John Elsen and a Broncos Game

Last weekend we had our first Denver weekend. Peter's college roommate, John Elsen came to town with 4 high school students that were Broncos fans. Our main objective was the game, but there was so much more time to do Denver things. And what fun we had.

So our weekend started with lunch at Chick-Fil-A, since almost all of us had never been to it. We found out what a popular place it was when we arrived and there was a 30 minute wait to place your order. Yes, this was a fast food restaurant and the food was worth the wait. Afterwards we went to the Denver Nature and Science Museum and saw an IMAX movie on the images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Imagine, stunning pictures of the stars in 3D. What wonders our God has made. Saturday evening finished off with marco-polo in the hotel pool and eating at Woody's, an all-you-can-eat wood-fire pizza place.

Sunday was the day of the main event. It was sunny and I wasn't cold at all with all the layers and hand warmers on. We left the house at 9:30 in the morning to meet up with John and the boys at the stadium. We were tailgating before the game. John had brought tons of meat to grill, brats, deer sausage, ribs and barbecued chicken. And a football, or pigskin, to toss around. This was probably the part that I was most excited about. My first tailgating experience.  We went into the game a little early and got as close to the field as possible to watch the team warm up and try to spot Andy Studebaker, who was playing for the Chiefs. Peter and John were trying to catch his attention by yelling Wheaton and his name. It was really fun to see someone you know playing and it made me feel like I was watching a Wheaton game with Wheaton people...minus all the alcohol around. So for the game we were rooting for the Broncos, but also for Andy any time he was on the field and cheering whenever we saw him cream a guy. What a game, what a weekend.

things we do to occupy our time

So here's the deal, for the next few months Peter and I are unemployed so to speak. Peter is excitedly anticipating starting pilot training and his days will be filled with working out and studying tons of material that he has found.
So what will my days look like? I have been asked this question zillions of times. We will have 6-7 moves in the next 3 years, the length of stay varying from weeks, to months, to one year. On one hand it's hard to pursue a career when your husband's job is moving him often to different states. Perhaps, someday, I will be able to teach again. But on the other hand, the thought of not working opens up many possible options of what I could do. I have thought about things that I love and what I'd like to do in the next few months and years.
The answer: cooking classes, music lessons, studying and tutoring Spanish. So I have signed up for harp lessons and taken my first cooking class (Fish 101). Peter downloaded Rosetta Stone on my computer so I can use it to brush up on my Spanish. I am super excited for each one of these things. I found the harp teacher on a national listing who teaches beginners to advanced on all types of harps. When I called her I found out that she was a Christian. It's a God thing. My first cooking class was so fun and it opened up the mysterious world of cooking with fish to me. The class was 3 hours long, covering how to select and buy fish, different cooking methods and which would best fish a type of fish. Then we made three fish entrees using a different cooking method. Peter loved eating my left-overs that I had made.

from summer to winter in 1 day

We left the 80 degree weather of Arizona, drove through the desert and up into Colorado. By sunset we were driving thorough the winding roads of the snow-capped Rockies. The temperature was in the low 30s and snow was all around us. That was the quickest and weirdest seasonal adjustment that I have had to make yet. Just as it got dark we came upon the little town of Ourey nestled between the peaks. Peter said that it reminded him of Switzerland; sure enough, that was the nickname of the town - the little Switzerland of America. The main street was really wide and lined with stores with gingerbread fronts. There were bakeries and chocolate shops and a park down the road that had natural hot springs. We found a Comfort Inn to stay at which was a lot more like a cozy B&B. In the morning we had a hot breakfast and then walked the main street with a short detour at the coffee shop.

We spent the rest of the day driving back to Denver, our home for the next few months. As fun as the road trip was, it is so nice to be here and in one place, at least for a while. We spent the morning chatting with Ben and Amy Grover and are now about to tackle some things on our 'to-do' list. Back to real life.

things you find in a desert

It was time to say good-bye to Arizona and head to our new home of Colorado. We were able to spend a lot of time with Andrew and Heidi, a friend from Wheaton. We also found a tarantula on the side walk, a gas station that sold suckers with dead scorpions in them, camped at the Grand Canyon, saw the air force base that we will probably be at in two years, and watched the F-16s for a while.

On our way back to Denver we went through Four Corners, the point where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. By standing right on the center, we could say that we were in four places at one time! Peter did push-ups on the spot and an old man noticed and asked if he could take a picture of us. He had his airborne wings on and after talking to him, we learned that he had been in the Special Forces doing reconnaissance work. He and Peter talked for a bit about the Army and Fort Bragg, where he had also been stationed back in the day too.

Oh yeah, our other adventure happened while we were driving through the desert of NE Arizona. We followed a sketchy hand-made sign to a rickety booth set up down a side road to see dinosaur tracks. They were... something else alright. You can see for yourself from the picture. No one was around but us and this man at the booth and there wasn't even a car  or sight of another building. And the only cash that we had on us to give him was $1 and some change that we found in the console of the car.

the Grand Canyon

We had my brother, Andrew, for the whole weekend. Our big plan: go to the Grand Canyon for the weekend (something that Andrew and I had not seen before). We drove up Saturday morning/afternoon. The drive took longer since we stopped at beautiful rest areas. As we drove north we watched the temperature drop from the mid 80s to the low 50s. By the time we arrived we had turned on the heat in the car and pulled out our sweatshirts, it was going to be a cold one.

The first sight of the Grand Canyon was spectacular. It really made you stop in awe. There were so many depths and layers, the sun added to it by lighting some rocks brilliantly and hiding others in shadow. As we walked along the edge of the rim it really looked unreal, like a beautiful painting. We watched the colors go from vibrant hues to dim purple at sunset and then went to make camp for the night. The park showed the forecast for the weekend, high of 52 and low of 20. Even so, we were excited to camp. We bought cheddarwursts and smores and had a fire. It reminded me of how my brothers and I would routinely have fires at night in the summertime.

Peter and I were surprisingly toasty all night. And never needed to make a run for the car to blast the heat and warm up. When we woke up though it took a couple minutes to find Andrew, he was in the heated bathroom warming his hands with the dryer.