The power in our home in Maryland had gone out during a Friday evening summer storm, and we were living with partial power from our generator. By Saturday morning it was clear that our power was not coming back on, and our flight to Boston connecting to Denver kept getting delayed. Danny checked the flights online and kept on checking them until it became clear that we would not make our connecting flight. We needed a quick decision, and after changing our flight and even the airport we flew out of, we had flights but we had to leave in less than an hour!
Fortunately, we were mostly packed, though I did have to pack wet laundry in my suitcase that had been sitting in the washer since the power went out. I wondered in the back of my mind if our whole trip was going to be this doomed. I say this, not only because of the power outage, but because we were only going by the skin of our teeth to begin with. Colorado had been battling record heat and some horrendous forest fires. The home we were renting for week two was in a town under pre-evacuation orders. We wondered if we were meant to go at all.
But we did. We arrived after midnight in Denver on a hot, summer night. The next day, we grabbed a bite to eat at Ted's Montana Grill (where we dined on yummy, juicy buffalo burgers) and then headed out to the go-kart track before leaving Denver behind.
Jacob and Hannah were the only ones that drove the karts - but these are no ordinary karts. These karts went 45 mph! Danny, Ryan and I sat and watched on the sidelines in the un-airconditioned warehouse, fanning ourselves with menus but loving every second of watching them race around the track.
After leaving Denver, we headed over to Boulder for a few nights. Our first morning there Jacob and Danny went to visit the beautiful campus of the University of Colorado. During this time, we also walked around Pearl Street Mall and saw some very unique sights. Below is picture of a soldier-who-looked-like-a-statue trying to tease Hannah.
This is a picture of a guy who we had seen playing his guitar in the street for money. We snapped a picture of him in the ice cream shop, mostly for the cute kitten on his back. Just a glimpse of the kind of characters that littered the streets of Boulder.
While in Boulder we also went to see the movie Brave! A wonderful, humorous movie about Hannah! haha Yep, this is a story for another time...
Dad doing some cookin' at the Estes Park rental, where his brother Donnie and his family came over and spent the Fourth of July with us. We spent that day strolling the streets of Estes Park and hanging out at the house. Owen and Olivia, their two kids, were absolutely adorable!
Olivia was shy at first, but soon warmed up and fed us all "cupcakes" that she had made out of coasters.
That same afternoon there was a car show that Danny and the boys walked through.
Owen down by the rocks in Estes Park. What an absolute cutie!
And this, I have to say, is my favorite shot of the entire trip. I bought a frame to frame this one. It is just a wonderful picture of Jacob sitting on a rock by the river, gazing off into the distance, a wonderful snapshot of his peaceful, serene nature. What the picture doesn't show is that I was sitting on his right, after he ever so carefully helped me climb down to this spot just so I could put my feet into the icy cold water (which the day before had been snow on the top of the mountains that melted and now flowed in a rush through the small town of Estes Park).
Later that week...
Danny and the boys had the adventure of a lifetime. Truly. They rented ATV's and went up a trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. Little did we know what would happen that day! They had gotten bored on the easy trails, and even though they were warned that the advanced trails were not for beginners, they decided to try them anyway. Apparently, Jacob was going up a hill, hit a rock with his machine, it tipped back on him and then tipped over completely. Danny said it all happened in slow motion - he was horrified as he watched the machine threaten to come down right on Jacob's leg, but Jacob leaped nimbly off and rolled away, saving his leg from being crushed. When they told me about it afterwards, I am sure I turned pale... but I thank God for watching out for Jacob.
Donnie and Owen spending some time down by the river.
This was a hilarious moment! Hannah had been sitting down on a ledge by the river, and she asked Jacob to help her get up, and then got the giggles. She laughed so hard that she just couldn't get up! I do so love these moments...
Olivia spotted a butterfly on her leg as she licked away at her ice cream from Dairy Queen.
To be continued...
