This weekend, I left my children in the loving care of their daddy and went to Colorado with my 3 cousins. A friend of ours was getting married and we trekked across Kansas and part of Colorado to witness the nuptials. I hate to admit this (because it makes me feel OLD), but it's been 22 years since I've been to Colorful Colorado. I was born there (way back when ;) ) and was almost 4 when we moved. One visit back in 1992. Matt insisted that I go to the wedding with the girls, that he would stay home with the kids. I was so excited, I didn't give him a chance to take back his offer. :)
We left Friday morning and drove all day. It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. The fields were green and not as flat as everyone thinks. (I personally think Illinois and Indiana are flatter states than Kansas, but that's just my opinion). We did have a couple of quick rain showers on the way out, but nothing more. It was pretty cloudy when we got to the border though and it took us awhile to see the mountainous forms on the horizon. I forgot how imposing they are...they were imposing from far away, but even more breathtaking when we got closer.
We got to our hotel around 7:30, dropped our stuff off and found a great Mexican restaurant right next door. I haven't had Mexican in years. Generally speaking, I don't think I have exceptionally picky kids, but eating Mexican is not something we do as a family. My feeble attempts at making Mexican food don't even come close. Kind of like comparing Taco Bell with authentic Mexican food. ;) It was really yummy and I thoroughly enjoyed being kid free (though I did miss them...got choked up every time I thought about them or told a story about them. I didn't sleep well that night (go figure, a night in a hotel with no kids and I can't sleep! :P )but we found some coffee the next morning, so the lack of sleep didn't affect me too much.
The wedding was beautiful and I took a bazillion pictures (shocker, I know! ;) ). Everything was just wonderful and so picture-perfect. And aside from the best man passing out (probably a combination of the groomsmen's breakfast of Pop and Pop-tarts, a long homily/charge/sermon, and locking his knees), there was nothing out of the ordinary. Fortunately, one of my cousins is a Paramedic and went up to check on him, but he was fine and sat down for the rest of the service (after passing the rings to the bride's brother :) ). He was able to join the recessional though and looked back to normal by the reception, so that was good.
After the wedding, we went back to the hotel and changed and went over to the Garden of the Gods. It was so amazing and every time I looked around me, I had 2 thoughts. The first one was how people could look at the scenery and not believe in a Creator. Things like that don't just 'fall into place after a collision of atoms' or whatever that theory is. ;) The second thought was I wondered what the first explorer's thought when they got there. Climbing Mountains (Pike's Peak still was very snowy and they actually sent people home because there was a blizzard/winter storm coming. Friends of ours drove up there and said it was 21 degrees up there) and not having all the amenities of today is really hard for me imagine.
After we walked around for a couple of hours, we went over to friends of my cousins for dinner. BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Tossed Salad tasted SO good. We worked up an appetite! We stayed and visited for several hours and then headed back to the hotel. Sabbath Morning we attended the Monument/Tri Lakes RP Church. It was a beautiful setting, they are currently using a building that a Home Owner's Association is renting them. There was a fellowship dinner following (the bride and groom attend this church, so they were counting on several visitors) and everything was SO good. :) We changed and headed home. It was a gorgeous day when we left, bright sunshine, NO HUMIDITY, mid 70s and a glorious breeze. We were able to see the mountains behind for quite awhile, much longer than we were able to see them on the way in. Part way through Kansas, we did get a few rain storms that were fairly heavy. But they passed over and for the most part, we just enjoyed watching the different weather approaching from the distance. The last 2+ hours were pretty intense as the storms stayed with us and we drove through pretty heavy rain. Never a pleasant time, especially late at night. But God was gracious and got us all home safe and sound around midnight.
Matt said the weekend went really here...the kids were really well-behaved and he took them to the zoo on Saturday while we were gone. The house was cleaner when I got home than it was when I left and I was just completely impressed. Not that I had any doubts of his abilities, but he actually seemed to enjoy his time and I know the kids did. :) He's such a wonderful man, I'm keeping him for sure!!! We had a pretty laid back day here, I was thoroughly enjoying being back where I belong. Even when I had to deal with grumpy attitudes and temper tantrums and defiance fits, I didn't get bogged down by them like I did last week. It was good for all of us.
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| Seeing the mountains for the 1st time in 22 years |
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| Pike's Peak hiding behind the clouds |
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| Out for Mexican |
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| My beautiful weekend roommates & cousins! |
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| The wedding party |
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| Bridesmaids (1/2 of them) |
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| Groomsmen (1/2 of them) |
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| Lightening the mood a little :) |
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| Bride's Grandfather prayed for the couple |
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| I love this |
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| These last 3 pictures were my favorite ones...I just love the expressions on their faces. :) |
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| Beautiful day!!! |
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| Air Force Stadium (Groom just graduated from the Air Force on Wednesday) |
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| 7 kinds of cake (I had the Chocolate Raspberry Fudge one furthest to the right - it was SO good!) |
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| My Sweet Olivia and wonderful husband, Jeremiah |
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| The Get Away Car |
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| "This is my Beloved and this is my friend" Song of Songs |
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| Loved the simple decorations - they were so beautiful |
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| Throwing paper airplanes at the happy couple as they left |
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| The Bride's 2 sisters (Maid and Matron of Honor) and her brother-in-law |
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| Sweet couple, due in July with their 1st |
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| Another sweet couple, the Bride's brother and sister-in-law, celebrating their 1st anniversary this coming week! :) |
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| My wedding dates :) |
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| We have been playing the license plate game in our house and out of the many different license plates Colorado has (made it difficult to play the game, because each plate you think it's a new state), this was by far my favorite |
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| Love the colors in this picture |
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| Tyler was not impressed with my wildlife pictures ;) |
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| A magpie (we didn't know what it was) is in the top left of this tree |
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| He was, however, very happy to see this sign ;) |
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| Rainbow! |
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| Crazy clouds coming back through Kansas |
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| A wind turbine propeller blade...HUGE! |
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| Another rainbow |
