Colorado Adventures with Three 14er's

Last weekend we went camping and hiked three 14,000 ft mountains with Dan's Uncle David and Aunt Polly. We had such a great time.....excluding the snow. It was incredibly hard to hike three 14er's in one day, but we did it! Enjoy the pics!

Here we are on the top of Mt Democrat

The leaves were changing and the ride up into the mountains was just gorgeous!

There were so many beautiful colors:)

David and Dan being real men and setting up the tents all by themselves!

We camped at a place called kite lake and the lake was surrounded by the three 14er's

I love the reflection on the water in this pic!

Polly got a water filter & she was so excited to rough it camping, & purify her own water from the lake!

Dan and Polly at the start of our big hike on Sunday!

You can see why it is called kite lake by it's shape.....

Jack was such a big help, he is so strong and would help pull you up the mountain when you hold his leash

Mt Democrat was the first mountain we hiked

At the top of Mt Cameron

At the top of Mt Bross

Uh.....I don't think that's Polly's leg you're touching!

Our New Home!!!

Last weekend we decided to take a break from all the unpacking, and business that we have been experiencing since we've been here to go hiking with Dan's Uncle David and Aunt Polly. We had an awesome time! The weather was beautiful, sunny and blue skies. We hiked the Crags and I think it's my favorite so far! Also I will post another blog of pics of our new house here. There are just a few more things that need set up/decorated so I can give you all an idea of what our house looks like here! An update on the job search for me.....still looking, but walking in faith that I will have a job soon!

At the top with his aunt and uncle....and of course Jack.

Okay.....this rock is crazy huge. Dan got to the top....I have no idea how, but he's pumped if you can't tell!

To get an idea of really how big this thing was I took a vertical pic of it so you could see how steep it is to climb.

I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but I thought....wow wouldn't it be neat to get a picture with Dan and me together at the top of this rock. Dan's uncle David said I'll help you climb up, just step up on my knee. He showed me where to put my feet next and as I got about half way up I looked to my left and then to my right and I freaked! Talk about a fear of heights! I freaked out and wanted down right away. So this is a picture of me freaking out and David trying to help calm me as I attempt to get down!

Polly and I.....she's so great! I'm excited about getting to spend more time with them now that we live out here.

Finally.....The trip to Colorado!

My friend Britnye and I drove out to Colorado and we made it in 2 days spending the night in Iowa. She was so sweet to do that for me since there is no way I would have made it by myself. If you have never driven there before ....let's just say it is a very long trip with a lot of corn fields! We made it though and she helped me get settled in my new home and we got to do some fun hikes together!

This is not a good pic of us at all, but it shows you how windy it was when we crossed the Colorado state border. This was before we got to the mountains and it is just amazing how windy it is across all the flat plains on the way out there!

Britnye standing in front of one of the many corn fields along our drive.

Okay this is great.....There is a Van Wert, Iowa for those of you that didn't know that! I was so excited when I saw the sign that I pulled the car over to take a pic in front of the sign! It felt like a little piece of home on my way.

Here is Britnye doing her stretches outside of the car. Being in the car that long definitely causes some serious cramps!

And here we are...the sign isn't real beautiful but we were so excited to see that sign! What a relief!

Here we are the first day in Colorado we did a hike with Dan to the pancake rocks! It was a lot of fun and very beautiful!

There were a lot of these pancake stacked looking rocks at the top looking over mountains.

Sitting on pancake rocks and taking in the view!

This was the last morning Britnye was here. We hiked up Mt. Cutler just the two of us and Jack.

I just love this pic! I think it is so gorgeous!

Britnye sitting at the top with Jack. Jack really loves Britnye because she likes to walk him on a leash and gives him lots of attention. He just sat in her bedroom after she left....I know he misses her:) It was so good to do that last hike and we were able to pray together at the top and have some good conversations. God is so good and has blessed me with another great friend!

Girls Night Out!!!

I want to just brag about my girlfriends for a bit. They are amazing and I just well up with joy when I think about how great God is for giving me them and I'm so greatful. Julie & Laura....I know you're not in these pics but, I got to spend individual time with you girls which was incredible too. I just know that if God took us all the way out to Colorado, that He must be wanting to really use us here. God is just showing me what it means to make huge sacrifices to grow deeper with Him. I just want to thank you girls for all you did for me before I left. You are so good to me!!!

The girls took me out to eat a a mexican restaurant and it was sooo.... good!

I'm not sure what these next photos are.....we just decided to do a little fun photo shoot!

Spending that quality time with family!

I was so fortunate to be able to spend some quality time with family before I left. A lot of these pictures before I left don't include Dan since he left a month before me. I got to keep the camera with me for blogging purposes:) Anyway, these are some pics with Julie, me, and the boys....Andy was at work, but I was able to spend some time with him too! I'll try to post this blog without shedding some tears!

Here we are eating our favorite candy and playing together:)

Julie and I took the boys to the park to play.....well for Caleb to play. Keston got to watch/sleep.

He's so good at giving hugs and kisses!

After the park we got ice cream on the way home....as you can see by Caleb's messy face he was liking it!

I got a pic while he was laying in his pack-n-play. Hard to remember Caleb ever being that small!

Our New Baby Nephew!!!

Keston Isaac was born on Aug 12th and weighed 6lb 9 oz and was 20 in long. We are so excited to have another nephew. We have just loved being close to Caleb and we are so happy that we get another nephew in the family! Dan unfortunately had to leave for Colorado before Keston was born, He can't wait to see him when we come back to visit!

Yes, I've been crying before I took this picture. He is just so amazing and I couldn't get over it!

Look how precious he is!

This is Caleb when Mom and Dad brought him in to see Keston for the first time....I don't think he quite new what to think!........That's all changed now and he absolutely loves him. He is such a great BIG brother:)

Their new family of four!

Heather drove to the Van Wert hospital with me the night Keston was born. He was born just as we got there.....perfect timing! Laura also came and it was so fun for us all to be there for Julie and Andy!