More of Colorado

Friday was spent in Colorado Springs. The morning started with my CPAT (Candidate Physical Abilities Test) which was pass/fail.....I passed of course. Afterwords, we drove around some of the neighborhoods in the areas that I served and also visited and got re-acquainted with two families I was pretty close with. The city has changed, growing significantly.

Are those houses on a hill? The only hills back home are overpasses and landfills....literally!

While driving through one particular neighborhood, we were astonished to see deer roaming about, even causing us to stop and allow them to cross the street! I think we saw around 12-14 deer, including this buck just chilling in a front yard.

Saturday started with my written/behavior test with Colorado Springs Fire Dept. I was one of approximately 400 people testing that morning, the third of three tests. The C-Springs HR person stated that 1250 people would be tested for 22 jobs. I felt very confident in about 3/5 of the test, so as long as I am in the top 2% of testers, I am in!

After the test, my wife and I visited a couple of the sites in the C-Springs area. We went to Manitou Springs, a historical mining town at the foot of Pike's Peak. While there we had lunch at a local pub/restaurant and hit some of the tourist traps along the main drag. A short distance from Manitou is Garden of The Gods, a picturesque park filled with reddish/orange rock formations. In the park, we did some mild hiking and picture taking. It was especially fun for me to show my wife around one of the memorable spots I visited while on my mission.

I've always known my wife is a strong woman, but she displayed her brute strength by holding up this giant boulder!

From Garden of The Gods, I spontaneously decided we would visit Denver.