This year for our vacation we decided to go to Boulder, Colorado. My brother and his family moved there just after Thanksgiving and we hadn't seen them since then. We have a history of not traveling well. We have been stranded for hours in two different airports on two different vacations. When we visited the Dominican Republic for our tenth anniversary, I seriously thought we might not make it back home. (By the way, learn from our mistake and DO NOT take any kind of excursion while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Ours was booked by AAA and was
very scary.) On another vacation, we literally found ourselves running through the airport trying not to miss our flight, like that scene from the movie Home Alone. One time we did miss our flight and had to stand in a long line of angry people who had also missed their flights and were trying to reschedule just like us. Needless to say, we were all a little nervous about taking to the sky and traveling on yet another exciting adventure.
Mike was very nervous about flying. I think he may have read the same two pages in his book over and over during our two and a half hour flight.
The day after we arrived in Boulder, Ryan and I decided we could take a hiking trip with my brother and his family. Who needs time to let their bodies adapt to the lower concentration of oxygen at the higher altitude? Certainly not us! So we started on our trek up the mountain. Ryan and I thought that we should have no problem whatsoever hiking to the summit of Green Mountain (aka they very top of a particularly large mountain.) So we began making our way along the very same trail that Nate, Jill and Lucy spotted a bear just two weeks prior. The journey was easy at first. The trail was pretty flat and I knew that this would be a piece of cake. Our biggest concern at that point was whether we would encounter another bear. I have to admit that I didn't really want to be a bear snack that day. Nate and Jill were equally as nervous. This was their first hike on that same trail since the infamous bear encounter. They were both scouring the landscape like hawks. To read more about their encounter, click
here. The pictures below were taken when we were about half of the way through our hike.
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| Nate, Jill and Lucy |
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| Me and Ryan |
Well, the hike became very treacherous with a lot of stone and log steps. Ryan and I soon realized that we had bit off more than we could chew. My legs began to feel like jello. I was short of breath and my heart was racing. I was wondering if I was going to make it to the top. I took a moment to reflect on the fact that my brother does this every weekend with a toddler strapped to his back. I can't even imagine that! About two thirds of the way through, I began to turn inward, focusing on my struggle to continue. I became completely unaware of the mountainous terrain around me. I was no longer concerned with the possibility of becoming a bear snack. I actually don't even think I would have noticed a bear unless it was on the path ahead of me, obstructing my way. Just when I thought we had to be close to the end, I would turn another corner and find yet another seemingly endless set of steps that awaited my arrival. Ry and I pulled it together. We hadn't gone that far to not reach our destination! We managed to muster enough determination and energy to make it all the way to the summit. I'm glad we did it. Now we can say that we hiked to the top of a mountain. The rewarding feeling was certainly priceless. I'm proud of myself and my little man for our accomplishment.
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| This is Ryan and me at the summit of Green Mountain. The view in the background is Boulder. |
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| Nate at the very top of the summit. You could see all of the surrounding mountains from there. |
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| Nate and Lucy at the summit. |
We hiked the Green Mountain Loop via the E.M. Greenman and Ranger Trails. The hike was 3.3 miles round trip. We started at an elevation of 6,748 feet and reached the summit at 8,144 feet. The trail is considered a moderate hike. (Really??!!) The trail is named after Ernest Greenman, Boulder's "Johnny Appleseed." Greenman arrived to the area in 1896 and planted hundreds of apple trees.
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| The view from the summit was fantastic! |
The following pictures were taken at Lost Gulch Lookout on Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder. This view was also completely beautiful. We went there on a few occasions to just sit and take in the Lord's magnificent creation. It was so quiet and peaceful there. We packed a lunch and ate it there one afternoon.
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| We found an even more breathtaking view from the top. (This time we drove up the mountain thankfully.) |
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| The Flatirons |
We took a tour of the Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado. It was actually pretty interesting. I had no idea there were so many steps involved in making beer. According to our guide, beer takes about three months to make.
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| The Coors Brewery tour was very interesting (and not just because of the generous free beer samples.) |
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| The "can room" |
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| Large iron kettles used to make beer |
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| Ryan and cousin Lucy hanging out together. |
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| Estes Park, Colorado |
We took a day trip to Estes Park, Colorado. The scenery was beautiful on the way there. We saw homes on the sides of mountains that were amazing. I wondered how people even got to those houses in the summer, let alone winter time. Estes park was founded in the 1860s when Griff Evans started a dude ranch there. The town has been growing ever since.
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| The drive to Estes Park |
From Estes Park we boarded a shuttle and then a bus that took us high into the Rocky Mountains. We hiked at Bear Lake and then on to Alberta Falls. The hike was about two and a half to three miles. The altitude at Bear Lake was 9,475 feet.
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| Mike, Ryan and me at Bear Lake |
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| Bear Lake |
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| Bear Lake |
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| The hike to Alberta Falls |
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| The hike to Alberta Falls |
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| Alberta Falls |
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| Alberta Falls |
We then continued on to Trail Ride Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The road was 22 miles up into the snow capped Rocky Mountains. The views were the most spectacular that we had seen so far. We drove to an elevation of 11,798 feet on the highest continuously paved highway in the United States. The temperature in Boulder was 90 degrees. When we reached the summit, we were surprised at how windy and cold it was. The summit was 62 degrees. We were excited to see some elk on our drive.
Below are some pictures of Rocky Mountain National Park. Trust me, the pictures do not do it justice. You should really go there yourself to see God's awesome creation.
I needed God desperately and I felt like He wasn't there anymore. I couldn't feel Him. I didn't hear from Him like I once did. I grew so far from Him that eventually I just stopped looking for Him. I spent my days feeling sorry for myself and wondering if and how I would ever get out of the horror that I was living. I spiraled quickly into a total mess that couldn't even get through a day without crying at least twice. I hated who I had become and thought I would never again be that strong, spiritual woman I had once been. 
I certainly am still not where I once was spiritually. I think back about how close I was to the Lord and it saddens me that I'm not there anymore. I felt like I had such a personal, even supernatural relationship with God. I miss that. I regret more than anything that I've lost that. I can't even really explain what it felt like to experience God in that way. It was like an overwhelming sense of peace resulting in a warm tingling that seemed to envelope my whole body. It was a fullness in my chest during worship that I knew without a doubt was the Holy Spirit. It was a feeling that God had this and God had me and everything would be alright.
This year for our vacation we decided to go to Boulder, Colorado. My brother and his family moved there just after Thanksgiving and we hadn't seen them since then. We have a history of not traveling well. We have been stranded for hours in two different airports on two different vacations. When we visited the Dominican Republic for our tenth anniversary, I seriously thought we might not make it back home. (By the way, learn from our mistake and DO NOT take any kind of excursion while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Ours was booked by AAA and was very scary.) On another vacation, we literally found ourselves running through the airport trying not to miss our flight, like that scene from the movie Home Alone. One time we did miss our flight and had to stand in a long line of angry people who had also missed their flights and were trying to reschedule just like us. Needless to say, we were all a little nervous about taking to the sky and traveling on yet another exciting adventure.
Mike was very nervous about flying. I think he may have read the same two pages in his book over and over during our two and a half hour flight. 
From Estes Park we boarded a shuttle and then a bus that took us high into the Rocky Mountains. We hiked at Bear Lake and then on to Alberta Falls. The hike was about two and a half to three miles. The altitude at Bear Lake was 9,475 feet. 
