Air Force Academy Graduation - Day 1

Today begins two days of Graduation events at the Air Force Academy for Morgan. Tonight is her Commission Ceremony and tomorrow morning is the Graduation Ceremony followed by a mega-party at our house. The photos below are from the Thunderbirds practicing today for the show tomorrow. The flag is at our house.

More in May...

Playing a little catch-up here... There were a number of birthdays and holidays that snuck by this month without a mention. So, here are some of those...

Mother's Day! Flowers from Nipomo!

A Family Dinner on "The Little Things"

Birthdays

Birthday presents - The Piano Guys

More birthdays...

AJ trying to teach Papa the Jitterbug for the
Wizard of Oz cast party.

Antonio's and Griffen's Continuation

Antonio and Griffen both advance to High School! DCC had their 8th Grade Continuation ceremony today. Antonio's Thunder Tones Choir sang and Griffen received the Spirit of Flight Award. All the photos are here.

Brahm's Graduation

Brahm graduated from DCC High School today! Congratulations! All the photos from graduation and the next day's Western Colorado College signing ceremony (wrestling scholarship) are here.

Pikes Peak Trolley Museum and Restoration Shop

Had to do something rail-related today... Afterall, it's National Train Day. So, having not been to this place yet since moving to Colorado Springs, it was off to the Pikes Peak Trolley Museum and Restoration Shop. The big surprise was finding a Southern Pacific Daylight car in their yard. It's currently marked MCRX 10400 and we were told it was originally a dining car that was later converted to a Maintenance-of-Way car. Another bit of a surprise was they had several Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority trolleys that would have been running in Philadelphia, PA about the time my Dad (Papa Bill) was growing up there or shortly thereafter. He may well have seen or even ridden one of these!  The tour ends with a little ride on a trolley up and down a short display track.

But first, as it was raining, we had breakfast at La Baguette.
Then off to the Museum in sunshine!

That bright orange small HO trolley is a dead-ringer for
the one I ran as a boy on my Dad's layout in Kansas City.

Very cool Polar Express layout

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Last ran on the Manitou Cog Railway in 2017.

Same cog railway car as noted above.

The Southern Pacific Daylight car

There were several model layouts and tons
of displayed model trains and artifacts in their
Rock Island railcar.

Paper Plate Awards for The Wizard of Oz

There was a secondary cast party at our house for the older Wizard of Oz cast members. The family made Paper Plate Awards for everyone - lots of fun! They're a hoot! Dinner and the s'mores weren't bad either.