Moving Phase I: Survived

We survived Phase I of this crazy move of ours. Barely! When the kids and I arrived home from Canada, we had two weeks to pack up the house. This doesn’t sound like much time but I had been slowly chipping away at it for months, starting with a month-long purge in January. The real stress began about five days prior when we were finally able to pack up all those last-minute items like the kitchen and clothing/bedrooms.  I helped my friend Lisa move and paint her closet last year and she returned the favor by helping me pack up the kitchen. The irony? I remember thinking when I helped her that I was so glad I was never going to move.

Jamie’s sister Lisa helped with the other half of the kitchen. Julie, a sweet lady from our ward, runs a storage unit and loaded us up with packing supplies. Eva was a godsend and arrived with her kids several hours before we were to load everything in the POD and helped us shrink-wrap all the furniture and bubble-wrap our artwork. Around 6 p.m. our slew of helpers arrived: Uncle Chris, the Larsons, Haymonds, Phillips, Huntleys, Schmidts, Agnews, Uncle Chris, Jenzchs and I’m sure I’m forgetting others. Bode’s bestie Nicky’s mom Julie brought over a going-away cake, we ordered 10 pizzas and the loading frenzy began!

The challenge with this move is our house won’t be finished until late-September and we’ll be in a rental in Park City until then. So, we had to divide our belongings up into two categories: staying and going. We thought since we had sold most of our furniture on our main level (two sets of couches and two dining room sets), we would be able to fit everything into two PODS.

How wrong we were.

Two hours later, we still had a load of C-R-A-P sitting in our garage and in our family room. There was no way to get it all in so we had to drop another $1,500 to rent another POD, which wouldn’t arrive until sometime the next day. Eva thankfully took the kids for a sleepover and it seemed like a Herculean task to load up the remainder of our items; I felt certain we would need to push our move back another day. All we wanted was to lie in our fluffy bed and watch the Olympics and all we got was our bedroom floor. We had all the windows open downstairs as we ran our attic fan and I observed to Jamie, “we should probably lock up the house,” to which he responded “or what? Someone will come in and steal everything? Let them!”

Yup.

Our bed for the night

The next morning, I left to help with the media day open house at the Fort Collins Temple. Much more on that later but that few hours brought the peace and clarity I needed. I arrived home at noon and the third POD arrived shortly thereafter. Jamie’s sister returned to help us organize everything so it didn’t seem so overwhelming and Eva’s family, Darrin and Ariel (Lisa’s husband) came later that afternoon to help us load the third POD. Truly, we couldn’t have done it without them. I grabbed Panera Bread for dinner and it was depressing as we sat on our floor soaking in our final moments together. They have been among our closest friends in Colorado and they saw us through to the bittersweet end.

With everything loaded, we survived the flood of boxes that still remained. Remember my obsession with collecting them from our neighborhood? I literally had over 100 boxes left over and that was after giving many, many away. It was lightly raining as we loaded them and our carpet scraps in our trailer. Julie had given us permission to load them into the dumpster at her storage facility and we had a good chuckle when she emerged in her robe to find the kids jumping on them in the dumpster while it rained. Talk about a final Colorado adventure!

We spent our final night in our wonderful home. I probably would have been more emotional had I not been tapped out physically but we still had several hours of loading our cars and trailer, as well as cleaning the house ahead of us. Thanks to another friend Lisa and her daughter Alex (Hadley’s bestie), we were able to finish everything before noon.

My heart went out to Hadley as sweet Alex presented her with a going-away present. They’ve literally been friends since birth and Alex knows our house (and pantry) as well as her own. The good news is Alex has three siblings at nearby BYU so she’ll be coming to Utah a lot. In fact, her brother Mitch is getting married this week so Alex is spending the night with us in Park City.

As I walked through the empty house for the final time, that is when the outpouring of emotion came. This is where we became a family. This is where I became a mother. This is where we brought our children home from the hospital. This is where they spent their entire childhood. This is where, when I walked in the door as a young newlywed, I marveled at the wonder of it all and thought, “I will never be unhappy here.” And, despite all the storms that have been thrown our way during the 12 years we lived there, joy has always prevailed.

Family Room

As we closed the doors for the final time, we huddled in prayer in the garage. I was a sobbing mess and Jamie gave a beautiful prayer of gratitude for the beautiful life we lived there. Before we pulled out, I posted the following on Facebook:

5337 Parfet Street was where we became a family and honestly where I thought we’d live until we died. Thank you to all the wonders who worked around the clock to help us with this disastrous move; you are what we’ll miss the most about glorious Colorado. Now, excuse me while I cry the entire drive to Utah.

I did cry most of the way but when we stopped for lunch in Wyoming, I read the wonderful comments so many dear friends had left me. One, in particular, came at the exact moment I needed comfort. When Jamie and I were newly married, I taught the Old Testament in early-morning seminary to 16-year-olds. One of my students, Sariah, was super attentive and mature beyond her years and shared something I had said 13 years ago that she’d never forgotten.

 I remember you telling our class about this house in seminary before you bought it. You wanted the other model house with the loft, but you both prayed about it and knew you should take this one. I remember you saying you were trying to pretend the other was the answer: “But Jesus wants the loft!!” I remember you sharing your testimony about choosing what God wants instead of just what you want. I’ll always think of that when I think of you and houses. Much luck and love in your new one!!

Here’s to hoping….

The Colorado Sisterhood

When I first moved to Colorado 13.5 years ago, it took me a while to adjust. I’d left a thriving career and fun social circle in Salt Lake City to a place where I knew no one apart from my new husband, whom I was still getting to know. I didn’t fit in with the women my age in the ward who all had children, it took me a few months to find a job and I spent a lot of time on my own hiking and [sad confession] watching the entire series of Dawson’s Creek. I don’t really mind being alone–in fact, I quite enjoy it–but I definitely felt lonely as I struggled to carve out my existence here.

Six months after getting married, I got pregnant with Hadley. It wasn’t until after I become a mom that I finally started making friends, the first of whom was my dear friend Tina through our hiking group, Colorado Mountain Mamas. When we moved into our house, I hated the Arvada 2nd Ward–it was the smallest in the stake and struggled a lot. My now-friend Lisa decided to do something about it and formed a dinner group with couples who have now become our very closest friends.

As the years have passed, that circle of friends has grown. I have gone from feeling like an outsider to being the includer–organizing events and gatherings for anyone who will come. I love that this group of people we are blessed to call friends are so involved in each other’s lives. My children have grown up with their children, I thought they’d be teenagers together and maybe even date and marry. I envisioned going to lunch as old ladies with Lisa, Eva and Jenn, sharing all the minute details of our grandchildren’s lives.  These friends have become part of our DNA and that has been, hands down, the most difficult part of leaving.

I started an informal hiking group a while back and it has become a come-if-you-can weekly adventure.  In May, I vowed I would finally do a hike that has been on my bucket list for years: we would hike the entirety of the Mesa Trail in Boulder. It’s a 14-mile round-trip trek and, though I’ve hiked numerous portions of it, I’ve never hiked it straight through. And as much as I love hiking, 14 miles is a beast so I decided to cut it in half by parking a car at the end of the hike and then circling back and planting another car at the beginning, the South Mesa Trailhead.

I put a call out to friends to see who would be interested and six answered the call on that Thursday: Debbie, Jenn, Lisa, Sheree, Tina and a new friend, Melissa. It wasn’t an easy hike and by the end, I was limping but the time flew by during those 3.5 hours as we hiked, chatted and marveled at the sheer majesty along the trail that day. Chautauqua Park has been a special place for me since my early days in Colorado and I’ll never forget my first hike there with my hiking group as I was blown away by the stunning terrain and historic cottages and Dining Hall heaped in history.

We laughed at the memory of when, earlier in the year, we’d hiked a portion of the trail when it ran into an unnavigable river. Or so we thought until Debbie insisted we bushwhack downstream, find a rickety log to cross, and it was Debbie who ended up falling in.

Fortunately this time, there was a new passage in place across the creek.

When we finally arrived at Chautauqua nearly 8 miles later, we were tired, dirty and sweaty but that didn’t stop us from eating lunch on the Dining Hall’s gorgeous patio overlooking the Flatiron Mountains and a torrent of flowers on the expansive lawn. For two hours, we laughed, ate and certainly didn’t disagree when Debbie strongly suggested topping off the day with peach and huckleberry cobbler. When we weren’t looking,  she covertly slipped the waiter her credit card to cover the bill and I felt like smooching her right there if I hadn’t been covered in dirt and berries.

Sitting on that deck in the most gorgeous settings with women who are numbered among my dearest friends (and knowing there are so many more who couldn’t join us), I just felt gratitude for this life I have been blessed to live for 13 years. I know new friendships will develop in Utah but I need to remember it will take time and that what I have here will never, ever be replaced.

I couldn’t help but think how far I’ve come…and how far I still have to go.

And how darn grateful I am to have shared this journey with so many wonderful people along the way.

A Night Under the Stars at Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA

“Mom, can you believe these stars?!” My son Bode raves as he peers through our friend Bryan’s telescope while standing on his back. Riding low in the summer sky is the constellation Sagittarius, looking like a teapot and containing some of the finest deep sky objects in our 360-degree panorama.

yurtvillage2Plunk a city kid into Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA’s new yurt village near Granby, Colo. and an entirely new universe is unfolded to him. Literally. The Milky Way’s eruption of stars shooting out of the Rocky Mountains isn’t the first time we are awestruck that weekend.

Bode and I are numbered among the first lucky visitors to stay in the Schlessman Family Yurt Village, a smattering of 12 canvas yurts that include such amenities as Wi-Fi, electric outlets, interior lighting, windows with screens, ceiling fan, retractable skylight, lockable doors and outside decks. Each yurt sleeps up to six people with one queen bed and two bunk beds, a microwave, mini-fridge and prep tables. This is “glamping” at its finest.

I have had only one previous yurt experience–a backcountry structure near Sun Valley, ID that came equipped with stellar views of the Sawtooth Range, along with derelict conditions and plenty of mice turds. I haven’t been in a hurry for a repeat experience but quickly learn not all yurts are created equally. Though we’re still in a campground setting, our Colorado Yurt Company structure feels more like a weather-tight cozy cabin.
yurt2a
When we arrive, Bode transports our suitcases and sleeping bags in the luggage carts to our yurt about 200 feet away.  The exposed framing and heavy-duty canvas shell provide a soft blend with the natural surroundings as we settle into our home away from home. Nearby is a shade shelter with with two gas grills and fire pit–the perfect gathering place for friends in the evening.

We spend the weekend conquering a sliver of what 5,100-acre Snow Mountain Ranch has offer.  We enjoy a new program, Lollygagging with the Llamas, where we learn how to pack and hike with the llamas. We careen down the Summer Tubing hill made of Snowflex®the first ever in Colorado.

We race across the Forest Zip Line, channel our inner Merida in Archery, conquer the aqua climbing wall at the indoor pool, come in way over par at miniature golf, fish at Gaylord Reservoir and explore the myriad of trails around the property.

llama5a

tube2a

We top off our day with Sombrero Stables’ hay ride.  As our draft horses leisurely lope along, the sweeping views of the Continental Divide reflexively cause a deep, whistling intake of breath. Our descent into the postcard-perfect Rowley Homstead is effortless, the mountains growing larger until we are swallowed by their shadows as we stop to enjoy a campfire, s’mores and cowboy humor.

What started as a stunningly sunny day turns into a crisp, clear evening. As we settle into our comfy yurt later that evening, we fall asleep gazing through the domed skylight at the stars, marveling at the vast nocturnal paradise that almost seems close enough to touch.

I’m sure even Galileo would have approved.

 Know Before You Go

  • Yurts are $99/night are are available year-round.
  • yurtvillage1The exterior of each yurt includes a fire ring, a charcoal grill, a picnic table and a 2-person tent pad.
  • The structures are not heated. Linens and a light blanket are provided in the summer but bring a warm sleeping bag.
  • Pets are allowed with a minimal pet fee of $15/per night per pet.
  • The Mac and Shirley Burgher Yurt Village is adjacent to the new Schlessman Family Yurt Village and offers an additional 12 yurts that opened in 2010. Each yurt village has one handicap-accessible yurt with a ramp and each village has a central bathhouse with private restrooms, showers and sinks for drinking water and washing dishes, including a handicap accessible restroom/shower.
  •  Most of the activities at Snow Mountain Ranch are free or require a nominal fee, making this an affordable family vacation. Thank you to the YMCA of the Rockies for hosting.

Glad I’m Not There

The only thing I dislike about our 3,000-mile road-trip to Canada is that Jamie isn’t with us. Due to our crazy summer selling the house and then moving, he hasn’t been able to take time off work (the boys of self-employment). Though we kept busy with family, we definitely missed him a lot.

Then I got what I thought was a sweet email from him after being gone 1.5 weeks entitled “wish you were here.”

Eagerly I opened it anticipated a sweet love note from my honey and I got this. 

I called to get the low-down and thankfully it wasn’t anything serious–the toilet overflowed into our storage room.

I lambasted Jamie. “You can’t send a picture with a title like that. I thought you were writing me a nice note.”

Him: “That’s the way I felt.”

Sometimes you’re the cat, sometimes you’re the mouse

In the past, we had a problem with baby bunnies falling down our window well and as much as we hated to do it, we rescued and relocated them. I used to be a big fan of bunnies–heck, I adored my childhood pets Whiskers and Snowflake until my Aunt Sue’s dog had them for lunch. But in our neighborhood, the rabbits are pests who destroy our garden. Jamie has finally successfully blocked them out of our backyard so was surprised when he was downstairs on the phone and noticed movement in our window well. Big movement.

Shocked, he gazed upon Fat Kitty frantically pacing back and forth with a mouse in his mouth.  Being the nice man that he is, Jamie went outside and jumped down in the window well to save him but much to Fat Kitty’s dismay, he got rid of the mouse.

An open letter to The Fat One:

If you’re going to drop down into the window well in hot pursuit of a mouse, make sure you’re not too fat to jump out.

Colorado Friends: Be Sure to Tour the New LDS (Mormon) Temple

This entire summer has been a whirlwind and I haven’t told even a small portion of the story yet. But one of the reasons for all the delays has been that I was asked to help with the social media promotions for the new LDS (Mormon) temple that will be opening its doors very soon. As many of you know, temples are super sacred places for us and a new temple is opening in Fort Collins, which means for a limited time, the public is invited to tour the temple.

Fort Collins Temple

Below is the press release I posted at Mile High Mamas today:

Salt Lake City temple

Have you ever been intrigued to see inside an LDS (Mormon) temple?  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is preparing to open the doors of the new Fort Collins Colorado Temple to the public for an open house. The temple, which is the second Mormon temple in the Centennial State, is located at 2180 Majestic Drive, on the corner of Trilby Road and Timberline Road.

The general public is invited to tour the temple from Friday, August 19, through Saturday, September 10, 2016, except Sundays (August 21 and 28 and September 4). To make a free reservation for the open house, visit www.templeopenhouse.lds.org or call 1-855-537-2000. Tours will consist of a 10-minute video followed by a 40-minute walking tour through the temple.

Dedication and Cultural Celebration

Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated on October 16. It will then be closed to the public. The dedication will be preceded by a cultural celebration featuring music and dance by local youth of the Church, to be held on the evening of Saturday, October 15, at the Hughes Stadium on the campus of Colorado State University. (It breaks my heart we won’t be here for this because Hadley would have LOVED to participate).

Background Information

Latter-day Saint temples differ from the chapels or meetinghouses where members meet for Sunday worship services. Temples are considered “houses of the Lord” where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ceremonies that unite families for eternity.

Will everyone need to have a ticket to participate in the Temple open house?

It is highly encouraged that everyone reserve a ticket on-line before they come. This will help the tours to go more smoothly and be a better experience for their guests. However, no one will be turned away. The tour is wheelchair accessible and all ages are welcome.

What will the tours be like?

The tour will start in the Trilby building with a short video and then guests will be escorted across the street to the temple where they will be taken on a guided tour. Time will not permit asking questions while in the temple. At the end of the tour, guests will end in an air conditioned hospitality tent where there will be displays and additional information about temples and visitors  can ask questions and take photos in front of a backdrop of the temple. There will also be a display of materials used in the building of the temple.

How long will the tour take?

The entire experience will be approximately 1 hour.

More information about the purpose of temples is available on www.mormonnewsroom.org.

The skinny on all the fat around here

Welp, we’re in full-blown GO mode here. I have a few blog posts I’ve scheduled over the next few weeks but I won’t have a stitch of time for real-time updates until our move is final. Here are a few things coming down the pipe:

  • The kids and I are back from a great 2.5 weeks in Canada. Many, many updates to come at a later time. Or not. Maybe the rest of my life will be crazy.
  • Not so fun: 50 hours as the lone driver. Normally I leave B.C., overnight in Boise (about 12 hours) and then stay in Salt Lake City with my in-laws (4 hours away) for several days before returning to Denver (9 hours). Because of our move, I had to drive back from B.C., overnight in Bozeman and drive straight through to Denver. That was 24 hours of driving in two days. I wouldn’t recommend it. At all.
  • Normally I have several days to recover and don’t travel again for a few months. But we’re moving in less than 2 weeks so that is not an option. I have a sore throat and am wiped out. Not surprisingly.
  • Our house in Midway won’t be finished until late-September so we have to rent a couple of PODS to avoid loading everything in a moving van, unloading it into storage, reloading it again on our actual move date and unloading it. PODs are more expensive but are much more convenient.
  • We’re downsizing on our main level so are selling a lot of furniture: two sets of couches and both of our dining room sets. Dear Craiglist purchasers: please buy pronto!
  • Fat Kitty will inevitably be traumatized because he hates the car. We bought him a huge crate and this week, Jamie brought it upstairs, put his blanket in it and Fat Kitty loves napping there. Jamie has been christened The Cat Whisperer.
  • Our awesome friends threw a going-away party at their pool for us this week and our neighbors are throwing us a bash next week. My heart physically hurts at the thought of leaving these people.
  • Our POD arrives Aug 13, we’ll do our big moving party on the evening of August 15, I am helping with the Fort Collins Temple Media Day on the 16th and then we official leave Colorado on the 17th.
  • We’ll stay with my in-laws for a few days in Salt Lake City while driving to Midway to finish up the last of the kids’ school registration, pick up their laptops, etc. Pretty cool that every child gets their own computer for the year!
  • The bad:  Hadley’s school starts at 7:40 a.m.; Bode’s doesn’t start until 9 a.m. and there is an hour difference at the end of the school day. This won’t be a big deal once we’re in our house and they can ride the bus but we’re staying a half-hour away so I’ll spend 3+ hours of my day chauffeuring them back and forth, not to mention after-school/church activities in town.
  • The good: In an ideal world, we would have been in our house by the time school started, which is what our builder originally projected. But everything has been delayed: the sale of our house, the permits for our new one so we are essentially homeless for 1.5 months. Of course, staying with my in-laws is an option but that is an hour drive. Enter: my Snowmama friend Kristen who is renting us her luxury 3-story townhome in Park City for a fraction of her nightly rate. It will still take about 30 minutes to drive to Hadley’s middle school but the timing of it all worked out perfectly and is an answer to prayers.
The only problem? The townhome is exponentially more luxurious than the house we’re building so it will be a letdown to move. But we’ll (gratefully) take it.

Tween Scene

They call them “tweens” for a reason. Not quite kids, not quite adults and, at times, not quite human.

One thing Hadley has going for her: she’s not an overly emotional kid so while her friends are reduced to tears the drop of…well, anything, Hadley just chooses moodiness. And to be obstinate. Thankfully, it’s only sometimes and for the most part, she’s pretty darn fun and is really growing into a beautiful young woman.

As she packed for her first Young Women Girl’s Camp ever, she was testing out my new sleeping bag. It reminded me so much of when we tried to swaddle her as a baby. No matter how tight we made the blanket, that colicky baby of ours refused to be controlled and we’d always find her stubbornly sleeping with one little arm out that she had somehow finagled out of her straight jacket. Just call her Houdini.  I asked her to reenact that and this is all I got. 

Stubborn baby meets stubborn tween.

Sometimes she really surprises me. As we were leaving King Soopers, she stopped at the little horsey ride she did as a toddler and went for the ride of her life.

I didn’t bother to tell her I finally won by snapping that shot with just one arm in the air.

The Broadmoor’s Bliss

I’ve long stated how much we love AAA Five-Diamond  The Broadmoor and I feel honored to write for the resort’s magazine. For every visit I make on-assignment, we are spoiled to receive another trip just for pleasure. For the fourth Memorial Day weekend in a row, we returned to what has become our favorite place in Colorado.

Saturday morning, Hadley and I woke up early to conquer the Manitou Incline. The holy grail of extreme trails, this beast climbs 2,000 feet in 1 mile and we joined the rank of Colorado crazies who have done it. And never will again.

The Pool

The rest of our Broadmoor vacation was full of rest, relaxation and lots and lots of eating. Their pool is a lesson in luxury with poolside service and we even rented a cabana one of the days.

A Taste of the Good Life

Our BFF Cabana Boy feeding our virgin Miami Vice addiction

May we just take a second to talk about this man of mine? After a few hours at the pool on Saturday, he wanted to go back to the room to rest. We only had one key between us and the kids wanted to stay and play so he needed to go to the front desk to get another. The problem: he was in his swimsuit and didn’t have his wallet so he came up with a brilliant plan. When he walked up to the front desk clerk, she predictably asked for identification.

“I don’t have any. I left it in the room.”

“I need some ID from you, Sir.”

“Do you have a copy of The Broadmoor Magazine? There is a picture of me with my name in it.”

Talk about name-dropping.

The clerk looked at him, startled. And ended up sending someone with him to open up the room where he then needed to prove his existence apart from magazine evidence. So much for his “don’t you know who I am?” approach.

The Gourmet Food

Jamie made us diet the week prior to The Broadmoor, which was particularly difficult because we had an endless stream of graduations parties and a reception with gooooood food. His reasoning? Lose a few pounds so we can gain back 10 at The Broadmoor.

We made sure to hit all our favorite haunts, starting with bowling at their upscale alley Play, stuffing our faces with milkshakes and retro Americana favorites. I even played passably well and bowled a couple of strikes while Jamie had a gutterball on almost every turn…and yet he still somehow pulled off a win in the 10th frame.

I’m not bitter.

A trip to The Broadmoor would not be complete without room service.

The Summit is our favorite restaurant at The Broadmoor and their crème brûlée is worthy of the very best belated birthday celebration.

But not to be surpassed: The Brunch with the most amazing spread of gourmet food I’ve ever seen, easily the best brunch in Colorado.

Following Colorado’s destructive floods a few years ago, The Broadmoor acquired the popular tourist destination Seven Falls and in typical 5-star fashion, restored it to to an even more glorious condition. There are seven beautiful falls that cascade 181 feet down a solid cliff of naturally-carved Pikes Peak granite. We climbed the steep stairs, relishing in the refreshing spray and views, followed by an indulgent dinner in their new Restaurant 1858 at the base.

So Long, Farewell

With all that eating, I needed to burn off some calories and energy. On Memorial Day before dawn, I set out for my traditional trek up North Cheyenne Cañon, easily my favorite hike in Colorado. I relished being completely alone in that special place that, in a few hours, would be overrun with outdoor enthusiasts. I thought the views along the lower trail could not be surpassed.

Until I climbed higher and higher.

I touched magic that day, just as we do every time we are privileged to stay at The Broadmoor.

7-Eleven Day at Play

One of the things I’ll miss the most about Colorado is our posse of friends. I love that when I get one of my hairbrained ideas, I can send an email out and my friends respond. In droves!

July 7 is the hallowed day when 7-Eleven offers free small Slurpees. The kids and I wanted to bike over to get one so why not make an event of it? I invited our peeps to come hang out and then play in Van Bibber Creek with us afterwards.

Best. Friends. Ever!
The girls look sweet but they were actually plotting a movie party at our house the next night. Sucker that I am, I obliged.


We introduced many of these friends to our secret spot in Van Bibber Open Space and I was surprised so few knew about it. In fact, my friend Amy rides through there a lot and didn’t even know there was a creek. I felt honored to pass the torch to the new generation.

Of course, a Van Bibber adventure isn’t the same without a Bike-off where we compete to see who can make it through the creek without falling off. Shockingly, everyone made it through multiple times without incident, even when I did a couple of runs as The Mom Representative.

Bode’s crossing

Kids being kids, they decided to up the degree of difficulty and had splashers on the sidelines.

 

But in the end, they were the ones who got sprayed the most…and none of us minded one bit.