Colorado Trip 7/28 - 7/31

We're back!!! Our trip to Colorado was just not long enough, and we've vowed to return to see more of the sights and enjoy the beauty. But here are some pictures we took on our short 4-day stay.

Day 1: Saturday we flew into Denver, picked up our rental car and drove an hour or so up to Fort Collins. There we attended Noah's friend Craig's wedding. We're so happy for Craig and Shannon! They're enjoying their honeymoon in Aruba right now!

Day 2: Sunday we enjoyed our yummy complimentary breakfast at the hotel (I'd definitely recommend staying at a Homewood Suites if you ever find one!) and headed out. We drove down to Estes Park, which is a very beautiful and scenic hour and a half drive, to where we'd be staying at a little B&B. Estes Park is a cute town located right outside Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), with wonderful views of the mountains. It's a little touristy as one might expect, but everyone was very friendly and our stay was great.

We took a very scenic 1/2-day drive up into the park on Old Falls River Rd., which is a dirt/gravel road. Old Falls River Rd. is a one-way only road that winds up into the mountains and as you can imagine has incredible views! It connects with Trail Ridge Rd., which is the main road through the park - which also has great views. (Here's a map of the park.)



We drove all the way down to Grand Lake, which is on the west side of the park. The drive is approximately 48 miles, but is very beautiful and a very windy road! We saw a mule deer (which we were told is fairly rare), elk and moose. We were lucky enough to see a mother moose and her calf! If you look carefully at the picture you'll see the baby to her left. It was difficult to see through all the brush and get a good picture, also because the mother kept the calf close to her.

We went to the local grocery store (which was an absolute zoo, due to it being high tourist season) and got some goodies for supper, and went to bed early so we could get up and hike the next day.

Day 3: Monday morning we had a wonderful homemade breakfast, courtesy of our hostess, Miriam, and ate with 5 or 6 other people also staying at the B&B, who were very nice. Drove out to RMNP and hiked the Fern Lake Trail. The first part of the trail to the pool was fairly easy, and we even spotted some bobcat tracks (but no bobcat)! Noah was hoping we'd see a mountain lion or a black bear... but no such luck. (Whew!) We reached the pool, which also had a waterfall that flowed into a rapid-filled small river. From there we started up to Fern Falls, which was a much tougher hike - uphill almost all the way, and the trail was windy and steep, and filled with rocks to step over. It was a tough hike! The elevation (lower level of oxygen) takes your breath away, and we needed to stop every 5 minutes or so to catch our breath. We weren't really tired - it was the elevation that caught up to us fairly quickly! The falls were amazing. The mist from the falls cooled us off as we snacked on a granola bar to keep us going. After talking to a few other hikers and taking a break, we decided to keep trekking up to Fern Lake, which was a little more than an additional mile from where we were, but a challenging uphill hike. When we reached Fern Lake, it sprinkled for about 10 minutes, then let up and we had lunch right on the shore. It was a beatiful spot, with an awesome view of the mountains. We even got a show! A duck decided to hang out on a rock in front of us and take a long bath! haha!!! Our hike back was easy - all down hill. It took us about 4 hours to get up to Fern Lake, but only 2 hours to hike back to the car (2 hours exactly - Noah timed it on his stopwatch!).

After our rigorous hike, we washed up and went to a wonderful restaurant called Twin Owls Steakhouse just outside of town for a fabulous dinner. The restaurant served a gourmet menu, but was casual. Noah had filet kabobs and I decided to try elk - which both turned out to be incredibly delicious. Best dinner we've had in a very long time! With our tummies full and recuping from a long hike, we were ready to hit the hay early!

Day 4: Tuesday we again had a great homemeade breakfast at the B&B, and then decided to take it easy, seeing as we were both pretty sore from our hike the previous day! We wandered around town after breakfast and then chose to drive down to Boulder and hit a few wineries and/or breweries. Boulder is a cute city - very clean. We stopped for lunch and hit what we thought was a brewery - but they didn't brew beer! They instead brewed mead, which is a sort of wine made with honey. Yum! We ended up taking back a bottle! The owner was our bartender, who gave us several free tastes.

From the meadery, we headed down to Denver, where we tried a brewery. Noah sampled a few microbrews and enjoyed himself. I tasted a few... but I still can't get myself to drink beer. Hmm... I'll have to work on that... maybe?

After a day of relaxing, it was time to go home again. Our flight home was direct, which we were thankful for. But it wasn't very relaxing, thanks to some parents who let their little boy throw a fit the whole flight. All that aside, we were glad to sleep in our own bed again... home sweet home!

We both said we'd love to go back for about a week next time and do some more exploring, hiking and sightseeing. The mountains do take your breath away... in more than one way! :)

We'll see all you Wisconsinites over Labor Day weekend!!!

Click on the photo below to see our pictures from the trip. Then click "View As Slideshow" on the far right side!

Photobucket Album

Easter Weekend '07

Hello!!!

Happy belated Easter. We hope all of you had a great holiday, and we were sorry we couldn't make it everywhere! For Easter this year, we decided to visit Nick and Cristol down in Texas. We hadn't seen them in almost a year and it was great to visit with them for the weekend!

We flew down to Dallas from St. Louis, and rented a car. The car rental started us off on the right foot. The car rental place ran out of compacts AND mid-size cars, so we got a nice big full-size one for the compact price of $47 for 4 days! Woo hoo!!! So we drove to Killeen Thursday night after flying.

After renting the car, we needed to drive 2 1/2 hours south to Killeen, which is next to Fort Hood (military base). The base is like a small city - and it's actually the SIZE of a small city! They have everything from a military type Wal-Mart to liquor store, grocery store and banks.

Friday was nice and relaxed. We had breakfast and waited for Nick to come home from work (he had to work a 1/2 day) and then we drove down to San Antonio. All of us decided that we would stay the night and get a cheap-o hotel room. When we got to San Antonio we did a lot of walking and experienced the Riverwalk. It was so beautiful! Cristol's camera was dying and we forgot ours, so these pictures came off of various websites:

Friday was beautiful - it was in the low 70's, just perfect for walking around. We stayed the night and were going to go back and see the Alamo Saturday morning but the weather was very cold and rainy so we stopped at a huge outlet mall on the way back and had fun shopping! Then we grabbed lunch at Bennigan's an Irish pub type chain, which was very good! It's sort of like Applebee's.

As we drove back to Killeen Saturday afternoon, the rain started to turn to sleet, and then to huge flakes of snow! Killeen got about 2-3 inches of snow by the time it ended, which is unheard of down there!!! All the kids in Nick and Cristol's neighborhood were outside playing and throwing snowballs and making snowmen and so excited about the snow.

We decided to be party poopers and stay inside! Cristol and I highlighted each other's hair and Nick and Noah watched a movie and talked for a while, which was great time to catch up... the girls and the guys. We stayed up late that night visiting and having fun.

Sunday we slept in, played Monopoly and then went to lunch at Olive Garden and watched a movie. So... it was a nice visit!!! We had a great time and it was very fun to see Nick and Cristol again! Hopefully we can see them again soon. We miss the dickens outta them!!!

Sunday night we drove back up to Dallas. The drive took forever because there was a lot of traffic, construction, an accident, you name it, we had it! So thanks to Noah's trusty GPS we bypassed about 30 minutes of awful traffic and took a smaller state highway. Whew...

When we checked into our hotel in Dallas, we definitely had a funny experience! The guy behind the counter was a funny little middle-eastern guy who was very eager to help us out and make sure every part of our stay was great. He needed some sort of print out from us because we booked our room online using Noah's hotel points, and both computers in the lobby had people at them so the front desk guy told us to just use his computer behind the front desk! After that (still not checked in), we were interrupted by one of the people at the computers in the lobby who was asking for roach spray. The front desk guy asked why he needed it, and the other guy told him there was a huge roach under the computer desk. The desk guy said (in his funny midde-eastern accent), "Oh it is just probably one of those water bugs." but the guy didn't believe him and kept asking for roach spray. Well in the mean time, the huge bug (which WAS a water bug) was creep-crawling down the hallway, so Noah and I went after it. After stepping on the thing 2-3 times, the bug finally didn't move anymore and the front desk guy was thanking Noah and I for killing it. And then he offered us a beer for killing the bug! hahahaha! We thought he was kidding, but the guy went in the back and got Noah 2 beers! And then he asked how many we wanted, and he brought me a glass of wine too! All for killing a bug... wow. :) I think I would stay at a Hampton Inn again! haha!

Our flight home this morning was pretty rough. We got to bed around 10:30/11pm last night (due to the traffic and front desk shinanagans) and had to get up at 4:30 to take showers, drop the rental car off and get to the airport. We were beat. And to boot, our bags didn't make the flight. So supposedly Southwest is going to have someone drop them off today at my office, which is fine.

Ta da... so there is our wonderful Easter weekend! We hope yours were great, and hope you have a great rest of the week!

Blessings, hugs and kisses...

Love,

Noah & Krista.

March 23, 2007

Hello from St. Louis, Missouri! It's been a very quiet day today, so I thought I would take an opportunity to post and let all of you know how we've been.

Drumroll Please!!!

Our biggest news is that we have finally finished our bathroom downstairs! It's been a long time in coming, so it's pretty exciting. Here are the pictures!

(Looking in from the game room.)

View from doorway towards shower. No, there is not a light inside the shower! It's just the reflection. The light is actually to the left of the toilet.

(View from storage room doorway)

(View from shower/sink towards closet andstorage room doorway)

All we need to do is seal the grout on the tile and we'll be set to use the shower. Yahooooo!

Other than that, we've just been busy. Getting ready for spring, busy at church and with work, and Noah's still doing his 2nd class towards his Master's degree.

On the Road Again...

Next weekend (3/31-4/1) we're going down to Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, MO (courtesy of American Family!) for our annual Spring Convention. It's a big awards ceremony/weekend put on by the company once a year. This year's theme is "The Oscars", so we all have to dress in "After 5" attire... fancy shmancy shtuff... I guess they're going to do some "red carpet interviews" and have a really nice dinner and stuff. Should be fun and very interesting!

It was a tough decision, but for Easter weekend we have decided to see Noah's brother Nick and his wife Cristol in Texas! We're very excited to see them, especially since we haven't seen them since their wedding last April. We miss them lots (just like the rest of you!) and are ready to go have some fun with them!

Well, that's about all from the southern home front. Just thought I'd give "ya'll" an update!!!

Lotsa love,

Noah & Krista.

March 2, 2007

Well it's definitely been a while since I updated this, so I apologize!

Oh... guess what? It's Noah's Birthday today!!!! Happy Birthday, honey! Yep, he's turned the big 2-6-... I only get to call him an old fart for another 3 months and 10 days, so I'm enjoying it.

Here, There and Everywhere
We've been really really busy around here lately. Noah started his second class towards his Masters Degree and is not really enjoying it. It keeps him busy on Tuesday and Thursday nights. He also helps man the sound board at church with the media team, which he enjoys. And finally... last but not least, he is going to get his pilots license this month! He's shooting for the weekend after St. Patty's Day.

I'm still involved in the meal ministry at church, which has been very busy lately. The lady that helps me lead it and I really are blessed to be able to serve others this way. :) For March and April, I'm also leading our worship team at church, which is a huge undertaking. The guy that normally does it is awesome, but is not able to be there on Sundays, due to his temporary job at the moment. So he passed it along to me. I'm enjoying it and learning a lot about what it takes to be a leader in that kind of environment, coordinating people, etc. Whew!!!

AND... yes, there is something else. I'm getting involved in the Womens' Ministry too. We'll see where that goes, but for the time being, I won't get too involved because I have a lot of other things going. I was sort of volunteered to speak for 15-20 minutes at our first official meeting of the year, so wish me luck! It's in a month, so hopefully that will be plenty of time to prepare.

We Welcome the John!
The day is finally here... our bathroom downstairs is officially (almost) FINISHED!!! The only catch is that we need to paint a second coat on one of the doors and put the new door knobs on. But that's it. Our guy is not helping us anymore... we are finito!!!! YAY!!! I will be posting some pictures as soon as I get that door painted and we get some door knobs on.

In Like A Lion
You know the saying, March comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb? Well that's exactly what it did! We had tornado sirens going off here all morning yesterday (3/1) and 70 mph wind gusts, downpours like you wouldn't believe and hail. Some places reported quarter-sized hail, and they said 31 tornadoes were reported yesterday in conjunction with the storm system that stretched from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin to Texas, Alabama and even Florida. I talked to my manager yesterday morning and we were just staying put until we were sure it was all over. I ended up going to work at 10:30am. Someone said there was a report of a funnel cloud about 5 minutes away from my work... pretty scary.

Well, I think that's it for now. Just wanted to update ya'll! We're safe and sound and bracing for more crazy spring weather. Hope all of you are doing great and hopefully we'll see you soon. Sending lots of love!