have purchased a new battery & charger (since they can't guarantee that the battery is charged) I could have purchased a cheap digital camera. So that is what I did.  BIG MISTAKE...HUGE MISTAKE. The camera I purchased was JUNK!.  You'll be able to tell from my pics. I thought I could edit them out but I have had no luck. So here we go.

As soon as we got our rental car in Denver we met my cousin, Jeff for breakfast.  I could not remember the last time I have seen Jeff....at least 10 years.  When I mentioned on Facebook that we were headed West he messaged me to see if we could meet up. Good ole' FB was at it again. We had a pleasant breakfast and got caught up.  Here's what happens when your hurried waiter takes your picture with your phone.

You get blurry people. I wish I would have noticed this before we left the restaurant but I didn't.  After breakfast we took a beautiful drive to Colorado Springs. On our way we noticed a brand new outlet mall so we stopped to "move our legs" AKA shop for an hour.  Zachary found a huge superman doll that he HAD to have so within a matter of two hours of stepping foot on Colorado soil, he had already blown his souvenir money and it wasn't on anything "Colordado-y".  O'well that Superman doll was the best purchase because he entertained Zachary the entire trip.

After checking in at our hotel we decided to find me a camera store.  We also discovered a Whole Foods where we stocked up on fruits, breakfast items, and snacks.  Why in the world don't we have have Whole Foods in our city.  We loved it!  When we got back in the car from grocery shopping it was pouring.  I mean pouring down rain. Since everything we wanted to do was outside we decided to head to the United States Air Force Academy.  Kevin had never been there and Zachary was so excited to see the planes.  By the time we got there Z was sound asleep in his car seat.  Poor little guy had been up since 3:30 so it was not a surprise just a disappointment that he missed EVERYTHING.  We tried to wake him but he was out. 
After getting our rental car searched, trunk and all, we got clearance to enter the USAF grounds.  We wanted to get out but with a sleeping boy and pouring rain we took a car tour.  Our hopes were to come back later in the week but we never made it back.  I guess that just gives us an excuse to go back. 
Here's our only pic from the USAF.

Zachary drooling in the backseat.

After our car tour we hit the "FAMOUS" Fargo's Pizza.  Everyone suggested that we try it. In fact the 'founder' of Fargos, Landon Gardner's daughter is very good friends with my sister so it was a #1 priority to check it out. 

Here is the inside. Zachary was enjoyed the saloon type feel of the place.  The mirrors on the wall would light up with you number when your order is up.  If you look real close order 29 is ready to be picked up. 

Our friend Tracy told us that Zachary would need quarters to play the player piano.  He was thrilled to watch it as we waited for our pizza.

Here is a picture of the founder, Landon Gardner.  I had to take this to show our friend that we were really there and we saw a picture of her dad.  Kinda cool, huh?

Here is an edited picture of the pizza from my "new" camera. 

The last event of the night was going to the indoor pool to swim.  I relaxed on a chair while Kevin & Z swam.  We were all exhausted but thrilled to be on a mini-trip.