Grand Junction, CO - Home of My Sister

 When we entered Colorado we had our sites set on my sister's house in Grand Junction. She and her family had moved there in May of 2020 to take over a business. I had yet to visit due to COVID and was really looking forward to it. As Beau and I traveled through the US headed west, Jennifer's plans changed and they decided to move the business to the east coast. And they were leaving in May! We had to hustle! The fam arrived the night before Jennifer and family flew back east for a wedding and to leave the kiddos with my parents for a few weeks. Thankfully, we were able to spend on evening with them before they left. 

Gray and their enormous dog, Modonna, became buddies.

Caroline has a special love and connection with her red-headed cousin, Archer. Jennifer and family were incredibly gracious to allow us to park our camper (Elizabeth) in their driveway for over a week so that we could have a respite from travel, have a yard to ourselves to play in, normal showers to bathe in, a big kitchen to cook in and a baby-sitter to take care of the kiddos so that Beau and I could finally get away by ourselves one evening. This time was a huge blessing to us! And Gray lost another tooth!

They loved moving Aunt Jen's furniture around to create their own tea party!

I was even fortunate enough to get a haircut. I tell you what. Do I have a talented husband or what? I've already told you the many new skills he's picked up along this trip, but who would have thought cosmetology would be one of them!

Denver, CO

 

We finally made it to a place I'm familiar with! We ended up staying near Golden, CO in a super convenient campground. One of our first activities was to visit the Hammond's candy factory. The oldest handmade candy company in the country! It was a real find for a weekday as we were the only ones on the tour on that particular day. Hint: go at lunch on a weekday! They make candies like the big candy canes you see that are a slew of different flavors. They also make the nostalgic candy ribbons. If you've ever seen the chocolate spoons in Starbucks...Hammonds! Their most famous are called Mitchell Sweets, which are marshmallows covered in caramel. Truly delicious!

The tour is free, you get samples and you end the tour in a shop of all the candies they make. As you can imagine, we walked away with a bag of goodies! 

But our travels are not always bringing us adventure as some might imagine. A lot of the time, we're living our normal lives that we would be at home, just in 200 square feet. 

We spend time in the morning with God before those little rascals wake up.

We learn to cross stitch! The  kids are always watching me do it and they wanted to learn to "stitch". In Denver we finally made it by a craft store to buy them each a starter kit. Naturally, Caroline chose an animal (Llama) and Gray chose the American Flag. Gray made us laugh as he is "stitching" and calls out that we should have a "stitching party" to celebrate their first time "stitching". Lol.

We wash dishes...a lot. No dishwasher here!

One of the highlights of our visit to Denver was seeing an old friend of mine and her family. Kristen and I were suitemates in college coming up on 20 years ago. She graduated before I did and moved to Denver. After I graduated, my first job was in Denver and there I went and there she was! She and I continued our friendship over the next few years attending the same church, being a part of the same small group and just in general hanging out like friends do. It was special how the Lord continued that friendship. Over the years, as I moved away, started a family, as she also did, we lost touch a bit. But it was wonderful to see her and her family again. They welcomed us into their home with open arms, we broke bread and connected on a new topic! She too was homeschooling her three this year. She had so many great ideas! It was great to see how she had organized it and how she was teaching them. Always good to glean wisdom from others!

A highlight of a hike during this entire three months was a great hike in Estes Park. It was rated as "hard" on All Trails and was 4 miles round trip. It was a toughy on the kiddos, but was so proud of them! They did and they loved it! This hike was a steady uphill with some rock-climbing, snow and even some spots we had to pick the dog up and lower him down to be able to keep moving. 

The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular.  We could actually see the famous Stanley Hotel (you know, the one from The Shining). You can tell from Caroline's face that it was quite cold up there. 

Colorado Springs - Garden of the Gods

 On our way to Denver we made a very necessary stop at the Garden of the Gods. If you've ever been to Colorado Springs or the Denver area, you know this is a must see. When you have rocks called "The Kissing Camels" it makes you want to see what a place such as this is like.

You can certainly tell by looking at the pictures that these rocks were quite majestic. The kids enjoyed actually climbing inside them. And surprisingly, this park had one of the best Junior Ranger programs without being a National Park. 

Mountain Top Learning Opportunity

Leaving Great Sand Dunes early presented a tiny problem in that we didn't have anywhere to stay... Does that make us homeless? Hmmm....

We used our lovely Campendium app and found some BLM land at the top of a mountain top close to the Colorado Springs area and there we headed.

Before I tell you the next thing that happened please remember that Beau started driving this massive truck and massive trailer for the first time only two months prior. And he had never driven anything like this through mountains. 

Now, as we're making it through this small town to find our overnight camping spot we took a right at a stop light that turned into a very tight "s" shape and whoops! We side-swiped another vehicle. With head in hands, we pulled into a cemetery that would provide us the necessary space to turn around, got out of the vehicle to assess our new acquaintance's damage. 

While Beau was talked to the young gentlemen, I tried to explain to the kids what just happened, why dad needed his insurance information, registration and driver's license. Imagine the kids horror to hear that the police were coming! Never had they ever! 

Thankfully though, it was very minor damage to the other vehicle. However, we scraped the side of our slide and took off the external hinge of our poop hose. Not the end of the world, just a new learning opportunity right? 

The evening at the mountain top was absolutely freezing, but beautiful and we even heard the sounds of a drum circle in the distance. It was worth our learning opportunity. 

 

Great Sand Dunes National Park

 Great Sand Dunes was intended to bring us (mainly Kathryn) a lot of relief from the cold. All I read prior to going was the heat of the sand and how we needed to plan to go early in the morning or we could burn our feet, legs, etc. I was ready and waiting for some heat and sadly...it was not found. We were shocked to find that it was not only cold, but extremely windy. So much so that we were not able to be outside for most of the day while we were there. Being next to the biggest sand dunes in North America with winds like those does not make for great weather outside. 

We were able to climb the sand dunes one day, which was lets say, a great way to get some energy out of those kiddos! ;) If you've ever walked the sand at the beach you know how tiring it can be on your legs. Imagine a couple football fields worth of sand dunes. The kids had a great time climbing to the top and then rolling down them. Holes were dug, flip flops were lost and clothes were filled with sand! 

We completed our visit to Great Sand Dunes with a hike on a nearby mountain, giving us a great view of the dunes. As you can see, we were met with snow. For children from Charleston, SC snow is an anomaly and one they were thrilled to experience. 

Our visit to Great Sand Dunes ended a day early because...

1. I was miserable with the cold and the wind. And while there isn't much to completely take away my joy, being cold is unfortunately one of them. I was one unhappy camper...

2. Beau's computer cord died, thereby giving him no ability to power up his computer. Naturally, this created a bit of a panic with being able to do work well and we had to make a plan to get his company to replace the computer and then work out a place in which we could have the computer shipped overnight. When the campground we were staying at refused to receive the package for us, we had to make other plans. Thankfully, we had a friend in Denver we were planning to see who blessed us with their home address.

Oh Colorado - I'm back!

For those of you not aware, I used to live in Colorado right after college. My first job was working for a not-for-profit ministry and I loved it! I lived there two years before I moved to China, but never returned. (You know, things happen...like marriage and kids.) But I returned and brought the whole kit and caboodle. 

We planned out four stops in Colorado over the span of a month. First stop was Durango. Great town meant for anything outdoors. We took advantage of the proximity to Mesa Verde to make that our first National Park within this great state.

If you've never been here, you should! It's an ancient village of the Pueblo people who made use of the cliff overhangs for shelter, built homes and community areas of mud and sticks. You can even see how the people evolved over the decades from using strictly mud, to adding sticks and then using rocks. It's truly amazing this still exists and allows us to understand how they lived!

Look closely at the pictures for little houses built within the rocks.

We also took great advantage of the great hikes within the town of Durango. Over the course of a week the family did three hikes in addition to our time at Mesa Verde. The kids were great, hiking 3 miles or so. Snacks help!