Transplants

Fall Photos

I tried and tried this year to get some cute pictures of Elizabeth playing in the fall leaves or enjoying the beautiful fall weather BUT she was more interested in inspecting and EATING the grass, bugs, hay, dirt and leaves to look up and smile. Here are some of my attempts!

Black Hawk and Central City

Every fall we go up to the mountains to look at the Autumn colors. This year, because of the flood and road damage, the options of 'mountain driving' were HUGELY decreased but we decided to go up I-70 to find some fall colors. But we soon came to realize that Evergreen has its name for a reason because it is FOREVER green (aka no Autumn colors).

See- no fall colors!

So we decided to go to Black Hawk and Central City, because Ben had never been up there, to check out that part of Colorado. Black Hawk and Central City are the only gambling towns in Colorado so they are FULL of casinos (it is like a mini Las Vegas in the mountains). There was not much senic to look at (seriously casinos everywhere) so we decided to go to a buffet for lunch. Ben loves buffets and the idea of a buffet in a casino was even cooler to him. BUT we did not take into consideration that Elizabeth is not yet of gambling age so we had to have a security guard escort us everywhere we went (that sounds absurd because she can't even walk- how could she gamble? But I rule is a rule). It was even weirder when I had to take her to the bathroom to nurse her and the security guard had to take us and then wait outside the bathroom door the entire time we were in there (talk about uncomfortable pressure). But the food was good (well.... casino buffet good), we had a fun time and we can now say we've been to Black Hawk and Central City!

October General Conference 2013

We had an opportunity to watch the October session of General Conference together. As always it was fantastic and so uplifting and inspiring to hear the words of the Prophets. I am so grateful for the gospel and the continuous revelation we have.

I am also so grateful that I can learn, watch and grow in the gospel with my family!!

Arial Yoga

I really dislike exercising, it always seems so monotonous and boring, yet it is a necessity to a healthy lifestyle. I have been trying to find a type of exercise that I enjoy and can be passionate about. I have tried a couple things, including Zumba (which I do like), and recently I went with a friend to try Arial Yoga. There is a large silk look hanging from the ceiling that you wrap your body in and do yoga poses in the air. It was not relaxing at all, which I think yoga ought to be, because I was so tense trying to hold myself from falling and there were some moves that I couldn't (physically and mentally) do. But I think I liked it... I think? I don't see it becoming a passion of mine or a newfound interest but it was cool to try out and it made me want to be trapeze artist in the circus... or at least try it out. I might go back and do it again to see if I am more comfortable the second time around.

Here's to trying new things. (These pictures are from the studio I attended but NO I am not in any of them. I feel like in my current state NO ONE wants to see me hanging upside down in a yoga pose!)

Flood Service

After the floods there was TONS of opportunities to do service. For over a month Ben spent every weekend and free evening helping people clean up. I was also able to help a little bit. Here are some of the things we saw, experiences we had and thoughts we have from this hard time.

The week after the flood I went to Longmont with my friend Tanaya to help some flood victims clean up (Mom watched our kids- she's awesome). We went to a neighborhood near Mom's house to help; they had been allowed back into their homes (after the evacuation) the night before. There were two guards from the National Guard at the entrance of the neighborhood making sure no one drove their cars in (we had to park a block or two away and walk) and to stop any looters. We walked in, went to the first house we came to and asked if they needed help. The people we shocked that we would just come to help but quickly put us to work scraping dry mud out of their laundry room/bathroom. The water had only come in about a foot in the first/garage level floor and was already dry. They were emptying rooms and things to the curb but were in pretty good shape. After about two hours we left to check on the kids.

This is the neighborhood Tanaya and I went to only a few days before we were there.

When we came back we walked a little deeper into the neighborhood to where the flooding was worse, it looked like a war zone and was so shocking to see. We stopped to help a family with young teenage girls who still had a foot of water in their basement. They were using a pump to get the water out (but like so many other people in the neighborhood the water had nowhere to go and was just coming back in). Here we did a lot more manual work; ripped out floodboards, ripped out drywall and carpeting. We also climbed into their crawl space and helped remove their storage (everything was ruined and it was heart breaking) and all the insulation (wet insulation is super heavy). They were putting piles of ruined wet stuff in front of their drive way and the city had dump trucks and tractors coming to pick it all up and take it away. It was so wonderful to go and spend a couple hours helping those people and to see the terrible damage and know how blessed and fortunate we were.

Later that week we went back to Longmont with a bunch of our friends and I stayed at Mom's house to babysit (5 toddlers- yikes) while everyone went out; they went to a neighborhood and power washed mud out of a man's basement. I also had an opportunity that week (thanks again to Mom for watching Elizabeth) to go to the Longmont Crisis Center and do some data entry. I was putting into the computer (for the red cross and other organizations) the information of all the people evacuated. It was sad and shocking to see how many people were effected and to read the huge amount of damage done.

About two weeks after the flooding our ward got out of church early and went up Boulder Canyon to help at a man's house. His property was destroyed and his house was unlivable. The river had created a new path straight through his yard; destroying his driveway, septic system and leaving huge rocks and debris everywhere. This man had had no relief or help because his house was so deep down a destroyed road that no one thought there was anyone back there. He got the number of the church and called for help and had hundreds of volunteers out to his house and neighborhood. The Saturday before our ward went Ben went up with the church and helped to dig someone's car out; the cars were buried so high you could only see the very top. It was shocking to see the amount of damage and to realize that it had all happened from the power of water. It was also amazing to see how quickly the church responded and sent people to help. The following pictures are from this man's house and neighborhood.