Sunday, August 4th, 2013

Well, it's time to get this blogging business underway. We have been in our apartment in Aurora, Colorado now for one full week!  The place is pretty much completely setup and functional.  I've enjoyed the smaller square footage (640ish sq. ft.)  It makes it much easier to get to laundry, bedroom, kitchen, etc..  We hope to have the sleeper sofa here this week, and be ready for guests!  Lots of people have helped facilitate our dream coming true.  We will forever be grateful to all of you that had a hand in the realization of those goals.  In an attempt to limit myself from flooding your facebook page with tons of pictures....I plan on using this method to share pictures, videos, and more information than I could do through facebook.

Last weekend on July 27th we traveled with the Tovson family into Rocky Mountain National Park.  This was my 5th or 6th trip into the park and the base city of Estes Park.  It's my favorite national park that I have traveled to during the first 30 years of living.  Below you will find lots of pictures.

 

It was a unique trip for me into the park as the previous times the weather was clear and visibility was greater than 40 miles.  There was a storm front moving in throughout the day and it provided us with a new and exciting kind of weather experience.  We were basically in the clouds at the condensation level where it was in the 50s and 100% humidity with clouds racing across the alpine tundra.  We finished up the trip at a pizza place in Estes Park after which we returned back down to the plains.  A glorious trip made possible by the Tovson's!

 

 

 

Today myself, Megan, and Gob traveled down Interstate 70 into the mountains from Denver to Idaho Springs, Colorado. 

 

 

 

From there we traveled southwest into the higher terrain which led us to Echo Lake Park.

 

 

 

 

The lake sits at about 10,500 feet, and has a nice hiking trail that goes around it.  There was a 100foot sloping rock face that we climbed partially and found some nice rocks!

 

From the lake we traveled into Mt. Evans National Forest.  It costs $10 to get in, but you can get an annual park pass which allows you access to any national park/monument/forest etc.. for $80. We will be getting one very soon.  The road to the top of the mountain starts at 10,700 feet and rises to the top at over 14,100 feet.  I spotted one of the few remaining snow patches left over from the previous spring.  We found a way to hike down to it.  Here are some pictures we took.

 

 

The weather started turning bad so we decided to head down to a lower elevation and investigate some places we spotted on the drive up.

 

 

 

From the stream/picnic location we headed back into Idaho Springs to find something more filling to eat than beef jerky and peanuts.  We found a nice little pub/restaurant and shared a Chicago Dog and French Fries.

 

 

With the Cowboys game looming we decided it was time to head back to Denver and get some rest.

We collected some nice rocks on the trip as I have been known to do.

 

Luckily we arrived back at the apartment just in time to escape inside from the storm that had formed.





 

Needless to say it has been an eventful 7 days since we moved in.  We're both loving it immensely and want people to come visit us. 

 

The job hunt for me will kick into high gear this week as there isn't much else we need to do around the apartment.  I hope to find something as soon as possible.  I'm very fortunate to have a wonderful wife with a fantastic job!

 

Until next time!