Amy had Monday off from work (and school didn't start until Wednesday) which allowed her time to get moved in to her new apartment and organized.
Can you see that color coordinated closet?
She still needs to get settled in with kitchen stuff, but that will come later in the week.
It just worked out that Chris had meetings with his work team in Park City. He and Amy both flew to Utah early Sunday morning.
Amy's flight on Southwest left on time just after 8 am. Chris' flight was delayed almost an hour. Apparently someone had left the door open while maintaining and getting the plane ready for the next flight and the interior was infested with flies!
Chris' flight left an hour later. He sent this shot of Brainard Lake where we hiked a couple of weeks ago and saw the big moose.
Chris and Amy will meet up at the airport. From there they will go pick up the second Mazda (the car Kristen drove while in Utah) and drive to Amy's new place. Both cars are filled with stuff, so they will unload those and then head over to Mitch's to pick up the rest of Amy's stuff.
Mitch was kind enough to let Amy keep her stuff for a couple of days while she was homeless.
Chris' brother, Kevin, will come to help with the move along with Amy's boyfriend, Zac. It shouldn't take too long.
Amy will need to drive Chris to Salt Lake where he will then catch an Uber (or something similar) to Park City for his meetings through Wednesday (from there he goes to Austin for a few days before coming home).
After the Air Show, we drove back to Grandwood Ranch so that Amy could see not only the model and some of the design ideas and finishes, but also see our lot and the newly dug basement.
Amy got to meet Linsey, the General Manager, and check out the place. The model has an awesome view; ours will be a bit limited from it, but the view definitely caught our attention the first time we visited this model a year ago for the Parade of Homes.
After checking out the house, we drove over to our home site and got more excited about the build.
After visiting the lot, Misha drove back to her place and we were happy to Amy driving with us. Not only did we get to spend time with her, but we also got to take the HOV lane for FREE!
Chris got us tickets to the Pikes Peak Regional Air Show at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. The Blue Angels were the featured flyers.
There were a lot of attendees, so it involved A LOT of waiting in lines of car to get parked, and then in lines of people waiting to get into the entrance. The line from our car to the entrance was at least a mile long!
It was one of the hottest days in the Springs. They don't usually get close to 100°, but it was slated to be a hot day. I tried to pack a lot of drinks—water, soda, coke—to keep us hydrated.
We finally reached the front of the entrance line and found a spot to get situated. We had two regular size camp chairs, Misha had her small one, and a small blanket to claim our space.
We did our best to stay hydrated and protected with sunscreen and my small umbrella.
Chris took the girls to check out some of the displays while I stayed with our stuff.
We enjoyed flying demonstrations of F-18s (or whatever number they were), lots of older planes, and finally the main entertainment of the Blue Angels.
We did opt to leave a little early to avoid the crazy traffic but we still got a good show as we walked to our car. We wanted to show Amy the Alliance model and our lot too (Linsey was leaving at 4:45, so we needed to leave time for traffic and we had to drop by the hotel we stayed in for Misha to pick up her car).
We might have all been a little overheated and sunburned in a place or two where we forgot to apply the sunscreen.
In all of our busy weekend appointments and happenings, our 27th anniversary snuck quietly in. After our builder's meeting in Monument, we stopped at Costa Vida for dinner. We had planned to go somewhere nicer, but it was already late by the time we left our property and a sit down dinner would mean eating even later.
No pics of just the two of us, but this is one with Amy and Misha.
We will celebrate next weekend when Chris is home from Utah and Texas.
I wrote on Facebook:
"1409 weeks
9861 days
236,688 Hours
14,201,280 Minutes
852,076,800 Seconds...
That's what 27 years looks like, and yet the time with Chris Kline has passed in a blink it seems. Love you."
We have had 27 amazing year together and look forward to just as many more in this life and forever to come.
Chris flew in on Friday afternoon. His plane was a little late arriving. I picked him up at the airport and we headed off toward Monument.
We were going to be a few minutes late but not crazy late.
We met our house superintendents, Michael and Warren, and went over the house plans in detail to sign off on them.
We were excited to see that not only had the tree removal happened, but our basement was just about finished being dug.
And the good news is that they were able to save a lot of the bigger trees.
Amy flew to Colorado on Thursday evening for the Pikes Peak Regional Air Show in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
Misha picked her up at the airport and they enjoyed time together before joining Chris and me in the Springs.
They started with dinner at Old Chicago with pizza.
On Friday morning, the girls enjoyed brunch on campus where Misha also got to show Amy around her work a bit.
There might have been a little ear piercing involved later in the day. Amy actually pierced Misha's lobes with a second piercing. Ugh. I don't think I would enjoy doing that. Right up there with the feeling of roots breaking when you pull out teeth!
Amy and Misha drove to Colorado Springs after a dinner of leftovers at Misha's place. Chris had fallen asleep early since he was on East Coast time. I tried to stay awake for them, but they made a stop at Target. So by the time they "pounded" on the hotel room door, I had been asleep for half an hour.
They got settled and turned lights out, and I was suddenly wide awake. That little bit of sleep was enough to keep me awake until 1 am! Ugh!
Chris flew to New York on Monday afternoon. I drove him to the airport because I needed to pick him up on Friday to drive to Colorado Springs.
Chris had Zoom meetings all day on Tuesday and then a dinner Tuesday evening. He was supposed to have been in Texas in person instead of on a Zoom meeting, but things got changed around at the last minute.
The weather in NYC was the nicest he had experienced in quite some time. He ordered lunch from a restaurant close to his hotel and enjoyed lunch outside.
From NYC he flew to Chicago for another dinner meeting. His hotel was close to the airport since he had to leave early the next morning, but that meant he had to take a train for one hour into the city for his dinner meeting.
He left from the Chicago on Thursday morning to fly to Atlanta for the last dinner meeting.
Fortunately, he was able to arrive early enough on Thursday that he could go visit his mom, see her new apartment, and visit a Civil War train museum with her.
Lots packed into one week, and next week will be almost as busy with flights!
Amy enjoyed the Derby in Utah last night with Zac.
There were decorated cars, a rain delay, Top Gun music, and a truck demolition round. All good stuff to make the evening fun.
While not her favorite thing in the world (really who DOES love packing?) Amy spent most of Saturday packing up her apartment. It is pretty amazing how much stuff you begin to accumulate even while in college.
Since she has to be out of her apartment on the 14th and can't move into her new apartment until the 18th, Mitch has kindly allowed her to store her stuff in his garage for a few days. She moved a lot of stuff on Saturday and will get the rest of the stuff moved later this week.
While Chris and his friends used to bike together frequently, life seems to have gotten busier for everyone. More often than Chris goes biking on his own. However, today he had the chance to go with Blaine Allen (our neighbor) and Sam Hendrix.
Chris, Sam, Blaine
They biked at Limber Pines in Hermit Park for about 10 miles. (Chris, Misha and I hiked to Kreuger Rock earlier this summer on the same trail.) They left early on Saturday morning at 6:30 am and got back around noon. While tiring, biking still has a rejuvenating effect on Chris, and he was happy to hang out with his buds and catch up.
Chris and I have spent hours doing yard work and weeding this past week. We are so over this yard! While it looks lovely, it requires tremendous effort and upkeep!
Chris worked a couple of hours each night after work weeding and mowing the lawn.
I spent 4 hours down at the beach weeding, cleaning up debris and making things look presentable. The sad thing is that I spent a couple of hours a couple of weeks ago doing the same thing!
It has been cooler for the past couple of days, so it made time outside bearable in the afternoon. The drawback? The mosquitos were quite active. Even wearing pants and long-sleeves they seem to attack me. I have a huge bite on my hip that some stupid mosquito must have really enjoyed!
Some of the trees were removed on our lot so that digging can begin.
While we are disappointed to see so many trees taken down, it is exciting to see things are underway!
We still haven't received word of Kristen's VISA. We are praying, keeping our fingers crossed, fasting...all the good stuff.
Her current mission leaders, President and Sister Jones, would be just as happy if it didn't come soon, but Kristen is definitely ready to head to Australia.
If you wish to send her a note, the best way is by email or snail mail.
Email: kristen.kline@missionary.org
Address:
Sister Kristen Kline
California Arcadia Mission
614 W Foothill Blvd
Arcadia, CA 91006-2030
She would love to hear from you.
With the dry and hot weather we have had lately, 4 fires have popped up in Colorado.
Chris and I planned to hike in RMNP again today. Though we had reservations for Bear Lake, we opted to find a new hike.
I had some things ready to go Friday night and then was up early on Saturday morning making our lunch so we could leave early. We were out of the house by 7:30 am.
Passing the lake as we arrived in Estes Park, Chris and I were both surprised to see how calm the water was! No wind. So unusual.
Chris chose the Colorado River Trail on the west side of RMNP. We decided to drive up the Old Fall River Road. The skies were just a little smoky from the wildfires, but not too bad. We could still see blue sky!
Old Fall River Road winds up the side of Mount Chapin's south face for 9.4 miles on a one-way gravel road until it tops out at the Alpine Visitor Center. We passed by Chasm Falls, Fall River Pass, and Chapin Trailhead.
We stopped at a new spot along Fall River Road to check out the Willow Park Patrol Cabin (also known as Willow Park Ranger Station or Willow Park Cook and Mess Hall). It was built in 1923 and was originally built to house maintenance crews on the Fall River Road.
Today there is a cabin, a vault toilet, covered barn, picnic benches and a lovely meadow.
We opted not to hike the Chapin Trail (maybe another time) or the Marmot Point Trail and continued on past the Alpine Visitor Center and down to the west side of RMNP.
We had to follow some slow (very cautious) drivers and were happy when our turn off for the Colorado River Trailhead appeared. We quickly found a spot to park, loaded up our gear, stopped at the pit toilets, talked to the volunteer ranger, and got started on our hike. This hike is the location of the headwaters of the Colorado River that begin from snowmelt.
The Colorado River runs through seven states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California.
The original plan was to hike about 4 miles and then return.
Somehow we ended up hiking 13 miles instead!
We passed by the deteriorating cabin at Crater Creek. This was 2.18 miles in (I took note of it).
Another trail marker was a little past the ruins.
We planned to go to Lulu City. There wasn't much remaining there but it was a beautiful meadow with a stream running through it.
The side trip to Lulu City added an extra mile or so. Fortunately, Chris took a picture of the map at the trailhead. AllTrails wasn't working great for us.
I think it was the idea that Little Yellowstone might be awesome. So, we continued on to check it out. We had to skirt around mountains, follow narrow trails, and cross streams running the gulches. I did find some cool mushrooms.
We met up with three guys from France. They passed us by as we sat on the side of the trail somewhat close to Little Yellowstone and were eating our lunch. One of the men said, "Bon appetit" as he passed by.
We caught up to the men a bit after we finished our lunch and they had stopped to take a breather. We found out that they were attending a chemistry conference in Fort Collins. Two of the men were from Marseilles and the other from Toulouse. They spoke pretty good english.
There was no sign announcing that we had arrived at Little Yellowstone, so we actually hiked right past it as we had expected something a lot more spectacular. Just note that Chris and I don't recommend hiking to it unless you are trying to get in some mountain hiking!
Our hike took us to a road that would have eventually led to LaPoudre Pass. We stopped at the road and approximately 7 miles in.
As we turned around to hike allllllll the way back down to the trailhead, we passed the french guys again. They had thought to follow the road back down instead of the trail. That would have been 11 miles down instead of the 6 or so. I tried to get a picture of them without being too obvious about it.
I think I have mentioned before that 7 or 8 miles total is my sweet spot for hiking. After that, the aches start to set in. My feet were most sore.
The treat of the day was that we got to see another moose shortly after we stopped at the Crater Creek house and stretched our legs. From the cabin, I knew we had 2.18 miles to go. Ugh.
Amy had another stellar month at work. She came in at 390% of her goal and closed 26 loans for the month of July.
She gets bonuses for doing excellent work and loves that perk!