Rachel's Trip

Aug. 9, 2009 So we made it to the condo about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. I felt like my mom, saying "Look at the scenery" to Caleb however, instead of playing Rook he was playing Xbox as we were going over the mountain pass. The van did not like the initial climb out of Denver and got a hot but then was fine the rest of the way. We could smell the brakes coming down the pass though. The condo is nice and was recently remodeled and it shares the same club house as the Pines (where we stayed 10 years ago). The condo has it’s own very nice gas grill so we went and got some groceries at Safeway and they had a great special on strip steaks. They were so good we had to take a picture of one on David Jacob’s phone and send it to Karin. She replied that she is going to save that pic. All of the kids ate a ton! We went over to the clubhouse and sat in the hot tub and watched the sun set over the mountains. We came back to the condo and then they watched a cartoon on video and I went to bed. I’ve had a sore back and shoulder so I again didn’t sleep well and had to take some ibuprofen first thing this morning. The older 4 kids went down to Fraser river to try some trout fishing but had no luck and came back hungry and cold (it was only in the 40s this morning). I had pancakes, sausage, eggs, and oj ready for them. David read from John 8:1 about Jesus’ sermon on the Mount of Olives and we had a good discussion about grace. We sang a few songs and Logan closed with a heart-felt prayer remembering the Elsassers. Then we loaded up and headed in to Winter Park to find the visitor’s center. Right across the street from there is a really cool playground including, much to Caleb & Luke’s delight, a skate park. We had left the skateboard at the condo though so they decided to go back after lunch. We were able to get some good information for some hiking at the center and I think we will be going backpacking up to Critter lake. It’s about 8 miles one way and lots of waterfalls on the way and trout fishing. We then went to the ski village and rode the free lift down to the ski area. We walked around but everything was pretty pricy for a family of 7 so we decided to go back to town where we saw a bunch of white tents set up for local crafts. We walked through those and bought some kettle corn and candied pecans to share and then headed back to the condo for lunch. I decided to take a nap and the rest of the family went back to the skate park.
I was glad that the condo also had a helmet for the younger kids because I was afraid of a head injury. The kids had fun and David said it wasn’t too bad to watch. Logan had one close call but he’s okay. When I woke up I sat out in the sun and read a book for awhile. The sun feels good because it’s only in the 60s today. We then went to club house and played some volleyball and David worked out. I had a couple of business calls to return when we came home and then I grilled some cheese burgers for supper. Currently the kids are outside throwing the football around. We were talking about trying to go to some hot springs that we went to 10 years ago but I can’t seem to find it anymore. If the weather is decent we may take a day hike tomorrow to try to get acclimated to the altitude before we do the overnight hike. Well, I’d better close for now, it’s time to sit in the hot tub to watch the sun set:)