Yesterday, we took Ester and Justice to the first “Babes and Books” playgroup of the new school year.  Ester, of course, really loves the songs, and Justice loves to watch all the other people.  On the way out, Ester and Jena (her cousin) had to hold hands on the way to the cars.  It was super cute.

Finally, in one week we’ll be celebrating Ester’s second birthday.  I can’t believe it has been another year.  This week, I’ve been digitizing videos from our trip to Ethiopia and our early days back in Wichita last summer.  It’s amazing to see how fast our little girl is growing up and to compare her actions in Ethiopia to Justice now, as they are about the same age.   What a wonderful journey it has been, and we’re just getting started!

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We sang Lee Greenwood and waved our flag as we exited the USCIS office in downtown Wichita. Ester is now an official citizen of the United States of America. A year after we applied we were able to pick up her certificate today. It was a nice moment as the others in the waiting room clapped to welcome our child into the realm of US citizenry. Ester wasn’t sure what to think.

Since returning from vacation, we’ve been busy organizing the house and getting prepared for the upcoming year. Natasha has been busy getting kids stuff ready for a consignment sale, and Chris has been running from room to room, filing thing, moving furniture, and preaching about the importance of organization for a family to run effectively. Justice’s top two teeth are inching their way into space and Ester learned how to use her clock radio yesterday. Kinley is just glad to be home once again.

After immigration, Chris and Ester visited the bank to open up savings accounts. Ester was proud to unload her piggy bank, which surprisingly contained $42.13. She wanted an ATM card, but we decided not to allow that quite yet.

Speaking of cards, it’s official. Chris starts school in less than two weeks and now has the ID card to prove it. This one can double as an ATM card, which just goes to show you how much things have changed since Chris was last a college student. An adventure it will be….

Our morning began with a trip to Colorado Spring’s Best Breakfast Spot, The Omlette Parlor.  We dined on pancakes, potatoes, and a concoction named after the illustrious Mount Elbert.  It was nice to go out for breakfast, which we seldom do these days.  Afterwards we intended to visit Helen Hunt Falls on our way out of town, but our weary children konked out before we arrived.  Knowing that they needed the sleep (and us the peace), we decided to turn our ship toward home.

The ride was uneventful save endless crying and nasty lightning.  We ate lunch at a Sonic in Lamar, Colorado.  Actually, we brought our veggie tray and hummus and just ordered drinks.  The carhop said,  “That looks healthy.”  I guess she hadn’t seen broccoli in awhile.

Just before crossing the Kansas border, we happened upon the Amache Japenese Detention Camp.  This was one of the interment camps during World War II where approximately 10,000 Japanese-Americans were housed.  It was an eerie sight in the middle of nowhere.

Before heading into the storm, we picked a grassy spot in Dodge City where we dove into our veggies and hummus once again.  It was somewhat subversive to eat a delicious vegetarian meal across from meat packing plants.  In fact, we learned that the train depot across the street shipped approximately 850,000 buffalo hides out in two years.  All in all it took Kansas hunters only 7 years to wipe out most of the buffalo in the Great Plains.  Red peppers never tasted so good.

So, now we’re back, looking forward to Sabbath tomorrow and retrieving Kinley from her vacation home.  It was a wonderful trip, full of new experiences and the challenges of traveling with two young children.  We were blessed to have a wonderful place to stay in Colorado Springs and to have the opportunity to go exploring.

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.

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

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…

The rain drops started falling, so we boarded the bus for Lionshead Village. There we ate some interesting burritos at The Flying Burrito. Who thought that you could put sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes in a burrito? Yummy Stuff!

After the kids wake up from nap, we’re off for some shopping, play in the Pirate Ship Park, and other fun stuff this afternoon. Vail is a pretty family-friendly place with lots of biking trails. They’re doing a great deal of construction, but it still is a wonderful place to walk around and enjoy the natural and man-made beauty. Tomorrow: Thru Denver and back to the Springs.

We arrived at the Elbert Creek Campground and set up camp.  We had some yummy spaghetti to dinner and settled into bed as rain tip-tapped on our tent roof.  The kids did wonderfully, and the sunset was magestic!  The sound of the creek was beautiful as we drifted to sleep.

We woke up early and began a hike.  It was a good and challenging hike.  Again, the kids did very well for their first big hiking experience.  Now, we’ve just completed our walking tour of downtown Leadville and are ready for the next phase of our vacation.  It’s on to Vail for a couple days of relaxation and good food.

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.

This sunset was God’s gift for a long day of driving and crying children.  We woke up this morning and left Wichita about 8:30.  Our drive was uneventful, save for the sounds of mayhem from the backseat.

We at lunch in Dodge City and arrived in Colorado Springs just in time for dinner.  We’re crashing here with Natasha’s cousin, Amy, for a few days.  Hopefully we’ll all be in better spirits come morning.