YEAA for Me!

I defended my thesis on Tues!! After many years of procrastination, I am D-O-N-E. I passed my defense, and after a few changes I will officially have my degree. Hip-Hip Hooray! And I swear, if I ever hear another word about trans fat, it will be too soon...Unless you ever have any trans fat questions and then I'd be happy to gab your ear off for an hour or two;)

Colorado Springs

My parents were in town last week and we had so much fun! We got to go and spend a few days in Colorado Springs, and we wish we would have stayed longer! It is so beautiful down there and SO MUCH to do. We went to "Focus on the Family" which is a HUGE kid play area with slides, airplanes, trains, dress-ups, books, puppets, etc. The kids had a blast. Then we stopped at a pond to feed the ducks. Josh tried to walk right out into the lake. That kid has no fear. They also loved swimming at the hotel--I thought Josh was going to jump right out of his skin he was so excited.
The next day we went to Garden of the Gods, which is beautiful. It's a little like a mini southern Utah right smack dab in the middle of Colorado Springs. Halle, of course, got very tired on our mile, paved trail hike. We've got to toughen that girl up...... Then we went to see Seven Falls. It is a pretty impressive water fall, and even has an in mountain elevator to take you to the top. You can also do the stairs, so Rusty and I climbed the stairs while Grandma and Grandpa took the kids on the elevator. Well, it turns out we took the wrong stairs--we wanted to go to the top of the waterfall, and these stairs only took you up to a viewing point where you could get a good look at the waterfall. I was all staired out, but Rusty and my Dad went back down and found the right set of stairs. Good for them.
But Halle's favorite part of the whole Grandma and Grandpa trip was getting to stay the night in the hotel with my parents. They stayed at a hotel in Thornton while they were here, and took her back with them one night. She did "seat drop stand ups" on the "BIG" bed, got to play candyland 4 times (and won every time!) and she got to get a treat out of the vending machine. The girl had died and gone to heaven. She still speaks of it with awe in her voice.