Lumpy Ridge Hike in RMNP

This was our first hike on the north side of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The area is called Lumpy Ridge. Probably because of these rock formations.

The weather was unseasonably warm for January. We started out in our puffy jackets and lined pants. We shed the jackets not too long after setting out. I think this is a hike I would enjoy coming back to in the Spring or Summer. 

My new capture clip that attaches my camera to a clip on my backpack strap made such a difference when hiking with my camera.

After about 2.5 miles and about one mile of uphill climbing, we opted to turn around. I liked the flat section of this hike a whole lot more than climbing through the snow.

New Glasses

Which pair did Kristen choose?

Happy Birthday to Me!

I didn't get any pics of me on my birthday. Kristen had to work and Chris spent the morning doing chores around the house.

I kind of just did my own thing and that was awesome. Loved the quiet time on a Saturday.

We ordered some BBQ for dinner. Misha picked it up on her way home to help celebrate with us. Always fun to have her come home.

A Note from the Pilot

One of Chris' recent flights had some delays. Chris had been upgraded on this flight and enjoyed business class. The pilot took some time to write notes to the business class passengers.

"Always a pleasure having you on board Mr. Kline. Thank you for your patience this afternoon."

A thoughtful gesture. 

Boyfriend

I think we can officially call Kyle Kristen's boyfriend.

They were paired together on one of the stake youth date nights.

They hit it off that night and continued chatting. One date led to another and then another.

He came over one afternoon and they spent the day playing with Lego.

Stuck in the Driveway

We had a day of freezing drizzle. The school start time was delayed by two hours. Even then, the driveway was so slick that Kristen got as far as backing out of the garage and turning the car to leave. And then, the car would go no further.

Kristen was just spinning her wheels without making any forward progress. 

Snow day.

She put some two by fours behind the rear tires. Just in case.

Covid Test

Chris had to travel to Austin for some meetings. He took a Covid test before he left and then again before his meetings when he arrived in Texas. 

Yay for being negative!

Glenwood Springs - Day 3

Another lazy morning though I woke up earlier than I wanted and wished that I could have gone back to sleep. 

This vrbo had a lot of floor heaters and about 5:30 am they turned on. It sounded as though there was a minor hail storm going on with all of the popping. 

Our checkout was noon. 

Chris had purchased a scavenger hunt for us so we were out the door from breakfast and got to learn about the first grocery story, the armory, the Denver Hotel, and the Hotel Colorado. 

We happily spent a little time in the Hotel Colorado trying to warm up. It was a balmy 19 degrees. Doable if you were standing in the sunshine. We finished up the scavenger hunt at the Glenwood Hot Springs and then returned to our vrbo to grab a quick lunch, pack up our stuff and walk over to the Amtrak station. 

Tip * Be sure to check in at the ticket office when you arrive. Each station does things a little differently and all we had to do in Denver was get in line and show the conductors our tickets. 

Today, the train coming from California was 45 minutes late. Then we stopped for 20 minutes on the secondary track to allow the West-bound train passage and continued on our way. 

We continued until some mechanical problems stopped us for about an hour. We had some beautiful scenery to look at and a herd of elk to watch as they climbed the mountainside outside our window. 

Great when we were finally on the move again. We were about 2.5 hours late getting into Union Station. 

If you are ever looking for a fun and unusual adventure, taking the train is a great option. Just be aware that the train isn't always timely.

Glenwood Springs - Day 2

Sunday was a quiet morning for us we slept in a bit, had breakfast, and then watched church via Zoom. 

Chris found a hike for us that was just a short walk up the street from our vrbo. Straight up the street, I might add. And Scout hike just continued the ascent from there. 

It was pretty challenging. Before setting off on our hike, we had packed Chris’ crampons but couldn’t find mine. I thought for sure I had packed them, but they weren’t to be found. We figured we would definitely need them on our descent. 

Once we got up past the town and away from the freeway noise, the scenery opened up. Beautiful. About 2.2 miles in the trail just ended. If we continued on, we would be trailblazing through the snow and that wasn’t fun. 

We stopped for a quick snack and then started back down the mountain. Chris shared his crampons with me so that we each had one on our right foot. They were a lifesaving slip saver for sure. 

We spent a quiet afternoon in the apartment as Chris watched episodes of the newly rebooted “Dirty Jobs”. 

We only had to walk a short distance to pick up our dinner and then we walked over to Glenwood Hot Springs do get a different perspective on the other pool in town. 

While Iron Mountain was a classier business catering more toward adults, Glenwood Hot Springs had two large pools that attracted more families. One of the pools was about 92 degrees and had lots of kids playing in it. 

Chris and I enjoyed the hot pool at 104.8 degrees. It was a little too hot to stay submerged for long.

Both hot spring locations recommended bringing water bottles with you which we did. We drank all the water and then refilled the first night. We stayed until about 8 pm at Glenwood Springs and then walked back across the bridge to our vrbo. 

It was definitely a lot closer than Iron Mountain, but not nearly so nice.

Glenwood Springs - Day 1

Chris and I were up and out of the house fairly early Saturday morning for my Christmas/Birthday trip to Glenwood Springs on the Amtrak train.

Our train was scheduled to depart just after 8 am. 

We planned to stop at Misha’s apartment so she could drive our car home after dropping us off at the train station and then spend the weekend with Kristen. 

It was a chilly morning, but people were gathering in line outside as the train had finally backed in to the Denver Union Station. 

Chris and I joined the ranks. The bonus to wearing a face mask is that it keeps your face warm in cold temps. The drawback is that it is hard to keep your glasses from fogging up. 

All passengers traveling to Glenwood Springs were assigned to the last car of the train. There were others making stops in Winter Park and Granby along the way, and even others continuing on to further destinations. 

As soon as Chris and I stowed our luggage and put our seat assignment ticket by our seat, we headed off to the Observation Car and found a place to enjoy the next couple of hours. 

The train slowly pulled out of the station and then stopped for almost an hour in the Denver train yard as we waited for a train up ahead to move off the track. One hour behind. 

The trip to Glenwood Springs went by over the next six hours as we chugged along about 40 mph. We saw lots of amazing scenery, deer, and herds of elk. The drawback is that one of the conductors felt the need to start a science class on the types of rocks in the mountains and how things were formed. His voice could be heard over the loud speaker. He slowed in his talking finally. 

Chris and I stayed in the Observation Car until 1 pm when others started joining us and looking for seats.

The Chatty Cathy conductor had instituted a rotation of sorts so everyone had a chance to observe. We returned to the Observation Car after 2 pm as we approached the Glenwood Canyon. I was able to get a few good pictures, despite having a pretty dirty window to see through. 

The train arrived at the Glenwood Springs Amtrak station around 2:45 pm. It was a short distance for Chris and I to walk to our VRBO—less than five minutes and one block away. Perfect. 

After settling in, Chris and I walked around town a bit and then to the City Market to pick up a few groceries. We ordered our dinner to go from Modern Brava Trattoria. Pretty sure we had eaten there before. 

Chris had made a reservation for us at Iron Mountain Hot Springs. 

Without a car, we started walking the 1.2 miles. Our reservation was from 6:30 until 9 pm. This hot springs was nice with a variety of different hot tubs that had varying temperatures ranging from the high 90s to about 104 degrees. We found a pool holding at 101 to 102 and enjoyed the dip. 

Though the night was fairly chilly, we were in and out of the water to regulate our body temperature and lasted until 9 pm. We walked back to our place and noticed the walk home was much less chilly than it had been on the way there.

Modern Day Fiery Serpents and Simply Looking

With the dragging on and on of Covid-19, I have often considered a time in the Bible when the Israelites had been wandering for almost 40 years in the wilderness and encountered the "fiery flying snakes".

It seems as though they were stubbornly slow at following the prophet and prone to much murmuring.

At a time when Moses inquired of the king of Edom if the Israelites could travel through the king's land and were refused passage (Numbers 20:14-21), many of the Israelites began to be more discouraged and murmured against the Lord as well as Moses.

Numbers 21:5-6 records, "And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread;

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died."

Recognizing their sin in murmuring, the Israelites pled with Moses to petition the Lord to take away the serpents.

Instead of taking the serpents away, the Lord chose to instruct the Israelites about faith and the salvation that Christ can give. Moses was tasked with creating a serpent of brass to be mounted on a tall pole, and "if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Numbers 21:9).

A word about these fiery, flying serpents as described by Nephi in 1 Nephi 17:41. In Hebrew, fiery means burning, such as the pain one might feel after being bitten. And for a serpent to fly? Perhaps it was indicative at the speed at which the snake could strike 

1 Nephi 17:41 states that the only "labor which they had to perform was to look."

While one might think that labor was simple and easy, many of the Israelites still perished. Many still looked and lived.

It is recognized by scholars that this serpent of brass was/is a type of Christ being lifted up to save all mankind.

~

A couple of weeks ago as our family attended another ward in our stake, I noted that the young men passing the sacrament were wearing face masks. There were many in the congregation who were not. 

This is similar to our own ward where many choose not to wear a mask.

I found it interesting that printed in their bulletin were these words:

"To limit exposure to these viruses, we urge the use of face masks in public meetings whenever social distancing is not possible. ~ The First Presidency"

After the sacrament, I watched as one of the young men (whose parents are anti anything related to Covid even though they have been sick with it in the past), walked determinedly to the garbage can in the foyer, threw his mask away, and returned to the chapel to sit with his family.

And I couldn't help but think that there are many whose "labor" it is to simply look (or to wear a mask in this time of Covid or be vaccinated to eradicate this pandemic) and they will not.

Back to School

Amy flew back to Provo on Sunday, January 2nd, for school to start Monday morning.

Kristen started school on Wednesday.

Misha doesn't start until January 18th.

And I did not have to wake up early for seminary! Yay.

I did have my Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon course that I am teaching start on Thursday January 6th though. (I may be losing a little more sleep than I like!)

1st Day of Pathways Class

I started teaching my Book of Mormon Pathways Class through BYU-Idaho. Have to say, I was pretty nervous. And if I wasn't sleeping well before, this new experience caused me a lot of stress!

Technically, there are 34 people enrolled in my course. Only 8-10 are actively participating. I am not quite sure why students would sign up for a class they won't take. 

Most of my students are from the Caribbean. 

The class meets on Thursday at 5 pm. The biggest challenge in the beginning was helping all of them figure out what time they were supposed to show up. I had a lot of students Zoom call me prior to the first class. I would have to ask them, "What time is it for you right now?" to help them figure out what time to log on.

Most attend at 7 pm or 8 pm their time.

Balloon on a Cold Day

The weather conditions must have been just right for flying a hot air balloon at the beginning of January. Seemed as though it would be freezing cold than normal.

Lion King

Chris purchased Lion King tickets back in the summer as a Christmas gift for the girls. We have grown to love the experiences we can give as gifts more than just giving stuff for the sake of giving.

The girls were all thrilled with the gift. 

Chris and I took Amy to see it maybe ten years ago and she loved it. Misha had opted not to come with us then and I think regretted that choice after we all were amazed by the show.

The girls headed for Denver when the roads were dry but had a pretty crazy drive home in a snow storm three hours later.

 

New Year's Eve

Our New Year's Eve ended the year with our FIRST measurable snow fall of the year. And it came on strong. 

Our girls had been at The Lion King musical earlier in the day and endured a pretty scary ride home.

When Chris and I said we wanted them to stay at home for New Year's Eve, they were mostly okay with not venturing back out on the roads again.

I am pretty sure they weren't thrilled to have to stay home and miss out on getting together with friends, but the roads were pretty bad.

The sad news, I woke up with the beginnings of a head cold.

One of the unique "character" flaws that I have is my ability to worry and lose sleep. Not going to lie. My upcoming new church assignment as a BYU-I Pathway Instructor has had me up in the night a lot recently. Like waking at 2 am, 3 am, and 4 am and not being able to let my mind settle to allow me to go back to sleep. 

I think this lack of sleep was the contributing factor to getting sick.

December Photo Challenge

 Week 48 Lights

Week 49 Magical

Week 50 Lights Out

Week 51 Joy and Laughter

Week 52 New Beginnings

Steamboat Springs - Days 3 and 4

Tuesday morning was pretty slow. We didn't have too much planned.

Chris had thought about maybe going skiing, but the girls weren't terribly interested, and he was still pretty tired from our snowshoeing jaunt from the day before.

It was discount Tuesday at the local movie theater, so we went to see Spiderman: No Way Home around noon. It was the second time for the girls and they all loved it. Apparently you need to see all of the Spiderman movies for some of the scenes to make the most sense.

We walked along Main Street and stopped at a few of the shops. It was snowing so we didn't stay out too long.

Our evening was pretty chill and consisted of watching the Disney movie "Encanto" and ordering in Mexican food from a nearby restaurant.

We had to check out of the condo by 10 am on Wednesday morning. That meant waking a few of our girls up "early" around 9:30 am so they could eat and pack up.

The roads driving home were in a little better condition for driving and traveling during the daytime hours was a lot easier as well. It took us about four hours to get home.