The Painful and Delightful Memories of Colorado

Blog About Fall 2020

Keira and I got back from Virginia on a Tuesday, and Karis and I left for Denver, Colorado, the next day!

We were meeting another mother and daughter there, so we sent them a picture of us in the airport.

They kindly reciprocated :)

We met in Denver, rented a car (which is going to be a big part of this story), and we found a middle eastern place to eat.

I still get amazed at digital maps! I remember driving with my family every summer, and I loved being in charge of the map...the paper map! But on those handy-dandy maps, it didn't say, take this exit for great middle eastern food. There was NO way to know what was in the city!

I can't remember if the food was good or not :)

I think we had problems getting it down.

October 28, 2020

We drove to Breckenridge. It was the off-season, and we had so much fun walking around without it being crowded.

Narnia vibes

October 29, 2020

We walked everywhere the first day, but the first morning, when we wanted to drive around and find a coffee shop, the car wouldn't start. We were in a garage, and not many people were around. Karis and her friend walked to town, and I walked down the road where I saw intermittent traffic, and I stopped 8 cars (3 wouldn't stop) to ask for a jump. Most of them had rentals as well, but one nice gentleman stopped and said he could help. I told him where my friend was waiting, so he drove to give our car a jump. He even gave us his construction business card in case we needed him again (since we didn't want to bother him, we never did, but we should have). We drove into town, did some sight-seeing, and after a few hours, we went back and the car wouldn't start again.

I'm not going to drag this out for you, but let me give you the highlights. I found a family in the parking lot who helped us, but we were concerned about making our drive back to Denver the next day. The car rental company said we could take it to the nearest rental place and switch it out for another car. The kicker was the rental place was in the OPPOSITE direction of Denver by an hour. 

SO, we opted to get a jump in the morning from some maintenance men and drive straight to Denver without turning the car off. When we stopped to eat lunch, someone remained in the car with it running, and everyone else got food and brought it back for the driver. In Denver, we had planned to eat out with a friend that night and spend the night before flying out the next morning, but we couldn't with this particular car.

SO, we drove all the way out to the airport, told the story to the car rental place, and they apologized, gave a SMALL discount and said they would upgrade us with a nice car. This is not what we wanted. 

Small car, BIG discount works better, right? 

Anyway, we drove away in a LARGE SUV Denali.  It was nice, but it was awful at the same time. 

Trying to park that thing in downtown Denver was NOT fun or easy!

Needless to say, we left with some memories :)

October 30, 2020

The Mountains are calling, and I must go

John Muir, a mountaineer in the 1800's known as the "Father of National Parks" said, "The mountains are calling, and I must go."

This is how my family feels every year after Christmas.  Usually, we have spent an entire year in the city, and when we see the mountains in the distance with the snow on top, we feel a calling to go.

Plus we were about to finalize our move in the next week, and we were all tired of packing.

We took all of our clothes and food for meals and snacks up the teleferic to the top of the mountain.

No cars are allowed.

Each morning, I would get up to see what beauty God was creating for me to enjoy.

Being above the clouds and watching them circle around the tops of the mountains does not get old.

In this panorama view, you can see the clouds in circling motion around the top of the mountain below us.

Sunsets were also worth stopping dead in our tracks to see God's handiwork.

Snow is always a delight for my raised-in-Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Africa children.

John Muir is also credited with saying, "In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."

I concur.

First Day in the Snow

Our first morning, we all woke up from a warm night to see beautiful views out our windows.

When everyone was ready for breakfast, we were stumped for a little while as to how to get to where food was prepared.

The night before, after we checked in, a man took us up to our room in a SUV with chains on his tires.  But now we realized we were far from the restaurant/lodge, and there was no foreseeable trail.

So we called the front desk to inquire, and they said, "We will send a car."

This picture is taken from the restaurant, looking back up at the rooms.  It is quite a distance.

But I couldn't help but wonder, "What if this place was totally booked?  Would they shuttle all of those people back and forth to meals in the scant three SUV's they own or what?"

This is a view, looking up from the sledding area, without the sun in your eyes.

Well, they came and got us.  There were only two or three families there on Thursday night, so it was easy to manage.

They chose a breakfast for us, and told us four servings would be plenty for the six of us, and they were right.  It's called the "Arab Breakfast."  One serving came with an omelet, a turkey sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes, labneh (Lebanese yogurt), slices of a mild cheese, olives, tahini (sesame seed) paste mixed with honey and Nutella, bread, apples, and oranges.

It was good.

Then, we went outside to explore.

While Caleb and Keira were experiencing their first snow ball fight with some national kids, Kylie and Karis tried out this swing.

From the top, we could see the city we have had our eye on for awhile as a possible location to move.

Here's a closer look.

And an even closer one.

Besides snow ball fights, making snow angels was definitely on the agenda. 

Making a snowman was too, but after several tries with snow that wouldn't pack tightly, we took a picture with some kind of small alien creation we put together.

I'll spare you the sad photo.

Then, we tried out sledding for the first time.  Below, is a picture of my sledding companion.

Isn't she cute?

She is standing on a MOVING conveyor belt that is taking our sled and us to the top.  This is not America, and you can tell because there are no rails or safety features to keep us secure.

This was the last happy ride for this little girl.  After this sled down the hill, her toes had had enough.  

How do we get back to our room to warm her up?

I went to the front desk (which is a one room check-in station at the top of the teleferik cable), and he said he could call a car, but since several people were checking in with all of their luggage, he thought it would be better if I walked 1/4 mile over to the restaurant because a car would come there faster.

The sad little girl and I headed for the restaurant, and eventually a car did come.

After warming up for about an hour and putting on dry socks, the rest of the crew came in, and they wanted us to come back down so we could see them ride a new ride and watch them sled one more time.

With new vigor, the little girl said, "Ok."

Doug and the three olders rode the "Skyswing," while all the people who were still on the mountain cheered them on behind me.

(The SkySwing a machine that pulls them back and up and lets them go, much like the big pirate ships that you see swinging in parking lot carnivals).




























The last sled ride of the day was a little different.  The snow was starting to ice over, and the worker on the mountain wouldn't let us use sleds anymore.  He said it was too dangerous.  We had to use inner tubes on a track instead of just going down the snowy slopes.  You can see the tracks to the left of Keira on the picture above when she's on the conveyor belt.

The inner tubes were a little more scary for Keira and I because we couldn't control it.  It was a straight path, but we still had the capability to spin and not see where we were going.  I think there might have been some screaming on my part.

Even though we had to take a car back up. 
Wait a while. 
Call another car for dinner. 
Eat. 
Call another car to go back up, etc.,
I'm glad we had gone down after warming up so that we could see this...






















This was taken with my iphone.  It really was this pink and beautiful. 

Wish you could have been there.

(And I want to wish my handsome son a happy birthday!)

Our Weekend Away

Some sweet people are letting us borrow their car while they are away, so the weekend after the kids went to school at the beginning of January, we decided to get away from the city for two nights. 

We headed to the mountains.

These are the first small ones we saw as we left the city.

Then, after about an hour, we headed into the canyon as the sun set. 

About this time, we actually got a phone call from the place we were staying saying, "Are you still coming?"

They were concerned, because the hotel we were staying in is on top of a VERY tall mountain.  

And the only way to get up to the hotel is to take a small, gondola-type car called a "teleferik."

And the teleferik was getting ready to shut down for the night.

But...we made it.

This is our last look at the teleferik station below as we headed up the mountain into the darkness of the night.

As we neared the resort (after a FIFTEEN minute ride up the mountain), we started seeing signs of civilization (and SNOW) outside our windows.

Keira's first time to touch and see the snow.



It was also my older kids first time to be in the snow (posing with a small reminder of Africa).

But as you can see from the picture, we were ill-prepared for snow in the shoe-department.

There were definitely some frozen toes and fingers the next day (and maybe a few tears from a 4-year old about how miserable she was because her socks were soaked and icy...I totally don't blame her).



HOWEVER, the place where we stayed had 24-HOUR ELECTRICITY, heat CONSTANTLY running, heated bathroom FLOORS, and a heated TOWEL RACK in the bathroom.

Now, THAT is cause for a picture to be taken in the bathroom!

It was a fun first night!

Mikumi morning

Aren't you glad my safari lasted only two days? Because this will be my last post on the subject, and you won't have to hear about it again, but I stood in awe of my God the following morning, too.

We woke up at 5, so we could get an early start. The mountains that had shown so brightly the night before at sunset, were now a dismal gray.

With the sun rising, everywhere I looked, something was changing. Colors would be dull one moment and then bright the next.

Grass was brown in one area and green in another. It was picturesque.


“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.” - Ps 103:11

“As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” - Ps 18:30

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” - Ps 84:11

“In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” - Ps 19:4b-6

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirst for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water.” - Ps 63:1

This is my favorite of the morning. The three colors of nature make it so beautiful to me.
































Of course, the animals were amazing, too.
























I loved getting pictures where two or more types of animals were together.




























































The wildebeest are a bit skiddish.























Isn't it amazing that each one is so different, like a fingerprint?

























This was my favorite animal shot. From this angle, it looks like the giraffe is the actual trunk of this tree.
























The End



















The whole crew -


















Ready to go get some breakfast and hit the road back to Dar!