Colorado College

Fina had her first "official" college visit the other day to Colorado College, right here in Colorado Springs. She and her Dad were quite impressed (despite the pronoun badges). In the meantime, Nana and Papa visited the Club for breakfast; it had been a while. They've engineered the best avocado toast! Plans are afoot to do some furniture rearranging, all to get the piano moved from the theatre area over to Papa's office. Already a coffee table has made it from Papa's office to the big family room by the kitchen and a stressless chair to Matt's office. And Matteo got to go fishing today; it's been a little while. Wow, was Palmer Lake busy! All of the parking lot was full and cars were parked along County Line Road. He caught four fish.

Colorado Renaissance Festival

Today was the day to head out to the Colorado Renaissance Festival held in Larkspur, CO (just up the road from us). Fina's been working since early summer with some of her friends, first making jewelry for one of the booth owners, and then working the booth, too, once the Festival started. It was a photo-rich environment. All the "Ren Faire" photos are here.

The "Living Fountain" was pretty cool.

It tried to rain on us. Fina to the rescue.

Happenings Lately

A new game, Tetris! Reading time (every day). And puzzle time sneaks back into the schedule.

4th of July Seder

We've missed a few Friday Night Dinners lately due to travelers. Tonight was supposed to be "Do not steal," but instead we tried out Prager's 10-minute 4th of July Seder. Hit the spot! All you need to know is on his website, here. Additionally, here are a couple other pieces you might appreciate having: the Declaration for all to sign, God Bless America lyrics (12 sets to a page), and a Young Readers sheet (all on one page to be passed around amongst the readers). We found this YouTube video to lead the singing. Everyone got a stack of all the U.S. coins from a penny to a dollar. We checked each for the American Trilogy: Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum. That might have been the favorite activity of the Seder. Dinner followed with make-your-own pizzas, a fan favorite.

Friday Night Dinner Topics Board.
Next week is "Do not steal."

We used the current flag (right) and the
"Star-Spangled Banner" (left) from Fort McHenry.

 

A rousing chorus of God Bless America

Earlier out back.

4th of July Monument Parade

The Gilmans hosted Lynn and Jamie at a parade-side picnic table via Trails End Taproom; great spot! Thank you, Gilmans! The crowd was estimated at 10-15,000 people, and we believe it. We'd never seen such traffic in little ol' Monument. Perfect Americana small-town Independence Day parade. All the photos are here.

Trains...

Planes...

And automobiles!
Gotta have the Shriners in the little cars!

Fina is working at the Colorado Renaissance Festival!

A local successful robotics team.

Hey, we know the one on the right!

Had never seen/heard an Honor Bell before.

Guess who we "met"?
Heidi's running for Governor.

Our picnic table provider was in the
parade. And we sat at a picnic table
just like the one on the trailer!

Gibguscis at the Gaylord

Some good friends from California joined the Regusci clan at the Gaylord Rockies Resort for the 4th of July weekend. They did a day trip to Winter Park today - great fun! All this despite dodging thunderstorms all day. In the photos below, you'll wonder what took us into the boonies. We were delivering the foster kids' blankets to them at their new home.

Winter Park

Winter Park

Resting in a field out in the boonies.
With a For Sale sign...

Heavy rain and hail at times at home today.

Winter Park

Heading up the mountain at Winter Park.

Star-Spangled Banner

We finally got a larger flag pole mounted to the house to display a U.S. flag. Tracy had bought a mountable pole soon after we got to Colorado Springs (5 years ago) but we'd never put it up - till today. What motivated Papa was his new 15-star flag from Fort McHenry...

It's the "Star-Spangled Banner," the 15-star flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It's the flag Francis Scott Key saw the morning after the attack on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 that inspired him to write our national anthem. There were actually 18 states at the time, but the making of a new flag to account for new states had not yet happened. In addition to 15 stars, there were 15 stripes. At one point they planned for one stripe for each state as well as one star but gave that up soon after this flag and went back to 13 stripes as it is today. It can also be recognized by a red stripe bordering the blue field at the bottom; on today's flag, a white stripe borders the bottom of the blue. It's "spangled" because the stars are all mixed in their orientations (they're all oriented the same way on subsequent flags). We visited Fort McHenry on our recent trip to Baltimore and saw the actual Star-Spangled Banner from Fort McHenry at the Smithsonian's American History Museum on the Mall in DC.

All of our Fort McHenry photos start here.

Fort McHenry from a water taxi.

A replica we unfurled at the fort.

 

Proudly flying next to Matt's office window.