I was completely blessed to have my mom and dad come visit me for Labor Day weekend. You'll see in a minute that they ended up getting a little more than they probably bargained for. :)
One of the reasons to come to Colorado Springs for Labor Day is because we host the Balloon Classic. It's a great event for the community where 50-75 hot air balloonists bring their balloons and launch them each day of the holiday weekend. We got up bright end early for the first launch of the weekend. So glad we did because it was a gorgeous morning perfect for hot air balloons to take off. It's quite a sight to see!
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| The lead balloon starting to inflate! |
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| Excited to see their first Balloon Classic |
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| And then they all begin lifting up |
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They all take off over the lake, which makes for quite the
picturesque scene |
The thing that really gets the crowd going is the balloons that will be daring and dip their baskets in the lake. It never fails to get a big cheer from the shore.
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| There was even an... |
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| elephant!!! |
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| Quite the creative balloons |
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| Colorado! |
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| Such a great friend to enjoy the morning with |
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| A look inside |
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| Happy! |
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| What a great start to the weekend! |
Then at night, they do the Balloon Glow. The balloonists come back out at night and blow up their balloons just to see them glow. I've tried to go a few times before, but it often gets cancelled due to wind, so I had never seen it. This year it was a go!
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| Leading the pack |
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| 1, 2, 3 Glow! |
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| My favorite by far!!!!! |
As soon as the wind picked up, they all went down pretty quickly. But what a treat to get to see it at all! Quite spectacular!
To top off the night, I brought homemade marshmallows and my trusty kitchen torch so that we could celebrate toasted marshmallow day by the lake!!!
That was only the beginning of a fantastic weekend. Sunday was just as beautiful, so after church we went to one of our favorite local getaways - North Cheyenne Canyon.
On Labor Day, we had tickets for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway (the final fulfillment of a gift given to my mom over a year ago). Seats are pre-assigned, and we just happen to get the best seats in the cog. We were right at the window and didn't have to share leg space with anyone in front of us. It couldn't have been a better trip up our iconic mountain.
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| Tickets please! |
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| Happy Birthday Mom! |
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| Here we go, up the mountain! |
One of the things you have to do at the top is eat one of the world-famous donuts. They're actually cooked at the top, so at over 14,000 feet in elevation. Apparently that makes them extra special. If you ever get the chance to do this, make sure you head straight for the donut line to beat the rest of the train. We knew this, so we didn't have to spend our whole time at the top just trying to get the donuts.
We can now all say that we have eaten a world-famous donut.
But then it was outside for the real treat of a fantastic view from the atop America's mountain.
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| America the Beautiful! |
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| I tried to get them to sing it, but we just took a picture instead. |
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| Back on the train. All aboard! |
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| Back at the depot - that was a great ride! |
After that, the real fun began. Haha! We took a trip to Home Depot where I proceeded to buy a kit that would start the remodeling of my kitchen. I had been thinking about it for a while, and with a couple of extra workers it was the perfect opportunity! I decided to start with refinishing the cabinets. Here are some before pictures:
Based on the recommendation of a coworker, I went with the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations process. The helpful worker at Home Depot told us that if you really wanted to, you could get the job done in a day, but it might day two or three days. Ha! He has obviously never done this himself. It was quite the week-long process.
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Step 1: Remove all doors and drawers and scrub with a
deglosser and then thoroughly wipe them all down |
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| Tape everything |
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| And cover everything |
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| Step 2: Apply the bond coat and let dry |
The living room was obviously not usable for the week. The remodel takes over when you don't have a ton of space to begin with.
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| Step 3: Apply a decorative glaze and let dry |
The pictures neglect to show step 4, the most frustrating step of all. This was the application of the protective top coat. Sounds simple right? Apparently not if you get a bad can that is goopy, makes lots of bubbles, and turns into a nightmare. I actually wasn't there because my parents are great and worked on this while I was at work. This is all based on the retelling I got when I got home that day. I felt terrible and could see the frustration on their faces. This bad can of paint led to sanding, re-painting, re-glazing, and buying a new good can of top coat. Not what we wanted to do, but necessary if we wanted to job to turn out right.
