When it comes to the holidays, I’m all for trying new things along with maintaining traditions. This year, I’m excited to check out the Holiday Chocolate Festival, Sunday December 9th from 11am-6pm, at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

This is the fourth year for the festival, which features chocolate in so many different flavors and concoctions from truffles to chocolate martinis to over 70 varieties of fudge.

You’ll want to buy advance tickets by December 8th to get a discount. Admission is $5, kids 12 and under are free. Taste Tickets are available in pre-sale for one ticket for $1, 12 tickets for $10 and 30 tickets for $25. At the door tickets will be $1 per ticket. Buy tickets to sample all the treats, or simply check out the entertainment and shopping from local businesses. Entertainment will include wine and chocolate tastings by the Chocolate Therapist Julie Pech, holiday cupcake decorating ideas and practice with the Dessert Stand, Teresa Farney’s live interview with the owner of Sugar Loco, truffle & cake competitions, artist Noami Foster painting with real chocolate and so much more.

Does it get any better than that?

With summer winding down, and school getting ready to start, we thought it was a good time to do one last family activity. None of us had ever been to Water World, so Daddy took a vacation day and we drove to the other side of Denver to visit the largest water park in the U.S.

I’ll admit I was nervous, because I did not know what to expect. I mean, my only experience with water parks was the indoor park at West Edmonton Mall. Plus, my kids do not know how to swim. What would we be able to do?

Water World is pretty accessible to get to. The parking lot was huge, we had no issues getting there and getting in. I had read some of the FAQ online, so I knew where to get tokens for the lockers. If you are planning to open your locker repeatedly, you might want to opt for the day long locker, which is $8. I only needed to lock up my purse, so the $1 locker was good for us.

I found we could rent life jackets for the kids for free, so we set them up with those. They were fine with that, and it gave me more peace of mind. All we had left to do was pick what to ride first.

(map courtesy of Water World)

The park is spread out (translation- lots of walking!), and we started our visit by choosing Raging Colorado, a raft ride we could do as a family. Squeals of delight came from our raft, and begging to ride it again. So we did. There was a girl photographing families, but sadly our photos are unavailable. We visited the Thunder Bay wave pool (which incidentally is smaller than the one at West Edmonton Mall), and the kids got a big kick out of that.

Finally persuaded them to move on, where we went on their favorite ride, Lost River Of The Pharaohs. This too was a family raft ride, but it featured a dark tunnel with mist and mummies. They wanted to do it repeatedly.

We wrapped up our visit at Big Top, which features a water spraying funhouse, silly shores pool, and Monkey Business, a low-key slide for two. We took the gondola back up to the North Shore Area, where we had started our day.

You could spend all day there- there is plenty of shade. A lot of people brought big coolers in and set up a base camp with towels. Definitely something to consider. We opted to make our visit a short one, but with the fun all four of us had, we’ll definitely be back. Though Water World is a little pricey, discount coupons can be found! And consider going mid-week. The lines were not too bad for us going on a Wednesday, when school had already started in some districts.

* I was given free passes for my family to visit Water World through USFG. This review is my honest opinion.

Last week I learned that a wonderful man I knew had passed away. I searched through my Facebook friends in CA, looking for the post that should have alerted me to this. There was nothing, only the note shared by the prayer newsletter from my CA bible study.

I wouldn’t be who I am without God having placed Michael in our lives. This man we met at Woodbridge, who lived close enough to us, that he & his family drove us to church every week for a year. The year we did not own a car. His wife even drove my friend & I to Disneyland, and picked us up afterwards. The man who would scuba dive with Geoff. I loved getting Christmas cards from his family, and the notes he would write on them, “so glad to see your family doing well”.

Michael & my dad were both diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other. And while my dad chose not to treat his cancer, Michael fought hard. When my dad passed away months later, I took comfort in the fact that Michael’s treatments were going well. It took cancer almost 9 years to take down Michael.

He was a remarkable guy. He was kind, wise, and Godly. I know his presence will be missed greatly, not just by the Armstrongs, but also by his wife, his daughters & their families.

Ski Trip 2003

(top) Stephanie & Michael, Lindy & Kris

(bottom) Frank & Cynda, Melissa & Geoff

So I see I have not blogged since October. What I have been doing in that time is living in the real world.

I signed Elijah up to participate in Destination Imagination, a creative problem-solving competition. He has to work together with his team to create a short play about toys. At his level, it is classified as non-competitive. I got roped into being the team leader, which has brought me some stress. I just don’t want to ruin the experience for any of the kids on the team.

I’ve been trying to volunteer in Elijah’s class on Mondays, which has been fun. I may also try to get back into Miles’ class to help out.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with Geoff’s parents, and as we get closer to Christmas, I’m trying to get all the shopping done. That doesn’t leave much exciting stuff to write about.

I did get to enjoy a girly night out with the Mile High Mamas at Sephora. There is something energizing about being with those women. I’m also trying to plan/organize our Christmas Open House, as well as a letterboxing event.

So that’s where I’ve been. I’ll try to get back to more regular blogging soon.