colorado is AWESOME
i don't know what it is about that place, but every time i go i like it more and more. i have a lot of family out there (my mom was born there and basically all of her extended family has stayed there) and i never get to see them. the last time i saw most of my aunts and uncles and second cousins was at our big family reunion in 1996. and i was so young and shy that i didn't get to enjoy it at all. mostly i listened to my 311 cassette tape on my discman.
sunday morning my cousin and i took a big plane to denver and then a small little propeller plane to montrose, which is where my great-grandma lives. her husband ralph, my great-grandpa, died in march. he was a WWII veteran and i wrote a big paper on him for my history class last semester. he was a part of this thing called the bataan death march which was when the japanese forced a group of american and filipino soldiers to march hundreds of miles and tortured them. he was then in a POW camp for close to 4 years. he was the nicest man i have ever and probably will ever meet, and he always had a big smile on his face. i didn't realize how much i really would miss him until we went to the memorial service on sunday and watched a picture slideshow. i was in so many of the pictures...i always felt like i never got to see him but then i remembered all of the times that we had together and i just bawled my eyes out. i was supposed to say something at the memorial but after my grandma spoke i couldn't even breathe. i gave my little speech to my granny so she could read it and i think she liked that.
on sunday night i babysat my second cousin's 22 month old little boy who was probably the smartest child i have ever met. he was speaking in full sentences and just amazed all of us. his name was tristan. we played soccer and collected pinecones and read books. then my cousin and i stayed in a hotel room that one of our family members gave us for the night because they were leaving early, and we went in the hot tub for a little bit and watched supertroopers until we totally crashed.
monday we all went to my aunt tricia's ranch and got to ride her horses! it was so fun. here's her horse mariah.
she was so beautiful. tricia has 3 horses, 2 dogs, cats and a really neat house that's built into a small hill. we ate really good mexican food that her husband albert made and then played dominoes. here's a picture of her dog sasha that has 2 different color eyes.
that night my mom and i got a hotel room and we went in the pool and hot tub too. when we got into our room there was totally someone having sex in the room next to us so my mom made us change rooms although i was content to stay and listen to it...it was hilarious.
tuesday we got up early and drove to ouray which is a really old town that my mom used to visit as a child. there are a bunch of cute little shops on the main street.
we also drove a little ways to box canyon falls. it's a big canyon that was formed by the power of the rushing water that flows through it. the walkways are all made of like grated metal so it feels really unsafe and you can feel the water spraying on you. it was incredible.
that's me with some of the falls behind me. it was a gorgeous day and perfect end to the trip.
tuesday afternoon we flew back to denver on a small plane and then on the way back to philly we went right through a giant storm and it was like a horrible scene from a scary plane movie...like lights flashing and lightning outside and rain and we were all coming up out of our seats because of the turbulence. SO SCARY. i really thought i might die for a second. but then we got off and shannon was there to pick me up and all was right in the world.
in other news...mike got a job in NJ so he will be moving up here within the next few weeks! we have been furiously apartment hunting and actually found a really cute place in manayunk, which is a section of philadelphia. here's a little picture of the living room.
i was supposed to go see it today but couldn't get in touch with the girl who's subletting it out. tomorrow i'll go up there again to the leasing office if she doesn't get in touch with me and we will just rent a different apartment in the same complex. much more news when we figure out what's going on.
sunday morning my cousin and i took a big plane to denver and then a small little propeller plane to montrose, which is where my great-grandma lives. her husband ralph, my great-grandpa, died in march. he was a WWII veteran and i wrote a big paper on him for my history class last semester. he was a part of this thing called the bataan death march which was when the japanese forced a group of american and filipino soldiers to march hundreds of miles and tortured them. he was then in a POW camp for close to 4 years. he was the nicest man i have ever and probably will ever meet, and he always had a big smile on his face. i didn't realize how much i really would miss him until we went to the memorial service on sunday and watched a picture slideshow. i was in so many of the pictures...i always felt like i never got to see him but then i remembered all of the times that we had together and i just bawled my eyes out. i was supposed to say something at the memorial but after my grandma spoke i couldn't even breathe. i gave my little speech to my granny so she could read it and i think she liked that.
on sunday night i babysat my second cousin's 22 month old little boy who was probably the smartest child i have ever met. he was speaking in full sentences and just amazed all of us. his name was tristan. we played soccer and collected pinecones and read books. then my cousin and i stayed in a hotel room that one of our family members gave us for the night because they were leaving early, and we went in the hot tub for a little bit and watched supertroopers until we totally crashed.
monday we all went to my aunt tricia's ranch and got to ride her horses! it was so fun. here's her horse mariah.
she was so beautiful. tricia has 3 horses, 2 dogs, cats and a really neat house that's built into a small hill. we ate really good mexican food that her husband albert made and then played dominoes. here's a picture of her dog sasha that has 2 different color eyes.
that night my mom and i got a hotel room and we went in the pool and hot tub too. when we got into our room there was totally someone having sex in the room next to us so my mom made us change rooms although i was content to stay and listen to it...it was hilarious.
tuesday we got up early and drove to ouray which is a really old town that my mom used to visit as a child. there are a bunch of cute little shops on the main street.
we also drove a little ways to box canyon falls. it's a big canyon that was formed by the power of the rushing water that flows through it. the walkways are all made of like grated metal so it feels really unsafe and you can feel the water spraying on you. it was incredible.
that's me with some of the falls behind me. it was a gorgeous day and perfect end to the trip.
tuesday afternoon we flew back to denver on a small plane and then on the way back to philly we went right through a giant storm and it was like a horrible scene from a scary plane movie...like lights flashing and lightning outside and rain and we were all coming up out of our seats because of the turbulence. SO SCARY. i really thought i might die for a second. but then we got off and shannon was there to pick me up and all was right in the world.
in other news...mike got a job in NJ so he will be moving up here within the next few weeks! we have been furiously apartment hunting and actually found a really cute place in manayunk, which is a section of philadelphia. here's a little picture of the living room.
i was supposed to go see it today but couldn't get in touch with the girl who's subletting it out. tomorrow i'll go up there again to the leasing office if she doesn't get in touch with me and we will just rent a different apartment in the same complex. much more news when we figure out what's going on.