Weekend in the West

Saturday afternoon we headed to downtown Denver to see the Parade of Lights. Our good friend Meg and her friend Heidi met us at the light rail station around 3 to head down. Thanks to Meg for free light rail tickets- AGAIN! We all walked around the 16th street mall for a while then went to dinner. Well, they ate dinner. Somehow I managed to not find one thing on the menu appealing so I later ate at a Corner Bakery. They all liked their meals though! And we got to sit outside in December because it was such a nice night!!!!! :) LOVE IT! We watched the parade on 17th street. It was a nice show but really SLOW! There must have been a 20 minute break at one point. The kids around us got kind of restless and began running into the parade route- it was pretty humorous. I wore boots down there that were not that comfortable because I had planned to buy new ones when we got to the mall. Well the store was out of my size so my brilliant plan failed and by the end of the night my feet were killing me. I ended up walking in my socks back to the light rail station. Sweet. I know. ;) The light rail on the way home was PACKED. A small child actually bit Meg! I screamed. I was so grossed out. Parents really had no control over their children and they didn't care. How annoying. Also, men were sitting while women had to stand and hold on. Grr. Anyway, we had a fun night- public transit and all!
Today we went down to Colorado Springs to go to church and to hike. Above is an aerial photo I found of the New Life Church campus. It is HUGE. I really didn't mind the size, though. Today marked the 1 year anniversary of the shootings on their campus. The family who lost 2 daughters stood up and spoke. There was not a dry eye in the house. The sermon was on grief and the pastor knew what he was talking about as his nephew was killed this week in a car accident. I was heart-broken for him. We decided that if it were any Sunday except the anniversary of the shootings that he wouldn't be there. He was a trooper and delivered a very touching message.

After church we headed to Chipotle for lunch. We ate outside with MacKenzie as it was another gorgeous 60+ degree day here. After lunch we headed to Pike's Peak to do some training on the trails. We ended up on a stair trail that almost killed me. My legs are jell-o. We didn't even get half of the way up that trail either. We intend to conquer it one day when we are in better shape! MacKenzie was worn out and slept the whole way home. She just tugs and tugs out on those trails- she loves it.
We had an unfortunate event happen tonight: Jackson's 1st gray hair. He came out of the bathroom this evening yelling for me to come quick. We plucked it then sat in mourning of his youth. He is certain he will have to soon start dying his hair. Poor kid.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get a ton of snow. This wacky weather is really different, but I'll take it! I enjoy a nice day sprinkled in among snowy ones.