Arizona

We flew down to Tucson, AZ to spend a week with Mike, Pam, Grandma Bobbie, & Papa Ed. It was a great trip! The trip began with helping Mike & Pam move from their condo into a beautiful home and then had lots of time for great sight-seeing! Lots of great memories and great to see the family down there. That dry heat actually wasn't as bad as I thought it might be either! Mike & Pam watched Natalie the evening that we did our sunset drive through Saguaro National Park, and when we returned, they told us that Natalie had walked up to Mike and said, "Pop-Pop bup" (meaning "Grandpa, pick me up!"). That's a favorite story from our trip...Lots of great pics, so enjoy!

-L & J

Cool clouds while up in the plane...


Descending into Tucson...


Natalie helps pick a lemon off the tree at Mike & Pam's condo...


Natalie with Grandma Bobbie & Papa Ed (her great-grandparents)


Visit to Old Tucson Studios...Hollywood's 1890s set for over 70 movies from the 1930s-1990s, including "Tombstone," "3 Amigos," and tons of John Wayne flicks.


Natalie with "Pop-Pop" (her name for grandpa)...








I was selected to be the volunteer for the "Medicine Man's" sales speech...I got to shoot a gun (kinda) and did a free root beer from being up on the stage...tasted great on a hot day!


Natalie poses on a famous Hollywood train...


Enjoying some of Mom's ice cream...



Desert Museum (the highlight of our trip!)...This place is 90% outdoors and complete with a zoo section, cave, and tons of great spaces highlighting the desert flora. We loved it!


Natalie "excavates" while in the cave...




Pima Air & Space Museum...

Smallest bi-plane...










1960s Air Force One...


Natalie looks through the microscope in the "Space" part of the museum...


Remember them?





Sunset drive in Saguaro National Park...


















Colossal Cave (located in Vail, AZ). The inside of the cave is always 70 degrees...quite nice for summer in AZ!




View from the patio outside the cave entrance

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

We want to say "Happy Father's Day" to all the dads! We especially thank our own dads, Bob & Mike for all their love and support throughout our lives! I'm very thankful for Jon and have loved watching him with Natalie over her first 14 months...I still can't believe it's already been 14 months! Thank you to all of you...you mean so much!

-L

Josh, Koren, and Katie's Visit

Josh, Koren, and Katie made a special stop in Colorado Springs to see us on their way moving BACK to STL (from Tucson) toward the end of May. We were glad to get a visit from them! We thank Josh for lending us the Roku...we are somewhat addicted at the moment! Natalie and Katie got their first real opportunity to play together, and I think Natalie loves that she too can walk!

-L

Walking cousins!






Cousin Katie...






Everyone!

Our full day of Denver!

WOW! We had a really busy, full day!! First off, I feel like I do a really good job for the most part with the scheduling for all of our business stuff (sessions, viewings, consultations, etc). Today was an example where everything came together so perfect (perfect to the point you know there will be a flaw somewhere during the day!). We typically do not have sessions outside of Colorado Springs; weddings being the exception where we'll travel anywhere. Well, today, we had 1 session in Castle Rock (1/2 way between CS and Denver) and 2 sessions in Denver plus a wedding consultation in Denver. Everything lined up perfectly to make total sense with our travels. The day went great actually, but we DID have the flaw...some HUGE accident on I-25 that shut down the highway and caused it to take over an hour to get to appt #3 for the day (instead of 15-20 min). We were behind for our last 2 sessions, but it all worked out anyway. So...needless to say, it's been a LONG day (left the house at 8:30 am and returned at 7:30 pm) but a great day. Plus, because we got behind schedule (can we just say how blessed we feel to LOVE living in Colorado Springs and are reminded of that every time we're in that lovely Denver traffic?!?!), we ended up seeing such beauty on our way home. Storms moving in and in Colorado Springs made the sky this great dark gray but the sun was casting this warm light across the valleys and mountains and we had rainbows and then lightning and rain. Jon really wanted to take pictures, but since Natalie was FINALLY getting in some sleep for the day, we did NOT want to stop and risk waking her up! And now off to bed!!

-L

Pulpit Rock

We really need to catch you all up on LIFE for the last 3 weeks or so, I know we have been slack'n off...sorry.
We did a short hike to Pulpit Rock which is right here in Colorado Springs and only about 5 or 6 minutes from our house and so we did a hike there and boy is it such a beautiful view of the Front Range Mountains and we saw so many wild flowers on our way up. At the top I did a panoramic shot compiled of about 5 maybe 6 pictures and stitched them together. It was a great hike and so close to home.

-J

not sure what kind of flower, but pretty. It reminds me of a micro tulip.


the Prickly Pears are nothing like we saw in Tucson a couple weeks ago! The cactus that grow there are much larger.




snacks at the top! cool sunhat!












the camera is sitting on a crooked rock and NOT very stable. YIKES


pano shot