A Sunday at Disneyland with Ruston

What is this? The 3rd week in a row of going to Disneyland? Sounds good to me!
The day started on Dumbo! Both kids fit with me. Good thing too since T doesn't want to start the day with spinning rides.

A fun Disneyland day

Weekend? Check. Disneyland? Of course! With Jacob? Pretty much always.

We're loving the lines this early in the morning. Can you believe I haven't been on Alice in Wonderland since they upgraded the projections? That must have been at least a year ago, but it's always a 30 minute wait. Only 5 minutes right now! Loved the projections.

Afterwards Alli was asleep, and T won't ride them, so Jacob took Ian on the teacups!

Bring Your Own Cup Slurpee day

Once again, it's Bring Your Own Cup Slurpee day at 7/11! Back in March they did the same thing, and I filled up a 2 gallon kitchen pot with it! They changed the rules on me a little this year, so I had to re-think my container.

Celebrating Dad's 60th birthday with a 60 mile hike! Day 4 Neighborhood Hike

When we last left those 4 Flowers guys, they had just finished hiking Pikes Peak, and completing 59.5 miles, leaving them half a mile short of their 60 mile goal. But all that was according to plan. That last mile was going to be a hike for the whole family.
Taking a nice family picture before the hike.

Celebrating Dad's 60th birthday with a 60 mile hike! Day 3 Pikes Peak

Day 3. Time for the big one.
On our first day we pushed through 20.1 miles in Stanley Canyon. Day 2 found us on the New Santa Fe trail logging 14 miles. Today we've got a mountain ahead of us, literally.
Pikes Peak stands 14,115 feet above sea level and towers over Colorado Springs. It's fitting that we are including this mountain in our hike to celebrate Dad's 60th birthday. When each of us boys turned 13, Dad took each of us teenagers up this mountain. It taught us when we were young that we're going to face some tough challenges, but if we push through we can overcome them.

Knowing we had a lot of miles to put down today, we arrived at the trail head before dawn at 5:30am. You never know what kind of weather the mountain will have in store for you, so it's always best to try and summit before the afternoon storm clouds roll in. 

Celebrating Dad's 60th birthday with a 60 mile hike! Day 2 New Santa Fe Trail

Time for Day 2 of our 60 mile adventure. Yesterday, the four of us cranked out 20.1 miles over some pretty hilly terrain. Today we're taking it a little easier, mostly going over some flatland. We already know how many miles we're going to be hiking tomorrow, so today we were able to get a relatively late start at 7:30am.

Celebrating Dad's 60th birthday with a 60 mile hike! Day 1 Stanley Canyon

Back in 2006, my Dad had a crazy idea for celebrating his 50th birthday. Hike a mile for each year. Over 3 days, the four of us hiked 50 miles, all over the Pacific Crest Trail in California.

Fast forward 10 years and in the few months before his birthday, my brothers and I were trying to figure out how best to celebrate. I'm not sure who had the idea, and who considered it seriously, but before too long, we were all figuring out how best for the 4 of us to meet up and hike 60 miles!

Casa Bonita in Colorado, the most entertaining Mexican restaurant in the world!

After flying to Lousiana, driving to Mississippi, driving to Missouri, and flying to Michigan, it was time to finish the trip by flying to Colorado.

Cedar Point with Donald, Austin, and Ethan

Our Michigan family visit is nearing its end, but there's one more special outing planned. On the very last full day of the trip, I'm going to Cedar Point!
Cedar Point is America's 2nd oldest operating theme park, opening in 1870! The park features a world record 71 rides, including 16 roller coasters! That 16 roller coasters is the reason I'm here today! And that's second in the world only to Magic Mountain with 19 roller coasters! I don't get enough roller coasters back home, so I was very excited for this trip.