What a great and full day we had! We were hemming and hawing about taking Nathan and the boys back to the Bronco's training camp, but finally decided to do it. So Tim took the boys, and Nicole and I stayed behind to get showers and do a bunch of other domestic stuff. The boys got very close to Peyton Manning, but they couldn't get his autograph. They did, however, get the backup quarterback, Brock Oisweiler's autograph on our football. Check out this picture to the left from the practice (notice how close they were to #18, Peyton Manning). They got back to the camper just in time for lunch, and then it was on to the Olympic Training Center. We had had no idea what to expect, because Tim and I had tried to visit the place 15 years ago, only to find it closed on that particular day that we chose to go (I can't remember why). But this day, they were open, and with many of the current residents here actually in London and going for the gold, there was definitely an air of excitement around the place! After our tour, we struck up a conversation with a guy, and found out he was one of the athletes. He was supposed to be in Lonon for the weightlifting, competition, but an injury put off his dreams for another 4 years. But he has his sights set on 2016, the next summer Olympics, so that was cool to see that kind of determination. Here are a few pictures we snapped, including a picture of Tim and me with Donovan Ford (the athlete I was talking about above):
We left there to go to Focus on the Family, and had a great time at their visitor's center. Starting out at the bookstore, we then made our way down to Whit's End, where Nicholas tackled the big slide. We didn't get very many pictures from there, but here is one of Nicole in the staircase leading down to Whit's End, and the other is of Nicholas pretending he is ventriloquist on the open stage they had there:
Finally, it was time for Pike's Peak. We couldn't go tomorrow, because they have a yearly car race they are doing tomorrow, so the road will be shut down for regular traffic. But we were getting close to the 6pm timeframe that they close the gate going up. We made, though, with 10 minutes to spare! There was a sign that recommended 1/2 tank of gas for the trip up and back, and we only had 1/3 of a tank. Should we risk it? The guard said they could bring us gas if we ran out (for a fee of course), so we decided to go for it! The drive up was gorgeous, if not a little nerve wracking. And as we got closer to the top, Nicole and I started not feeling that great. Also, we realized how underdressed we were! Everyone else at the top had coats and jackets and sweaters. We were all pretty much in shorts and t-shirts. I had to laugh at ourselves - we were acting like such dumb Floridiot tourists. But it all worked out - it was quite the adventure - the views were spectacular - and we had a great time! You almost can't tell it was only 40 degrees when we took a family picture at the summit sign. It rained while we were in the visitor's center, and when we came out, there was a cloud that had rainbows shooting out of it (if that makes sense). We snapped a picture of it, but it doesn't do it justice. Anyway, right before we left to head back down, Tim bought a cup of coffee, and 6 donuts for us, and after a donut and a few sips of coffee, both Nicole and I felt much better! They close the gate going out at 8pm, so we had to leave the top by 7pm to ensure we'd make it down in time, which we did, with again, 10 minutes to spare (and we DIDN'T run out of gas - had some of that to spare even!). It was cool seeing all the people setting up for the race along the road up and back. I got a picture of a couple of the race cars and the starting line for the race that I'll include below, along with some of the other shots of our time at Pike's Peak:
We came back to our camper, fixed dinner, watched the Olympics, and went to bed (well, everyone except me went to bed). But that's what I'm going to do right now. Blessings!
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