Another Digression: SkyRise

I promise that pictures from Garden of the Gods are coming, but until then let me tell you about a race I want to run. 

First of all, you should know that I don't really like to run.  Secondly though, I really like to climb, so when I found a climbing kind of marathon I was pretty excited. 

I'm guessing everyone knows about the Willis Tower in Chicago, though you may know it better by its previous name, the Sears Tower.  It is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and has one of the highest observation decks in the world.  It stands 1,450 feet and has 110 stories.  And every year a bunch of people run up it.

I heard about this race a couple years ago, but was unable to ever enter it, for various reasons.  This year is our last in Chicago, as I graduate next May, and so I hope to be able to capitalize on the situation and run up the 2,109 stairs to the observation deck. 

The only problem I face is the entrance fee.  It isn't huge, $150, but it is more spare change than we have lying around.  So if anyone thinks that this is as cool/crazy as I do and would like to make a donation to make my (short-lived) dream come true, I'd sure appreciate it. 

So in short, if you want to throw $10 or $20 my way so that I can run up a ton of stairs, I'd be so thankful.  If you read this you probably have our email, or my cell phone number, or you know someone who does and you can get ahold of us that way, or by commenting on this blog.  You can read more about this race here.

Thanks,

Tyler

Colorado Trip...Part 2

After our long and very scenic drive, we headed over to the Royal Gorge.  Tyler and I went there for our vacation before Addilyn was born.  It was a little more nerve racking with kids. This face means, "It's a long way down there!"

It was a nice day to visit but as you can tell from Addilyn's hair it was super windy.  She didn't seem to mind.

Family photo number 1 at the Royal Gorge.

Here is the gondola hanging over the gorge.

And here is Asher staring into the depths of the gorge from said gondola.

Family photo number 2.  You may recognize it from our title.

Leaning into the wind.  I'm not joking; it was SERIOUSLY windy.

Jumping on the bridge because...why wouldn't you?

Driving the little train.

Here we were driving across the bridge.  If you watch closely you can actually see the bridge moving up and down in the wind.  It almost looks like it is breathing or something. 

That completes our second edition.  Tune in next time for our trip to Garden of the Gods.

Digression

A brief aside, for those of you who are interested in my internship at the church.  This summer has been busy for me.  I've been teaching a Sunday school class on Faith & Science, a topic I'm passionate about.  And we've just started a sermon series that I developed.  If you are interested you can find out all about my Faith & Science class here, and you can hear the sermon series, as it goes along, here (The first message in my series is called Abraham & Dating).

Colorado Trip...Part 1

It has been a very long time since I posted anything new.  We kind of left off on a sour note.  I'm sorry I was so hostile.  I'm feeling better now.  Let's start fresh and talk about our trip to Colorado.

We headed to Colorado for a week's worth of fun back in June (the 18th through the 24th to be exact).  It was hot.  This was our peak temperature as we headed through western Kansas.  Luckily our van has really great AC so we didn't notice the heat.

We borrowed a cabin for the week near Cripple Creek which is just southwest of Pike's Peak.  This hummingbird (and some of its friends) were our first visitors.  

This is the view from the loft of the cabin.  While there were other cabins nearby, all those trees made it feel quite secluded.  We got a lot of pictures of the view from the different decks of the cabin but never got a shot of the cabin from the outside. Oops!

The kids playing up in the loft.

The first day of our trip was devoted to getting acclimated.  We hung out in the cabin and explored Cripple Creek a bit.  Cripple Creek is almost completely casinos but we were still able to find some things of interest for the kids.  We visited the fire station and Asher and Addilyn got to sit in a fire engine.  They were pretty excited!  After all that sitting around, we decided to try out one of our more adventurous excursions the next day.  We decided to try out Shelf Road.

Shelf Road is the road between Cripple Creek and Canon City.  I won't say it's the quickest road because it took us longer to get to Canon City than it took to get back (when we took a more roundabout road) but it is certainly the most direct. 

It is a road that was blown out of the side of a canyon back in the gold rush days.  It is generally only wide enough for one vehicle except where they have turnouts (like the one we were parked at above). 

Notice the hole in the rock?  Addilyn says it's there because a dinosaur kicked through it.   

Here's the part that was blown out of the canyon.  It was a little unnerving at first but isn't the view spectacular?

From this angle you can see just how far down the canyon goes.

After going approximately 12 miles in an hour and 15 minutes, we stopped to stretch our legs at Red Canyon Park.

 The kids collected rocks.

This is their pile of rocks.  I think this picture says a lot about their respective personalities.


That's it for our first installment.  Next time we'll show pictures from our trip to the Royal Gorge.