Places we’ve been, things we’ve seen as we travel through life.
So…Thursday night our conversation turned to Disneyland and Philip said, “We should go!”
Friday morning we booked the hotel, flights and picked up the military appreciation tickets at the local Army base.
And as I type it is Saturday night and I’m in the Disneyland Hotel, ready to start enjoy our impromtu vacation.
We’re probably crazy, but we’re enjoying ourselves. I’ll see you when we get back home…
You will be happy to know that the rest of our journey west was uneventful, boring even.  From Ohio we got to Missouri and stopped for the night and a swim in the hotel pool. The next two days droned on as Missouri turned into Kansas turned into Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of miles, or so it seemed, of endless farmlands. Corn, corn and more corn. We were focused on our goal, so we resisted the temptation of stopping to see the World’s Biggest Big Mac, the World’s Biggest Prairie Dog, or the World’s Biggest Van Gogh. However, we did ponder the ability of the World’s Largest Prairie Dog to eat the World’s Largest Big Mac. Finally we turned off the interstate and headed southwest, with Pike’s Peak barely visible in the distance. Colorado slowly began to distinguish itself from Kansas as the Rocky Mountains grew larger and at last we reached our new hometown.
As we made the final turns to our new home, my heart started to beat faster. It still seemed a bit surreal to be going home- our home – for the first time.
And so here we are. We’ve seen 7 deer, 2 were in the dry creek behind our house, 3 were in the park across the street and one was in the grocery store parking lot. Apparently there are coyote in the bluff behind the park, and black bears are not unheard of. The children have already put a hole in the hammock we bought from the previous owners.
The new roof that the previous owners are paying for is taking like 4 times longer than it should, but at least it’s getting done. We had the carpets deep cleaned and discovered that they are actually a lighter color than we’d thought! We also got the locks changed and the cable set up. All that we need now is our actual furniture and that will arrive on Friday.
The other evening we sat on our deck and enjoyed the cool mountain air. An occasional breeze stirred up the Aspen trees behind our house and it all felt so right.
It’s good to be home.
I really should know better than to make plans. God always seems to intervene and our first day on the road was no different.
First, we overslept, then took longer to load the car than we’d planned, leaving an hour late. We took it stride and gleefully called out goodbye’s as we passed the landmarks of our lives.
“Goodbye, Bolling AFB”
“Goodbye, poopoo plant!”
“Goodbye, Wilson Bridge!”
And then I promptly headed us in the wrong direction as I navigated Philip through the 95/495 split. And again as I sent us on the toll road through Pennsylvania. Oops.
Meanwhile, the human resources department from Philip’s probable employer finally called while we were on the road and made him an official offer, so he called them back while we stopped for lunch. This delayed us another 30 minutes.
And then, during a midafternoon potty break, Pumpkin Girl discovered that it hurt when she peed. Then within 5 minutes had to pee again. Which hurt even more.
Great ooglie booglie.
So while we gassed up, I got on the phone with our “insurance” company who informed me that I needed a written referral from our doctor to be able to go to an urgent care place, or sit in an ER all night. R-i-g-h-t. Government health care at its finest right there. Coming to a home near you.
My original thought was to keep calling back until I got a better answer when I realized that Wright Patterson AFB was right along the way and we could stop at their ER.
Which we did. Two and half hours later, we were back on the road, meds in hand, and arrived at our final destination for the day 30 minutes later.
11:00 PM. Five hours later than planned.
But all’s well that end’s well. By the end of the day we’ll be halfway through our trip and Pumpkin will be feeling much better.
On our second day of house hunting, Pike’s Peak was clearly visible, strong and silent and covered with snow. The rain was gone and the temperatures were mild and we were confident that God would reveal our new house to us, just as he had revealed the mountain.
We were right.
I’m reluctant to share too many pictures here because the house is still occupied and the pictures are full of their stuff.
But I will show you the kitchen.
And the view from the dining room into the backyard.
And check out the staircase –
And for good measure, this is the park directly across the street.
We close on June 30th.
As Boo used to say so often, “God has blessed us again!”
Our trip to Colorado got off to a rather inauspicious start. For some unknown reason that I’m sure made sense at the time, President Obama decided to embark on his trip to the Middle East from Dulles International Airport, instead of from Andrews AFB, like he’s supposed to. So instead of taking off on time, we sat on the tarmac and waited for the President to leave.
Finally he was gone and we were allowed to take off.  By the time we arrived in Colorado Springs it was 1:00 in the morning.
We spent all the next day looking at houses. It was rainy and cold, and of course we were wearing summer clothes. But we trudged on, trying to find the perfect house. But mid afternoon we were all tired and our real estate agent let us go while he took everything we’d said about the houses and put together a more precise list of homes that were what we wanted.
After a nap and a huge rainstorm, Pike’s Peak finally emerged from the clouds.
I’d been talking about wanting to see it all day, so when Philip came back to our room from getting groceries, he asked the children if they wanted to go outside and see “Mama’s Mountain.” And that’s what everyone calls it now.
I have to say that I’m enamored with Colorado Springs.  The area where we looked for homes was wonderfully suburban with every shop and restaurant you could want. They even have “Five Guys” – a burger place that started in DC and is one of our favorites. Everything was wide and spacious, which is a huge change from the overcrowding of the DC Metro area. Not that DC doesn’t have a lot to offer, I just love the mountains and I always have! The Rocky Mountains are visible from pretty much everywhere and during our house hunting we saw rabbits, deer and a fox.
We hit the local mall and let Bip work out some extra energy playing in the kids area called “Tyke’s Peak.” It was the first thing we saw in the mall and while he played I went to check the directory to see what kinds of stores they had. I was thinking to myself that if they had an Orange Julius, I’d be in heaven.
So do they? Of course they do! Not only that, but a store called “All Things Catholic.” A Catholic store! Right there in the mall! I have only ever seen one other Catholic store and that one is here in Old Town Alexandria and run by Pauline nuns.
So we were more than a little bit pleased with the mall. You can tell so much about a community by the quality of the local shopping.
When we left the mall it was 5pm. On a Friday. By all accounts, it should have been rush hour traffic at its worst. What we saw made us laugh so hard and was so unbelievable that we had to take a picture.. Ladies and gentlemen…Colorado Springs on a Friday at 5pm:
Go ahead and click on that picture to make it larger and enjoy the wide open highway. And the bird poop on our window.
As Little Orphan Annie once sang, “I think I’m gonna like here!”
We’re off to Colorado today to go house hunting. It’s all very exciting and if I can get all the little people to stop saying, “uh…Mama?” every three minutes, I might actually be able to get us packed, deal with the moving guy coming to take inventory of our junk household goods and explain to Boo once again how I want him to pack five shirts, one of which needs to have a collar, not five shirts plus a collared shirt.
And remember to pack the checkbook.
Our Catholic homeschool group took the show on the road Friday with a field trip to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Or just the Basilica, for short.
After getting lost taking the scenic route in the rain, we still managed to get there in time for mass in the crypt chapel, where our group was welcomed – by name- by the officiating priest. Then lunch in the cafeteria where it looked for a moment that we were not going to be able to find seats for the 22 of us, but by the time we’d gone through the line all sorts of tables had opened up.
After lunch we had a guided tour. I’d love to say that it was wonderful, but our guide talked sooo fast that he was difficult to understand. I was trying hard to hear what he had to say, and I know that the children missed most of it. I got some great pictures, though.
The basilica contains over 70 chapels and oratories dedicated to Our Lady, and they reflect the cultures and traditions of people around the world. This one, to Our Lady of Lourdes, is a replica of the grotto in France.
I’m not sure why it had a gate in front of it.
Bip was on a potty break when we saw the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I took him back to see it and asked him if he knew who it was. “Mary!” he said in that cute preschooler way he has.
I showed him Juan Diego, with the roses spilling out of his tilma.
I thought Our Lady of China was beautiful –
Walking into the main part of the church, this is the ceiling –
And a close up of one of the domes…
When you’re visiting DC, don’t miss the Basilica! They have free pamphlets available to help you find your way or you can purchase a more in depth guide. Both are available in the bookstore or gift shop. There’s free parking, always a plus in DC!
Oh yeah. Blogging. I forgot all about it and left you all in breathless anticipation of my account of how I had a way better time than you did last week. (neener neener)
Actually, I came down with a pretty bad cold (is there such a thing as a good cold?) and I got all stuffy and headachy and sore throaty and wasn’t so much feeling the blog love. (so neener neener back at me!)
Now here I am, generally no worse for the wear.
At Hollywood Studios (previously known as Disney MGM Studios) we ran into the green army men while walking around. Boo thought they were funny, so we stayed to watch. Next thing he knew, Boo’d been recruited! Please note that he’s the only child correctly “at ease”.
Here they are, striking typical bucket o’ soldier poses.
While wandering around the backlots, we found this snowman:
Remember our Star Wars themed Halloween? Well, Luke and Leia found some sort of Star Wars vehicle to drive. (please note that I am not geeky enough to know the name of the vehicle)
I kept asking Boo if he wanted to attend the Jedi training that was going on at various times. He kept saying no until I asked him why. He told me he didn’t need to attend Jedi training because he was already trained. How could I forget – he’s known as Master Boo around the neighborhood.
We took a week off of school before leaving for vacation because I just had so much to do. Now everybody is having a really hard time settling back into our normal school routine. Boo and Pumpkin Girl would so much rather goof off than work on handwriting. I’m not helping matters when I walk into the kitchen and sing out, “Hi Hooooh!”, causing them to sing “hi ho!” back at me. To which I replied, “Ha! I knew you were dwarves!”
And now I sit here, avoiding school, editing my pictures to put on my blog and wondering if it’ll get warm enough today for me to go outside and pull out the flowers killed by last night’s hard freeze.
It was in the mid 70’s the day we went to Epcot.
Before I get to the pictures, I have to tell you that Boo loves Donald Duck as if he’s his long-lost brother. I don’t know what it is, perhaps because the two of them have anger issues?
So on our very first day, Boo found himself a Donald Duck hat, which you can see in yesterday’s pictures. We stood in line to meet a bunch of characters, including Donald. Boo was pretty giddy as our turn with Donald approached, especially because we’d been advised to ask Donald’s handler for a permanent marker and that Donald would sign Boo’s hat. And so we did and he did.
There wasn’t a lot for Bip to do in Epcot at first, except wait for everyone to go on Soarin’ and Test Track. So we made a point of going to Turtle Talk with Crush (dude!) and riding Finding Nemo.
Here’s Bip, pretending to throw crabs at the seagulls who periodically said, “mine! mine!”
Here we are in Norway. I visited this church in Oslo once upon a time.
And now we’re in China.
Look! I finally made it to Germany!
Did I ever mention that we’re a little tiny bit French?
Boys – here they are after riding Maelstrom in Norway. They went straight to the weapons and armed themselves. All three of them, all at the same time.
But today is Mickey Mouse’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Mickey! To celebrate, here are the highlights of our time at the Magic Kingdom. Did I mention that this was our first trip to Disney World?
Bip and Pumpkin Girl met the Little Mermaid
She kissed Bip!
Boo got to drive the Jungle Cruise boat! He even got a license for it!
During lunch, the boys waved to the people on It’s a Small World.
Some of the people waved back.
Nobody got to be King of England.
Or Queen.
But we all got Mickey Bars!
Bip was tall enough to ride his first roller coaster!
He got a little congratulations card from a cast member, too!
I topped 380,000 points and Pumpkin topped 200,000 on the Buzz Lightyear ride.
At the end of the day, we spotted an ice castle.
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