Can’t believe we’ve already been here a month!

We’re having a GREAT time! We’re going ALL. THE. TIME. If I have the day off, John tries to only work an 8 hour day so that we can capitalize on the afternoons. We’ve already ticked off a lot of things from our list, but there’s just too much to do here. We’ve already got 5 weekend trips planned for next year. I’m trying to make a really good impression so that they’ll want me back next summer.

It’s really dry here. The house gets dirty very quick because we track in dirt every time we go out. You have to work really hard to have grass here. (Our owners have opted for astroturf in the front and dirt with weeds in the back.) You can’t lay produce out on the counter – it dries out really fast. My skin and hair are doing a lot better in this climate.

It’s monsoon season here. You have to get up early and enjoy the outside in the morning. It storms (or threatens) every afternoon. The mornings are cool, but it gets hot every afternoon. Then the rain cools it off in the evening. We don’t have central air in our house. John’s figured out how to keep things cool with the assistance of keeping the curtains closed on the side where the sun is shining, a series of fans and one window air conditioner.

I absolutely love this job! It’s very cushy. I’m not overworked at all – although having to be at work at 5:30 in the morning is a killer for this night owl. I really enjoy being back in a children’s hospital again. Each family gets their own room. So one nurse cares for one patient from the time they get out of the OR until he/ she goes home. The people are really nice. There are a lot of travelers and we’re treated well. (Some facilities really abuse the travelers.) They’re giving me every other Friday off so John and I can go on our bigger adventures.

John’s working east coast hours so his day starts between 5 – 5:30 every morning. He gets a lot done on this early schedule.

We’re really enjoying the church we’re attending. We love being in the choir. It’s a small choir, but the worship pastor really pushes us to learn difficult pieces. I’m actually singing tenor with John! We also love our Sunday School Class. It was nice to find a group where we could immediately belong.

We haven’t gotten elevation sickness. We waited a few weeks to go to the higher elevations. We’re drinking a TON of water. We do notice that we get short of breath quickly when we do physical things at this elevation.

Here are pictures of some of the things we’ve done.

We climbed 224 stairs to get to the top of Seven Falls. The second picture is looking from the top down all the staircases.

We took a Segway tour through Garden of the Gods. It was a lot of fun! The segways are very easy to drive. It lasted about 2.5 hours and we only got through half of the Garden. Fortunately we live so close that we can go back any time we like (and we’ve actually done that). It’s really beautiful there!

On the 4th of July we we drove out to Lake Manitou. The views were spectacular!

We took a Jeep Tour to the top of Pikes Peak. We see the summit from our back yard. This isn’t a good picture of us because the sun was in our face and there were little bugs flying all over us.

Someone in our Sunday School class is a docent at Glen Eyrie Castle. She gave us a private tour. Civil War General Palmer founded Colorado Springs. He made all of his money in the railroad after the war and built this castle for his wife. It really was spectacular! We even got to see this big horn sheep there.

This weekend was the highlight of our trip so far. We went 3 hours north to Rocky Mountain National Park. I don’t know what words to use to describe it – beautiful, gorgeous, breathtaking, awesome, mind blowing, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute.