Pikes Peak

At the summit, a blind man is purchasing a book with photos of the Pikes Peak train ride. I listen as the sales associate describes to him what is inside and my heart sinks. I assume he is buying it for the enjoyment of family and friends. Thinking of those who couldn't be with him on this trip; while his loyal companion waits patiently at his feet.
I've never been so grateful for my camera, snapping photo after photo of the breathtaking view atop this giant. It's hard, but I close my eyes. I touch the wet granite, smell the fog and rain, and taste the moist air. I open my eyes to find Cody heading toward the edge.
"I don't want my husband to be the first casualty in the history of this ride!" He laughs, and when he takes my hand, I follow him. Our fingers intertwined and I ease my way down finding it easier to scale than I had thought.
I snap a photo of a rain puddle in the rocks and I can feel the flood begin. Visions of my beautiful life..my wedding, my nephews, sunrise by the ocean, the first snowfall, his eyes. Where would I be if I couldn't see all of this?
The rain has started up again and, thanks to my lack of makeup, I welcome the tiny droplets on my face and eyelashes. It's so cold up here, nearly a 50 degree difference, but it's refreshing. The littlest effort results in short breath, the air is so thin here.
Hearing the horn, we turn toward the train. The most vibrant rainbow I've ever seen reveals itself from behind the safety of the clouds and fog. My fingers are frozen as I capture the last few glimpses of landscape. I look up to find the blind man being assisted back to his seat. Cody is chatting with our new friends as we make the steep decline back to Manitou Springs. Places to see in our native states are being exchanged, increasing my desire to head out east to explore. Annapolis, Chesapeak Bay, ghost tours in Frederick, Appalachian Mountains. One of the girls, is moving out west for a job. What is fun to do out in Utah? Temple Square, Zions National Park, Park City, Moab. East coast: history. West coast: national parks.
My hand is cramping as I hastly record my thoughts of this day. Gratitude, humility, wonder, love. Codys wide-eyed wonder of these places opens my eyes to the things I take for granted: a raven circling at just over 14,000 feet, our trains diesel engines, the marmots darting from their rock shelters to investigate us. Some passengers are falling asleep. I fight my own drowsiness to look at my fellow train-mates. An oriental family with a son and daughter. The sons ipod resting carefully on his lap and his eyelids drooping as he nods to the beat. The daughter texting with her slim cell phone. A newlywed couple sits a few rows back, stroking each others hand and looking longingly out the window. His hand reaches up to brush some hair away from her eyes and she turns to kiss his cheek in thanks. His eyes linger on her face as she turns back to the window and I can just feel the warmth of his smile. So much love and hope in this beginning. I look to my left at my own sweetheart. His attention is on the GPS on his phone, but when I touch his hand he puts the phone away to hold it. We've talked so much on this trip, words aren't necessary at this moment. I love you. You're beautiful. I'm having so much fun. I'm so glad I came here with you.

It may be wishful thinking...but I will never take my sight for granted again.

hi hi hi hi

I was messing around online and came upon an avatar-creating site...so HERE I AM!:











She totally looks like me, right? Well, I had fun..

In other news, I had my sister-in-law Aubry highlight my hair on Saturday, so I'll have to get a photo sometime soon...don't get mad at me if it's not for a while. It's not that I'm busy really, there's just a lot of cleaning I need to do this week. It never recovered from our Denver trip (and the lack of regular cleaning for that week). Also, I finished reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (the 4th in her Outlander series) and I don't know why I didn't do this before hand, but I had to order the next two in the series. So, while waiting for Fiery Cross, I started reading Promise Me by Harlan Coben and I am hooked! I thought I could put that away when I got my book in the mail, but that's not happening! I really like the way he writes, it's not the best book I've read, but I'm too far into the story to put it down now. This book is a little shorter than the Diana Gabaldon books, so I should be able to finish it soon. Wish me luck!

P.S. We saw The Dark Knight over the weekend as well...not sure how we felt about it. I really loved Heath, Christian, and Maggies performances, but I don't know about the movie itself. I'm usually pretty easy going about movies, and I did like most of it. I guess maybe I just need to see it again when it comes to DVD and see how I feel then.

Denver..together!

We went to Denver for a little vacation (#2 for me!) August 1-5 and it was great! We got along really great..and I was a little surprised. Not that I was expecting it to be bad, it's just I didn't expect all the driving (8 hours one way!) to go that well...I took a ton of pictures, of course. I had my digital camera this time, instead of using my little brothers. We drove over Friday after work (about 3pm) and got there a little after 10pm, with great time! We talked a little with Pat, then crashed. SO TIRED!

Saturday, we were hoping to ride the Cog Train up Pikes Peak, but alas, there were no more reservations available when we got around to looking for stuff to do at noon. So, we decided to tour the Coors Brewery (largest in the world..) in Golden, CO. What a cute town! I loved seeing all the "golden" things..Golden Police, Golden Fire Department, Golden dumpsters..The actual tour was pretty cool! Very hot in the brewing room, I can't remember the exact temperature. We had the opportunity to test some of the brews at the end of the tour, but I politely declined their invitation. For me, if I don't like the smell, I'm assuming I won't like the taste either. But I get the impression that beer isn't for taste..

From Golden, we headed to downtown Denver. We ate at Arby's (oooo!), saw the Art Museum (pretty cool), the History Museum (very cool!), and the state capitol from a distance. I thoroughly enjoyed the History Museum..but I'm just a nerd that way. There was a lot of mining machinery (which Cody loved) and just awesome artifacts.

That night, our hosts had a BBQ and so I got to see Tami, her husband BJ, and their three girls for the second time this year. Considering I hadn't seen Tami for 8 years, that's pretty good! Scott brought out some horses, so we all got to have a turn riding Cherokee - the paint Scott takes care of. I hadn't ridden a horse in...probably 8 years! I was a little nervous, but I had fun! The food was great and we really enjoyed talking to everyone.

Sunday, we went to church with the Austins and it was testimony meeting. I loved listening to their ward share their testimonies, very humbling. After church, we had a little lunch, watched Wall-E on the laptop, then headed up to the Cog Train ride. It was such a beautiful ride! The tour took about 3 hours total, but I loved every minute of it! It was freezing at the summit; it was about 90* at the bottom and 40* at the top! I'm glad I listened to Pat and brought my jacket! 14,110 feet! We ate at Zio's Italian Restaurant that night and hit the sack..so tired, again!

Monday, we saw the U.S. Mint...and it was a little disappointing. We saw less than what they show you on the Discovery Channel, and we had to get our reservation 2 months in advance. I'm glad we got to go, there were some really cool artifacts there, but we were a little let down. I'm just glad the tickets were free! After the Mint, we decided to walk around the other sites in the city. We took a tour of the State Capitol, it was so beautiful! We saw the civic center, which was pretty cool too. Another jewel we found was the Unsinkable Molly Browns house/museum. I hadn't known she lived there, or I would've planned on visiting it! We weren't allowed to touch any of the antiques or original parts of the house, but I still learned so much about her! Did you know, her name wasn't even MOLLY?! It was effing Margaret. Broadway gave her that name because it sounded better with music..silly show-business! After seeing "Molly"s house, we ate at a little pizza place down the street, then headed back to the car. It was a very walk-ative day, but really awesome. I also saw and got to take some photos of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception ... google it, it's gorgeous.

^That's Molly Brown's house...incase you were wondering. The other photo is the Capitol. All in all, we had a very eventful stay over in Colorado. Cody got some guitar lessons from Mark and we got to eat out at Pat's favorite little Mexican restaurant where she has a "usual".. It was wonderful. Being able to relax with Cody and enjoy ourselves is something we really needed. Remind me to elaborate on the Pikes Peak trip..I have a lot more to express.