Better late than never, pics from our trip to California. Can I just say, I’m in LOVE with the ocean…

This was the kid’s first time on a plane.

Josh’s goal was to eat at In n Out everyday. We got off the plane and went straight there.

We barely got any pics at Disneyland, we were too busy running from ride to ride.

Sky writing in LA

Santa Monica

dolphins!!

leftovers

Every few weeks Josh and I escape town and head south to eat dinner at the most amazing Thai restaurant in Montrose, CO. I’m pretty addicted to their pumpkin curry, but everything I’ve had there is amazing. They serve brown rice too, which is hard to find at most local restaurants. After dinner we spend a few hours at our favorite near-by hot springs before heading home. I love those couple of hours in the car together where we get to talk, rambling on about our jobs and everything else in our lives. I love that we’re afforded so much time together to stay connected. I also love the ritual of it all, that there are places that are becoming “our places”.

This is such a special time of life. I’m reminding myself to live exactly in the moment, soaking it all up, not looking ahead or behind but relishing where I am.

I’m a lucky girl.

Earlier in December, Josh and I got to play hookie for a day and escape to Ouray, which might possibly be my favorite Colorado mountain town. I love that I live so close to so many amazing places. We swam in the hot springs, ate delicious Irish food and hung out at Mouse’s the most amazing place to get dark chocolate salted caramels (also coffee). I just can’t get over how much I love winter and the snow and I was overjoyed that it snowed the entire time we were there. And even though Josh doesn’t agree with me about the amazingness of winter, I think that I’m going to win him over at some point.

Our big Christmas-break activity this year was to ride the train to Denver. We worked it out so that Josh was able to ride back with us. The kids loved the trip and did really well considering it was 8 hours. We spent some time in the observation car (which is my favorite) playing games and having lunch before we headed back to our seats. I also love the train as a method of travel through the Rockies as it’s SO relaxing without the stress of navigating the passes in the winter… also they serve beer.

While in Denver we got to see my sister and the twins who just turned 3. Also their new puppy, an 8 week old Border Collie named Chancho after a charachter from Nacho Libre. We also ate at some great restaurants, shopped for our Christmas presents from Josh (for the kids it was a trip to Build-a-Bear and for me it was a shopping spree at Anthropologie in leiu of the gift he ordered me from Anthro that was backordered). And we went to the Denver Aquarium which was AMAZING! Honor especially enjoyed it as he currently wants to be an Aquarist when he grows up.

I’m pretty in love with the pictures I got from the train and also the one’s from the aquarium. It’s amazing what an iPhone 5 can do.

Winterpark from the train

right near Josh’s apartment

breakfast from Snooze

Chancho

My friend, Brooke, is the biggest football fan I know… which is saying something! She’s always been a Peyton Manning fan, so you can imagine her absolute glee when she found out he was going to be playing for the Broncos. She is also extremely proud that I’ve become a football fan and I’ve learned a lot about the game from her. Earlier this month she asked me if I’d like to go to a game with her and I, of course, agreed! We had a great time, driving over the mountains (with lots of Starbucks stops) and the game was AMAZING! I got such a kick out of all the fans… there is nothing like being surrounded by 75,000 like-minded people! After the win, we walked out of the stadium, giving high-fives to random people as we left. The cheering was so loud that it left my ears ringing! It was such a fun day with one of my best buddies! Here are a few pics from the trip:

Vail

Mile High is a beautiful stadium

Pizza at BeauJo’s in Idaho Springs after the game

Idaho Springs

Idaho Springs

I spent last weekend with the church staff at the YWAM base in Cimarron, Colorado. We spent a couple intense days working on the vision of the church, talking about where we’re going and how to get there. I felt so honored to be there, representing my department – the Good Samaritan Clinic – with such an amazing team. The thing that I love over and over again about my church is how real it is, how each person on staff is so genuinely loving and how un-religious we are. I love that we all desire to help people with no agenda other than just helping them. I’ve longed for years and years for a place like this and I’m just so thankful to have found it and to get to be a part of it.

Ten years ago my sister did a DTS (discipleship training school) at this base before she went to Nepal & India for 3 months. Because Cimarron is only 2 hours away from home, we got to visit her a couple of times, packing 6 month old Eden into our car with every baby contraption we owned. It was such a breath of fresh air to return to this scared space on the mountain. As soon as we pulled onto the property, I could feel peace flooding in. And when the team that runs the school told us over the amazing dinner they had prepared for us that they had been praying for our time there, I could feel it. In the book Bittersweet, Shauna Niequist talks about the Irish folklore of Thin Places. Thin Places are places where the boundary between heaven and earth is just a little bit thinner, where you can feel heaven just a little bit closer. I’m not sure about Irish folklore, but if ever there was a Thin Place, the base at Cimarron is one.

My time there was not only significant for me in my role as director of the clinic but also for me personally. I forced myself out of bed early in the mornings so I could spend some time to myself on the porch journaling. I feel like God always talks to me through my journal and the prayers that I write in there end up being the most poignant. I think maybe because writing gives my ADD brain some space to focus.

That time on the porch was such a good opportunity for me to draw a few lines in the sand. Sometimes I have to make deals with God. A few years back I had to make a deal that I was going to stop questioning his existence. Last weekend I had to make a deal that I was going to stop fighting him, stop fighting what he is doing. These lessons of trust have been so constant in my life. (It might especially be that way for people who are a tad bit controlling…) All I know is that Trust has to be my way of life, that every time I’ve trusted him, it’s been so much better than I could have made it myself and it has always been good, even if the road there was marked by pain. Up there on the mountain, in that Thin Place, I made a new deal: that I was going to stop fighting what he was doing and let go of how I wanted things to be. I promised to start trusting again and stop doing things my own way. Trust can still be a little scary, but it feels so much better to know that someone so GOOD has free reign to do GOOD things in my life.

The Fab Five was together again over Labor day weekend for a final summer trip of the rafting season. We were back in Glenwood Canyon (my fav) where we rafted Shoshone and hung out in the Hippie Dips during a rain/hail storm. There’s nothing like having the five of us together… we all share so much history that when we get together, we pick up right where we left off. I love how our times together are such a silly mix of deep, heart talks and hilarious jokes. We continue to find out that we can’t keep secrets from each other and that we don’t really want to anyway. These are the kind of friendships that I know I have to treasure… people and connections like this don’t come along everyday. I love that when we’re together we get to play for keeps.

A couple weeks ago several friends and I loaded up and headed to Utah to float the Colorado River in a section called the Moab Daily. We arrived early so we could secure Onion Beach as our campsite for the night. It was such a beautiful beach with white sand surrounded by red sandstone cliffs. We spent the day lounging around our campsite, dipping in the river every few minutes to cool off in the 100 degree heat. There was an old movie set across the river from camp that we paddled over to to explore. It was pretty cool, an old open saloon set that we named Soggy Bottom Saloon. How cool would it be if there was actually a float-up saloon?

In the evening we made campers stew (with only one pocket knife!) and beergaritas and played badminton until it got too dark to see the birdie. Then we resorted to making up our own game in the moonlight, a version of baseball that involves an oar, a frisbee and silly rules like you have to sing the whole time you’re at bat and you’re out if you don’t dance whenever you get on base. We named it Riverball and it was SO fun. As it got later, we mellowed out and ended up laying shoulder to shoulder in the raft, staring at the stars and asking raft questions, some serious, some silly. Finally we all made our ways sleepily to our sleeping bags laid out side by side in the sand under the screen tent.

Heat comes early in the desert so we had coffee, granola bars and oatmeal and started to pack up. But first we had to clean up the remains from our party the night before. There were beer cans and Beergarita glasses everywhere! That day’s float was perfect. The river was full of raft companies ferrying people along… lots of foreigners who were staring wide-eyed at the beauty surrounding them. Some of the hired guides pulled up alongside us to admire Caleb’s raft. As the tourists stared, we all just lounged on the sides of the rafts, River pops hanging from our mouths, enjoying the heat and sunshine, taking pride in the fact that the river is a part of our lives, if only a small part.

The river is so low right now that there are barley any rapids at all but we did get to ride down one small one in our life jackets, leading the way as Caleb followed in the raft. I can’t help but feel so much delight in the river, especially when I’m surrounded by friends.

As we packed up the raft and headed home, we started to plan the next adventure on the water, wondering where we would go next and how epic we could make it the next time. Gosh, what a good summer it’s been. I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to live so much LIFE lately and that I’ve been able to do it with people I love, people who I can laugh and laugh with. It’s so good to share life with each other.

Late last night we got home from an amazing rafting/camping trip. Knowing this trip was coming up definitely helped me get through all the hard work I was doing on the clinic last week. Carrie, Seth, Caleb, Brian and I set out Tuesday after work, with the raft in tow and camped at Rifle Gap enjoying Beergaritas and Campers Stew (both are A-MA-ZING!). We got up earlyish in the morning, had percolator coffee and oatmeal, packed up and headed out. After stocking up on more Beergarita ingredients and cold fried chicken, we hit the river. We put in in Glenwood Canyon which is my most favorite part of all of Colorado. If you haven’t driven on I-70 through the canyon, it’s definitely worth it. Riding the train through is even more amazing and, of course, floating down the river is the very best.

We had an epic day navigating rapids, eating and drinking delicious things, with me tripping on the rocks which left my legs all bruised and scraped up (par for the course) and swimming in the hippie dips (a section in the river where the hot springs drains into little pools – I could live there forever.) It was such a perfect day spent with people I love… kind of a last hurrah for our little group before Seth and Carrie move to Ft. Collins.

Things are a-changin around here but I’m living in my new way, soaking up all of life there is, cherishing every moment because who knows what tomorrow will look like. As I sat on the raft yesterday, laughing as people cracked jokes and teasing Caleb about his country music, I just drank it all in, sealing the day into my memory and enjoying it as much as I could. It’s amazing how much more of life I live these days.

camping at rifle gap

Caleb’s amazing raft

The boys fished at the end of the trip.

I’m always amazed at how tranquil and healing it is to be on the river. I so get why people spend their entire summers on the river.

Love this pic

catching a brown trout

at the hippie dips

making huge bagel sammiches at the end of the float (I was head chef.)

(read Carrie’s version of the story here.)

My Grandma and step-Grandpa on his 90th birthday.

Last weekend the children, my mother and I drove to Wyoming by way of Denver (where we picked up my sister and the twinzies). We went to celebrate my step-grandfather’s 90th birthday. The life he has lived is pretty amazing, he was married to his first wife for nearly 60 years before she died of cancer. He and my grandma have been married for 8 years and have had such a good time together. He has been so good to all of us and has been such a patriarch to his family. It was amazing to see him surrounded by his children, grand, great and great-great grand children.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the legacy we leave and how when we view life with the long-view instead of looking at the short term, seeking instant gratification we end up with so much more: deep relationships that span decades, children and grandchildren that make us abundantly proud and a host of people who’s lives we have touched, who love us for it. I think taking the long view comes down to what has been my biggest life lesson – love is a choice. It’s not always easy and it doesn’t always feel good to choose to love, but it always pays off. Always. It was amazing to see the fruit of 90 years of choosing to love.

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to have to live a really long time to be able to have 60 years of marriage under my belt. But that is something I want for my life. I want a legacy and a huge family that adores each other. Where so many families don’t survive and turn into hate-filled drama machines, I want mine to be full of life and love. I know I’m getting off to a rough start to fulfilling this dream, but I’m not giving up – I’m still holding onto hope that I can have it.