Manitou Springs

Last Saturday Tim and I drove to Manitou Springs which is on the west side of Colorado Springs. It apparently gets its name from two dozen mineral springs situated throughout the area, some of which have drinking spigots for the public at different spots in the town.
We enjoyed breakfast at a delightful outdoor cafe, then explored around town for several hours. We decided that living in this town would be pretty sweet, except that it is a little too far from Tim's workplace!

 





 




 





 

 

The Incline from Manitou Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

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Happy Father's Day!

Today I am fondly remembering my dad and am grateful to God for his life and testimony. Happy Father's Day, Dad and Grandpa! You are loved and missed!
(Click on photos to enlarge them. They are much better that way)

Grandpa with Tyler (and his one shoe!) - summer of "96. Dad was struggling with cancer but was still able to drive most days from the house in town out to his favorite place - the farm (that he and mom built from "scratch"!).

Many happy memories of horse and wagon rides with Grandpa. One of my warmest memories of dad while growing up is lying in bed very early in the morning and hearing dad leave the house to go to the barn to milk the cows. He always had a friendly greeting for our dog who was eagerly waiting for him and wildly wagging his tail, I'm sure. And he would whistle or sing while he headed out to begin his work day, dog right by his side!


Dad and me on the farm - Summer of '96

Happy Father's Day, Dad Shuman! I am so thankful to the Lord for you. Through the years your love for Jesus and your commitment to your family has been so evident to me. Thank-you for being a wonderful father-in-law and a great Grandpa to Luke and Tyler.





To the best and coolest dad I know! Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband! Thank-you for loving on Luke and Tyler since the day they were born and for being a godly and wise and devoted father to them. We three love you fiercely!



What can I say?! Nice scarf, Tyler!

A Taste of Germany

Last year when we moved from Germany, we packed our flower boxes in our shipping container hoping to be able to use them over here. Yesterday I found a great deal on flowers at Costco, so I decided to decorate our balcony with them! I hope and pray they survive! We get a lot of wind here in Colorado, cooler temperatures in the evening, and a shorter growing season than other parts of the country. My flowers will be exposed to this.
There are 82 townhouses in our development and I have only seen balcony flower boxes on 3 of them. This is very different from Germany where there are flowers everywhere! Maybe we will start a new trend in our neighborhood or maybe after a couple of weeks we'll know why most neighbors don't attempt to grow flowers at 6800 feet!
Meanwhile, we are already enjoying them. They certainly cheer up our balcony and make it a welcoming place for morning quiet time and evening meals.

Red, white and blue!

Hiking Palmer Lake Reservoirs

We are back home in Colorado and glad to be done with traveling, at least for a few days! We discovered a new trail yesterday - challenging and beautiful! We hiked up into the mountains above Palmer Lake (30 minutes from our house) to two reservoirs. The scenery was amazing!







Beaver dam

Beaver



Fly fishing












Taking a break on the hiking trail!