Backing up a bit...

I got so caught up in our first days of school this past week that I failed to fill you in on the rest of our Labor Day weekend. Aside from Nathan's birthday party, we also packed up and headed down to Colorado Springs for the day to do some good old-fashioned sightseeing. 

There is a place just west of Colorado Springs called 'Cave of the Winds' - I had never been but I was told it was a series of underground tunnels that had rock formations called "stalactites" and "stalagmites" - whatever, even though I'm almost 4, do you really expect me to be able to pronounce those??

I must say, though, it is rather pretty down there, so we took a break before heading into the Caves to take some photos.

Then it was time to go... down the ladder we climbed...

Kidding, of course. This is the ladder the peeps used waaaaaay back when to come explore the caves, and all those black marks on the ceiling are where they put out their lanterns so they didn't burn up their  ladder. Smart thinking.

It was kind of chilly and dark, and I'm not a huge fan of either of those things, so there were a few rough spots, but all in all, it was pretty cool. 

Here Dad is explaining stalagmites to Maida.. "they are called stalagmites because you "might" trip on them if you aren't paying attention, get it Maida?! HA!"

After our 45 minute cave tour, we had some lunch, and Maida literally stopped to smell the roses... er, mums, and pose with Dad on some sort of animal.

Two peas in a pod

While Dad and I panned for gold ... or fake gold.

Then Maida joined in, of course

After Cave of the Winds it was off to Manitou Springs. This was Grandpa D's idea and we were all a little skeptical because D has a tendency to lead us on some wild goose chases that go no where, but turns out they were having a festival in the middle of town, and it was a lot of fun.

And they had face painting, which was all I cared about. I'm Ironman for those of you who aren't familiar (don't worry, I've never actually seen anything with him in it, but it was my favorite picture in the book, so I went with it).