Church Missionary Board

As a service project, Kristen updated the missionary board that shows where the missionaries in our building are serving around the world.

She and Chris worked on it together one night after Chris finished work.

Kristen and My Sheet Music

Kristen was bored on a Sunday afternoon and began going through all of my sheet music. The music is stuff I have collected over the years as well as music that my mom gave me from her mom.

 

Kristen even found some of my New Era magazine from the 80s.

She enjoyed going through my grandmother’s music and said that her choir teacher would love this kind of music.

Ministering Group Gathering at the Beach

We extended the invitation to our ministering group (we have groups where 5 or so families all take care of each other) to come and enjoy an afternoon having a picnic and playing on the water at the lake.

Only one family and one brother showed up. We still had a picnic and the kids had a blast being pulled behind the jet ski on “Big Mabel.”

At first they were pretty leery of Chris going fast at all, but after awhile they were giving the thumbs up signal—“go faster”.

Kristen Food Poisoning

Kristen decided not to stay at Misha’s apartment after the Lizzy McAlpine concert. It was probably a good thing. Around 2 am she came into our room, said she wasn’t feeling great and that she had been throwing up for about an hour already.

 

I got up with her for about an hour and helped with a cool cloth on her forehead and some Coke to drink. She threw up one more time while I was up with her and then maybe one more time after I went back to bed.

 

I think she must have had food poisoning as the throwing up came on pretty suddenly and didn’t last more than a few hours. Still, she was able to call in sick the next day and got sick pay for missing that shift.

Kristen's Birthday Concert with Misha

For Kristen’s birthday, Misha gifted her tickets to a Lizzy McAlpine concert.

Kristen drove down to Misha’s house and they enjoyed dinner out (courtesy of Mom) and then a fun concert where Kristen also met up with some of her friends.

Empty Shuttle Bus

Chris and I have been riding the shuttle bus from the Bear Lake Park n' Ride all summer and usually the bus is pretty packed with standing room only.

We were surprised to see that bus was so empty today.

Hiking to Fern Lake

I need to go back and count the number of hikes Chris and I have been on this summer. Certainly it isn’t as many as we went on last year, but we have tried to go on a number of hikes throughout the summer.
 
Chris and I had to clean the church before driving up to Estes Park, and since our

reservation for the park wasn’t until noon, we stopped at the church at 9:30 am. Kristen

met us there and we worked with another family for less than an hour to clean.
 
Kristen drove back home (she had to work later in the day), and Chris and I continued

on to Estes.
 
We stopped at Jimmy John’s for sandwiches and were on our way.

We drove up to the Park n' Ride after entering Rocky Mountain National Park and parked.

The lot was fairly empty, but it was already after noon and most of the “lucky” reservation

holders had come earlier in the morning for cooler hiking times.
 
The Park n' Ride bus dropped us off at the Bierstadt Trailhead. Now, normally, we try to

avoid starting here because the trail is instantly up up and up as the path switches back

and forth until you finally reach the top of the trail. It is about 600 ft of incline in less

than one mile. Whew.

The nice thing about that is that we have hiked enough at this point that we aren’t too

winded by the incline.
 
We passed a family that was clearly unprepared for the trail. As we sat and ate our

sandwiches before beginning our ascent, we watched them prepare to hike.
 
The mom, who was obviously pregnant, was wearing a dress and flip flops with no

support whatsoever. We passed them after a while and she was sitting on a rock resting.

The altitude is crazy even for native Coloradans; if you aren’t used to the altitude,

hiking is even harder.
 
We followed the trail using the AllTrails App. We skirted around Bierstadt Lake and

continue following the trail to Mill Creek Basin. As we moved around the side of the

mountain, we had to hike through a burn scar area. It wasn’t terribly beautiful and there

was very little shade from trees. Fortunately the day was overcast or it would have been

hot!

We stopped for snacks after a couple of hours hiking and then followed the trail down the

side of the mountain until we reach the Fern Lake Trail. At this point we had already

walk 5ish miles. We could have gone on to Fern Lake and a waterfall, but chose instead to

walk to the trailhead.

Since the shuttle bus stopped a half mile from the trailhead, we had to continue walking.

Unfortunately, when we reached the pick up area, another family had been waiting there

for over an hour.

Instead of sitting and waiting, we decided to keep on walking and hoped to come across the shuttle on our way out to the road. The shuttle came after we had been walking for about 5 minutes. We jumped on and had to make a bunch of extra stops just to get back to the Park n' Ride where we had left the car, but we were happy we didn’t have to walk the whole way.

New Deck Cushions

Our deck cushions have disintegrated over the past few summers with the hot sunshine

beating down on them. We found some new (hopefully sturdier) covers.

They don’t fit quite so snugly as the originals, but they are a little more colorful and cheery.

Misha Apartment Hunting

Misha and her roommate, Sarah, have been looking for a new apartment for Fall. They don’t wish to stay at The Assembly any longer and their contract expires at the end of July.

Sadly, though there are a number of options available, so many of them are way beyond their budget. It is unfortunate the rent prices have sky rocketed in Colorado as much as housing prices. 
 
They did find a few cheaper places, but most of them were located on Colfax Ave. which is one of the most dangerous places they could choose to live. I wouldn’t say that I am exactly thrilled with any of the choices that Misha has in Denver. It is getting more sketch all of the time.
 
Mostly, we just pray that Misha is safe everyday as she rides local transit and then walks the rest of the way to school.

DIY Deck Curtains

Chris and I installed deck curtains on the deck off our bedroom. We had been looking at some outdoor curtains; they just so happened to be on sale with an added coupon for Amazon Prime Days. Perfect.

Chris found an inexpensive way to hang the curtains that would allow us to easily remove them from the rod and store them in the house for the winter (ahhh, who's thinking about winter already?).

The curtains are only on two sides of the deck, leaving the front view open still.

We get some pretty interesting views and wild life. Apparently a mountain lion tried to take down a deer across the river this morning. 

Chris' head blended right in with the wood color and shadows.

Nice to be married to such a handy guy!

I tied the curtains back with bungee cords for now.

We might even like to find a screen that rolls down for the front of the deck to keep out bugs on summer evenings.

Logic Monitor Anniversary

Chris celebrated his one year anniversary at Logic Monitor—or LM. It has been a great year for him in managing a team, hiring, and working with the leadership at LM.

Chris is a great asset wherever he works.

She Can Sleep Text?

I received a crazy text from Kristen.

"I'm present and life btw now."

I texted back, "What does that mean?"

She responded a couple of hours later, 

"Ya know, I don't really know."

It must have been a pretty interesting Sunday afternoon nap!

Niwot Ridge Spur Trail

Chris and I set off on another hiking adventure. Surprise, neither Misha nor Kristen wanted to join us.

Granted, it was a lot further than we planned on.

We started from the main parking lot at Brainard Lake. We hiked Lake Isabelle in this area last summer. 

Niwot Ridge Spur Trail or the Niwot Cutoff Trailhead  in the Indian Peaks Wilderness of the Roosevelt National Forest follows a trail up the side of the mountain until you finally reach timber line. From there, the trail winds around the side of the mountain toward a Mountain Research Station where they have the Niwot Ridge Biosphere Reserve.

It was fairly breezy and windy above the tree line. We had thought we would get rained on as we set out, but the dark clouds dissipated for a nice sunny morning.

Those white legs of mine got fairly sunburned!

We stopped at one of the research stations—complete with a chair—and had a picnic lunch.

We could have stopped there at about 4.5 miles in and been great. But we decided to continue another two miles UP the side of the mountain to the top of the peak. It was not as picturesque as we might have hoped.

So, we looked around for a bit and then started back down. The clouds started to pour on us and we pulled out rain jackets for the 20-minute rain storm.

Somehow we made great time heading down the mountain.

And yeah, we were tired and sore once we were done. I love that Chris and I get to explore so much of Colorado together and have the physical capabilities to climb mountains!

Chris' Travel Status

Besides achieving Premier 1K Status with United this summer, Chris also earned Lifetime Diamond Status with Hilton.

To earn Lifetime Diamond Status with Hilton, you must earn Hilton Diamond status for ten years plus have 1,000 stays.

And when you do earn it, they might just send you a set of earphones as a thank you.

Misha's Birthday

Misha turned 21! 

Misha came home for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.

Kristen's plans changed at the last minute, so we all went out to dinner together at a new place down in Windsor and then Misha and Kristen went to the drive-in in Fort Collins after. I think they saw the new Thor movie.

The fried gnocchi were quite yummy!

Chris and I stopped at Crumbl in Loveland on the way home from dinner and picked up cookies for Misha's birthday treat.

What's a birthday without donuts? At least they were somewhat healthier donuts that I made for Misha's birthday breakfast on Saturday morning.

We sure love having Misha live so close to home to celebrate with her. Love ya Misha!

Kristen and Misha at the Drive-in

I love that these two enjoy spending time together. It hasn't always been that way, so it is fun to see their relationship blossoming.

They went to the drive-in together. We met up with Misha for dinner and then they loaded up Misha's car with the blankets and pillows and snacks and treats that Kristen had packed.

It was a perfect night for a drive-in movie.

Breckenridge - Day 4

Happy 4th of July.

Kristen and Misha left before Chris and me. Misha was having friends over at the lake for the afternoon and wanted to get home to get ready for that. Kristen went with her because she didn't want to stay and hike with her parents. Lame!

We opted to skip the parades in Breckenridge and Frisco and drove to Frisco to hike the North Ten Mile Hike. We only planned for 7 miles round trip.

The hike was beautiful along the river. If you couldn't see the roaring rapids, you could surely hear them.

We passed by a few waterfalls along the way.

Parts of the trail were rocky, some were overgrown with roots, and some were a pleasant walk along the side of the mountain.

Don't let those roots fool you though. If they are any bit wet, they are slick as snot. You have to be careful.

I kept my eye out for moose, but no such luck! We did however glimpse a momma moose with her two calves last night on our way home from Buena Vista.

The hike took a couple of hours. Knowing that traffic could be awful on our way, we opted to keep the hike to 7 miles and start for home around 2 pm.

How about this duo? He said, "Say treat and she will look at you." Apparently lots of people take his picture.

We must have beaten the worst of the holiday traffic. We only had one area of slow down due to a stalled camper truck.

For the rest of the afternoon, we unpacked, bought groceries and got a message from Misha on the lake. The jet ski wasn't working right. Great!

Chris opted not to worry about it until later.

As the night sky darkened, Chris and I sat on the deck to watch a myriad of fireworks shows. Kristen joined us and Misha and her friends sat on the main deck to watch. The view was impressive.

Breckenridge - Day 3

Kristen and Misha may not enjoy hiking, but they've done it enough that they are pretty good at it. And they are definitely more entertaining than when it is just Chris and me hiking together!

We hiked Hoosier Pass. It was mostly above timberline and offered 360°. Pretty impressive views.

When you see this post, you have reached the top!

We stopped for a picnic lunch, happy to find the only picnic table in the area. Turkey and cheese sandwiches are kind of our go-to.

About one hour away from our condo in Buena Vista, we enjoyed an afternoon soak in some hot springs. Not a huge fan of the site. It was a little sketch and run down. The owners were definitely not putting any of their profits back into maintenance.

So, my recommendation is to not go out of your way to visit Cottonwood Hot Springs.

It rained on us for most of the evening as we drove back toward Breckenridge and then as we had dinner together. Mmmmm. New potatoes from the garden, pesto chicken, and Caesar salad with tomatoes from the garden too.

Breckenridge - Day 2

Chris and I had a relaxing morning as we waited for Misha and Kristen to arrive. We planned to meet them in Silverthorne at the outlets for a little shopping.

Misha texted and then called as they were stopped for an accident coming up the mountain. That slowed them down a bit, but at least they weren't turned around as some of the cars too close to the crash were so that emergency vehicles could reach the crash.

Chris and I stopped for a few groceries at Walmart so that we could have a picnic lunch on Sunday afternoon.

We met the girls in the parking lot outside the Columbia store.

Kristen was a little hangry as she hadn't been given any breakfast before checking out of FSY and was ready for lunch. And tired. 

We didn't shop for too long and made a quick stop at Wendy's to feed our hungry girls.

The girls hadn't explored too much in this area. I think the last time we had visited Breckenridge with them, Amy wasn't even ten yet. So, we meandered down the main street of Frisco and then Breckenridge.

Chris and I had tickets to an orchestra performance in the evening (we got the tickets before we knew the girls were going to join us). Kristen was more than happy to be dropped off at the condo so she could sleep and Misha is always up for relaxation.

Our concert started at 6 pm so Chris and I drove back to Breckenridge around 5:30 pm.

It was definitely not a sold out show, but great music. 

We were greeted with a rainbow as we exited the hall.

Chris mapped us to dinner at Whiskey Star Smokehouse. MMmmmmm. BBQ. It was delicious.