Preparing For Minnesota

This Friday, December 18th (Sara's BD), we will begin our journey back to Minnesota to hang with friends and family for Christmas. We're doing our best to figure out how to keep the kids (and the parents) sane on the 20+ hour road trip each way. When we moved to Colorado we drove it in one shot, but we'll split each trip into two days this time around. We'll stay in Omaha, NE on the way there, and we'll make a couple stops on the way home: one in Sioux Falls, SD, and also in Kearney, NE. I'm not overly excited about the driving part, but will be nice to see eveyone once we get there.

School has been pretty laid back since Thanksgiving. It's been kind of a nice break. I'm incredibly thankful to find a little work through this season and some of which will continue into the New Year. I've been helping out the local FASTFRAME with some framing lately. It's been fun to get to know the owners a bit more and offer the assistance when I'm needed. I've also been leading people in worship on Sundays at a church called Summit Church in Castle Rock. They've offered me a weekly position there starting in January. This is a great opportunity for the time being, but it will most likely not be where I end up long term.

Hopefully we'll get to see most of you who read this blog over the next couple weeks. Here's a family pic that was taken on Thanksgiving morning. Have a Merry Christmas!

Gavin's Basketball

We signed Gavin up for basketball this year through the YMCA. I also signed up as his coach. Coaching 1st graders in basketball has been an interesting experience. Thankfully I had a set of parents step up to be assistant coaches to help me out a bit. It's actually been a huge help since one of them was a coach last year.

One thing I'm embarrassed to admit is that I forgot about our first game until the last minute. We rushed to get there, but were still 15 minutes late. I'm one of the most punctual people I know, so it just wrecked me inside to let people down like that. Luckily the assistant coach had everything under control when I got there.

We spend the last 10 minutes of each practice doing "circle time", which is basically sitting down with the kids and teaching them about things like honesty, respectfulness, responsibility, etc. For the practice after our first game I decided to use my poor example of responsibility as a lesson for the kids. I apologized to the kids (and their parents) and explained how we all have a responsibility to our team to be there for each other.

Gavin seems to really be enjoying it an he's already improved a bit and understands the game more than he did three weeks ago. It's fun to watch him and be involved more than I have in the past.

A Glimpse Into Our Morning

What...

The kids went out for a typical jump on the trampoline while I tidied up the kitchen. I loaded a few breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and looked out the window, (Gasp). And, of course, there were roofers redoing the neighbor's roof. Do you think Gavin already knew he was going to be in trouble for stripping down? Gavin and Aubri were sent to their room with trampoline privileges taken away for a few days. The worst part is, a few days later, they were all jumping again and Micah was buck naked. The neighbors roof was still being worked on. Zac's comment when I told him, "Why are you surprised? All of our kids have always enjoyed their nakedness." Although I did sneak a quick picture of the incident, it is quite embarassing, especially here in suburbia. If we were in the country, I probably would have had a more laid back response, but it's just not acceptable when houses are so close together.

Pizza Picnic at the Park

We had some incredible weather the first few weeks of November. It was in the 70s so the kids and I took advantage of it and went to a new park. We had absolutely no groceries in the house so we grabbed a cheap pizza on the way. We just soaked in the Vitamin D provided by the great sunlight, laughed, chased one another around, and swung "spider style" on the swings. And yes, that's Gavin in the baby swing. Aubriella 's laughing kept encouraging ridiculous behavior. Thankfully, I think he was out of the swing before other people arrived.

33

Zachariah turned 33 on Nov. 6th. We didn't do a whole lot but the kids and I made cards and prepared his favorite meal, stir fry and egg rolls. We also made banana cream pie from scratch. I have to say, it turned out pretty delish, it's a keeper for future birthdays. But then again, what's not going to beat boxed banana flavored pudding? We enjoyed a nice dinner with some music. And then, being the guy he is, he had offered for us to watch a friend's child that night so they could attend a marriage seminar. It was a very low key birthday but nice. He did remind me that last year he got a weekend away to write music. I couldn't guarantee a weekend but a few full days this upcoming week that he has off of school. I think he is already filling them up with ski trips planned with some buddies from school and a worship seminar at a local church connected with the International House of Prayer. Thanks to all the family members for your cards and gifts. Zac was able to purchase the few things he couldn't get used easily, a helmet that fits and goo goo goggles (sorry, I have been reading too much Dr. Suess lately).

Halloween 2009

We did two nights of Halloween this year. We went to a harvest festival at a church down the road last night, and the kids went "trick or treating" for a while tonight. They all had a good time and we've all consumed plenty of candy along the way.

Micky and Minnie (we have no idea who this girl is, but Micah spotted her and sat by her at the Harvest Festival.)

Here's our kids (where's Micah?) with the girls from the blue house. Maddie (Gavin's girlfriend) is the witch...scary!!

The Name Curse

For those that don't know the story of my name, be prepared to be confused. My original name is Zachariah Z Hanson. Shortly after I was in existence, my parents got divorced. My mom ended up marrying a guy named Lanny Fitzsimmons. I decided at a young age that I'd prefer to be a Fitzsimmons as well to match up with the immediate family I lived with. Somehow my mom acquired another social security card that said Zachariah Z Fitzsimmons. This wasn't just a new name, but a new social security number as well. This seemed to serve as enough proof to get my original driver's license and other things that required a social security number. Apparently there was no actual legal name change done along the way.

I didn't really have any issues until Sara and I were preparing to get married over ten years ago. "What do we put on the marriage license?" Also around this time, I found out that my dad was a bit concerned about me carrying on my step-father's last name. My dad had altered his last name prior to all of this as well for the purpose of having a more unique name, as he was trying to be known as a self-employed artist. He took the first initial of his middle name and added it to his last name to make D'Hanson. As I was entering this new phase of life I decided to give in and change my name to Zachariah Z D'Hanson. Sara was originally on board to change her name too, but she backed out at the last minute because she felt weird taking a name that she's never associated to me before. So I went through the whole legal process to change my name, but then they couldn't figure out how to undo what wasn't done properly to start with. In other words, how do you change a driver's license that says Fitzsimmons to D'Hanson, when the only legal papers you have are converting Hanson to D'Hanson. How do you merge two social security numbers that say two different names? Nobody really knew how to fix it, so we gave up and just stuck with Fitzsimmons.

Now, I'm in Colorado, and my license expires at the end of next week. I went in to the DMV a few days ago and told the "number giving lady" that I'm from Minnesota and I need to get a Colorado driver's license. Her first question was, "does your current license have your full name?" I said, "yes" and showed it to her. She took a look at my middle name and said, "what does Z stand for?" I tried to convince her it was my full middle name, but she wouldn't accept it. I figured she was just being overly cautious, so went to another DMV the next day. I was denied AGAIN and the front counter. She said I could either prove my full name by my birth certificate or a passport. I don't have a passport and my birth certificate has a different last name on it. Today I tried again to see if I would have better luck with a different person. I also brought my birth certificate just in case they would let me get a license with Hanson as a last resort. This time, I actually made it passed the front desk so I was feeling optimistic. When my number was finally called, I did my best to "make friends" with the person who had the power to give or deny my driver's license. She was nice and began to enter my new address and verify all other information. Then she paused, stared at my license for a minute and said, "what's your middle name?" I explained the whole situation at that point and was eventually denied again until I can come up with some legal documents that prove that I've changed Hanson to Fitzsimmons (or possibly D'Hanson to Fitzsimmons).

After the second denial a couple days ago, I decided to start the name changing process. Here, in Colorado, they require me to get a background check done by getting two sets of fingerprints printed and sent to the FBI and the CBI. When I get the results back I can then start the paperwork with the state. This process could easily take two to three months. This will be beneficial in the long run, but doesn't do me much good with my almost expired license.

Since I've never been hassled when I've renewed in Minnesota, I'm very much tempted to fly back and do the renewal there. I would be really bummed if I went all that way and got denied again, but I'm not exactly sure what my immediate options are. Sara found a page on the CO DMV website that claims that there is an option to prove who you are by other means such as tax returns, employee w-2's, life insurance policy's, etc. I need to call on Monday and try to schedule an appointment with an investigator to see if this route is an option.

The timing of all of this is really a bummer, especially since we don't really have extra funds to be taking care of all of this stuff right now while I'm going to school. I guess I had plenty of time to take care of it before, I just didn't see the immediate need before now. I guess the bright side is that if I ever decide to be a criminal or a spy, I've already got some aliases to pick from... not many people can say that! :)

A Warm Visit From Minnesota

Last week we received the best gift! The Cornelius Family, our close friends from Minnesota, came to visit. We enjoyed exploring all the sites, eating out twice (both times pizza!) and enjoying some long desired hugs and conversations.

Aubri and Gavin had been planning the sleeping arrangements for a while before they came, although most of them didn’t work out. One of them being Brian, Mandy’s husband , and Zac sleeping together and Mandy and myself sleeping together. For some reason, the guys really didn’t go for that one. Also, Aubri had planned to sleep with Luke. Well, he was too scared to sleep away from his parents and she was too scared to be in the basement with him. One night, Carissa, Gavin and Aubri all crammed into one twin bed together. Sounds comfy doesn’t it? It’s no wonder that Carissa asked to sleep on a cot by herself near her parents the next night.

We had a lot of great laughs and one good scare too. My husband sometimes enjoys uncontrolled adventure. The picture of him and Aubri together looks carefree, but in fact, Aubri climbed up way higher than she should have alone (I think with Zac’s encouragement). The next thing I know Mandy is yelling, “Sara, Aubri could die up there.” Which was probably a bit of an over exaggeration, however, it was a bit scary. Zac spent a good twenty minutes trying to get up to her with rocks crumbling below him. Once he got to her, it took some courage for the two of them to get down together. The picture reminded me of what a wonderful comparison it is to our relationship with Christ. Aubriella was on top of this mountain that was crumbling; she was scared and had to wait patiently for her daddy to come rescue her. I thought that was the reason that God let the scenario play out as it did. It reminded me of him and his promises. That he is there for us, even when the waiting seems long and even when we feel afraid.

The Cornelius Family left at 4:30 in the morning on Sunday to catch there flight. What troopers! We miss them already.

Speech Therapy

Micah yelling, "TaDah!"

As many of you know, Micah has been the little boy with few words for a while now. In fact, a little too long. The doctor raised her eyebrow a few times at check-ups but there were many logical reasons too-He's the third, He's a quiet kid like his dad, Aubri didn't talk until she was two, It's hard for anyone to get a word in a family of five. It was time to get things checked out. So, we had his hearing checked before moving out to Colorado and that turned out fine. Once we moved out to Colorado I called the school district to have him assessed. They had a team of four people come out (The team was composed of a nurse, psychologist, speech pathologist, and ???). From the visit they concurred he was behind and that we should start services. Drats...not what I wanted to hear but still what I expected to hear. It really just hurt my heart. You never want to hear that something could be or is wrong with your child. They had many positive things to say, that he was bright, he understands everything, etc. I asked why he was having the problem with the speech then and they didn't have a great answer but said that it may be apraxia of speech, a speech disorder where a person has difficulty saying what he or she wants to correctly and consistently, it is present from birth, it affects boys more than girls. He may or may not have this. After talking with two different speech therapists, they are not sure yet. He articulates vowels well, which is not common for children with apraxia. He never babbled as a baby though, which is common for kids with apraxia. He also never repeated anything like many children do (ie. "say ball", (no response). Anyhow, after worrying, praying, and a lot of working we are seeing great improvement!!!

The speech therapist comes to visit twice a month. She's been to our home twice now. I am soooo thankful that I can be home to work with him daily instead of him just getting a session twice a month. We have been blessed with a good therapist too. She comes right to the house and has used lot of fun meaningful games to work with Micah. She has also given me lots of ideas on how to get Micah to learn how to articulate his sounds. The biggest idea being, that he looks at my lips when I am pronouncing words. Sounds simple, I know, but perhaps because he was the third, I may have not noticed I wasn't doing that quite enough. Anyhow, the therapist pulls his chin up, as a non-verbal cue for him to look at her mouth. He does not like this one bit so I have tried just the simple, "Micah, look at mommy's lips." Most of the time he will but times when he has had enough he says, "no way" (which just delights me that he is using two words together :) or he will just roll his eyes and look away. There have been great achievements in a little amount of time but it has also been tiring for him too. It so hard to see your kids struggle!

He has gone from almost no words to speaking some two word phrases. This is super exciting. I am excited to see what God continues to do. Micah has been surprising me daily with more words and better articulation. Dr. Suess books have really come in handy lately for enjoyment for him and for the sound patterns I want him to learn. Hopefully it will be just like his Grandma Pam was said, "Don't worry, in a few months you won't even think twice about this because he will be talking all the time." The last few days have seemed somewhat easier for him, which eased my worrying heart a bit. He has been saying "Lella" for Aubri "Nanin" for Gavin and it's just so awesome. We will continue to humbly take it day by day and count the small successes.

Homeschool Hoedown

We had the opportunity to go to a Homeschool Hoedown a few weeks ago. The kids had a pretty good time. Aubriella learned a lot of line dancing with me, Gavin ran around and pretended to shoot other boys, and Micah enjoyed stealing cookies from other kids' plates. We think he probably consumed around fifteen cookies that night. Overall, it was weird, kind of nerdy, but still fun. As a side note, you will notice Micah has the faux hawk. He will usually ask me before we go somewhere, "Mama, Aaaa Hawk?".

Aubri changed her name and Gavin has a girlfriend...=O

The title makes it sound like I'm writing about my teenage kids, but they're still only 6 and 4.

All my kids are pretty creative, but Aubri, without a doubt, has the "artist/think outside the box" genes. A few weeks ago she decided she wanted to change her name. Half chuckling, we asked her what she wanted to change it to. She said "Briel". We didn't expect a serious name, but since it is part of her full name (Aubriella), we went along with it... not really expecting it to stick. But even now, she still corrects Sara when she introduces her as Aubri, so I guess it's sticking. She definitely keeps it interesting!

Subject II:
The kids have been playing with the neighbor girls: Hannah (8), Maddie (6), and Felicity (3) from a couple houses down quite frequently. Frankly, it's been awesome! They play together so well and it occupies their free time in a positive way.

They play house a lot, and Gavin is always the dad and he chooses Maddie as his wife. Lately Gavin's been talking about his plans to marry Maddie when he's older. It's all completely harmless at this age, as far as I'm concerned. A couple days ago, Gavin had a secret he wanted to tell me. He whispered in my ear, "Maddie had to go to the doctor and get her belly-button pushed back in a little. So I'm afraid we might not be able to have babies when we get married." I couldn't help but chuckle a little and assure him that the procedure would not hinder her from having babies. I have no idea if she really had a belly-button tuck done, but Gavin claims she did.
Here's a picture of the kids drinking hot chocolate with the neighbor kids. Maddie's the one sitting down next to Gavin. The little boy on the left is Will. He's another neighbor's kid from across the street. It's nice to have kids in the neighborhood.

Back to normal... I think.

The weather finally felt a little better today with the sun shining and temps closer to 65 degrees. It was just downright nasty cold and windy the past 4 days. The weekend looks like sunny and 70's, as does the rest of the week. It's just unpredictable around here I guess.

Today we went to a home-schooler get-together at a nature center near the mountains. The kids had a fun time learning about different animals' super senses. Tonight, the family went to my new mentor's home for dinner. The school I'm going to sets the students up with a spiritual mentor during our time here. It's a pretty cool thing, I just find it sort of amusing that my mentor isn't much older than me, he's 38... not that age signifies spiritual maturity or anything :) I don't know him that well yet, but I think we'll get along pretty well.

Tomorrow night we're heading over to someone else's home from New Life. His name is Glenn Packiam, and he's basically the guy who's running the school these days; and he teaches one of my classes. He's also a songwriter and an author. I've used a couple of his songs in worship services before coming out here. He's an amazing teacher and has a remarkable knowledge of the scriptures, and just Christian history in general (post Bible). It's fun to get to know some of these guys that I've only heard or read about in the past. Another person that continues to blow my mind is a guy named Ross Parsley. He started this school originally, but has been less involved the last couple years. He still teaches some of the classes and hangs out with us whenever he can. The knowledge and wisdom that pours from these guys is just awesome to be exposed to.

We also have to be a part of the choir through the first module (though November). I wasn't too excited about it honestly, but I have to admit it was pretty fun last week. Jared Anderson (another guy who writes songs that I've used) was leading the worship music, most of which was brand new to me.

The school is certainly pushing me to be more disciplined in many ways, but I still feel like I'm on vacation most of the time; not because I'm not working hard, but because I'm loving every minute of it and it's still way less on my plate compared to life with the frame shop. I also find it very refreshing that there is so little emphasis on music so far. I didn't really come here seeking to be a better musician, I wanted to be taught how to be more relational, communicate more effectively, and learn what it means to be a worship pastor, not just a worship leader. The classes I have this module are: Pastoral Ministry, Organizational Communications, Biblical Foundations of Worship, and Christian Growth and Development. I'm also learning music theory for the first time and taking lead guitar lessons (both mandatory as well).

I was hoping not to have to work this year, but I think we will end up depleting what we have by the end of next summer. So, I decided to start looking for some part time work. Being that I know how to frame art, I naturally started there. There's a Fastframe here, so I visited them first. I made a good connection with the owner, but I got the impression things were pretty slow and they were in no position hire anyone at the moment. I visited another place, and they were out of business. I went to the third place on the list, and I just got a strange vibe and kept on driving by.

A couple days later I got a call from the owner of the Fastframe in Colorado Springs. They want to hire me to do consulting with them. I originally told them my history with Fastframe and had them call Fastframe Corporate as my reference. Apparently the store is struggling more than I thought and they're hoping I can point out some things for them to try or do differently. What an unexpected situation, but it's kind of an exciting opportunity for me. I'll do whatever I can to help them out. Hopefully there's some practical things I can point out along the way to better their situation, and not discover that it's completely economy related.

Snow?.. Seriously?

We actually got snowed on today in Colorado Springs! As much as I've been raving about the weather here, the mountains sure add an element of unpredictability and constant change. The extra bummer about the cold day was that my class did an outdoor run at 7am this morning and it was downright painful at times. A couple students didn't come to class later in the day because they weren't feeling well from the frozen run. Some of these people are from the south and have never even seen snow before, so it was probably even harder on them. I guess it was more like freezing rain and hail coming down while we ran... the snow came later. None of it accumulated to the ground, but left a nice dusting on the mountains. It was actually pretty once I was able to enjoy it from a warm room through the window later on.

I've been loving school so far! It's actually been better than I expected, and my expectations were pretty high. Hopefully I can keep up with my reading. I'm not used to reading 8 books at a time, and needing to absorb them in a three month time frame. Sometimes I wish I could just plug the cord into my head (like in The Matrix) and just upload the information into my brain... that would be so much easier :)

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

We had fun at the zoo today. Click on the link below for some pictures:

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Trip to the Airforce Academy and The Airplane Restaurant

Today we visited the Airforce Academy. The kids had fun checking out the planes and seeing some of the cadets in uniform walking around. The chapel was quite a sight to see as well; it's a very interesting work of architecture. Afterwards, we ate at The Airplane Restaurant. They've actually turned a real plane into a restaurant. They also let the kids play in the cockpit, which was huge hit. The novelty of it all was pretty cool, but the food was nothing special. Overall, still a fun day though. There are more pictures from the day as well. Just click on the Photo Albums link to the right.

Update

Just a quick update: School has been awesome so far and we've barely even done anything yet. It's just pretty much been orientation type things, meet staff and students, etc. this week, and next week it really kicks off. I guess I'm just super excited to be here and have the opportunity to learn what I'll be taught this year.

Also, I finally got the e-mail this morning saying that the business sale FINALLY came through, which means now we can eat this year too :) God provides in His timing, but never, ever ceases to provide. Not that I ever doubted that, but I think I might sleep better tonight now :)

Recap and Upcoming

This past week was another eventful one. We didn't do a lot of "touristy" type things, but we still stayed pretty busy hanging out with new friends and finding new parks. On Thursday, (or maybe Friday?) we found a new park called Bear Creek Trail. Being that there's a lot of bears in the area, there were actually instructions of what to do (and not do) when you encounter a bear on the trail. It even gave instructions to fight back if you are being attacked! Though we appreciated the info, it made us a little nervous to take the kids for a walk on the trails... but we went anyway. We decided ahead of time to sacrifice the littlest ones first so the rest of us could get away if we needed to :)

After that we decided to stop by Ron and Jane Knudtsen's place, which was pretty close to the trails we were on. These are the folks that we stayed with for a few days when Sara and I came here in July looking for housing. They're about the closest thing we have to family here in The Springs as well. They are Sara's dad's brother's wife's parents. Make sense? So anyways, luckily they were home and we were able to hang out at their place for a few hours. They could very well be the most accommodating and caring people I've ever met! They also live on a beautiful piece of property that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. They even have the picture-perfect tire swing hanging from one of the huge trees in the yard, and a creek surrounding the perimeter of their back yard. I meant to take some more pictures there, but I forgot about it. I did take one with my phone's camera of Micah sitting in the little wooded area at Ron and Jane's. He's sitting in "the kitchen" of a little fort some other kids made:

On Saturday, there was a neighborhood BBQ across the street. It was fun to get to know people a little better while we ate food and played some boche ball. There's plenty of kids on our street which kept our kids plenty busy. There's one particular family with three girls that have been spending a lot of time with our kids ever since we moved. Here's a picure of Aubri and Felicity (youngest of the three girls) under the umbrella at our BBQ. Oh, did I mention it rained for the first hour or so at the BBQ?! It cleared up pretty quickly though and made it more enjoyable to do some outdoor games. I think the kids maybe enjoyed the rain more than the sun that day anyways! :)

Gavin's been riding bike like crazy since we got here. I guess we give him a bit more freedom here than we did in Minneapolis. He actually just blew out his back tire the other day because it wore all the way through. So, I got a new tube and tire from Walmart and he's back on his way. On a somewhat related note, we were biking to the park as a family tonight and Sara was taking time to explain to Gavin why we need to stop and check for cars before crossing the street. She said something like, "and you'll want to be careful for cars like this that drive too fast..." and all of a sudden this young girl in a SUV comes flying down the road and hits the median curb and pops her tire! Then she sped off with a flat tire, probably embarrassed that our whole family just witnessed her blunder. I found it sort of funny, because we couldn't have had a better and more timely visual example to show Gavin what to watch out for.

Well, tomorrow's the big day! Really, it's the beginning of the main reason we came out here. Orientation at New Life School of Worship starts at 9am Monday morning. I have to admit I'm very excited! Sara's also starting her homeschooling tomorrow as well. I think she and the kids are pretty excited too. Lots of new changes... all good changes, I think. I'm also really hoping the buyer for my business will be able to sign the loan papers Monday morning as he was promised. I'm sure there will be a huge weight lifted from me when I know those papers are signed and the deal is done.

Another Test of Patience

This week was supposed to be the last week I'd have to be thinking about FASTFRAME (my business)back in Minnesota. I flew back to Minneapolis on Sunday, worked the store and did a final inventory on Monday, and we were scheduled to close the sale Tuesday morning. Some missing paperwork delayed the buyer's financing until next week. This is not the end of the world, as long as it all happens next week like it's supposed to. I basically allowed the new owner to take over starting on the 25th, because we set up EVERYTHING else to start that day for him including new vendor account numbers, utility billing, credit card terminal, property lease assignment, etc.

The business sale funds are a pretty major piece of the puzzle when it comes to our survival for the next year. School starts for me on Aug. 31st, which means tuition is due. Luckily, I have one more credit card with enough space to cover tuition until the business funds come through.

I try not to think of what could happen at this point, I just focus on trusting God and His timing... which rarely lines up with my own. Over the past few years, He seems to be teaching me how to not use money as my source of security. This is against the ways of the world, which makes it harder to grasp... but I'm beginning to understand. When I can't rely on my own accomplishments, surroundings, other people, or my own bank accounts for security I have no where else to turn but to God and His peace and contentment. It keeps me drawing closer to Him everyday as we continue down a path of obedience, even though the future (in my mind) is very unknown. It's exciting and scary all at the same time. But there's a certain peace that hovers when I can sense I'm where I'm supposed to be, for now anyways.

Cave of the Winds

Yep, there's our cheesy tourist photo :) It was a fun day with the kids. Sara stayed at home with Micah while the older two and I headed to Cave of the Winds. We ended hanging out in the gift shop area while we waited for our tour to start. The kids had fun with the hats...
... among other things, including these candy treats they begged for. They were miniature toilets filled with flavored sugar and came with two plunger shaped suckers to dip in the sugar. I don't understand how that's appetizing, but the kids sure liked them!

The kids really enjoyed the caves! I was hoping it wouldn't be scary for Aubri, but she seemed to be pretty fascinated by the whole thing. It's amazing to experience things through the eyes of your kids sometimes... it tends to give me an appreciation for some things that I might otherwise take for granted.

I tried to get a few pictures from inside the caves, but most of them didn't turn out very well because of the low light. I did upload a few though, just click on the "Photo Albums" link to the right. It's in the Colorado album. There were some beautiful sights right outside of the cave entrance that I attempted to capture as well.

Hanging Out In The Ghost Town

It sort of seems like we're treating these first couple weeks in Colorado as a vacation. It's a new environment, there's plenty to do for fun, and we have no real agenda for our days other than figuring out what to do with our days (and continuing to unpack).

Today we started out at The Ghost Town Museum. I must say it was rather hokey the way it was set up, but the kids liked it. It basically had rooms set up with decor and props (and freaky manikins) to show what things looked like 100+ years ago. Here's a few pictures:

There's more pictures at the link to the right that says, "photo albums".

We also went to Memorial Park which has nice grounds and on of the few lakes in town, but I kind of got the feeling that this is the "rougher" side of town. It sort of had that North Minneapolis vibe to it.

Right next to the park was the Olympics Training Center. There were several buildings there with titles for which sport it was dedicated to, but the bikes had an outdoor track so we watched them for a while. Surprisingly, Gavin was bored pretty quickly, but Aubri was fascinated by all the little details... mostly related to what they were wearing I guess.

We'll try to do as much sight seeing and adventure seeking as we can over the next week or so, but soon life will be busy. I fly back to Minneapolis on Sunday to take care of the business transfer and will return on Tuesday. My school orientation will start on Aug. 31st, and Sara and the kids will begin homeschooling around that time too.

I think tomorrow Gavin and I will check out some of the local caves. So much to see, so little time!

This is what I get to look at in the morning!

I know it's only been about a week, but I'm still fascinated by the view of the mountains from my front porch. It just helps to start the day out right.

The only sight we were used to seeing from the front of our Minneapolis house was the neighbor across the street in his underwear smoking a cigarette. If I get a choice of first things to see, I choose mountains. :)

First Sunday at New Life Church

Yesterday we made it to New Life Church in Colorado Springs. This is where my worship leader school is based out of. It was fun to see how they operate there, and it was really great for Sara and I to worship together. It feels like it's been a while. The two older kids had a great time in their Sunday school classes, but Micah wasn't too happy we left him in his room. He made it about 20 minutes before our number showed up on the screen (our kids had numbers assigned to them and the parents are notified when they are needed by watching the numbers that appear on the screen.)

The church building itself is certainly bigger than what we've been used to, but not overwhelmingly big. The upstairs was mostly dedicated to kids' ministries (where Gavin and Aubri went) and is set up really cool. It's almost like you're walking through a 3-Dimensional forest as you walk the halls and enter the classrooms. They seem very structured too, and actually teach the kids things rather than popping in a video to pass the time.

I'm sure we'll try to get plugged in in other areas as time passes. Sara went to a home schooling conference there on Saturday and met some great people and learned more about the home schooling community within the church. Sara was on the fence a little as she debated whether to go down the home school road or send Gavin to public school (which would be MUCH easier). The public schools in this area are pretty good, but she's decided to home school Gavin for sure. Ultimately, it gives us the ability to control what's being mentally and spiritually fed into our kids.

Today Sara found a trampoline on Craigslist that I drove to get, disassembled, loaded up, drove home, unloaded, and reassembled. It took a few hours, but we promised Gavin we'd get a trampoline soon after we moved in. He loves it! The other two kids love it too, but they don't love having to take turns. We have to be careful when Micah's out there because he likes to go under the trampoline which is obviously a little dangerous when someone's jumping from up above. There's always something to be worrying about when it comes to our kids' safety... especially when they're all fearless daredevils!

We Made It!

The last week has been an exhausting one, but we finally made it to Colorado. We had a moving day on Sunday and filled a 24 ft. truck and a 12 x 8 trailer with all of our stuff. We had a good handful of people to help with the move, so that made things move along fairly quickly. The last half was the most challenging, as it became a puzzle for us to fit what we had in the limited space. To our amazement, we didn't have to leave anything behind.

Zac's dad, Steve, agreed to drive the big truck to Colorado Springs and was also supposed to pull one of our minivans behind it. Budget goofed up and didn't have a vehicle towing trailer available for us, even though we made the reservation weeks in advance. Zac's mom, Pam, requested time of from work at the last minute to drive our other van down for us. It all worked out and we were set to take off on Monday.

Steve left Monday morning, but the rest of us had to wait because we had our Minneapolis house closing at 4pm that day. After the closing, we got a bite to eat and hit the road. We basically drove non-stop through the night with only an hour or so to rest at a rest stop. Steve stayed in a hotel that night, so we ended up beating him to The Springs... which is good because we had to go get the keys to our new home once we made it into town.

So now it's Saturday and the exhaustion is beginning to fade. We've already met a few of the neighbors and we found some kids in the neighborhood that have been keeping our kids occupied. So far, everything feels very comfortable. We are very thankful for Steve and Pam helping out, it would have been extremely stressful if Zac and I had to move in without the help.

Steve flew home on Friday and Pam will fly home on Sunday. We were able to have one fun day together on Thursday as we visited Garden of the Gods and drove up to the top of Pikes Peak. Click on the album below to see some pictures:

Move to Colorado

Micah's Getting "Pumped" to Go To Colorado!

No, I did not make him pose for this picture... in case you're wondering :)

The whirlwind continues: On Monday, the 10th, we'll be venturing out towards Colorado. We don't close on the house until 4pm, and then we'll leave after that. We plan to drive straight through so we can hopefully be there the next morning. We figured this would be the best way to keep the kids sane (and the parents) if they slept most of the way.

So, on Sunday we'll load the truck and my dad will start driving that Monday morning. He'll spend the night at some hotel along the way, and meet us in Colorado Springs later on Tuesday. He'll also be pulling one of our minivans behind the truck. I'll be driving the family in our other minivan, which will be pulling a small trailer as well. Hopefully we'll be able to fit everything.

We ended up getting the house we wanted in Colorado Springs so we'll head straight there. I hope we'll have time to show my dad some of the sites before he flies back that Friday.

The business transfer is scheduled on Aug.25th. I'll fly back Minnesota to take care of that, and then head back as my school starts orientation on the 31st.

Sara will be homeschooling Gavin this year. She's already getting plugged in to the big homeschooling community through New Life Church (same place I'm going to school). Sara's actually quite excited for the big move. I think we were both ready for a new chapter in life.

We've had a few "going away" parties so far, and I'm sure we'll be saying our final good byes to a lot of people who are helping us load the truck on Sunday. It's a little bit sad to leave people, but we know it isn't goodbye forever. We'll still come to Minnesota to visit on occasion.









There's a ton more we could be writing about, but it's been hard to find the time lately. We'll do our best to keep everyone updated on what's happening once we get out there.

Trip To Colorado

Last week Sara, Micah, and I headed to Colorado to look for a place to live. We left Thursday morning and returned on Sunday. It was a busy and somewhat exhausting time, but it was fun to see and get to know our future home of Colorado Springs.

We visited a few of the homes on our list on Thursday, but were a little discouraged with our experience by the end of the day. It's been a while since we've looked at rental properties and it's really pretty amazing how different properties can be, even in the same price range. Some places were decent, but had gross carpet stains; while others were completely trashed. Luckily, we found a couple good options on Friday. Here's a picture of the place we filled out an application for:

It's a really nice house and by far the cleanest that we looked at. Even the neighborhood seems freekishly clean... which is a good thing, but almost seems unnatural to me. Sara loves it, and that's most important. :) It's a little smaller than what we have now, but is actually much more practical with the layout, so it should suit us well for the next year.On Saturday we took a bit of time to check out some of the sites including Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods. It is incredibly beautiful out there! There's just something so majestic about mountains. We also swung by New Life Church, where I'll be going to school. It was late Saturday by then, so there weren't many people there... but at least we got a chance to walk around in the building and check it all out.

Sunday morning we left three hours early to catch our plane back to Minneapolis. EVERYTHING took longer than expected and our time quickly ran out. Once we finally got through the security check, we took off into a dead sprint to find our terminal. We showed up about 1 minute after they closed the doors to the plane (even though our plane didn't take off for another 10 minutes) The woman at the counter showed no mercy and we were forced to wait around on standby for the next two planes that were sold out. Thank God we made it on the next plane a couple hours later.

We finally made it back and then had to drive two hours north to pick up the older two kids who were at my moms house. We celebrated Micah's 2nd birthday a day early while we were there. That guy was a little trooper with all the traveling and car seats he had to endure over the previous few days. I think we're all recovering a little from the busyness of it all, but there's barely a second to take a breathe for the next month with all that we need to accomplish.

This week's goal is to get rid of as much as possible. We'll do some serious Craigslisting, and possibly have a yard sale this weekend too. The way I see it, the more we can get rid of means less stuff to move... I'm all for it.

Latest Update

Well, things are starting to fall into place although the timing is questionable. As of yesterday, I finally received confirmation that I've been accepted into the School of Worship in Colorado. This was possibly the least of my concerns, but it's good to know. That starts the beginning of September.

We also accepted an offer on our house. It was a bit less than what we hoped for, but it's a reasonable offer for the market were in... and the timing was right. The closing date is August 10th.

The business officially has a signed purchase agreement as of last week, but the big challenge now is getting the buyers financing together and the property lease set up before the mandatory Fastframe training that starts the 13th of July. If the buyer misses the training in July, he may have to wait until August to go through the training. This would really goof up our timing if I have to stick around through August. So hopefully some miraculous things will be happening in the next couple weeks to make it work with our timeline. We'll see...

Hanging out at Mandy’s house

Every week we get together with my friends Mandy and Nikki. We usually just hang out at one of our homes. Gavin and Carissa, the oldest of the two, were a bit bummed this year to have to miss out on all the fun. Here are some pictures of the kids just having having a good time at Mandy’s house. She has the perfect layout because her house backs up to woods and they have a large wooden swingset right next to them at the end of a cul-de-sac. The kids can freely ride bike up and down without any traffic to worry about. Micah and Joey are the youngest and typically give us a good laugh when they are together. They usually just size each other up for a while silently and then slowly start interacting without too much talking. It might be just sitting by one another to eat and smiling, like in this photo, or it might be kicking a ball and then smiling, which usually ends up into a fight over it. They both love “The Hulk” and tend to get upset about who gets that toy. It’s so fun though.
The move we will be making in August will be very difficult because of weekly routines and friends like these! I’m still trying to figure out how we will leave friends that have become family. I’m not sure what my kids will do without them and what I will do without their moms!