The Muellers came to Colorado Springs

During our last few days in the States, Jen and girls kindly drove down south to meet up with us for a few fun things.  Our first stop was the Olympic Training Center.  We saw a short film and then a guide walked our group all over the campus showing us where the country's top athletes can live and train.  We learned that Apollo Ono lived here for several years while stacking up medals.  He mentioned plenty of other names too, but they are slipping my mind at the moment.  There are amazing gyms, courts, a sweet pool, and lots of gyms for personal workout time when not focused on their specific sport training.  There are motivating quotes all over walls and over doorways.  They live, eat and breathe athletics.  There was a quote about that.

Jess was SO happy to see Jaimi again after a few days absence.  

6 kid bobsled team.

Makenna and Alie somehow sent each other brain signals when getting dressed 75 miles away to end up matching.  

We didn't see his face, but maybe we'll see this back end compete in London. 

Isaac showing how high the Olympic High Dive really is.  It's the TOP of the pole.

Jess is not the most humble gold medal winner.  

These are some of the dummies the wrestlers practice beating up, I mean pinning.  

None of us really knew there were equestrian events.  We stayed here for awhile to watch.  These are very well cared for horses.  

Here's an All American Olympic biker.  

Still watching. 

Still watching. 

Yep.

Just when we thought we were on our way out, we found this measuring strip on the floor showing the longest long jump.  It's really long.  Really.  None of our group even got to the 10'.  Not for lack of trying.  We were backing up to the welcome desk and charging through the hallway to jump.  

 This is a poster of the dude.  Amazing.  29'  2 1/2" Good Golly!
What a stud.

 Our next stop was the America the Beautiful Park.  It is dedicated to Katharine Lee Bates who wrote the poem which was made into the song.  There is a plaque for her at the top of Pikes Peak too because that was her "purple mountain majesty" place.  Since Colorado Springs claims Pikes Peak, they also gave her a whole park.  It has a fun playground and the most awesome water feature ever.  Not awesome-gnarly, but awesome huge and stunning.  Below, you can see us approaching.

 The water falls from the top of the giant "O"and flows around the big splash pool.  The kids started with the thought of getting their feet wet, then just a few sprinkles that will dry quickly, then, oh, forget about it, we're all getting soaked!  The water was not warm.

Isaac was the least wet of my three kids, but from the waist down, he doesn't have a dry spot.

They ran around and around the splash zone kicking up water on themselves and others. 

Makenna and Alie eventually just lied down to finish the job.  

There was playground equipment just like this at the big park on Ramstein Air Base.  Isaac remembers it being a lot bigger.  

There was a group of teenage boys doing fancy flips and jumps all over different areas.  At first they thought we were grumpy adults going to tell them not to be rowdy by our kids, but we just wanted to watch and take pictures.   Jen got great movies and action shots going right over her.  

Makenna was freezing after we left the water.  Jaimi kindly helped keep her company and warm her up while the rest were playing. 

Mean mom dragged Jessica away from the playground for a few minutes to take these pictures.  She learned about Kathy Bates and her song in school last year and I wanted to show her this monument.  It's very nicely done.

We eventually left the park to go to Garden of the Gods, again.  I just don't think we can help it.  Matt teases me that every time we have visitors, I make Hawaiian Haystacks.  The Colorado Springs version is when you have visitors, go to Garden of the Gods.   And it's so picturesque, I have plenty of pictures to add to the growing collection.  I don't think captions are needed for most.  I'll just note individuals when it's not obvious.  Mainly, it's 6 cousins, two moms and one grandma rock scrambling on the beautiful scenery.

That's Isaac's silhouette   

5 kids in a tree.

 The above is a close up of how far Isaac climbed up.  Below, you really have to look for him  

Jess bonked her head.  

Isaac is climbing over while the little ones and squeezing through. 

We ate dinner together at Pei Wei and then had frozen yogurt, one last time.  Makenna and Alie dutifully filled in every spare square of space on the drawing board.  It was a long, fun, full day.