Colorado Springs

This is me catching up on summer happenings.  One big event that will be forever seared into my brain was my first trip to Colorado.  Landon and Parker were both scheduled to play in a huge tournament there and since I have never been, I was the unlucky parent to go on this trip.  It was bad news from the start.  

Flights were insanely expensive.  Like we could've flown to Europe for the same price.  I tried to save money where I could and found us flights that arrived later than I would've preferred at 11:30pm.  Not great but to us it would feel like 10:30 so I figured it wouldn't be terrible.  I was so wrong!  Our flight left late and then landed late after circling around Denver twice.  Pretty sure we had a new pilot in training.  He was the worst.  And by the time we landed and got all our luggage at a baggage claim over a mile away, I was in a terrible mood.  Then we had to get a rental car.  And the line to pick it up was so slow and all the while the clock was ticking away and my boys were still awake and about to get no sleep before their games the next day.  We finally got our rental and drove 90 minutes to our hotel in Colorado Springs.  We arrived at 3am.  I think the last time I stayed up that late was my freshman year in college.  My contacts were glued to my eyeballs and I was just so thankful we made it to the hotel without any mishaps.  Luckily Landon and Parker slept in the car because Landon had to get up at 6:30am for his game.  Poor guy.  I literally prayed that both of us would be able to function on no sleep and it was a serious miracle because we did! 

The tournament was not great.  Are you noticing a theme with this trip?  There were teams from all across the country and the venue was enormous!  It was at the Air Force Academy and there were thirty fields.  It was massive!  Naturally the boys teams never played anywhere near each other so I walked back and forth in the hundred degree weather, trying to find them.  Yes, you heard that right.  There was a crazy heat advisory.  Gatorade was sold out at the grocery store, it was that bad.  We saw several players get loaded up into ambulances for heat exhaustion.  It was miserable.  But we persevered and lost a lot of games.  

 

That evening we managed to do a little sight seeing and we were pleasantly surprised with the red rock beauty of the Garden of the Gods.  We ate a delicious BBQ joint that someone recommended and the boys and I filled ourselves on brisket.  We slept great that night and were like a well-oiled machine as we packed up our stuff, got plenty of ice and water, and checked out of the hotel in record time to get to early games.  By the time Parker finished his last game I was so done with the sun and lacrosse.  I applied countless coats of sunblock and somehow managed to escape without a sunburn.

So much brisket!

hot and tired and ready for a shower at the hotel that we spent a total of like ten hours at

After all the games (and mostly losses) we raced off the fields to get to church so we could see missionary Megan.  I gave her the biggest hug! She isn't a hugger but she hugged me back so I knew she was happy to see us.  She is just so awesome and her companion was great fun too.  After church and pictures, we said our goodbyes and found a yummy place for lunch before checking out the Denver Temple.  Hooray for temples!  Then it was back to the airport and the end of the longest three days of my life.  I'm happily letting Randy take over all future lacrosse travel from here on out.