The day that rained. 6/25/2025

 Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Today, Joy had gymnastics in the morning, so we took JJ on his first fishing excursion. (Note the sky!)

Upon arriving at Manitou Park Recreation Area in Woodland Park, CO, we had some great fishing luck! Lillia and Gavin both caught a fish within the first two minutes of casting their rods. Gavin then caught a second fish almost immediately. The luck ended there, though, as that was the grand total of catches for the day, leaving Gavin as the big winner. JJ loved seeing the fish in the net!

Casting lessons with Uncle Victor:

Casting on his own:

See the birds in the background here? My theory is that when they flew in and disturbed the water, they also scared the fish away because once they arrived, we didn't catch anything else!

As you can see in the pictures, the clouds were rolling in quickly. We fished for less than an hour before we saw the first lightning strike. Since Victor had sent us all the lightning safety information, we knew that getting to our car was the most important thing to do. We considered sitting in the car and waiting for it to pass, but the radar didn't look great, and we decided to try to drive to Manitou Springs and see if the sun was shining there. It was just starting to sprinkle when we arrived, so Victor and Gavin hiked down a short hill to fish on Fountain Creek. 

However, the weather turned quickly, and yet again, we found ourselves in a hailstorm! I opened the door to the car to take a video--it actually hurt!

So we scrapped the fishing idea and headed home to get ready for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks game. After eating some tacos at Dos Santos, we started walking toward the stadium. If you've been following the last two days, you know what came next. That's right, the rain started just as we entered the stadium. We found our seats and were glad to see they were under cover. 

A group of men parachuted in carrying various flags of the military branches, and lastly, a Switchbacks flag. We wished it was AJ jumping but it was still really cool. 

We cheered for the team as they introduced the players, then sang the national anthem. The players lined the field ready to start the game when… You guessed it. Lightning strikes! Rain delay. We decided to drive toward home since we weren't sure how long the delay would last. On the way home, we stopped for ice cream (obviously!) and got to see a beautiful double rainbow. The pictures never do it justice, but it was amazing! As we finished eating our ice cream, we checked social media and found out that the gates were open and they were letting people back in the stadium.

JJ and AJ headed home to relieve the babysitter and have a decent bedtime (AJ jumps early in the morning). Kristina and the four of us headed back to the game finally. We missed the first 10-15 minutes, but enjoyed watching the Colorado Springs Switchbacks dominate the San Antonio FC. Until they didn't. Despite controlling the ball for much of the game, San Antonio was the team that was able to finish. The Switchbacks lost 0-2 in a disappointing end. Here are the soccer fans:

Despite the loss, they still launched fireworks after the game!

I made Victor pose for this sign to show his mom:

So the rain kept us from enjoying some parts of our day, but in the end, we had a great day filled with fun memories (and wet feet).