For our flight to Colorado, we dressed in patriotic colors for Independence day and ate tasty freckled lemonade cake on the plane and at the airport.
Here we are flying above the clouds on our way to Colorado. We rarely got to fly east going out of Seattle, so it was fun to see the view of the various Cascade volcanoes from that direction.
After our flight, retrieving our cats, and renting a car, we started our drive south. We took this picture while driving through Castle Rock. It took awhile to get our rental car, which was a bunch of money to get very little use out of it. It cost a lot because we had to return it to a different location and because we had to get an extra large vehicle in order to fit us, our luggage, and our cats in their carriers. Once we were in the Springs we turned it in and were able to get a much more reasonably priced car through the app Turo. We were told it could be a couple weeks before our cars arrived, but they ended up coming just a couple days later.
Our next door neighbors invited us over for a July 4th party as soon as we arrived. Here's Allison playing at the neighbors' house and searching for bunnies in the yard.
There was a beautiful sunset on our first night.
They lit off fireworks and the kids played with sparklers. They had plenty more, but we were so exhausted we turned in after only about 10 minutes.
Here's our much less expensive rental car, the kids climbing on the little play structure in our yard, and the cats adjusting to their new home.
Fry's glad we're here. He enjoys going in the yard and having a much larger house. The other cats took longer to adjust, but they figured it out too.
Once Nibbler came out of hiding he found me while Leela found all the extra pillows and bedding we were tossing in the corner.
A couple days later we played on a fun zipline. I'd found it on Google thinking we were going to a public park, but turns out it's a private neighborhood park. Fortunately I made friends with a resident who said we could be her guests.
We also played at Balcon park, which is about 1/3rd of a mile from our house. Oh how I wish I'd had a close park like this when my kids were little!
We are really enjoying the summer storms of Colorado. They are fun to watch and listen to, and they cool things down significantly on the hottest days.
Our belongsings didn't arrive for a couple weeks. Thankfully the kids were at space camp when the moving truck finally arrived, which made unloading a LOT easier. I had started the Vocal Arts Festival with Opera Theater of the Rockies, but several people came down with Covid and our schedule was postponed by 5 days to give them all time to recover. Those 5 days made the unpacking process much easier.
After picking the kids up I took them to the nearby YMCA. The kids club wasn't open yet, so we went to the racquetball courts where I taught them how to play racquetball.
Thanks to having an unexpected free Saturday, we were able to take a day trip up to Water World - the largest water park in the US. It was crowded and lines were long, but we still had fun. The Voyage to the Center of the Earth ride was like nothing we'd ever seen before. It was a long wait (90 minutes thanks to the tube valet fast pass other people had), but at least the kids loved it. We'll have to go on a day that's not a Saturday some time.
It along with Storm and Lost River of the Pharoahs were like a theme park dark ride combined with a family water slide.
Here's Oscar carrying the tube on his head for the Storm ride.
We had lots of fun on those and Half Pipe, but everything shut down due to an unanticipated thunder storm. There was nothing about it in the forecast, but it showed up anyway. That seems to happen a lot here in July. It passed quickly, but it remained cloudy and 20 degrees cooler, so the kids didn't want to get back in the water.
Often I would drop the kids off at summer camp then not have any rehearsals until the afternoon, so I would go for walks in the morning. One day I walked down to these lovely views at the America the Beautiful park downtown.
We had some heavy rain storms on the 20th and 24th. Our basement was fine, but I saw several neighborhood posts saying their basements were flooded.
Our first scenes program was delayed and followed up only a couple days later by the 2nd scenes program. Missing those days meant we had to cram all of our rehearsals together in a very short amount of time. Here's me as Siebel in "Faites luis mes aveux" from the opera "Faust." My puffy pants were awesome!
I also steped in as customer #3 in "Sounds of Selling" from "She Loves Me."
The dress looked nice on me, though I only had one song to do my quick change from a boy into a woman. My sweet kids came just for the 2nd half of the concert since that's all I was in. Even then Allison struggled to sit through any parts when I wasn't on stage.
The dress improved with the addition of a belt.
I had to curl my hair for rehearsal, but Tyler doesn't like seeing me with curly hair, so I wore a wig when I hugged him goodnight.
Oscar's recordings weren't as great at the 2nd scenes concert, but he got a few clips here.
He got some nice photos though.
This is "Beautiful Girls," the final scene of the show.
I ate great at Colorado College's cafeteria. Allison struggled at the sports camp I put her in (the only place with availability), so I started taking her to the YMCA in the morning where she had more fun with toys and hands on activities. I once took her out to Chick-Fil-A after forgetting to pack her a lunch. She was happier at camp if she only needed to be there for a few hours rather than all day. Tyler enjoyed the Roblox coding and Minecraft coding camps I put him in, but they were pretty pricey, so I probably won't pick those again.
Here are more pretty views from our new neighborhood and a sweet Leela licking Oscar's ice cream bowl.
We had a pretty massive rain storm during Music Man dress rehearsal on the 29th. After driving to and from a long rehearsal in constant pouring rain, I got close to home and the road I needed to go on was closed. I then tried the next one, but it wouldn't let me turn left, so I turned right and made a U-turn to go straight only to have a traffic officer come out. She, of course, directed me to turn right. I ended up in tears because I was exhausted and didn't know how to get home since Google just kept telling me to turn around onto roads I wasn't allowed to drive on. Eventually I made it out and Google redirected me, but it was definitely the most frustrating day I'd ever had in Colorado.
Granny and grandpa visited us on their way to Missouri to see Millie's baby blessing and Bonnie's baptism. They saw the Saturday evening showing of Music Man and spent the following two days with us. Martha is highly allergic to cats but was able to manage staying in our house in a cat free bedroom. One thing they enjoyed was listening to the kids play the piano. Grandpa then played the piano for them, which was surprising for the kids since they didn't even know grandpa played.
Before "Music Man" we all went on a walk around the neighborhood.
Here are some backstage pictures of me as a townsperson in Music Man. They told all the women to come with curly hair, but then the hat I picked (which matched my dress perfectly) and the fact that I'm supposed to be a married woman in the show meant I needed to have my hair up for the performances.
Here I am with my stage daughter Chloe. We acted as mother and daughter in "We Got Trouble," "Wells Fargo Wagon," and the final scene where all the kids come out playing their instruments. I had a tear come to my eyes during one rehearsal of that final scene, and one of the 12 year old dancers asked "are you really crying? You're a great actress!" I'd been thinking about the first time I saw Tyler comfortably playing the piano, and the tears came naturally.
It was a super fun show to participate in, but putting it all together in only a few days was pretty brutal. I'm usually sad when a show ends, but I have to admit I was relieved when it was all over. It was exhausting!
Here's the "Wells Fargo Wagon" scene where I got a little solo singing "or a double boiler!"
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