Meet The Kirks

Natasha went 3-0 today, winning two games of skeeball and a game of World Cup Soccer.   We spent the afternoon in Manitou Springs, where we happened upon an old arcade.  Not only does this arcade have the normal, modern games, but they had penny, nickel, and quarter games circa the 1920’s.  We had a blast trying out the baseball, pinball, and even the flip-page animation peep show.  Ester and Justice got to ride on a helicopter, sports car, and truck.  It was an incredibly fun place to visit.

All in all, we loved Manitou.  There were many nice shops along with the arcade and an eclectic atmosphere.  But, our favorite spot was where we ate lunch, at a little place called Adam’s Mountain Cafe.  This restaurant practices the slow-food method, preparing each meal without microwaves or extensive prep work.  Their vegetarian menu was great, and they had a Community Table where diners can choose to sit with random people who come and sit there.  Adam’s gets our vote for the best food of this trip, and will definitely be someplace we return to.  Hopefully, next time Chris can actually win something.

Our time in Manitou Springs followed a morning jaunt in the Garden of the Gods.  I (Chris) have wonderful memories of this place when as a kid we would visit and scramble on the rocks.  Ester was a bit too young and moody to fully appreciate the natural beauty, but we had a good time anyway. 

Tomorrow our grand adventure draws to a close.  We’re praying for good weather and happy children for the drive home.

The Prius moaned and grown over Vail pass as we left behind the higher altitudes in search of the big city.  The next stop on our journey was Denver en route back to Amy’s house in Colorado Springs.  We left Vail in the morning and arrived in Denver just in time to enjoy some lunch.

We dined at the SAME (So-All-May-Eat) Cafe.  Natasha had heard a report about the place on NPR, and we were both intrigued by the concept.  The idea behind SAME is that they make good food, but they don’t have prices.  People either pay what they think is fair or agree to volunteer to pay for their meal.  It’s a wonderful twist on the soup kitchen idea, and the food was delicious.

After lunch, we visited the Denver Children’s Museum.  I (Chris) was a bit leery of going at first because…well…it’s a Children’s Museum.  But, I was wrong.  This was an amazing place.  Ester and Justice had tons of fun pretending to be construction workers, fire fighters, and veterenarians.  They had a Grocery Store, Tree House, and Art Station.

In the tree house, Ester had a big moment.  There was a huge hole designed for kids to climb down and  through tunnels, pretending to be any number of varmits.  Ester wanted to go down and asked her Daddy to help her, but each time got scared.  Finally, I (chris) suggested that she follow the example of the other kids.  In seconds, Ester was down the tunnel and roaming free, interacting with the other children.  It was a wonderful moment of independence and confidence for our young girl.

After kid time, it was daddy time, so we headed over to the Breckenridge Brewery to s ample a couple of brews while reading “Our Dumb World” by The Onion.  After beer consumption, we walked the 16th Street Mall, dancing to the R & B band.  Finally, we visited Arada Ethiopian Restaurant for some find food before heading back to the Springs.

We’ll spend the next couple days hanging out here in the Evangelical Capitol of the World.  Today, on to Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs.

Cheers

When you live with an almost two-year-old, you frequently find yourself in moments of absolute hilarity (this juxtaposed to the moments of hair-pulling agony).  Often, when you are most serious, or even ticked off, you find yourself brought to your knees by the unpredictable actions of the 23-month-old brain.  Tonight was one of these moments.

In our Vail hotel room, Ester gets the privilege of sleeping in her own, queen-size bed.  This is due the the hotel’s lack of child cribs– apparently only old people stay here.  Incidentally, the hotel elevator has a capacity of 8 people.  I’m quite happy that now our family can single handedly make up half of the capacity of an elevator.  Impressive, no?  Given the breadth of our monstrous stroller, the capacity of the elevator is more accurately stated as “The Kirk Family.”

Back to the bed.  Girded with a comforter for any crash landings, Ester’s small frame is dwarfed by the size of her big bed.  Justice is jealous–we can tell.  On this bed, we lay to complete our ceremonial bed time story, prayer, and rendition of “Goodnight Sweetheart.”

I’ve sung “Goodnight Sweeheart” to Ester every night since we first brought her home.  I wanted to establish a bedtime routine and that song just seemed appropriate.  Justice has a similar routine with the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”  “Goodnight sweetheart wasn’t quite manly enough for Bubba.

Now, after fifteen months of hearing this song, Ester, this very evening, decided to sing along.  This is what brought my serious, I’m-getting-very-sleepy-and-you-should-too face to uproarious laughter.  She looked up at me and joined in on the “Do-do-do’s” throwing in a “sweetheart” and “really must say” along the way for good measure.  Natasha in the next bed over feeding Justice his evening Bible erupted in laughter as well.  I wonder how long this nighttime trend will continue.  When will she start singing the song to me?

We had some serious fun this afternoon, Matey’s, playing on the Pirate Ship Playground.  Incredibly designed, this baby amusement park had a complete pirate ship surrounded by a wooden sea-monster, a rocking row boat, and some boring swings.  Ester was a bit scared to walk to the plank, but really dug the fact that this sea vessel was equipped with a quick-exit slide.  After we had exhausted her attention span, we trotted down to the Gore Creek and put our feet in the water.  It was another first experience for our daughter.  Those seem to be coming often these days, and they’re always a lot of fun.

The rain clouds rolled over the mountain again, so we retreated to the dryness of our hotel room where Ester preceded to get into everything and Justice and Daddy had some fun terrorizing one another.  We debated dinner plans for quite some time before deciding to the load the car and head into Minturn for some Tex-Mex.

After two days in Vail, we have mixed feelings about the place.  On the one hand, it is a very family friendly locale with great kid’s activities and lots of families around.  It has beautiful jogging trails, lots of bikers, and tons to do.  On the other hand, Vail is pricy and quite frankly single-minded.  In searching Vail Village, we found little food that was vegetarian-friendly or stimulating for those of us who appreciate a diverse pallete.  I get the whole we’re-little-europe thing, but give me some good food from somewhere other than Germany or Italy for goodness sakes.  Of course, I’m just saddened at the fact that no decent brewery could be found.  Vail has the trails and outside mentality of Boulder, but is way off on creative and progressive options for food.

Ester keeps saying “Hi Daddy” from the confines of her mega-bed in hopes that I will take her out for ice cream and forget this notion about bedtime.  Another day has passed on this vacation.  Tomorrow, we’ll drop some altitude heading to Denver and then back to Colorado Springs.  I hope the beautiful smell of mountain air stays with us.  Until then…

Our Sunday morning, day two of our vacation, started with a nice walk through the suburban neighborhoods of Colorado Springs.  We’re located less than half a mile from the headquarters of Compassion International and not much further f rom the infamous New Life Church, former home of Ted Haggard.  The walk was nice and we found a wonderful little playground at DaVinci Academy.  They have a whole set of playground toys which are musical instruments.  Ester loved pounding on them, and we sang a rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

After our walk, we packed up a picnic lunch and drove to Red Rocks Canyon.  This place apparently was owned by a hippie until recently being bought out by the city of Colorado Springs.  It was a nice public area with walking trails.  We had a great lunch and Justice got a new hairdo.

We spent the afternoon hanging out Amy’s friend, Anthony’s house.  He has this amazing home literally on the side of the mountain.  We hiked his private trail, took a dip in their community swimming pool (on the mountain top), and enjoyed the scenery.  Ester and Daddy even got a little nap.

It was a nice, relaxing day and some wonderful new experiences.  Tomorrow we bid farewell to the Springs for a few days and head out to central Colorado.  Our plan is to hike Mount Elbert on Tuesday after camping out tomorrow night.  We’ll check back when we get to Vail on Tuesday evening.