teaser

LOTS of pictures and stories to come from the weekend, of course, but here is a little teaser until I have more time...

What a way to start off the weekend - a nice postcard from one of my students in Greece!

countdown

2 days until my birthday and 1 day until we are in Burwell to celebrate rodeo-style! Can't wait to see everyone and wear my boots :)

Camping Fail

I was excited to go to the mountains this weekend because I feel like summer goes so darn fast, so I need to make the most of every moment! Which is why this weekend, despite the fact that I was responsible for the emergency phone at work, we packed up the car and headed toward the mountains. Our one requirement was to find a campsite that still had cell phone service. Which led to Travis driving around the Kenosha Pass area while I held my cell phone out saying, "Nothing, nothing, nothing... one bar! Yes! Oh wait, now it's gone. Nothing, nothing, one bar! Still one bar! Yes!" So we set up camp in the "one bar" campsite and tried to ignore the traffic noise from highway 285 not far away. (Hey, it's the price you pay to stay in cell phone range, right?) We didn't get an early start (I blame the Friday Afternoon Club's happy hour!), so by the time we set up our tent it was about 9 p.m. We, okay, Travis, started a fire and we had a beer while solving the world's problems. When I woke up at 6:45 a.m. I realized that our "one bar" campsite had turned into "no service" campground sometime in the night (sneaky) so not only did my phone have no service, it had completely run its battery down by searching all night and was now dead to the world. Dang. And of course I didn't bring my car charger, that would have been waaay too smart. So 12 hours after we set up our tent we had it taken down, packed back into the car, and we were back on our way to Denver. And I had no messages from distraught overseas students - phew!

I was a bit bummed, but it may have been a blessing in disguise! It was already 83 degrees when we left in the morning, so it would have been HOT during the day, with little relief from the sun. And I need to remember that now that school is done, my weekends don't end in August. I was still in the mentality that I needed to fit everything in before September - no longer true! That is a definite plus.

 Goodbye, campsite.

 Saturday turned out to be quite productive though! I changed the plates on Raul...

(Okay fine, maybe I didn't do it)

AND Travis and I happened upon one of REI's "garage sales" where they sell used/returned items. Merrell hiking shoes for $40? Yes, please! Probably a bit more appropriate than my old running shoes...

Lovely evening for a snug

Oh how I love Snug Run. And I owe it all to Sarah for introducing it to me! Sarah, Ilana and I think it is about time you stopped getting your tan on at the lake and return to the mountainous desert :)

Today Snug Run proved just how much work I have to do before the Omaha 1/2. Ugh! Training officially started on Monday, and I'm already behind. How does that work?!

AWESOME sunset this evening as I was driving home - it gave me one of those "Wow it's good to be in Colorado" moments. I tried to take a picture but all I captured was the dirty state of Raul's windshield, so you'll have to use your imaginations.

Camping this weekend! I'm amazed at how much STUFF I have to go camping for two nights. Seriously. Although it could have something to do with the fact that I froze by tush off last time we went, so this time I packed two pairs of pants, wool socks, two long-sleeved shirts, a fleece, and a jacket. And a hat. Not kidding.

Much love from the Rockies!

He passed!

My trusty Raul passed his emissions test, that he did! 

One small step in the process to license my car in Colorado, one HUGE step for me and my commitment issues. Surprised? I'm sure.

I've bounced around a lot of places the the recent past but one thing has stayed consistent - my license plates have always said Nebraska. (Okay, many more things have remained consistent, but in the interest of this post I'll stay focused.) And this is bringing the realization that I actually live in Colorado. I'm not going to grad school here. I'm not interning here. I'm not job-searching here. I am here. And so is Raul.

I know this is where I want to be right now; I have no doubt about that. But I feel like I'm cutting a tie that I'm not sure I'm quite ready to cut. Or maybe I'm just feeling overly-emotional because I just got done watching The Bachelorette.

I'm losing a part of my outward Nebraska identity. (Whoa!! Identity issues?!? This is like my Intercultural Comm class all over again! Curse you Dr. Ritchie!!) But I suppose it's nothing that can't be replaced with a tasteful, yet obvious, Nebraska sticker in my window, right?

But now I will have to come up with a new excuse when I'm crawling my way through windy mountain roads holding up 4 angry semi trucks other than, "Hey, it's okay - I've got Nebraska plates!"

Go Rockies!

It was about time I made it to a Rockies game this season. Thanks for the invite, Natalie!

 Great day for a ball game

It was great to catch up with Natalie and re-live our Costa Rica adventures!

I think that Coors Field was the one place that didn't rain-soaked that night - must have been good luck. There were storms that passed on either side of the stadium though - we were at little worried!

Rain. Bow.

Fine, fine. I'll show some respect.

The past, oh, 7 or 8 days summer storms have rolled in off the mountains bringing lightning, thunder, heavy rains, and hail. EVERY night they talk about it on the news and EVERY morning it is the hot topic of conversation. And usually during every conversation I say something along the lines of "You call that thunder? You should hear it in Nebraska! You call those strong winds? Why, I remember just a few years ago we had hurricane-force winds that destroyed everything!"

And then I realized a few things:

A) I sound like an old farmer (I blame Dad)
B) It's not these poor Coloradans fault that they don't know a wimpy storm from a good one
C) These storms actually ARE getting pretty crazy!

The weird thing is, they roll in every day around 3 or 4 p.m. like clockwork. (Okay, not the most accurate clock, but still) And what makes it weird is that I'm technically living in a desert and the city (and the earth!) is not prepared to deal with the water. There may not be flooding quite like the Missouri river, but my manager's car did have 2 inches of water in it when she tried to leave for work on Wednesday morning. Messy.

So fine, Denver weather. Were you holding out for respect from this Midwest-grown girl? You've got it. (Kinda.)

The good thing about storms in Colorado? The weather is so bi-polar that it is nearly always sunny and raining at the same time. I know. But it makes awesome rainbows pretty regularly! I saw a great one on my drive home from work today. It looked pretty much exactly like this. Trust me.

"It's gonna blow over"

Riiiight... In midwest-sytle we've had rain about every evening for the past week. Just makes things more challenging...

On Saturday evening Kate and I went to the Brewfest on Pearl Street for a bit. We waited out the rain and then had a great time! Funny... we went to this same festival TWO YEARS AGO the second night I was in Denver. Hard to believe it has been that long!

Luckily the clouds are moving away from us!

I have such a great roommate

Those are some big "glasses" of wine. We thought it deserved a photo. Seemed like a better photo when we were on our second glass of wine!

On Sunday we had plans to go tubing for a friend's birthday. But the creeks are all so high that they are closed to tubers, lest you get a fine of $100. Or die. Or both. So the party was moved to Big Soda Lake. (AKA, mud-hole where they charge you $18.00 to rent a canoe) But it was still really fun!

Who needs a creek? We'll tube in the lake! Well, until the ranger yelled at us to get out. Apparently our tubes "Aren't boats and we did not have personal flotation devices." AKA, "You did not pay us to rent those therefore you need to get out of the water and stop having fun." Bah. 

After we got kicked out. Travis and Chad are "throwing the mitt around"

The first storm DID miss us, and there was quite the lightening and thunder show. This one, however, looks a bit more menacing...

Our photographer Kelsey was "trying to catch a lightening in the background". Hence, we have many photos like this.  

Quick! Deflate the tubes before the hail comes! (We didn't make it.)

 Much love from the Rockies!

Long (short) week

Why does this work week seem so long when it was in fact a day shorter than the rest? Ya got me. Maybe the past weeks of New Jersey, Omaha, and camping are actually catching up with me? I'm looking forward to a realxed weekend with (hopefully) some pool time! Maybe I'll actually do some cooking so I don't have to rely on smushed bagels and cream cheese (and other various assorted camping leftovers) for lunch at work. If I have to resort to eating the flattened hot dog buns I'll know I've gone too far.

This weekend my first two groups of summer students are returning from Milan and Berlin - it is hard to believe their programs are nearly finished! I have one last group departing to Berlin next weekend and then it is full steam ahead for the fall students. I got a warm fuzzy e-mail from one of my summer students the other day - makes me feel even better about what I do! And as I was speaking to a (somewhat overly-) worried mother today I was able to say "Study abroad was one of the best decisions of my life- just look where it led me!" Which is true, but did little to comfort her. After all, her 19-year old "baby" is heading off into the world. Well I was 19, too. (Or maybe 20?) And I survived. And so did my mom. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! Much love from the Rockies!

Happy 4th of July!

Apparently all of Colorado wants to go camping on the 4th of July. So did we. After driving 1.5 hours into the mountains on Friday after work the campgrounds were all full, but luckily we happened across some AWESOME places to camp just off the side of Guanella Pass Road. We had a great time, but I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

Campsite #1. We got everything set up in the last hours of daylight, and then it started to hail and spit rain. Not the best conditions. I was NOT prepared for how cold it would be at night!

Chilly, yes, but still a pretty nice view to wake up to in the morning. 

We went on a hike that day to Silver Dollar Lake. It was a bit more intense than the lazy, moseying stroll we would have preferred. 

 And yes, we hiked through snow. Shocking. 

wow.

Lots of snow, but still lots of flowers! Which meant a lot of me saying to Travis - "Wait - I want to take a picture of that. Will you get my camera out of my backpack for me? Okay, thanks, can you put it back now? Oh, wait, there's a pretty one! Can you get my camera back out for me?" You get the picture...

We made it to the lake!

Ah yes, here is the lake. 

Travis ventured out "to check out that big chunk of ice."

All of this rushing water was running beneath the snow - it just disappeared. I thought it was cool!

On our way to the hike we discovered more campsites further in. So we left my backpack at this awesome site, ran back down the hills, packed up the tent and our first campsite (leaving the chairs just in case we needed to come back), drove up the hill, put up the tent, ran back down the hill, grabbed our chairs, and headed back up to the new site. Then we had lunch. Then we hiked. Tired pandas that night, for sure. But this campsite was definitely worth it with the creek running right by!

The next day we meandered off of the trail for some backwoods hiking. I would never do that by myself for fear of getting lost, but Travis always got us back.We came across melted-snow streams like this one. 

Flowers were so pretty!

And 14ers loomed in the distance. Maybe next time!

We're now back safe and sound and heading to Littleton to watch their fireworks. Camping outside of a campsite means that A) it is FREE, and B) there are definitely NO amenities. Ah how I missed thee, flushing toilet. 

Happy 4th to all, and much love from the Rockies!