The Colorado Trip

...has come and gone already. We had a terrific time! I'll take you on a pictorial tour (since I will be relying mostly on pictures to help me remember what to write!), so here we go!

Okay, so this first picture has nothing to do with the Colorado trip. It was taken the week before. But it was so great I couldn't not post it. :-) Joe decided to part with some of his money (a rare occurrence) at the dollar store. He came away with a new hat and one of those stick-on mustaches from the vending machine. I love those things! Ha!

We left on Saturday (two Saturdays ago, actually) and drove up to Salida taking a different route than usual and seeing parts of Colorado we'd never seen before. We LOVED the La Veta area. Sooooo pretty. We were hoping to take the kids to the Alligator Farm north of Alamosa, but we got there just minutes after they closed for the day. We saw one little gator through the fence, but the boys were so disappointed that we missed out on all the others.

These pictures were taken while heading west from La Veta to Alamosa, then from Alamosa north to Poncha Springs.

I love having a bright blue sky above me, but being able to SEE a rainstorm nearby, especially when there's a rainbow involved.


We ended up with a really nice motel room in Salida for a terrific price and we enjoyed a leisurely evening watching dog shows on Animal Planet. :-) The next morning we loaded up and headed to church. Had a good Sunday School class followed by a good worship service and message. Afterwards we stayed at the building and ordered Pizza Hut for lunch. Angela joined us and Sister Flora showed up just as we were finishing with goodies for the kids. She's so thoughtful that way! James worked on the outside of the building weed eating and spraying the weeds and bugs and Katie and I vacuumed and straightened things up on the inside. Then Sister Flora and I took the kids to the park for about an hour to burn off some energy before coming back for communion and feet washing service.

After service we headed to Colorado Springs to stay with the Hays for a few days. I think we somehow failed to play games that first night. Appalling. Still, we visited until 1:00ish, I think. The next day we sent Brother Dustin off to work, then Sister Jamey led us to the best thrift stores in town (she ought to know--she is the Thrift Queen, I tell you!) in search of some much needed kid clothes. We met Brother Dustin for lunch, then stopped by Mardel before heading back to the house and crashing. Sister Jamey made that terrific cheesy chicken casserole that is so great, followed by a BEAUTIFUL angel food cake and strawberries. Ha! Okay, so it tasted great anyway. ;-) We did play games that night and though I can't remember any of the details, I'm sure it was a blast.

The next day we just hung around the house and took it easy resting and playing games--I Buy and Skip-Bo. It was sooooo nice. Jamey made a terrific lasagna for dinner (I'll be calling one of these days for the recipe since I lost the paper I'd written it on!) with garlic toast and fresh blackberry cobbler for dessert. Wow. I think we're going to have to visit them more often. Ha!

James took the kids outside and played Red Light, Green Light with them for a while, then at bedtime he went down to the basement with the boys and told them scary stories for a while. Actually, I think I heard that the first story was kind of scary. By the end of it Joe was saying, "Uh... Dad... I'm not sure this is a very good idea... I don't think I can handle it..." Ha! So the rest were just fun and crazy stories. :-)

Once the kids were in bed it was game time for the adults again. There were some definite hurdles to overcome, however... Like Sister Jamey having a headache and Brother Dustin's back hurting him so bad he had to stand for most of the night instead of sit. It was a sad sight!
Just as a side note... Please pray for Brother Dustin's back. He's been suffering with lots of severe pain for some time now. He has days that aren't so bad, but it's been quite a while since he's been pain free. And for goodness' sake, it's just pitiful watching your General VLB Coordinator hobble around and moan and groan like he's 80 years old. (Sorry. I really tried to keep it serious--it IS a serious prayer request--but there's just something about that guy that makes it sooooooo hard!) In any case, he is trusting the Lord for divine healing and he really does need it. Sooner rather than later, preferably.

In spite of the physical ailments, it ended up being a terrific game night. Not that you can tell from this picture...

James and Brother Dustin got ahold of the cameras. I'm pretty sure there's a picture on Brother Dustin's camera that looks just like this one...
The night got late and crazy. The kind of crazy that leads to uncontrollable and painful laughter about the stupidest things, as is evidenced by the video that Brother Dustin posted on Sister Jamey's blog. Yes, that's right, BROTHER DUSTIN BLOGGED. He's been maintaining for years that "men don't blog," but he finally caved. He's WANTED to soooooo many times, but has always held out until now. It's strange though... what he blogged is not anything that embarrasses ME (okay, so I didn't look so hot--but I can handle that! Ha!); it SHOULD embarrass HIM--he's the one who wrote it. It wasn't the least bit humorous, I assure you, it was just one of those wee-hour-of-the-morning moments when something dumb strikes you as hysterical and you can't think rationally anymore. Or something like that. :-)

On Wednesday it was finally time to head for the hills! We try once a year (for a whole two years in a row now! Ha!) to get together with the family: Mom & Dad and Jon & Emilee and all the kids for some together time. This year Mom found a GORGEOUS house that was great big and sooooo perfect for us--for an AMAZINGLY cheap price. Wa-Hoo! It was near Florence, Colorado and had gorgeous views all the way around. It was fantastic!

The first night we got there and moved in, then enjoyed some BBQ sandwiches for dinner. There was a hot tub on the back porch and the kids LOVED it. The girls got 15 minutes each night, then the boys. After that, they managed to stay up way too late each night. All of the boys piled into the bedroom on the main floor together while Katie and Abbie slept in the loft area upstairs. Mom & Dad stayed in the master suite up there and Jon & Em and James & I had bedrooms in the basement. It was soooooo nice! Anyway, I'm sure we played games that first night, though I fail to remember what they were...

From here on out I'm going to have to rely on my pictures to keep it all straight--everything flows together in my mind!

The next morning Sam talked Granddad into hiking down to the hunting stand the kids had already discovered down below the house. Before long all of the kids except for Zeke had decided to join in.

Abbie turned back nearly immediately and I decided to take her place. The weather was GORGEOUS and it just felt like a great day for a walk with Dad and all the kids. :-)
Unfortunately, the kids who had already made the trek down the hill and knew the best way ran off ahead of us and we were left to find our own way. The route we chose ended up leading us through this stuff! Ha! Nathan (the only kid who stayed with us) and I crawled under, but Dad had a better plan...
Just bust the dead limbs off and clear 'em out of the way. :-)
By the time we got there the kids were already having a blast in, on, and around the hunting stand.
Dad went to check it out and was trying to figure out why the owner had a bottle of strawberry jam in there... with nothing to go with it!
Here is a picture of the house from down near the stand.
And zoomed wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay in. There's Mom on the deck.
The walk back up the hill took considerably longer than the walk down. We had several pauses like this along the way, though Dad would deny they were pauses. There was a very valid reason for each stop, I assure you. ;-) At this point I think he was explaining to me the necessity of scanning the adjoining mountain for signs of one thing or another. He was also clarifying that he was not using that stick as a cane... he was simply hauling firewood back to the house. Ha!
From our resting spot we could barely see Nathan and Katie who had decided to climb the next mountain over and walk the ridge to get back to the house. Just up and to the left of center is a little blue speck. That's Nathan's shirt. The white speck is Katie's.
And zoomed in. (Cameras are so amazing!)
Caleb must've come back down to check on Granddad... the kids had been back at the house so long they probably got worried about him. ;-)
We finally made it this far and took another big break before climbing the stairs up to the deck. Ha!
And here's the Granddaddy, who came in the door JOGGING after all that. Ha! I can't remember all he had to say about the climb back up the hill, but in true Smithesque fashion it was quite creative and amusing. :-)
Still trying to recover from the climb...
Here's the adult crowd just relaxing, reading, and working on a puzzle. ~sigh~ Doesn't get much better than that, does it?!
And, of course, Dad had gone shopping immediately upon arriving in Colorado so he would have a sufficient "Mother Lode" for all the kids. Two or three times a day he breaks out the candy and the kids start swarming. It's nuts. My kids live on adrenaline, practically no sleep, and (thanks to Granddad) SUGAR the whole time we're together. Then they come home sick and CRASH for a few days when it's all over with! Ah, yes. That's what it's all about, right?!
Abbie took this picture of the 1,000 piece puzzle we put together. It's a fun one where the scene is created out of small objects of all kinds. (The columns are rolled up map segments, the orange couch is a pair of gloves, the flowers are pistachio nuts, stuff like that.)
I don't know how this happened, but somehow the game of choice for the kids seemed to be chess. How crazy is that?! Dad & Jon played several times and that was no surprise. But the Smith kids took it upon themselves to teach Katie & Joe how to play. They laugh and giggle as if it's FUN or something. Weird. It was the thing to do (peer pressure is NEVER a good thing! Ha!) so it seems there were kids sitting at the chess board anytime Jon and Dad didn't have it.
Here's a pile watching Looney Toons...
And Jon being the Chef for some Dr. Suess game. It was fun to watch, but would have been REALLY fun if we would have gotten the guys (Dad and James and Jon, that is) to play it! It just never seemed to work out. Maybe next time. ;-)
A couple of onlookers from the loft. Cool ceiling, hu?
According to my pictures (not my memory) we played Pictionary that night. It is sooooo funny to play with Dad! He's artistry leaves a little to be desired (ha!), but even his GUESSES are hilarious. One of the other guys was drawing and you can hear Dad guess, "Cow?... Sun?... Radiator?" Ha! It must be maddening to be on the same team as him--at least for James. Jon draws about like Dad does but James is actually quite good. In any case, it's great fun to play. :-)

Notice the game board. The girls' marker is past the half-way mark and the guys are still on the first square. That's not so surprising--it usually goes that way. They finally got going and were about half-way through the board when we made it to the finish square. The most amazing thing of all is that we couldn't WIN! We sat on that square and just couldn't pull it off. The guys came from wa-a-a-a-ay back there and reached the finish square and BEAT us!!! Astonishing!

We also played a game called Blink that Mom was terrific at. At least she was terrifically LOUD while playing it. I think the guys called it a night after Pictionary, but it seems like some of us stayed up and played I Buy or something.

The next day Dad and Jon took Nathan, Caleb, Luke and Joe fishing while James took Joe to town to do some running around. That left just us girls and Zeke at the house. So we ate Chex Mix to our hearts' content and watched a girl movie. It was great!

Here are some of the boys playing their own game later that day...

Jon and Em weren't a whole lot of help with the 1,000 piece puzzle, but Emilee conquered this one that the little girls had started and Jon was able to finish up the 24-piecer. Ha!
That night before bed we had a concert. Nathan emceed it and introduced the performers (Joe on the guitar; Caleb and Katie as vocalists) and each song. Here's the crowd enjoying the show...

And Caleb declaring that he is NOT going to sing... something or another. I can't remember exactly what song he didn't want to sing.
Afterwards the rest of the grandbrats (as Dad calls them) minus Sam (just couldn't make himself do it) all came up and sang a couple of songs. It was great. :-)
This must be the Lord's Army song. Zeke is a little out of sync, but when you're that cute it just doesn't matter. ;-)
And here he is, putting on his very own concert.
That night after the kids went to bed Jon and Emilee and Mom and I tried a game we found in the basement called Apples to Apples. It was great fun, mostly because of Emilee's creative debating abilities. I can't remember any details except for something about "lots of little puffies of smoke," but I know that we laughed a whole lot and had an awful lot of fun. A great game for the right crowd. :-)

Here's a picture of the Granddad with all the grandkids. It makes me very happy. :-)

We left on Saturday and headed to Pueblo for lunch together at Pizza Hut. Afterward Jon & Em headed back to Denver and Mom & Dad followed us to the Lewis house to pray for the cripple. Brother Keven had fallen off a ladder and broken is ankle the day before. I feel sooooo bad for him! He's still in a lot of pain. The Hays and Wantuloks were at the house when we got there and we had a nice visit with everybody (and some good laughs), then had a good prayer for Brother Keven before Mom & Dad had to hit the road.

Everybody cleared out of the house (kids, too) so that Brother Keven and Sister Michele could catch up on some of the sleep they'd lost the night before. The rest of us went over to Brother Daniel and Sister Cathy's house for dinner. Brother Daniel grilled burgers and hotdogs and chicken while Sister Cathy made an angel food cake that was slightly prettier than Sister Jamey's had been. ;-) Genesis and Morgan worked on chocolate covered strawberries. YUM! Good friends, good food, good fellowship. All of the adults played Pictionary (girls against guys--the guys won AGAIN!), then the Hays left and James and I put the kids to bed, then played I Buy with the Wantuloks and just visited for a while. It was so nice--we seldom get to spend time with them like that.

Sunday we got up and had a leisurely morning complete with a homemade breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, and bacon. Wow! We enjoyed the service in Pueblo (the 'Springs folks had come down for the "joint" service), even though the pastor and his wife were unable to attend due to that nasty fall the other day. :-( Afterwards we went to a buffet for Sister Dodie's goodbye dinner (she's moving to Virginia) before hitting the road and heading south.

We made it home at about midnight, I think. It was a long trip, but a good one. We felt the way we always feel: we lo-o-o-o-o-ove to go; then we lo-o-o-o-o-ove to come home. :-)

Since we got home we've been doing the usual post trip chores: unpacking and getting caught up on laundry and stuff like that. All of the kids came home sort of puny (coughing and congested and worn out and cranky) and James and I have been feeling pretty wiped out, too. I think we'll probably have our feet back under us again by tomorrow though. I'm sure hoping so!

~whew~ I don't blog often, but when I do I sure make up for it. I'll try to blog sooner and shorter next time. ;-)