Our Trip to Colorado!

Recently we took a short trip to visit our daughter and son-in-law in Colorado. We enjoyed seeing the Rocky Mountain National Park including a herd of elk with a bugling bull! We speculated that he was warning off the bull sitting about 1/4 mile away eying his cows. And it turns out that the weather is a lot colder at 12,000 feet!

They put logs on the roof of the visitors' center to keep the roof on in hurricane-force winds.

We went to the visitors' center cafe after going to the high point. Here was the view from our table--pretty amazing.

After we got in the car again, we saw the elk. The bull is near the bottom middle of this picture with all his cows above him. You can see how well they blend into their background. The competing bull is not shown but the bull in the picture is facing him.

We went into Estes Park which was very busy with it being Labor Day weekend and having a big craft fair. Parking was a little hard to find. We did a little window shopping and went into a Christmas store.

The next day, we went to church, then visited a flower garden along with some other sites, including Susanna's workplace in Boulder. After the flower garden we visited Jay's parents' home and they fed us a delicious dinner. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture.

Camille enjoyed Susanna's cats.

The next day before we started the long drive home, we visited the Butterfly Pavilion. Butterflies are really amazing creatures. They are so delicate yet so beautiful and so capable in their ability to fly and gather the nectar they need to survive.

After seeing the butterflies, we headed home. Fortunately, traffic wasn't bad and the travel was uneventful. It was enjoyable to see Susanna and Jay and check out their new home. We appreciated them hosting us! I'm glad we could visit!

Comments

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River. This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize. This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night. It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania. However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet. I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy. Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all. She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate. Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in. Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios. She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities. One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not. Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Wha...

Do Dots Family System

The original post was written in January of 2015. I wrote an update at the bottom of this post in March 2021. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about something she was doing in her family to help her family function better. Her teenage autistic son had been struggling a lot so they had been working with behavior therapists to help him and this "Do Dots Family System" had been recommended. As she described it, I was greatly intrigued since it sounded like something I wanted to implement at my own house. I looked into it and decided to purchase it right after Thanksgiving. Here is my review of how it has worked for us over the last six weeks or so. The basic idea of the chart is that children need to take care of their responsibilities before they get any privileges. It strongly reinforces the concept of "Work Before Play" . The chart helps children see in a very visual way that, until they have completed their responsibilities, they are on Le...

Search This Blog