Colorado Springs Balloon Classic

This morning I got up before 7:00 am to head downtown (while Tracey slept in) and take photos at the 32nd annual Colorado Springs Balloon Classic. There were over 90 hot air balloons released against the backdrop of the mountains. Beautiful!

I took over 80 photos, which I'll try to post on my facebook page later, but for now, here a few of my favorites. We're headed to church at Woodland Valley Chapel this morning, then maybe the Air Force Academy.

Salida, CO

Friday I visited the Royal Gorge, then took an absolutely delightful drive out to Salida, CO and up highway 285 to highway 24 and then into Colorado Springs from the West. It took me about three hours to do this detour, but was such a great drive! I ended up not having enough time to do the Sand Dunes (it was farther away than I thought), but still want to do that on a future trip.

The Royal Gorge was fun, but I forgot how high that bridge is. I kept thinking of what a painful death it would be if the bridge collapsed and I fell, so I didn't end up staying long. Here's a photo of the bridge:

After I made it to the springs and checked into my hotel, my friend Tracey arrived and we went out to dinner, then to see Mamma Mia!, which she had not seen yet. We actually ended up seeing the sing-a-long version, which included the words to the songs on the screen. It was fun except that the woman behind us sang at the top her lungs to every single song. I wanted to jump out of my chair and put a muzzle on her!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my Friday drive:

Today (Saturday) was fun too, but I'll have to write about it later. It's almost midnight and I'm hoping to get up at 5:30 am to go watch the hot air balloon launch in downtown Colorado Springs in the morning before church. I want to get some pictures of the balloons against the mountain backdrop!

Canon City, Colorado

Today I drove to Cannon City, Colorado. I am meeting my friend Tracey in Colorado Springs tomorrow late afternoon, but I decided I wanted to come a day early to mess around on my own. I was planning to go to the Springs tonight, but when I woke up this morning, I changed my mind and decided to stay in Cannon City instead. That's the nice thing about traveling alone, you can change your plans as often as you like and no one gets annoyed at you!

I was planning on leaving around nine this morning, but somehow it was after noon before I left home, making it late before I got to my destination. I don't know why I have so much trouble being on time for things. Part of the problem this time is that I stayed up way too late last night scanning and uploading old high school youth group photos to the facebook page my friend Becky created for our old group of friends. I had so much fun remembering all of our old 80's youth group antics! And admiring the fashion blunders in our photos :)

One of our youth group trips took us to the Royal Gorge (I think we were on our way to ski at Monarch), and looking at all the pictures kind of made me want to visit it again. That's why I decided to stay in Canon City tonight, because it's right here by the Gorge. But then I was thinking that maybe I should go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park that is about an hour south of here, because I've already been to the Royal Gorge, so I should do something different. I can't decide, so I'll just see what I feel like in the morning. Not only am I unable to be on time anywhere, I am also unable to make decisions about anything. I really need a personal assistant.

I had a great drive today, despite the smells. I thought Garden City stunk, but eastern Colorado was even worse! I made three quick stops (plus one for gas): in Kinsely, KS to visit some family gravesites, in Spearville, KS to read about the wind farm, and in Lamar, CO to pick up brochures at the CO visitor center. What I really enjoyed was my selection of music. My recent viewings of Mamma Mia and Xanadu have put me in a retro music mode, so I spent the day listening to Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, James Taylor, ABBA, Olivia Newton John and ELO, and a few other favorites. It was a good day to drive and think.

I wonder what I will decide to do tomorrow. I love a day with all my options open!

Here's one of my favorite youth group photos from around 1987. It is me and my friends Darren and Becky at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, wearing our K-State gear.

Life is too hard...

I have not written a serious blog post in a long time, because it's much more fun to write about silliness, but my heart is heavy this week, so I have no silliness left.

Work is hard right now. I would explain it, but I don't think it's a good thing for me to talk about on a blog.

I'm feeling some friends around me with heavy hearts also, but I don't know how to help them. One of my friends emailed me yesterday with news that a close friend of hers, a former acquaintance of mine from Illinois, died fairly suddenly and unexpectedly. I know the news is especially hard for my friend, and I feel for her.

I also feel very convicted of my lack of prayer, especially for my friends in need. I wish i could go back to my twenties when I lived in Indiana at this camp where every morning it was automatic that we all spent 30 to 60 minutes in prayer and bible study. We didn't have tv's or computers in our living quarters and were not distracted by useless stuff like I am now. I think I need forced structure, because i don't seem to be discplined enough to create it on my own.

I feel sad.

Some new, non cat, videos!

I'm so sorry for all of you loyal readers (all three of you) who look forward to my cat updates. I have to venture off course here so I can get some videos up. Tonight I taught the elementary kids at church and we talked about generosity. For part of the lesson, we split into two groups and each group was assigned a bible story to read and create a simple skit to. Some of the kids (okay, only one, and you know who you are!) are VERY anxious to see their videos, so I'm posting them here on my blog. I was going to put them on the church facebook page, but I wasn't sure all the parents would be comfortable with having their kids videos posted there. I figured my blog was much safer since I have run most of my readers off with my unwavering devotion to cat updates. Apparently not everyone thinks my kittens are as cute as I do!

So here are the videos the two groups came up with. The ironic thing in all of this is that I had one supposedly shy child who really did not want to participate in the skits, so he was given a free pass. But it turns out he made it in there anyway, with the funniest comment of all! Sorry M!

Cat Video

Just to do something a little different, I decided that today I would write about my cats and post a video of them. They are so cute!

as;dklfj;adslkjfk;ladsjklvjlkfls;djfkladsjfladsf

y0. Tis me, Konner. Kelly's neice!!!
And I'm going to be blogging for her, because she's freaking out over some movie crap and such.
Arrite, so we're like looking for something to watch, and we can't agree on anything...I'D like to watch a horror movie [: BUUUTTT, on the other hand...Kelly would like to watch some stupid comedy movie...She should just look in the mirror, looking at her face is just about enough comedy for me x]
And now she's talking about how I should be like my retarded sister and agree with her on everything....as;ldfkjsad;lkfjdsk;lvndsklfj;dsalf
I think that we're going to end up watching I Am Legend(totally my pick)
:]]]]]]

-Konner



PS. I just lost my "rights" to I Am Legend...I dunno why. And now she's making me watch something that makes me wanna vomit...I don't think that she understands I don't want to watch something ignorant children wouldn't even find interesting...Hmph.
roflolawlulz
We're watching something and this one guy is telling this little kid to do bad things to it's baby doll. Bahaha. Oh how I love it when little children act up.
oh oh oh oh oh
What do you get when you cross a brown chicken with a brown cow?
....brownchickenbrowncow(read that allowed to yourself kthnx)
=][=
lolololololol
HOW FUNNY AM I?!
Too funny fer y00.

Little kittens are running around
I named one of them. S/he is named Valentine. =)

iight, d00d. I think I'm done with this now :]
I are going to force Kehlay to watch I Am Legend....mwahaha >:D