Colorado Part 3: Manitou Springs

So when I wrote my post yesterday I realized that I never finished writing about our trip to Colorado.

Our final adventure in Colorado was to Manitou Springs.  We had planned to go up the cog railway to the top of the mountain, but unfortunately for us the good weather did not stay and a thick fog enveloped the mountain.  Since there would be no real way to enjoy the site at the top because of the fog and the fact that it would be really creepy to travel up the mountain in the fog we decided to just walk around the town.

Mostly the town is filled with tourist trap shops and is definitely a very hippie town. During our walk we found a couple of the towns infamous springs which were naturally bubbly water!  It was an odd thing to taste (and not a very great one at that!).  

Then we walked through a really cute park where J and my brother could not resist playing around.

As we continued our path around the town we came across a true gem that made the whole trip to the town worth-while a huge arcade!  Four separate buildings are filled with arcade games.  One with old skee ball machines and tickets to win prizes, two with more modern games (pacman, air hockey, etc) and finally an arcade room filled with pinball machines and very old (but still working) arcade games.

When I say old I mean old enough that the pinball machine J is playing above has a cigarette holder, cost $0.10 a game and had manual dials.  The game my mom and H are playing above had a screen on canvas that rotated to create the illusion of driving on a street.  They even had "Zoltar" from BIG!  J and I had our fortunes read from penny machines and we all happily played games for at least an hour (and didn't spend too much money either!).  

Up until that point I probably wouldn't have recommended Manitou Springs to visitors, but after playing in the arcade with my family and generally having a great time (oh and great food!!!), I"d recommend it for those of you going to Colorado looking to kill an afternoon somewhere!

Colorado: Part 2 Colorado Springs

The Monday after Beer-ster J flew out to join us on the remainder of our trip.  My parents planned for us to spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Colorado Springs and luckily my brother, M, and his girlfriend H were able to get off of work and join us!

We arrived in Colorado Springs after about a 2 hour drive.  First stop: Air Force Academy!

Could you imagine if this was your college campus?  Absolutely incredible!

Here is the Academy's Chapel, clearly inspired by aviation.  

Behind the Academy..mountains, mountains and more mountains.  Beautiful.

More of the Academy.

 The Chapel is beautiful and impressive on the outside...

 And equally amazing on the interior!  The lighting is all stained glass.

 The pews are inspired by aviation as well!

 Views of the mountains out the windows!

Checking out the statues on campus.

Football Stadium

 Beautiful scenery around Colorado Springs

 Snow on the mountains!

 Garden of the Gods

Mom and Dad had so many interesting stories about Colorado Springs.  Getting to see the Air Force Academy in person and Garden of the Gods was absolutely fantastic!  Sorry about the photo-heavy post. Next time I'll fill you in on our trip to Manitou Springs!

Colorado: Part 1, Beer-ster

So much has been going on lately its been hard to keep up with everything.  This past week was my school's spring break and right before we let out for break I was offered the opportunity to teach when we come back!  It is not a full-time gig, but I get to fill in, possibly until the end of the school year.  My nerves and excitement are through the roof!

Luckily I was able to push most of that away for our trip to Colorado!  J and I joined my parents on a trip out to see my brother who lives in Boulder.  J came out two days later than us so he missed out on the Easter celebrations at my brother's place.  My brother and his roommate have put on Beer-ster for a couple of years, a fun Easter celebration for all of their friends who couldn't go home to their families for the Holiday.  However, this celebration was a little less family-friendly event as its name would imply.  There was a mimosa bar, amazing decorations (done by my brother's roommate's girlfriend!), beer bottles decorated with Easter themes, a Easter-beer hunt and many fun games.

Doesn't it look straight out a Martha Stewart project?

Homemade pinwheels

Yes that is a pony!

Playing cornhole

I will fill you in on the rest of our Colorado trip next time!

DIY: Fun Holiday Crayons

With the Easter boxes sent to some really special little ones, I'm ready to share some fun DIY gifts that we sent their way.

The first of which is DIY crayons.  I'm pretty sure these are meant to be made with your leftover crayons that have broken into nibs, but with no crayons in the apart and a desire to make these I bought a brand new bow just for this project.  I first saw this idea on this blog, and thought it was such a cute idea to do one day with kids. Since J and I know some little ones who are just starting to use crayons and decided they would be fun to send in our Easter boxes to them.

I went off searching for the perfect mold to use to make the crayons.  I went to one of our local craft stores and found only hearts and stars.  I had decided on the stars until I couldn't fin many of the other items I was looking for other projects.  I put down the mold and headed to another craft store where I found these awesome egg molds!  While not very cost effective at $9.99 and being for a specific time of year, they were too adorable to pass up.  Plus, since the little ones are still so little I can make them for years to come.

What you'll need:

• A silicon mold
• Box of crayons (Mine allowed me to fill the mold twice) or leftover crayons
• Knife
• Bowl or trash can (for the crayon wrappers)

What you need to do:

• Preheat your oven to 200.

• Unwrap all of the crayons that you plan on using. Cutting down the edge of the crayon with a knife will help make it easier to remove the wrappers.
• Break the crayons into pieces and disperse them among the different parts of the silicon mold.  (Try to avoid putting too many dark colors together because your egg with come out almost black).
• Put the mold on top of a cookie sheet and put into the oven.  Leave in the oven until it looks like all of the crayons have melted 10-15minutes.

• Remove the silicon mold from the oven and place somewhere to cool such as the stovetop or cooling rack.  For a quicker set you can put the mold in the fridge or freezer, but it doesn't take too long for the crayons to set outside of the fridge. (about an hour)
• Once the crayons are cooled pop them out of the mold.

• Repeat until you have used all of the crayons that you want to use.

This is such an easy little project.  J and I had fun making them and waiting to see what the crayons would look like when they cooled down.

The possibility of crayon combinations is endless!  Have fun making your own creations!

Weekend Happenings

This past weekend was a blast enough though I didn't get many things done around the apartment!  Saturday morning  J, my parents, and I had breakfast at a restaurant buffet in a few towns over expecting to eat something delicious only to be pretty disappointed in our meal.  The only food I really loved was banana bread french toast.  It was so good and because of all the flavor in the banana bread no syrup was necessary.  However, we've definitely decided it is is better to hit up one of the many delicious NJ diners for breakfast next time.

Onward we went to the Philly Auto Show.  We met up with my aunt and uncle who also happened to be at the show.  It was fun looking at all of the new models even though J has a relatively new car and I cannot afford a new car right now (my little car is going on 11 years this year!).  There were some really awesome old fashioned cars there and some trucks that J and I would consider if we were actually in the market to buy.

Afterwards we went to Reading Terminal Market to walk around.  We picked the worst time ever, however, because the place was packed with people trying to get some lunch.  On our way out we stopped at Bassetts for some ice cream, but since I still wasn't feeling all that great from being sick all week I only got a water.

On Sunday J had to work until close to game time.  My mom picked me up from my apartment and we headed home to spend the afternoon making pierogis.   For those of you who don't know, I'm half Polish and grew up on these delicious potato and cheese filled dumplings.  My mom, dad and I each taste tested one because we tried a new recipe for the dough, but also made a couple batches of my Babci's (polish for grandma) recipe.  While we cooked, the crockpot was cooking up my dad's delicious stew and the dogs were hanging around hoping for scraps.

Another day I will share this recipe with all of you.  It is a pretty simple process of making the dough and filling then creating a shell with the dough and filling it.  You seal the edges shut and boil the pierogis until they float to the top of the pot.  You can either fry them up to eat right then or put them in the freezer to eat later. We made a lot to freeze for later use.

When we were finished it was just about game time and J had finally arrived from work.  We sat down to eat and a lovely cold cat decided she wanted to curl up next to me for some warmth.  When the game was over the cat was not happy that I had to get up to head home.

Monday night J and I enjoyed our first batch of pierogis with grilled pierogis and asparagus.  They were delicious!!

Hope all of you had a great weekend and beginning to your week.  I'm happy we've hit the halfway point, but I still have so much to accomplish this week.