Our Colorado Trip

We just returned from visiting our daughter and her family in Colorado. We had a wonderful time and I was in gluten free heaven.

I'm going to let my photos tell our story, click on it to enlarge or you can also go to my webshot album to see a larger view!

Our plane was to leave out of Jackson Thursday morning. Jackson is about 1-1/2 hrs drive from our house. On Wednesday it started to sleet and snow so we left and went to a hotel for the night so that we would be sure and get to the airport. Here Honey is finishing up last minute work and I am sporting my new hair cut as we get packed to leave.

Views around Sarah's house...

Friday morning I took photos of the view from our daughter's home. Later that morning we went to "Granny's Gluten Free Zone" to pick up a few items for my stay! Being in the South we don't have stores such as this, I was in heaven.  Then we met our son-in-law Eric for lunch at "The Rustic Oven" and guess what? I was able to order gf pizza and it was wonderful!!!

After lunch we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming so that I could shop at "Sierra Trading Post" and we could possibly see some buffalo. God was good and we did both. I had asked Sarah to take me boot shopping and this is where she chose.

I bought Patagonia's in a dark brown and I love them!!! They'll be great to wear for cool or very cold weather! For very cold weather I also bought Carhartt boot socks and they are the best! Thanks Sarah!!!

Thursday night we met Eric for supper at an Ethiopian restaurant "Ras-ka" in Fort Collins. The food was a bit spicy but very good. Since Eric and Sarah are waiting to adopt from Ethiopia getting to know Hannah (the owner) was a blessing. She had some very wise words for them. We left in tears knowing that we had made a new friend.

Until we get our Ethiopian babies these are our grand-children. We had no problems they were very well behaved. They were brought in to the downstairs area at night. Honey looked down and told them good-night and we laughed that it was like looking into a zoo.

On Saturday we went to "Estes Park" I love this place. This time we took a ghost tour at "The Stanley Hotel" it is sooo rich in history and I loved it. After our tour we had lunch at "Mary's Lake Lodge Resort" it was wonderful I had a huge hamburger gluten free of course without the bun.

We saw lots and lots of Elk.

On Sunday we attended church and then had a steak lunch and lazy afternoon of movies and fun.

Monday was Valentines Day, Sarah took us to Boulder while Eric worked. We enjoyed lunch at "4580" where I had a gf hamburger bun and all with fries. Man o man can you imagine? The bun was flaky like a croissant and it was wonderful. After lunch we enjoyed walking in and out of the different shops and riding around town. I had to take a photo when we passed the Rudi's distribution center. I saw their bakery on the way to the airport in Denver.

Monday night was a special night. We had "Beaujo's Colorado Style Pizza" and it was wonderful. Then Eric had picked us all up a special candy coated caramel apple! It was so good Honey and I shared one but I'm still thinking I should have eaten the whole thing. Great food and spending time with those you love isn't that what Valentines is all about?

Before leaving for the airport on Tuesday we had a photo shoot. Then went and visited the welcome center so we could see a mountain lion up close and personal.

Honey had heard about a restaurant called "The Buckhorn Exchange" on the travel channel and he told Sarah that was the one place that he wanted to go. It was located near the train depot in the heart of Denver and when we first got into the area we all wondered if we really wanted to eat there. Let me tell you, YES WE DID. All three of us LOVED this place we were just sad that Eric had to work and wasn't with us. I walked around taking photos until our food arrived and then I just wanted to eat. I think Honey and Sarah went to one more area but here are the photos that I took.

 

So this completes our trip to Colorado, we had such a good time. I"m looking forward to visiting again in the future and I won't wait as long as I did this time.

Thanks for stopping by ya'll I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did!

Miracle Monday

 You may have gathered from the things that I have been sharing lately that Honey and I are beginning to write a new chapter in our book of life. We are so excited at how God is bringing all of this together.

We have been wanting to build or buy a home of our own since we married in 2003. At one time we laid the stakes and starting getting ready for the dirt work to begin and then we had a bad year in farming and we decided that we needed to wait just a little longer. During this time we prayed and sought God's direction on what He wanted us to do and we felt that maybe he was leading us in another direction but we really didn't understand where.

We bought farm land in the Delta and it turned out to be a great little farm in a wonderful community that we have grown to love. We started looking and praying about buying a house in this community close to our farm but it just never happened. As time has passed my environmental allergies have seemed to get worse and worse. Friends suggested we live away from the farm due to my allergies and we have agreed that this would be best. So we began to venture out and look at land for building or buying a house away from farm ground. Now, if you know anything about the Delta you know that this is hard to do because there is farm ground everywhere.

One night we were shopping for houses on the internet and we ran across a house in Carrollton, it wasn't near a farm, it was a large ranch style home with everything we could ever hope for in a house, it even had a covered pool. The next day Honey called the Realtor who had it listed and she told him all about it. He got off the phone excited and we took the virtual tour one more time before deciding that we were going to buy this house. Sometimes we make plans that may not be Gods plans. We may have been praying and seeking Him for a long time and think this is His will for us but God may have something different in mind, something that we don't always understand. When Honey called the Realtor back she told him that she had sold the house. We continued to work with the Realtor and looked at numerous homes.

During this time we ran across another house that we loved, it was a country home overlooking 10 acres of open yard with a small pond in a gated community. Honey and I just knew that this was our house, it was above our budget but had been on the market for three years so we made an offer! We waited and waited and the couple didn't accept our offer and they wouldn't counter offer so again God had put up a road block.

Once again we were on a journey looking for the perfect house. Last December our Realtor called and told Honey about three houses she had listed. One of the houses being in a nice community where we had visited several times and dreamed of one day living. Every time we drove through I would tell Honey, "it's not going to happen these people aren't going to sell and there's no land available for building". I'm so glad that God has a plan for us and that He knows more than we do. We have bought a house in the little community that we have dreamed of living in. It is away from farm land between where we are farming here and Inverness. It has several acres that are just beautiful and a small yard to keep up which is sounding better all the time. The final paperwork was done on Monday and I feel this is truly a God given miracle!

If we had not allowed God to place road blocks in our lives, if we had forced things to happen, if we had paid the higher price we would have missed out on the blessing that God had for us. We would not be moving into the community of our dreams. We would have had a large house payment with a yard that would be hard to keep up in the future.

We are excited not only for our future in our new home but for the future of our children. I love the quote "We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors, we have only borrowed it from our children."

In doing this we are praying that in the future we can slow down and spend more time with our children and grand-children whether they live in Mississippi, Indiana or Colorado.