Visiting the Boulder/Denver area

We are hoping the wild fires in California will not hinder our travels. Right now we a nervous about the Big Sur area. We are both so excited about California. Lets all pray and hope that the situation will subside and the fires will be under control soon! We also are hoping the wind tomorrow will be mild. Today we were supposed to go up in a hot air balloon around the Rocky Mountains. We woke up at 4:30 this morning and pretty much rolled out of bed to the car. At 5:00 we received a call that the winds looked like they might be choppy so the ride was called off. This was Brad's birthday present from me so I really hope the winds will work for tomorrow. We can not control the weather though. Since the flight was called off today we were allowed to reschedule, but we will only be in town tomorrow. We are supposed to be at the Rocky Mountain National Park to pick up our back country permit before 10 am or it could be given away. We are really keeping our fingers crossed that we get to float in a balloon and we get our permit tomorrow. Things have a way of working out so we will see. We have been hanging out with Larry and Kasie these past couple of days. Larry is the brother of Brad's brother's wife. So, it is kind of a distant relation but they are way cool and have been fun to chill with. We are really glad they are letting us stay for a couple days because it is only thirty minutes from the balloon launch site and this area rocks, therefore it is really expensive. We got a little turned around driving to their house because all the streets here are named the same thing. The only difference is whether it is a drive, street, road, court, boulevard, or lane. In there neighborhood there is a 117th street, 117th court, 117th drive etc. Yikes - we finally caught on to this and found our way. Kasie took us out on the town last night. We walked around Pearl street, the pedestrian downtown for Boulder. There were street performers and a man who ran while hula-hooping. I was way impressed by that guy. We of course hit up a microbrewery and came back to the house early, because we thought we were ballooning this morning. After we found out there was no reason for us to be awake before the sun was up we went back to sleep, naturally! Today it rained here, which we have been told is rare. It rained twice today which never happens. But luckily it was a light rain. We went hiking and it was so awesome to be here in Colorado just walking around. The views are so awesome. Even driving around here there are usually awesome views just out the window of your car. But this is true of a lot of places including Boone. We always take for granted the beauty of where we live from time to time. It is so easy to get used to things. Kasie was driving and I just could not help but to blurt out how pretty the mountains where. It took her a second because she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then she said, as I have said in Boone, that she doesn't always notice them because they are always there. Larry and Kasie are pretty in touch with nature and they definitely appreciate it so it was nice to be shown around by them. It has still been pretty cold here so there are still spring flowers everywhere. It was like we were hiking in a garden in some parts. Butterflies were flapping there wings in almost every direction. The biggest dandelions I have ever seen were on this hike. I could not help but to blow on one. This sensation hit Larry too and he picked one and blew the little white floating petals into the wind. They were so huge each little feathery petal looked like a parachute. We saw a little white tail deer just hanging out. She definitely kept an eye on us, but did not feel threatened enough to run or hide. She kept her distance, which was not very far, and just hung out. The rain in some parts actually added to the hike because we were going up some steep grades and the rain was like a refreshing mist. We went out with their dog, Bennie. It is always more fun to hike with a dog. Once we descended the mountain we ate at a local microbrewery, Southern Sun. Brad and I walked around town again and had to split a cookie dessert from Ben and Jerry's. Brad is a sucker for cookies, cookie dough ice cream and Oreo crumbles, and all of these things were on one dessert so I don't think there was even another option of a dessert we could have chosen instead. Driving back to there house we saw a complete rainbow arch. It is funny that we happened to see one because just the other day Brad was saying how he had never seen a rainbow completely arch but had only seen half. It was the most perfect rainbow and it was awesome just to look at it. We were on the highway so it was hard to take a decent picture of it and the exposure was off, so I did not get a great picture of it =( But I can see it in my mind which is still pretty cool. Now, Brad can say he has seen a full rainbow! Later on this evening we are going to cook out and chill out. We all talked about wanting the family here. And everyone agrees that Grace is the coolest cutest baby EVER!