Day 21, July 20, 2011

Today was the day of our big outing.  We headed out toward Glenwood Springs where we stopped to enjoy the lovely canyon as well as the white water rafters just taking off.  Joel, tired of smiling for the cameras, gave us a goofy look instead.

From there, we drove over to Aspen where one must leave his or her car and take a bus into the park.  We were so fortunate that our bus driver was an experienced guide and taught us so much on our way up. 

We went to hike at Maroon Bells and enjoyed gorgeous weather made to order.  As Kim so aptly put it, it was like being in the middle of a picture postcard.

The hike went around the Maroon Lake, then up into a waterfall area.  As you can see, Colorado has not been suffering from the drought hitting New Mexico and Texas. 

We tried (unsuccessfully) to avoid the many stinging nettle plants, but the lush fields of wild flowers (highlighted by the Colorado state flower: the columbine) made it all worthwhile.  Nancy was in her element, remembering all the names of the wildflowers we saw. 

This is Corita with the "Forget-Me-Not" flower her mom dedicated to her as a girl.

Driving through the city of Aspen was fun as well.  We enjoyed the relaxed environment there and were impressed with the range of cultural events on the schedule.

If that weren’t enough excitement for one day, from Aspen we drove over the Continental Divide at Independence Pass.  It was Joel’s first time to play in the snow and Raquel’s first time within her working memory.  Such fun!  They had snowball fights, made snow angels, and even made a snow bear.

We got a bit sleepy on our drive back, but waited till home to make our pesto dinner, with a sauce already prepared by Deepa (Corita’s brother Larry’s partner from Colorado Springs…remember her?)…thanks again, Deepa…it was delicious!

Day 20, July 19, 2011

This day we woke up late, having come back so late from our outing at Sylvan Lake.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast together in the condo before heading out to another reunion.  Our dear friend Sister Rosella was able to meet with us, despite residing at the Mother House in Kansas.  Once again, we were brought together by unexpected circumstances: we were visiting Avon, Colorado while she was attending a family wedding in a nearby town.  We met in the park/museum/visitor center of the town of Eagle, where we caught up on recent doings and shared photos.

Back at the resort, we spent most of the afternoon in our room, thanks to the rain.  After lunch we started to work on a puzzle Kim had brought, then we swam in the indoor pool where Joel made a new friend from Texas named Isabella.  After dinner it cleared up a bit, so we went to the ice skating rink.   Joel and Raquel had never skated before, but have learned a little about the sort of balance required by sharing their big brother Nathan’s roller blades and coasting around our house.  Suffice it to say that by the end of the evening, both were sailing around the rink quite smoothly.  Nancy and Corita shared a pair of skates and took turns.  It was fun to see Nancy back on the ice.   She got her stride back fairly easily and soon was eager  to try it backwards.  Raquel was her counterpart, holding on to grandma while skating forward.

 We capped off the evening trying to make s'mores around one of the outdoor gas "campfires" they had lit around the ice skating rink.  Funny thing was that the marshmallows wouldn't exactly roast in that gas fire, only sit there or burn.  Who knew?

Day 19, July 18, 2011

This morning we explored the Edwards and Eagle areas and, among other things, found a fabulous store.  Joel won a prize with a bubble gum machine…lucky kid won a soda pop (except he doesn’t actually like soda pop…shucks!  Mom got him his first Cadbury egg instead).  We got some amazing jewelry made with aspen leaves and some other souvenirs.  We also got David a fishing license, very important for our next endeavor.

Around lunchtime we drove out to Sylvan Lake State Park, just outside of Eagle, Colorado, where our friends Wally and Mary Peace Finley had a campsite.  We ate our lunch in their small RV camper, in a cozy setting.

After lunch, we were ready to head out to try our luck fishing, but it started to rain, so instead we ran out to cover the firewood they had collected for making our evening meal.  Then we shared photos and stories.

When the rain let up a bit, we went to try fishing.  The only adult with a license was David, who had never fished with a casting rod before.  The kids were able to get the hang of it pretty quickly, but David was frustrated the whole time.  They never caught anything but they had a lot of fun trying.

In the meantime, Corita saw some people going out on paddle boats, so went to see what the opportunities were.  She discovered that, even better than paddle boats, there were canoes available to rent!  Since it was easier to get the canoe and paddle it across the reservoir than to go get everyone else, she went ahead.  On the way across the water, however, it started to rain.  Luckily, she had her umbrella with her!

The kids and David had a lot of fun paddling the canoe around the lake, taking turns dragging the fishing line along (to no avail).

Dinner was supposed to be made over the campfire, but since it continued to rain we made it in the trailer itself.  It was great to have a shelter and not be tent camping.  Corita really wanted to take a last row out on the lake (since she really hadn’t had much of a turn) and the double rainbow after dinner seemed to be a sign, so Kim (Corita’s sister) and Corita took a lovely evening canoe ride.

By the time Corita and Kim got back from their sisterly boat ride, David had the fire ready for s’mores.  We made an interesting site: roasting marshmallows with one hand and holding umbrellas with the other.  Thankfully, it was just a drizzle.

We wrapped up the evening with music.  Since it wasn’t very pleasant around the fire, we retired once again to the cozy comfort of Wally and Mary’s RV, where we sang songs from their early days together in the Methodist Student Group at University of  Denver.  Mary treated us all to a sampling of each of her flutes, which was especially interesting to Kim, a flute player herself.  Thoughtfully, Wally and Mary had brought along a guitar for Nancy, so she played us a song as well.  What a joy it was to make music together!

Unbelievably after all that rain, it was a clear, starry night when we emerged from the trailer!  What a treat!  On the way home, we had a final surprise: first one fox ran across the road in front of us, then a pair of young foxes was frisking about on the bank next to the road and let us watch them for a while before heading into the underbrush.  What a day!

Day 18, July 17, 2011

Today, Sunday, we headed to Breckenridge to church.  Nancy has a high school friend who lives there (he is part of the team of people helping to plan their 50th reunion).  Gene Pflum and his wife Mary attend the Father Dyer Methodist Church in Breckenridge, where we were warmly welcomed.  The church was full and overflowing as all the members came to hear the first service by their new pastor.  His sermon was about the importance of cherishing past events and traditions, but not letting them hold us back from obeying the Biblical command to change and move forward, having faith that all will turn out as God wills it.

After church we first headed over to a nearby church that partners with the Methodist church for mission work.  They were having a bake sale in benefit of their mission work in Honduras. 

The churches of Breckenridge have worked in villages near La Entrada, Honduras, just over the mountains from where we live in La Esperanza. (It's about 4 hours driving but that's only because of the roads.  The communities are really quite similar.)

We also enjoyed admiring the many colorful gardens in Breckenridge, full of poppies and columbine.

Next we went to Gene and Mary's lovely mountain home where they prepared a delicious lunch for us.  The kids enjoyed riding their grandkids' multiple wheeled vehicles, most of which were too small which made them all the more hilariously fun to ride.

We adults ate more sophisticated fare, but the kids ate hot dogs which they roasted themselves (aren't they always better that way?)

We were going to make s'mores before leaving, but we ran out of time because we had a theater date, so we rescheduled the dessert for after the play.  The play, a new take on "The Three Little Pigs" was absolutely wonderful!  There were only five actors and six main characters: the turkey buzzard who encouraged the gentle wolf to be bad also doubled as the farmer's wife who jeopardized his little pigs' safety by sending them into the woods to hunt for truffles.  One of the pigs was new to the bunch.  His name was "HAMlet" (get it?) and he continuously quoted Shakespeare, driving the other two pigs mad.  As you can tell by this very brief description, the play was extremely innovative and hysterically fun.

Abusing of the Pflums' hospitality, we headed back to their house after the play to partake in dessert.  We made s'mores AND they served us strawberry shortcake.  Can anyone say "restraint"?  Then we spent another hour visiting.  Here is a picture of Joel admiring the moose antlers of the giant Gene hunted in Alaska.

The kids especially enjoyed playing with the Pflums' gentle dog Greta.

Suffice it to say, when it was time to leave, they didn't want to go.  Fortunately, Nancy will be able to visit again, as an excursion to the Pflums' home is part of the activities planned for Gene and Nancy's high school reunion.

That evening we came back to the hotel, made dinner (can you believe we wanted to eat again?), and hung out in the hotel room.