Late summer in Colorado!

I got to fly to Colorado the first week of September and spend a week with Sara and family.  I flew out on a Wednesday morning and Sara picked me up and we drove to Littleton to find a Trader Joes, so we drove by the Colorado Temple.  Beautiful!

She dropped me off at the dentist so I could get my teeth cleaned and get a couple of crowns done.

Poor Jonathan, he's doomed with a mother in law needing  dental work.

Later that afternoon, Sara and I got to go for a pedicure.

We found a salon we really like and it has become a tradition.

These sisters are growing up way too fast.

On Thursday, we pulled Lucy out of school early and drove to Colorado Springs.

In Sara's words, "Thursday afternoon we were in store for a huge treat. I'd researched a really cool place down in Colorado Springs that does an authentic "High Tea" every afternoon at the Glen Eyrie Castle (built in 1871).  It's located just before the entrance of the Garden of the Gods and was built by General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. It is BEAUTIFUL!

Not only did Lucy get pulled out of school early, they got to borrow tea hats (they are provided if you want one), and they looooove tea parties!

The tables were set so pretty!

Leah was on her best behavior.

This is outside on the castle grounds.

What a view!

It was such a fun "girly" date

We had the summer menu.

The first course was a grilled peach with creme fraiche and raspberry sauce.

Not everyone's favorite, 

but the sandwich course was delicious!

We had tea sandwiches-- cucumber tuna boats, ham and swiss cheese on rye, curried chicken salad on croissants, and hummus and caramelized onions on white bread. Yum! 

The dessert course brought lots of smiles.

Fresh scones, key lime shortbread cookies, strawberry rhubarb hand-pies, and Victorian sandwiches with fresh whipped cream. After watching "The Great British Baking Show" all summer on PBS, it was fun to get to sample some of these staples of British tea.

Baby Elizabeth is a pretty mild mannered baby, but she decided that she wanted to be heard at the tea party, so Sara and I took turns walking her around the castle to keep her entertained so

the others guests at the tea party wouldn't be disturbed.

It was such a fun afternoon.

Tom flew in on Thursday evening, so on Friday Sara took us to her gym and to her Body Pump class. She is an excellent instructor and I always enjoy going to her classes.

After working out, we were starving so we drove into Denver to the Denver Biscuit Company.

Sara had raved about this place,  but I'm not a big fan of biscuits so I wasn't that excited.

Can I just admit that it was delicious! 

This is Sara's BLT biscuit

It was definitely a treat and I place I hope to go back to.

Tom and I watched the kids on Friday night so Sara and Jon could have a date night.

Saturday morning we got to see Zach play football!

It was a beautiful morning for a football game and Zach's team 

played a semi-pro team of 10 year olds. I think the other team scored on every possession.

They had fun in spite of it!

After the game we headed south to Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods.

Lucy demonstrating her yoga skills

Lizzie loved hiking in the back pack

Sara packed us a picnic so we had a delicious lunch in the perfect spot!

Gorgeous!

We hiked around and got stuck in the some rocks,

but overall, had a great time!

Of course I had to wear by BYU tshirt because the Cougars played the Utes that afternoon.

We met some fellow Cougars along the trail.

I love this little family of hikers!

We drove back to Parker and stopped and got a Rita's shaved ice on the way back home.

Lizzie loved it!

I had started having a tooth ache before I left Boise so when Jon checked my teeth he thought that I probably needed a root canal on one of my lower molars.

I waited through the weekend to see if the pain would go away, but it didn't, so Jon hooked me up with an endodontis in Castlerock and on Monday afternoon I got a root canal.

It's not something I recommend doing on a vacation, but I was so thankful to Jonathan for getting me in and getting it fixed. The endodontist didn't even charge me because Jonathan refers so many patients to him. Talk about professional courtesy.

 

When Tom and I knew when we were going to be in Denver, we checked out Red Rocks to see if there would be a concert while we were in town.

Sure enough, we found a Hall and Oates concert and bought tickets.

Red Rocks is quite a venue, you have to hike up about a mile to get to the amphitheater.

Wouldn't you know that the whole week we were in Colorado it was warm, dry weather and the minute Hall and Oates started to play, it started raining.

No worries though, Sara had given us some rain ponchos.

What a view!

That's us if you can't tell

Me with my numb mouth

It was a great concert, in spite of the rain and root canal, and so fun singing and dancing along to the music, straight from the 80's.

We made it back to Sara's later that night and this is what met us.

Leah and Zachy were trying to wait up for us but fell asleep.

So cute.

It's traditional that if there is a Waffle House in the vicinity Tom has to have waffles before we leave town, so after the kids got off to school, we drove to Waffle house for Tom's fix.

Then it was off to the airport and our flight back to Boise.

It was a great trip to Colorado, dental work and all.