My Birthday Trip...

We had to postpone Seth's Birthday due to some car troubles. So we stayed closer to home and celebrated my birthday early with the Leadville Train Ride. This is an 16 mile train ride that goes up to the Climax mine and back. We saw some great scenery and learned a bit of Leadville History...For example: There are several houses (ours is one of them) and buildings (our church is another one) that used to be located at the Climax mine. There was a small town in Climax, but in 1961 they started open pit mining and moved the buildings to Leadville because they were in the way. We also learned that we live near the two tallest Peaks in the Rockies - Mt. Elbert is the tallest and Mt. Massive (Hagerman's pass is in the Mt. Massive wilderness) is the second tallest. Mt. Arkansas is also near us and the snow and water run off from Mt. Arkansas create the Arkansas River headwaters. Not only did we learn a lot about our home we also had a great ride and some fun on the tracks!

Hagerman's Pass Part 1...

We had a little time today and decided to do some hiking around Turquoise lake. We found a rough path and started hiking, but it was not much of a path, so we decided to get back into the car.
We found the Hagerman's Pass and decided to drive up a bit. Along the way we found a couple of little waterfalls coming off the mountains...
When we got to the top we found some hiking paths and checked them out for a little bit. It was late, so we didn't spend much time hiking as we didn't want to get stuck up on the mountain after dark! But we definitely found a place to come back and explore some more...

Boom Days...

We have arrived in Leadville just in time for their annual Boom Days. This is a weekend event that celebrates the "Boom Days" of mining in Leadville. The festivities start on Friday night, but the main activities happen on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we begin with a parade. Chad and I helped the church put together a float and the boys helped hand out candy.After the parade they have all kinds of events around town including Bike events for the kids...
In one event they balance as long as they can on a two by four:In another event they ride as slow as they can while still staying inside of a chalk box.
Then there are other kids games all afternoon:
The festivities end on Sunday with a burrow race (which we missed because of church... but I hear it is a fun event).

Turquoise Lake...

Not far from our new home we have a beautiful huge lake... I know I have been using the word beautiful a lot lately, but there really is no other way to describe this place we live in... We began our exploration of the lake tonight with a bike ride...
On our way to the lake we found this huge rock... It is just one of many around the lake! Of course we had to climb it...
Then we got to the lake and we took some time to skip some stones!We really love our new home for the year!

Chad's Installation...

This morning Chad was installed as the Vicar of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Leadville and Christ Lutheran in Breckenridge!

We woke up and headed to Good Shepherd first for their 8:30 a.m. service. We met a handful of people and participated in the service. Following the service we had a few moments to say hi to a couple of the people and then we were on our way down to Breck for their 10:30 service (this is a 45 minute drive, so we literally finished the service and took off). While we rushed off we looked forward to the day when we could spend a little more time in fellowship with the people of Leadville, where we will primarily be serving.

We arrived in Breckenridge just in time for the service and then Chad was installed there. We had a little more time to fellowship afterward.

This is the picture of us at church in Breck... We look forward to an exciting year of serving both churches!

Hiking in Vail

So we arrived home in Colorado and began unpacking and getting settled right... WRONG!

You can't be in the mountains and not take a hike + plus we needed a few Walmart supplies and the nearest one is Vail... So on Saturday morning we went to Vail and took a Gondola ride up to a peak where we proceeded to hike three miles through beautiful terrain!When it was over we went to Walmart! Maybe we will work on settling in tomorrow!

Travel Day 4... Heading Home...

Day 4 of our trip starts in Golden, CO and ends at home on top of the world in Leadville!

We woke up and had breakfast with Chad's supervising Pastor, Pastor C. It was great to finally meet him and we are excited to see what this year holds for us and the churches of Breckenridge and Leadville.

Then before heading up the mountain, we went to Dinosaur Ridge where you can see Dinosaur footprints in the rock.
Following a little hike to see the footprints, we got back in the car and began our trip up the mountain! Along the way we stopped for this picture (and anyone with young boys knows that the real reason for this stop was a bathroom break... we just happened to get a picture after that was taken care of!)Later that afternoon we drove into Leadville, CO!
Welcome HOME!