Pikes Peak Air Show

I took the three older boys to the Pikes Peak Air Show today. AJ was worried he'd be bored. He wasn't! Really a fabulous airshow. We were all chatting very excitedly on the way back to the car after 4 hours on concrete in the full sun having a great time. All of the performance shows were great, but by far the best was the F-22 demo. I've not seen fighters do some of that stuff before. And it was not shy about flying close, overhead, from behind, whatever. And the best part of the F-22 show was when a P-38 joined it for a heritage flight. The two flew in formation for several minutes, buzzing the crowd (thousands of people) which was whoopin' and hollerin'. The minute AJ got in anything he began running scenarios, dialogue and all. Sam took a couple of these pics.

AJ busts out with, "Look! Chiari!"

F-22 and P-38

Under the B-17

B-17

F-7 Tigercat

B-25

DCC Homecoming: Thunder wins 35-21

It was an all-play outing to the Homecoming Game (except for Matt who was in Brazil). Fina blew past us once or twice, but spent most of her time yelling and screaming in the student section. Yelling about what we don't know as she said she didn't really ever watch the game. Over in our world we were having a blast. Particularly the twins, and particularly Jonny. He practically belly-laughed his way through the entire game. Never really knew what tickled him so. It was very hard to get a picture of him as he was moving so much. Turned out to be a little chillier than we thought, so some of the kids got some new Thunder-Wear.

I doubt he could even tell you he was at a football game. But he did
notice the cheerleaders and wanted his picture taken with them.

The high school choir sang the national anthem.

"Off the Trail" at School in the Woods

AJ was explaining to me as we walked down to his carpool pick up location at the park... "We're going on a hike today, but today we get to go off the trail. Normally that's not allowed. But today, we're going to see what's going on where the animals and plants don't see much human activity." He described that the trails generally go along the perimeter of the property, so today, they're going deep into the interior! He was ready with a camera. School in the Woods.

Silent Night at the Zoo

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo tried a new event tonight, Silent Night. So Lynn and Jamie checked it out. 5:30pm-7:30pm, about $20 a head, and you have to be quiet, like no talking at all. Like they hand you a notepad and pen at the gate to communicate with. Turned out to be a great experience. The weather was perfect. We rode the Sky Ride, looked out over the city and along the Front Range. Had a fun little deviled eggs, avocado toast, and BBQ Sammie dinner at one of the food places. Pretty small turn out, though; I hope they give it another try. You'll tell from the pictures below that we got up to the Primate World for the first time last night. Which also gave us a glimpse of the new rhino, elephant, penguin, etc. home which is looking like an October opening.

KCME's Jamie and Logan

KCME's favorite donor during today's four o'clock hour was Jamie and Logan. Apparently the DJ couldn't read the handwriting of the person who took our contribution. I've been referring to Lynn as Logan the rest of the day, and probably into tomorrow.... But seriously folks, it is very nice to have such a great, local, classical radio station.

Victor | Mollie Kathleen Mine | Cliff Dwellings

Surprisingly big day in Victor, CO and environs. It's just down the road from Cripple Creek (where we were most of yesterday). We tooled around town a little before most things were open, and eventually visited the Victor Lowell Museum. On our drive back around to the Cripple Creek area, we stopped at an overlook of the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine, owned by Newmont Gold Corp., where we could see all the way down into one of the big open pits. They were drilling to place charges.

Eventually we made it around to the Mollie Kathleen Mine where I took the best mine tour I've ever done. The excellent tour guide was Jack McGee who found a unique occurrence of fluorite in nearby Moffat Tunnel (not to be confused with the other Moffat Tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide). It's referred to as fluorite on quartz on barite after laumontite. Here's one article I found. He gave us all a small specimen while on the tour. Check out this YouTube video of Prospectors, Season 4 Episode 4 (starting about 12:20-19:15, 23:23-27:52, and 32:20-38:10).

On the way home we stopped at the Cliff Dwellings near Manitou Springs.

All the photos are here.

Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine

Victor, CO.

Victor Lowell Museum.

Green fluorite in the Mollie, 1000 feet below ground.
Upper right looks up into a long, upward stope.

Cliff Dwellings, Manitou Springs.

Decompression Anniversary

Tracy: It seems like a life time ago, it seems like yesterday. But exactly a year ago today our brave warrior survived brain surgery. To mark the occasion we had cake and reminded ourselves God is Good - always. #chiariawareness #chiarimalformation #chiarimalformationawareness