Photography 52 - Weeks 28 & 29 The American Adventure

I've mentioned a number of times in the last few months that my husband and I have been on Sabbatical from our work in ministry at our Church....and that we had some very special plans for the end of our Sabbatical with our kids once they were done school.  So, the last several weeks we've been taking our "American Adventure".  It's something we've been preparing for, dreaming about and researching for months.

I have a lot of photos ahead of our adventure so far...and I won't be offended if you take a pass...but we've fulfilled so many dreams on our trip so far and have seen such wonderful things, and since I consider you readers my friends, I thought I'd share some of the highlights so far...enjoy!

Our little nephew in the park.  Their uncle created an entire geo-caching extravaganza for the kids throughout my husband's home town that lasted several days, and their auntie had all sorts of wonderful prizes for the kids.  They had a blast.  

My husband's cousin took the kids the lake to go tubing.  Can you tell that they had a great time?  Their faces just crack me up!

An old restored truck downtown in my husband's home town.  Really beautifully done.  

The town my husband grew up in was originally in another location so we went to see the original town-site and the old stone Church.  This photo above is actually really cool as I was taking it through the window of the old Church.  The reflection of the prairie behind me also reflected on the window in just the right spots for the photo.   

Hymn books in the window of the Old Stone Church.

After our time in my husband's home town, we left for our old hometown in the Dakotas we lived in for 8 years.  It was also the first time we've been back in at least 6 - 8 years.  We went to see some dear friends who live at a lake near by.  They were the couple that was instrumental in introducing us again when we lived there, and also performed our wedding ceremony. 

Another sunset visiting my husband's brother, sister-in-law and their kids.  

This was the name sake falls of our hometown.  It's such a lovely set of waterfalls and a beautiful park.  We met some our our best college friends there that we haven't seen for at least 6 years.  What a beautiful treat for us!  

The two oldest girl cousins baked these "koolaid" cookies one day.  All flavoured with assorted packets of koolaid.  

We went to the zoo on a day that was well over 100 degrees farenheit, though incredibly hot, it was such a fun day.  

Then we moved on to the Black Hills in South Dakota visiting friends we had worked with at Camps and Church when we lived there.  They live in the mountains and have a property where creatures like this lovely mama deer just come right up to the porch.  

The infamous Wall Drug where you can still get free ice-water.

An oriole - he crept right up to us.  

A drive on Needles Highway in Custer State Park.  Oh my word! that park is amazing with some stunning scenery.  

One of the falls near Spearfish, SD.

Mt. Rushmore.  What a great day for us to see it...our kids are all dual citizens so they appreciate their American heritage as well.  Our favourite US president is Lincoln.  

Deadwood, SD - an old west style of town set in the time of Wild Bill Hickock.  

From there we moved on to Colorado Springs, CO.  Our first day we biked and hiked through Garden of the Gods.  Honestly it was so amazing - I felt like we were in a state like New Mexico.  The red rock formations are gorgeous.  This is the Siamese Twins above.  And below my daughter and I at The Three Graces.  What an amazing day we had there!  The cool part was, earlier this spring I read a great book called "Breathe" by Lisa T. Bergren that was set in the early days of Colorado Springs when General Palmer was helping found the town.  So, I was well prepared for some of the background of what we'd see.  We have really enjoyed Colorado Springs, there is a lot to do!  

  

Isn't it beautiful?  

The next day, we got up bright and early and took the Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak.  Colorado Springs is about 7000 feet in elevation and the Peak is 14 110 in elevation.  The Cog Railway in CO Springs is the highest in the world.  Really an awesome day.  Amazing views and some really yummy donuts at the top of the mountain!

My husband just HAD to geo-cache on the rocks at the top of the mountain!

This is what the cogs in the center of the rail look like and a car behind us.  It goes straight up the mountain.  

After that we headed to Focus on the Family, in Colorado Springs to tour the site.  It's also the home of Adventures in Odyssey Radio Show and Whit's End.  If you've ever heard the kids radio broadcasts or the CD's  - they've been running for 25 years and our kids have grown up on Odyssey.  That made this like a childhood dream for them (and honestly for us too).  This is us in Whit's End having Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod's (World Famous Chocolate Sodas).  The also have a 3 story Wooton Exit Slide that we went down and the coolest part...

They asked us at the front desk if we'd like to do our own Adventures in Odyssey recorded show!!!  The kids got to rehearse then go into the KYDS Radio Show booth and be characters in the show, and my husband and our youngest son were Foleys (sound effects) in the show.  They were awesome!  We got our own recorded CD of the episode.  It was one of our great highlights so far.  

Oh man, there's just so much I could show you...we've taken 2000 photos already.  But I'll save some for our next adventures next week.  

Thanks so much for sticking with me!  I hope you've enjoyed the American Adventure so far.  

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Photography 52 - Weeks 28 & 29 The American Adventure