The real deal.

This week was exhausting. Because the fires were too close (we could see the glow of the fire on Tuesday night!), we got evacuated. Talk about preparing us for potential real life situations... this really presented some teachable moments. 

The smoke coming in.

Smoke in the mountains as we were driving out of town. 

Our shelter for a couple of nights. 

Click here to read more. 

RMNP

Cynthia and I had a few days between language training and culture training, so we took a mini vacation and went to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was gorgeous! Here are a few photos.

My friend Caleb came down from WY to visit.  

Big daddy elk.

Elk on the horizon. 

The path along one of our hikes. 

Lawn Lake. 

Our tent. 

OTC

Today Cynthia and I went to visit my sister who is training at the United States Olympic training center. She is there for a week of team camp. I am about 30 minutes away at language training, so after dinner, we headed over to have some fun...Here is a series of photos. :)

We set the self timer, and Cynthia is saying, "When do we jump?"

NOW!

I took some extra time to "wind up."

hehehe :)

Fun times with my bobsledder sister. 

Click here for a "behind the scenes" look. 

Air Force Academy.

Today was not just another day at Nerd Camp. We rallied the troops and took another field trip! One of the men who is here for the language program is actually a teacher at the Air Force Academy. He graciously gave up part of his Father's Day (Happy Father's Day, Dad!) to give us a tour. 

Looking up from the entrance of the chapel. 

We all really wanted to go inside the chapel, but there was a wedding in progress, so we were unable to enter the upper, Protestant area.

These photos are from the lower, Catholic chapel.

Beautiful mosaic. 

Stained glass

The light coming in was breathtaking. 

I love the colors!

Jesus. 

The clouds from inside the chapel. 

I can't remember what this is. 

A boy standing outside.

Inside the Jewish temple.

These photos are from the Jewish temple that shares the bottom level with the Catholic Chapel. 

Also on the bottom level is the Buddhist Temple.

Colorful light!

The spires. 

On the way back to the car, we were greeted by a butterfly and a bumble bee.

Butterfly. 

The bee was coming towards me!

He was more interested in the flowers than in me. 

Garden of the gods.

Sitting in a window of the "Siamese Twins" rock formation. 

I have been calling our training "nerd camp" all week because we sit around all day and talk about phonetics. We train our mouths to make new sounds and train our ears to hear subtle differences in speech patterns... and we love it! We are so intensely into what we are doing that before we know it, seven hours have gone by!

a fluff ball growing along the path 

Needless to say, our brains are getting quite a work out! So today we took a "nerd camp" field trip.

We hiked around at Garden of the gods all day. It is a plot of land with some really cool rock formations and lots of horse poop.

We hiked around in the scattered rain sprinkles from the "Siamese Twins" to the "Balanced Rock" and all the way around to the "Trading Post."

As it got later, a bunch of huge clouds moved in from Pike's Peak. We didn't even try to act tough. The thunder scared us non-Coloradians so we sat on the porch of the trading post and started plotting how to not die from the thunder claps. In an instinctive act of survival, we mustered up enough courage to power walk back to our cars and head back "home" to safety.

We narrowly escaped the thunder storm!

Mmmm, these afternoon afternoon clouds are mighty nice! One week down and four more to go!


P.S. Did you know that you can click on the photos to get a better view?

Language Training.

We made it to Colorado! Click the link to read a bit about language training.  E-mail me for the password. :)

The view from the walking path near our training center. 

Zion National Park

We hiked around in Zion on our way to Colorado. 

Click here to read more!

I have nomadic tendencies.

Cynthia and I head out to Colorado in the morning. Yipee!

Packing turned out to be a cinch! 

Its a teammate! It's a team, mate!

Yay! We have teammates. Its a team, mate. 

I did not take this photo. It is not my work. 

Becoming an Artist!

Here is a photo I took at Christian's baseball game. It is obviously not the greatest... hooray that I get to go to photography school to learn how to take better photos! 

Click here to read why I decided to go to photography school. 

Content.

It is not the content of my life that makes me content.