Pictures that should be inserted to previous posts!

So I know it was probably a bummer to read those posts about Europe and have no pics to go along with it, so here are some!!
And I don't think I need to specify where this one is! :)


Coolest day ever in Holland visiting original and still in service wind mills!



My buddy in Holland after we went to the wooden shoe factory



Crooked handstand but I'm still proud of it...I mean its in front of the freakin Colosseum!!!!



Oh yeah

We're back! And we have been back for 10 days now. Sorry for not posting anything about our trip until now. It was crazy busy the last 2 weeks there, and super fun. We left Bremen, Germany and headed to Berlin. Unfortunately we were only able to stay one full day, but we had a sweet place to stay, thanks to my friend in Krefeld. His brother lives in an appartment complex (the whole building) and they still have a few units that were not remodeled into part of his house. So we had our own appartment to stay in for two nights. It was great! European hospitaltiy is the bomb.


This is the family we stayed with in Bremen, Germany. So good to see them!

Berlin is a pretty cool city. I liked the vibe there and there is a lot to see. The friend we stayed with showed us around a little bit in his two collectors cars. One is a Yellow 60's Chevy truck and the other is a brand new Land Rover Defender. Its strange for europeans to have such big cars, but this guy loves it and it was fun to ride around in them there cuz you definitely get some funny looks. We got to see parts of the Old Berlin wall, the famous Brandenburg Gate, a Holocaust museum, and much more. Its amazing just how much history lies in this city...you could spend weeks there and never get to see it all. Hopefully one day we will be back.


Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

From Berlin we went to Opole, Poland where we met up with some of my Dad's friends. He has known them for some years now and we have met them a few times in The States. They were so amazingly generous and took us out for traditional Polish perogies (sp?) the first night in town. Yummy!!! Let me just say that out of everywhere we went in Europe, Polish food was by far our favorite. Now, don't get me wrong. Italy holds a close second with all the pizza, pasta, and gelato. But Poland wins with its fried potato pancakes, cabage soups, stews, and salads, hearty meats, fried fish, perogies, cabbage rolls filled with pork, crouchettes, i mean seriously..the list just keeps going on. And all the restraunts we went to were buffet style with the most food I have ever seen. It was better than a wedding. OMG sooooooooo good.


First night in Opole, Poland with our friends who introduced us to perogies!

Enough about food. Poland was very different than the parts of Western Europe we had been in. I have heard that there is a huge difference in Western and Eastern Europe, and that we should visit both. I am glad we did as it was a great learning experience. The first thing I noticed was that not as many people speak english there, and the language is WEIRD! In the other languages you could attemp to pronounce them and sometimes get it right. But in Polish, a handful of the letters sound nothing like what they do in english. For example, a letter Z sounds like a J, and a letter W sounds like a V, and there are many more like this. So good luck trying to communicate and prounounce Polish words with someone who speaks no enlish and you don't know how to say the words of their language correctly. It just doesnt work. I am thankful we were with friends most of the time! Some of the hardest times we had were on the trains because they do not announce where you are when the train comes to the stations! On all other trains we had been on throughout Europe a nice little voice comes over the intercom and tells you where you will be and which side of the train to exit on. Not the case with Poland. They expect you to know, or you better make sure you watch where you are. Don't fall asleep or you will miss it!

It seemed less stuffy in eastern Europe, and a little bit more laid back. There were a lot of advertisements on the roads and it wasn't quite as clean and crisp as the other countries. But it was still beautiful...the old buildings and architechture. And it got even more beautiful when our friends took us down to Zakopane for the weekend, which is a little mountain town on the Czech border. They set up an incredible weekend for us by finding the cutest bed and breakfast for all of us to stay in, and two tiny dogs greeted us as we drove in. It was fun to have little dogs running around, and two sheep in the yard next door, oh and horses pulling carriages down the streets out front...oh and the mountains all around. It was like a fairy tale! We spent three nights there and ate the best food we have ever had, and hiked off all the calories during the daytime with 2 epic 6 hour hikes to the tops of tall mountains with views unlike anything I have ever seen, and I have seen some pretty amazing things this year.

We left Zakopane and st0pped through to see Krakow (pronounced Krakauff), went home, and the next day went for a visit to Auschwitz conentration camp. Auschwitz is the last and largest concentration camp built, and was the place where approximately 1.5 million people were killed during the Holocaust. As hard as it was, we are both glad we had an opportunity to see that. I think that one cannot grasp the severity and size of the operation until you have actually been there and felt what the energy is like in that place. We were overwhelemed with how huge the camps were, but that is just a small piece of it all considering the stories of inhumanity told and hearing personal accounts of people who actually spent time living in that place. Its inconceivable, just totally impossible to actually beleive that inhumanity like that could actually happen. But I beleive it could happen again, and perhaps is still happening and we don't know about it. Looking back, both of us feel that we were so overwhelemed with everything that we had no choice but to shut overselves off emotionally. I think you have to, or you would not be able to make it through the tour. Even today its something that I cannot quite wrap my head around. I would recommend a visit there if you ever have the chance. It will change your life forever.


Hiking in Zakopane

After Auschwitz we headed up to Wroclaw (pronounced Vrautswauff, strange, huh?) where we met up with some more friends of my dad who we had actually just met in the States about a month before! We had a great time with them as they showed us around town and one of the most beautiful downtown squares I had seen in Europe. We did lots of cool historic sightseeing and more eating of delicious food. And I must add in that we also drank the best vodka I have ever tasted. It can only be found in Poland, and its called Zubrowka bison grass vodka (pronounced Jabroufka). I'm not a huge vodka fan, but this stuff is amazing! You mix it with apple juice, which is strange, but it ends up tasting kind of like delicious tea. I have great memories now my favorite mixed drink in the world. Too bad that I will just have to go back to Poland to get more! But we had great talks and fun times with our friends who thankfully took us to the train station to help us get on our train to Prague (thank goodness because otherwise we would not have found the right platform...argh...Polish train stations...).
Sweet little David in Wroclaw riding the little bronze statues of a memorial for animals that Polish people eat everyday.



And later I will write about how amazing Prague was. But for now I must go and this time I will leave some pictures of Poland and Germany!! :)

"This is your REAL life"

When we were leaving our friends in the Netherlands a few weeks ago I said that when our trip was over we had to go back home into "real life." My friend said something profound that has stuck with me ever since...she said "This ís your real life." And its true, she was right. This is our real life. The entire last year of traveling and exploring the world has been our real life, and not something I should discount so quickly as júst some time off, or a long vacation. It has been the best year of our lives in so many ways -from meeting some of the greatest friends we will ever know, to first hand experiences of different cultures, this is a year to remember, forever. And never again will I qualify anything I say with that term "real life" again, because I want to learn to embrace every moment I have been given.

And becuase of this we have been eating mounds and mounds of delicious and unhealthy food and drinking more wine than ever before! Haha, this sounds funny, but it is actually very true. The saying "when in Rome" means (to my understandig at least) that when you are in Rome, you do as the Romans do. And we have been trying to follow that rule since we have been in Europe, so in each country, we will do as they do. We will eat what they eat, drink what they drink, and try to merge with the culture as closely as possible to get a feel for how others live.

This is of course more easily done when you live with and know the people of the country you are in. So since we have been staying in Germany our diets have consisted mostly of Croissants for breakfast (often times more than one), sandwiches for lunch, cake and tea in the afternoon, and somehow, every night for the last week, we have had Italian food for dinner. Our friends have treated us like we are royalty! Its been quite nice actually. They have fed us every meal, cooked us dinner, and even taken us out to some very nice Italian restraunts. Oh, and wine...every night...very good wine.

Our day trip to Duessledorf was very nice. Its a beautiful city, and even though it rained on and off the whole day, we still got to take a boat ride on the Rhine river and walk around town to see the old sights. The next day while we were in the Krefeld area our friends took the day off and drove us around to towns nearby. It was a lovely day and the land is so beautiful and the little towns are all so cute and old. And of course we had to stop and get our afternoon tea and cake in a little town called Hittengen. But the company was what was the best...it was such a wonderful time to be in their home with their family. So very good to see them, and we had a great time the last night looking at slides from the early 90's! I cant beleive it was 20 years ago that we were all a little "family."

We left our friends in Krefeld to go visit more friends in Bremen, which is about 3.5 hours North of Krefeld. Once again, its been an amazing time catching up with these friends too. They took us on a walking tour of downtown Bremen (which is actually a very beautiful city with lots of character) and then later on a bike ride around the outskirts of the city where there were beautifual thatch roofed houses and lots of animals on farmalnd. Oh, and of course tons of people out riding bikes, jogging, or even riding horses!!

They have fed us so very well here that this morning both Ryan and I feel like we never want to eat again. We are still full from yesterday! But seriously, how can you pass up what is put in front of you that makes you feel like a kid in a candy store?? For breakfast there are literally two baskets on the table full of pastries, croissants, and rolls that have been freshly baked, plates of various meats and cheeses, and dont forget the Nutella!! The table is also filled with liverwurst, butter, variuos jams and jellies. Oh and you have your espresso and cappachino as well...orange juice and boiled eggs. But as if that is not enough, you must go to the bakery later on to pick out which piece of cake you want to feast on a few hours later. You get to choose from 20 different varieties that all look like they have been prepared for the king. After eating this cake you take a nap (because thats about all you can even manage to do) and wake up and there are appetizers on the table! Procuitto and melon, delicious french cheese, and of course bread. Then one hour later at the Italian restraunt comes the bread and wine, followed by the main course, and then of course dessert! And its rude not to finish everything on your plate...so of course you must stuff it all down. And right when it feels like you cant fit anything else in your belly or it will literally start coming out of your mouth again, you are offeredmore. We learned that if you are the last table in the restraunt (apparently a German/Italian tradition) you get served a round of shcapps on the house!!!

All this was well worth the overindulgence. The company was wonderful, and did I mention that the food was good too? Yes, its been great. And Im sure the scale will agree when we get home. But you know what they say...............................When in Rome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Adventures

Hello friends and family! I am writing you from Germany, just outside Duessledorf. We are again with another good friend who was actually an exchange student of my familys' who came to study in the States when I was 9!!! I cant beleive its been that long, but we have gotten to see him over the years here and there, but its just very cool to be in his house with his family this time.

So unfortunately I will not be able to ever post any pictures from the first two weeks of our trip because our camera got stolen...it was in Ryans backpack which got stolen from the train the day after we left The Netherlands. Yes, this is quite a bummer, but that is probably the most valuable thing we lost, along with our travel book, which was just really inconveient to loose. Oh well. It happens! Luckily i have my i phone which i had been taking some pics with too, so we have a few on there. But the theif was sneaky because it was the morning and we had just boarded the train and put our bags on the overhead rack, like everyone else did since the train was quite busy. We were wide awake and talking, so we had no idea how it got taken. It was within 15 mins of being on the train, probably on the second stop it made someone just grabbed it from behind and ran off the train.

Actually, after leaving the Netherlands we felt in a slump for a few days there. Before we lost the bag we missed a train to our next really cool location. Because i am not used to telling time on the 24 hour clock, i caused us to miss our train to Coppenhagen. Not to worry thought, i now have my iphone set on a 24 hour clock so i am getting really really good at it (and i know i will NEVER hear the end of it). Anyhow, it was a night train, and a 12 hour ride. So we decided not to take the train there during the day the next day, but instead keep exploring on shorter train rides closer by. We visited Luxembourg, Heidelburg, Germany, and Trieburg, Germany (part of the black forest). Those days were tough because we felt alone and violated with the bag being taken, but we had fun nonetheless and looked very forward to being with our friends in Germany.

In Luxembourg we got to go shopping!! We actually tried to make it a fun time. We shopped on a street where there were pretty nice stores that Ryan would never buy clothes at, like H and M and some private designer stores. But we had heard that there was a mall close by, so we took the bus there to see if there were any cheaper shops, and there happened to be what is the equivaltent of a european walmart in that mall! So ryan got everything he needed there, even though we had bought some nice jeans at another store. we went back to return those jeans and they would only give us a store credit, so I got to do a little shopping of my own!! nothing fancy, just a new dress, tank top, and some underwear. but we had to spend that money there, so we had fun with it!

Luxembourg is such a small country no one ever thinks to visit there, but its actually a beautiful place. Its like a fairy tale land where you would imagine Cinderella running around with her one glass slipper. The town is built around a huge castle and giant walls that used to surround the old town, and there are newer buildings all inside these walls. and by newer i mean not 1500 years old, but maybe 800 years old. this is Europe! Very neat place to see.

Heidelburg is beautiful as well, with the main focal point being a giant castle and a nice river running through the town. Here we had some very traditional (and might i add delicious) German food...fried fish, roasted potatoes, brautworst, and saurkraut. Breakfasts in Europe have been amazing too...meat, cheese, and bread, and of course my favorite being yogurt and granola! After heidelburg we traveled south to the black forest which was beautiful too and we went to a spot where we saw Germanys largest waterfall and hiked for a few hours before we got a little quaint hotel and ate a quiet dinner.

Today we will take the train into the town of Duesseldorf to explore and take a boat ride along the Rhine river to see the nearby sights and castles. I should run, but I will try to write more stories very soon. Miss and love everyone!!

To Italy and Beyond!

Hello friends and family! I am finally in a place where I can sit down and write a blog post without it costing me what Ryan and I would both pay to eat a meal. Argh....its expensive here! Oh, and sorry for not having pics...i did not bring the correct attatchments to load pictures. :(

So after leaving Zermott, Switzerland (home of the Matterhorn), we took the train to Florence, Italy where we stayed for two days. We got off the train and wandered the streets looking for the nearest hostel and found one very quickly! The old Italian couple that owned it didn't speak any english, but we got a private room for the cheapest rate yet (22 euro per person, per night)! We spent a few days wandering the streets of beautiful Florence and visiting the sights, and both decided that while we were in Italy we needed to eat gluten again.

Every other store on the street sold either pizza, pasta, sandwiches, or gelato. And let me tell you, everything you see in those food cases looks absolutely amazing. We both ate things niether of us had eaten in months, committing ourselves to the ill effects we knew it would have on us later. But I think it was worth it to experience the culture and amazing quality of the food. Let me tell you, they've got gluten down! Man, was that pizza good!!

We both fell in love with the culture there, and vibe people give off. Its a very free and open culture where enjoying yourself is priority. Be it eating delicious food, sitting at a cafe for hours with a friend, or basking in the warm sun anywhere you want, Italians are good at enjoying life. And as a whole, Italians in general are an extremely attrative group of people, both the men and the women. And its lovely just to sit and listen to them speak. The language truly is beautiful to an intoxicating level.

With Ryan's gluten induced head congestion and my gluten induced intestinal discomfort and weariness, we headed to Rome with a stop in Pisa first. We decided it would be fun to at least see the leaning tower while we were there, and I wanted a picture doing a handstand in front of it! We did just that, saw the tower, took our pics, and were on our way. There isn't a whole lot else to see there, but we did get to see some beautiful Italian coastline since the train took its time and went the long way down along the coast.

Rome was pretty freakin cool. We spent 3 days there, and while there was a lot more we could have seen and done, we both felt satisfied with all that we saw. We visited the Colloseum, Forum, Palatine, Pantheon, Vatican, Spanish Steps, various fountains, and a boat load of cathedrals... along with more pizza and gelato vendors all along the way! Its so awesome to see things that are 2,000 years old! I love learning about the history. Everything in Rome is so big and grand, and quite beautiful as well. I was suprised to see that there was a lot of grafitti throughout the city, and it wasn't the cleanest place either. Everyone in Italy smokes...I felt like I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day while we were there...and there are cigarette butts all over the streets. While i don't love grafitti and smoking, it was strangely attractive because I think it fits perfectly into Italian culture and it was all part of the bigger experience!

We had another very interesting hostel-mate while we were in Rome. He was definitely a highlight to say the least. He was a self-proclamied "loner" from Belgium who studies Irish church history. When we walked into the hostel room, he was very kind, but immediately told us that he gets hot when he's around beautiful women, and he was getting very warm. He was very taken abback by Ryan's tattos...almost scared of him. He asked a lot of questions to make sure Ryan was a safe guy. Over the next 2 days he kept us laughing under our breath, as he would walk around the room in his collared shirt and tidy widys, telling us story after story. He made Ryan stop using his deodorant because it was the wrong color, and gave him his own. He asked Ryan to help him put on a neclace and to put a bandaid on a blister on his heel that he coudn't reach (all in his underwear, mind you). And after sharing a bottle of wine with him one night we learned even more interesting things about him and all the self-taught energy work he does, and even showed us. There is more....but its much funnier to tell in person as we can demonstrate his accent and demeanor.

From Rome we took the train to Venice and spent a day getting lost in the town as we explored its sights. Ryan loved it there...it was old and falling apart, buildings sinking into the water and kind of a creepy, dark, chalostrophobic vibe (sp?). That is why i didn't love it, but it was really cool to see it. I knew there were canals in Venice, but I didn't realize that there are no cars, and that everything actually takes place in the canals like the trash service, taxis, store deliveries, etc are all done on boats. Everyone else is on foot! It was really neat to watch that from the 2nd floor of our SWEET hotel room! We found it when we were lost at night when we got there and it was just the same price as all the hostels we have been staying in. It even had a bedee! (again, sp??)

We both decided that we had to quit eating gluten since we were feeling worse and worse, so leaving Italy altogether made that a tiny bit easier :) From Venice we took a long train to Paris where we spent the day, and eneded up walking 10 miles around the city! We only had one day there so we wanted to make sure we saw as much as we could. What a beautiful place! The architecture is beautiful, along with the Sienne River and all the beautiful bridges. We visited the Louvre, climbed the Eiffel Tower, and saw the famous Paris Catacombs where millions of bones from sick people are stacked into artfully designed piles six stories below the street level. Creepy!!

We headed from Paris to Amsterdam to visit a friend of mine...an exchange student my family hosted while I was growing up. He is the first of 3 I will get to see while I'm here. Its so amazing to come to HIS home and stay with his family...quite a role reversal. And its so nice to have some home cooked meals (gluten free!!) and get to see his children. He has been quite the tour guide taking us to some beautiful Dutch sites and cities-our favorite place being the site of old Dutch windmills which are still in use! We got to go in and watch the sawmill-windmill and it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen (Ryan was in awe). They also had oil-windmills, and cheese-windmills (of which we got to sample some amazing Dutch cheese). The culture here is great, as everyone rides bikes everywhere, and its a beautiful place too with canals and boats everywhere, but there are streets with cars and trains too, unlike Venice.

Tonight we are taking the night train up to Coopenhagen where we will stay for a few days, then over to Sweden. After that we will head back down to Germany to visit some more exchange student friends! This trip has been great so far, but I do miss everyone back at home. Look foward to seeing you guys and I will try to post again soon!

Last Leg...A European Adventure

First thing first, i apologize for the punctuation, or lack there of. but european keyboards are a pain in the ass. its gonna take me a hour to write this post...haha. anywho, we are here and we have spent the last 4 days in switzerland. this has to be one of my favorite places on earth. its so freakin beautiful here.

we flew into zurich and spent the whole first day exploring...we went on a hike to view the city from very high up on a mountain and even went on a boat ride around the lake. its a very cool city, but we were both in a pretty bad jet lag induced fog that whole day. we took the train the next morning to lucerne, walked around and got lunch. that place is totally rad. similar to zurich, but smaller and prettier. we got lunch at the market and got back on the train and headed to Interlaken. ok, by far (and so far) favorite town i have ever been to. ryan seconds me on that :) small, but not too small...the culture is just like that of lets say Santa Cruz California. people ride bikes everywhere, eat outside, walk to work, and enjoy all the outdoors stuff to do. i cant even begin to tell you how beautiful it was. we took a train to a town where we could see a moutain with a glacier on top. so RAD. will post pics soon hopefully.

now we are in zermott, where the famous matterhorn is. this place is freakin insane. huge tourist-ski destination but it feels like you are in a fairy tale. we did a 4 hour hike today and had a view of the matterhorn the whole time. there are no cars allowed up here, you must get here by train or gondola. super clean and crisp, and weather is great. just like all of switzerland. people really take care of their countrz here. i love it

we have had great hostel experiences so far, they have all been very clean, nice, and fun. funny story from the one here in zermott last night. we shared a room with a mute man...well maybe not mute, but we said hello and he said hello back, but he wouldnt talk to us after that. maybe he didnt speak english, which is fine. but he was werid. he had two of the same pairs of shoes, two of the same towels, and two tubes of toothpaste. everything was laid out perfectly. can you say OCD (insert question mark here). haha....anyhow, in the morning he spent about what seemed like 3 hours packing his bag as loudly as possible. it was rediculous. once he was gone we got up and realized he had taken my towel. we ran out to the dinning room to find him and he wasnt there, so we ran down to the main lobby. no dude. walked outside a bit to see if we could see him. nope. but when we walked back in ryan spotted my towel sitting on a coffee table in front of the couch in the reception. what in the world (question mark) such a weird guy...such a strange thing to do. ok...gotta go. more stories later. i like this symbol for a happy face ö

goodbye from switzerland

Back Where We Started

Well we left for our last leg of the trip (in the U.S., that is) and made our way back to Grand Junction! Upon leaving Seattle, the original plan was to visit Vancouver and Whistler in Canada. Luckily we had only gotten 30 min away when we learned that we needed immunization records for our dogs to cross the border (thank you i phone!) So we headed to Mt. Rainier national park instead. It was a beautiful place, of course, but I actually enjoy the view of Mt. Rainier from Seattle better because when you are right up on it, it just doesn't look so big. But we were lucky to have probably the clearest day since we had been in the Pacific Northwest...not even a cloud in the sky and it was warm, even at the top...or the closest to the top of that monster volcano that the road takes you!

From there we had some long miles ahead of us to get to Yellowstone, but they were wonderfully scenic! I have always heard Idaho was beautiful, and the rumors are true. We drove right along Coeur d'Alene (its a lake) and goodness gracious I have never seen a lake like that. Like so many things we've seen, I just can't even describe it. Even pictures won't do it any justice. But I actually didn't take any :( I don't remember why. But after 2 days of driving we made it to Yellowstone and camped, or poached as some might say, our first night just outside the park in a campground that was full. But it was awesome because 5 other people were poaching as well, and it was an epic campground on top of a mountain with a rad view, and we were like the campground outcasts. We all sat around a fire that we made out of brush and drank beer together. It was a cool experience!

So Yellowstone is beautiful, yes. Not quite as epic as some of the things we have seen, but by far probably the most interesting thing we have seen yet. So a large chunk of the park sits on top of a volcano, and the land is rolling and green, with lakes and trees and tons of animals, then all the sudden there will be section of boiling mud pots and holes with steam coming out of the ground! There are sections that look like hardened volcanic lava formed a small mountain and all this sulfur water is flowing out of it, and my oh my does it stink! It smells like millions of rotten boiled eggs, but you have to stop and look because its so bizarre. And of course we saw Old Faithful errupt...very cool. There were hundreds of people waiting around to watch its erruption, which takes place every 90 min, give or take 10 min. One of my favorite parts was gettning to see a black bear AND a grizzly bear! We also saw Bison/Buffalo, Elk, and some other cute little things and I don't remember what they were called.

We spent 2 nights in the park, then made our way towards Salt Lake City. On the way we got to drive through the Grand Teton National Park/Jackson Hole Wyoming-another amazingly beautiful place. Those dang states are so big that you think you should be a lot further along than you actually are, and it took us forever to get to each destination, and poor Ryan hadn't been sleeping while we were camping. So I wanted to explore Salt Lake a little but Ryan had no energy at that point, so we decided to just drive onto Junction. Its about 4 hours away, and we could feel the heat building the closer we got. I belelive the day we got into town the high temp for the day was around 101!!! Quite a change when we came from being in Seattle for a month wearing jeans and longsleeves all the time, not to mention the very pale skin! :)

But it sure is great to be back here. Its where the trip began, and we loved it when we were here and made some amazing friends. This time around we are having so much fun. The first week we got to go mountain biking 5 times and loving every second of it. And our buddy Jeff was so kind and generous to open his home up to us this time around, and with its convienent location to downtown, Ryan walks to and from work everyday (he is working for the 3 weeks that we are in town)! I have been doing some stretching with the people at the crossfit gym (for trade) and it feels soooooooo good to do some body work again. I feel alive! It makes me realize how much I have missed it and how much I am looking foward to being settled enough to do that on a more regular basis.

My friend Ellie invited me to go with her and her dad to the front range to hike a 14,000ft. mountain last week and I got to go!!! There are 54 14ers in Colorado. Ellie's dad has hiked 20 of them now! It was so much fun. We drove up the day before, ate dinner and slept at a hotel, to wake up and 4am to get ready for the hike. Of course we did not hike from sea level, we started at 11,000 ft. But the hike was all in all about 8.5 miles, and took us about 7 hours total (stops included). We topped two 14ers actually...Gray and Torres were their names. We climbed from the parking lot to Grays, then over a "saddle" to top Torres, then down the other side. The view was epic and the weather was perfect. I will never forget it! Then two days later I got to go tubing down the Colorado river with my buddies and about 300 other people. It was great, ...sunny and warm, but a nice breeze on the water, beer, music, and good company. Its gonna be hard leaving Colorado with all this fun outdoors stuff to do. Not terribly excited to be back in Atlanta, but excited to see everyone for sure!!!!

Europe is only 4 weeks away, i can't beleive it! Don't know how much I will be able to update our blog, but I will try. Until then, we will be here for 2 more weeks, then Atlanta for 3 weeks. After that we are looking foward to settling back down in Atlanta for a little while so Ryan can finish his schooling at GA Perimeter. I have a sneaking suspision (sp?) that we will be moving from there again tho in about a year...the West coast just has too much to offer for us to pass it up! Who knows. Until then........