the big rock candy mountains

it was a long weekend trip to denver that would make a president proud.

(get it? because it was president's day.)

there were several new additions to the johnson homestead, including a fancy new mac for papa bear, a fancy (and humongous) new TV with surround sound for mama bear (we tested it out with a screening of "live free or die hard" one of the mama bear's favorites) and for baby bear (that's me!), AWD, who visited the homestead for the first time and did a great job.

we spent saturday morning at garden of the gods. it looks like this.

then we headed to manitou springs for some lunch and a post-lunch stroll, complete with samples from several of the mineral springs around town. (they all tasted the same to me, but oh well.) and then the sky got gray and it started to dump rain, but not before this happy detour.

saturday night was dinner with perennial denver favorites, steve and sarah, where steve wowed us all by drinking a large number of diet cokes. some say it was five, some say it was seven. and we'll probably never know.

sunday was churching and eating. it was all very spiritual and delicious, especially papa bear's sour dough pancakes. those things are the best.

monday we headed to the aquarium, which has both fish and tigers. the mermaid show, however, was a total let-down.

and tuesday, back to d.c. we came.

compared to the last time i tried to go to home for the weekend, i would say it was pretty much a success.