Colorado ~ Day 5 (Graduation Day)

Graduation Day! Yay Sara! We are so proud of you!!!!! We are so sorry we didn't get to see you actually get your diploma, but I'm glad we could at least make it to part of the graduation and spend a few days together. Rainah just adores you and I hope you can make it out for the wedding in August!!!!
Rainah conked out in the car pretty quick on our drive to the graduation. She has a lot of sleep to make up for. Graduation time changed from 9am to 11am AFTER we made our plane reservations... and our flight left at 2:20pm, so we only made it to the first half hour of graduation. Don has to teach tomorrow morning, so we had to get back.
We made perfect time, and boarded the plane pretty much right as we got to the gate. Rainah did great again. We changed planes once and that all went perfectly. She slept on the second leg of the trip, so that was nice. We got in to Grand Rapids around 9:15pm, got our bags, went to pick up Cheyenne, and pretty much went straight to bed.
We had such an awesome time and Don keeps commenting that it is one of his favorite vacations. We could have easily spent another few days in just Colorado Springs alone.
Thanks, Rob, Sara, and Josh, for letting us crash at your place Friday night! Especially Josh, who had to give up his room!
We miss you guys so much and hope to see you again soon!!!!!!!
Congrats, again, Sara!


Snoozing on the car ride to graduation


The woman of the hour!












Sam, Mom, Robin




Chillin out on the car ride to the airport










Fast asleep- it was a big week for this little one

Colorado ~ Day 3

This morning we were up early again! Rainah is sleeping great considering the time change, and sleeping in a pack and play in a hotel room.
We had breakfast and then took her to a playground to let her play for awhile. We were planning to meet up with Aunt Robin, cousins Sara and Josh, and mom and dad to go to the zoo later on, so we explored a little - first we checked out Helen Hunt falls which were absolutely beautiful. Rainah loved it and kept signing "more". I think she wanted to get in! She even got to climb up part of the mountain... she did NOT want to be carried!
Here are some photos from Helen Hunt Falls:














Rainah and Daddy exploring






































Then we found Seven Falls, which was also gorgeous! It was a super high waterfall with seven different parts (hence the name, I suppose!). There was an elevator to go up to the top of a mountain for a better view of the falls, so we checked that out. The elevator went right up through the middle of the mountain. Rainah got to feed some fish, too. There was another area closer to the falls that you could climb up... but it looked a bit too daunting with a toddler, so we didn't attempt that.
Here are photos from that:






Rainah and Daddy feeding the fish


View from the top of the mountain









Finally we met up with everyone at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Unfortunately it was pretty chilly and windy, but after purchasing a sweatshirt from the gift shop for Rainah (yes... I was not prepared! Bad mommy), we were all set to check out all the animals. This zoo was incredible! It was kind of built into a mountain and you kind of go up as you are going through all of the exhibits.
The first thing we came to was the giraffes: you could walk right up to them and even feed them crackers, which Rainah thought was great!












Rainah feeding the giraffes a cracker












Check out that tongue!












Sara and Rainah




There were benches like this all over the zoo in the shape of different animals- Rainah loved them and wanted to climb up on all of them. Here she is making her owl sound!




A wallaby








Don - the bird whisperer




A beautiful view from the zoo


Bears playing - unfortunately this was as close we came to a bear! We did see the video of Aunt Robin's bear, though... walking right through her yard!






Mountain Lion


Wolf


Rainah wants a pony ride!








Now Rainah wants a pony!




Daddy and Rainah


Grandma and Rainah


Peacocks