A jump start to summer...

Well, school is out, which means that it's officially (in my book at least) summer. Time for warm evenings, barbecues at the beach, camping trips, and all the other nice things that go along with the season. This year though, summer started off with an extra special trip to Colorado to celebrate my brother's graduation from the Airforce Academy. After four long years of lots of hard work on my brother's part and lots of missing my brother on my family's part, it's exciting to think that he is done with that part of his education and ready to move onto the next step.

USAFA Graduation

Although the main purpose of the trip was to attend the Academy's swearing in and graduation ceremonies, we also had time for a bit of vacationing and touristing on the side. A few highlights...

Admiring Mantiou Springs' famous red rocks...

Spending one sunny morning riding the cogwheel train to the top of Pikes Peak...

And lots of hiking, talking, and scenery-viewing...

...views from the cogwheel train...

...hiking in Waldo Canyon...

Even more exciting than the vacation opportunity that the graduation afforded, is the fact that it brought my brother home on leave for an entire two months... and that is definitely something to be happy about .

(if you'd like to read about some of our adventures in more detailed, it's all documented on my sister's blog The Panini Press.)