Colorado Springs (or We are Family!)

We are in Colorado Springs for a family reunion! Karel’s oldest brother’s oldest daughter (our niece) and her husband have 5 kids, and the oldest are quadruplets (!) who just graduated from high school, so we had a family reunion to celebrate!

Congrats (l to r) Connor, Madison, Zachary, and Zoe! (other people behind them wanted to be in the pic too, but our Quads had their own row)

It was a great ceremony, with a fantastic valedictorian speech (accompanied by violin played by the salutatorian!) and two very talented singers!

We were in Colorado Springs for 6 days, and stayed at the Air Force Academy FamCamp- a campground for military personnel on the Air Force Academy grounds. Karel’s brother is retired from the Air Force, and he sponsored us so we could stay on the base- and it was beautiful! The campground, which I was not smart enough to take a picture of 🙁 felt like a national park- full of pine trees, and the campsites were spread out so you weren’t right on top of your neighbor- it was perfect! And only bout 10 minutes from their house, so very convenient too! I did get a picture of the football stadium:

We saw planes and gliders over the base several times, and saw several parachutists (although I could only capture one in a picture):

We had to get one family picture:

The motley crew (l to r) Jerry, Karel, Steve (Karel’s brother), Lenora, (Karel’s sister), Dan (Lenora’s husband), Haniel (Lenora and Dan’s son-in-law), Emily (Lenora and Dan’s daughter and Haniel’s wife), Jim (Karel’s little brother), Zoe (our great niece), Alyssa (our middle niece), Erika (niece and mom to all the great nieces and great nephews in this pic), Zachary (great nephew), Jackson (great nephew), Madison (great niece), Aaron (Erika’s husband, CJ (Karel’s oldest brother), and in front, Peggy (CJ’s wife) and Cannon and Frankie- WHEW! We are missing Connor (great nephew), Robin (Steve’s wife), Rob (Jim’s husband), Bruce (Lenora and Dan’s son), Fatima (Bruce’s wife) , Kyle and Janelle (Jerry and Karel’s awesome kids) <3

Everyone did their own thing each day, from visiting the Garden of the Gods:

Jerry and Karel took a trolley tour with Lenora and Dan- not Pikes Peak in the background

To going wine tasting at an old monastery:

L to r- Jim, Haniel, Lenora, Peggy, Karel and Emily

We went to Manitou Springs for lunch one day, and wandered around the town, which is known for the river and springs it has in town.

There are tons of shops and galleries, and art on most corners:

A group went to tea one day, and we had the adventure of going to the ophthalmologist! Jerry started seeing double a few days before, and we wanted to confirm it was a problem he had once before- a “stroke” of the 6th cranial nerve. It is not a stroke like you think of, and our diagnosis was confirmed, and for now, Karel is taking over the driving while Jerry wears an eye patch (he’s a pirate) and heals- and doing a GREAT job, (if I do say so myself!)

We went to a German restaurant for dinner one night: