July 13, 2011

Denver Part 1

Denver was a lot of fun. We spent time walking and shopping around downtown Denver, hiking in a couple of Cole's favorite spots, eating out at really great restaurants, and enjoying the difference in weather!

I'm going to split it up into two parts not because I am trying to be mysterious but because I don't have a lot of time this week. We are in the middle of Mission Lamesa this week and I am trying to work as much as possible out on the job sites. Mission Lamesa is a "mission trip" that the church I work at, First Baptist Church of Lamesa, "takes" in their hometown. We are having lots of fun and I'll share more on it next week when life slows down a little...

Kanyon and I got to Denver on Saturday afternoon and we went to dinner that night with my parents and Cole at this amazing Italian restaurant, Maggiano's Little Italy. We ordered the family style dinner and had an extremely good 4-course meal.









The above are all iPhone pictures, by the way, because my point-and-shoot decided to finally give up after 6 long years.

We were there for a couple hours at least and it was so nice! Getting to talk face-to-face makes all the difference.

The next morning, Sunday, we got up early at 6:00 and got in the car and drove for an hour or so to Frasier, Colorado. Cole wanted to take us on a trail that he knew about from a friend called Byer's Peak.


Mom looks pretty legit, doesn't she? :) She's done this a couple times, no big deal.




I never would have thought that Cole would end up being a mountain guide. But now that he's older, he's so natural at it. Life is funny.





Mom is happy to be with her boys!



The trees are a bit greener here than in West Texas...





After hiking for a couple hours, we finally got close to the beginning of the Byer's Peak trail. And it looked like this...



When we finally got to the beginning of the trail, it got a whole lot worse. The snow was about 8 feet deep and there was no way we were prepared to trek through that. So we decided to back track a little bit and take a different trail up a different mountain.







 I can not remember for the life of me the trail we ended up choosing but it was so gorgeous at the top! We got there a little before 1:00 pm when the storms were supposed to hit.






Dad pushing Mom up the last bit :)



It was so beautiful. And the snow was so fun to see and play in after a couple months of 100+ degree heat!










My brother, the mountain man.

When we got down off the mountain about an hour and a half later, we decided we would go and visit Crooked Creek Ranch since it was so close.

Crooked Creek is a Young Life camp that my family all has ties to. I went there as a camper in 2003 and then worked there in the summer of 2006. Cole was a camper there two or three times in high school. And my parents have been adult guests and adult guests hosts a couple times. We all love the camp. Kanyon had never seen this YL camp so we wanted to take a short visit.

Hellooo, beautiful Crooked Creek!

Relaxing on the "Denim Delights" at camp. 


The pine beetle infestation in the Denver area has been eating away the trees and making it unsafe to have the ropes course where it has been the last few years. So they built a new free-standing course this year!




When we got home that night, we relaxed a little in the hotel room and then headed out for another really yummy dinner at a well-known Mexican restaurant. I had some green chile enchiladas and they were hot. My parents and I lived in New Mexico when I was 2 years old and they developed a love for green chiles. So we had to have some while we were that much closer to NM!

I have lots more pictures to show you of the second day of hiking my mom, brother, and I did after Kanyon and Dad flew home on Monday for work. And then even more of our weekend in Dallas for my cousin's wedding!

I'm heading back to work!

P.S. See Part Two here.

Photobucket

4 comments:

  1. This was reliving the week with your pictures..

    ReplyDelete
  2. loved the pics - looks like y'all had an awesome time. who would have thought... cole the mountain man? :)

    ReplyDelete