Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!!!

Well, the end of the year is certainly a busy birthday time in the Powell family: Papa and Uncle B in September; Alex, Michelle and me in October; Stephanie in November and Robyn in December!! And throw all the holidays in and whew!!

I did manage to make it home for a very quick, action packed weekend at the end of October to visit with the family. After Alex and Nana picked me up from the airport on Friday (and after we went to lunch and then shopping!!):

We went to see Emily and her drill team perform on Friday night at the football game (Emily is the one on the right):

In this picture, Emily is in the middle row, the third one back. You Rocked!!

We saw Alex play a soccer game on Saturday (yeah goalie!!):

Alex showing off some nice dribbling skills (and nice pictures, Steph!):

We got to play with Stephanie's newest addition, Jack (isn't he just so cute!!):

And just some fun pictures of the kids at the soccer game:

We had a family dinner to celebrate the October Birthdays:

Alex being "surprised" at one of his presents :)

Always some good laughs around the table...

And then I jetted home on Sunday. Well, Robyn and Stephanie come out for a visit next week for Thanksgiving (gobble, gobble) and I can't wait to show them around town!! And so I can celebrate Steph's B-day (although belated, but we'll have a good time anyways! Nice job fasting by the way ~ that certainly is no easy task and sure takes lots of will power. Glad you had a good time with the family last weekend, too)

The weather so far has been fabulous, although we need to get some good snow in the mountains so I can go play!!

It's Fall in the Maroon Bells and Aspen!!

Saturday and Sunday, September 29-30th: I decided to take a road-trip out to Aspen. My main motive was to see the Maroon Bells, probably one of the most picturesque mountains around. I took I70 west through Vail and Glenwood Springs. It was raining all day Saturday so I didn't stop too much along the way although it was very pretty.



















I arrived in Aspen around lunchtime and had lunch in town. I walked around for about an hour or so, hoping that the rain would break and I can get to the Bells before the sun went down. Around 2pm I was in luck ~ the sun started peeking through the clouds and so I hopped on the bus to the Maroon Bells (which is required between 9am-5pm to help protect the environment).




















After about and hour or so at the lake, it started to rain again so I went back into town and checked into my hotel. The hotel was close enough to the main drag so I walked into town and had a lovely dinner. Made it back in time to watch the Rockies win.

The next morning I woke up relatively early and headed back to the Bells. I wanted to catch the sunrise over the peaks and I was not disappointed (although it was very cold)!! It was absolutely beautiful!!




















I've never seen so many photographers! The entire shore was covered with 'em: from large-formats to small digitals to huge lenses (it was also the first time I have seen the 8x11 large format camera in action ~ it was absolutely huge!!). All waiting for the $$ shot...



















Did I mention it was freezing!! The canyon stayed mostly shaded, even close to 10am when it warmed up to a whopping 27deg when I left. So much for hiking down the canyon. Oh well, next time. I did stop at many of the pull-outs on the way out of the canyon, and the yellow aspens were just amazing. Not much red, but lots and lots of yellow!




































This is looking in the opposite direction of the Maroon Bells...





















I took a nice, slow drive home over Independence Pass and up through Leadville.




















































Although it was a bit of a long haul, the Maroon Bells were definitely worth it! The fall foliage was very much around peak in this area and although there are many, many spots I wish to explore in the fall (fall is my favorite time of the year), I could come back and explore here year after year...

Thursday, September 13th: More Powell People Visit ~ Welcome Mom & Dad!!!!

Friday, September 14th: I had to go to work today, so Mom & Dad drove around a bit and got familiar with the local area.

Saturday, September 15: We went into Estes Park today ~ I just can't get enough of Rocky Mountain National Park!! The scenery and the animals just continue to be spectacular!! Note most of these pictures are Mom's ~ great pics, Mom!

There weren't too many elk out today, but we did see a few in Morraine Park.

Mom wanted to go Moose Scouting, so we drove over the Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake.

Along the way (our first stop actually) we saw this moose! Do I know how to find them or what :) This moose was right off the road ~ we had to walk about 20 steps through the parking lot...

We walked along a few other short trails in hopes to see a bull moose, but we just saw some nice scenery.

Sunday, September 16th: We had a lazy morning and were watching the hot air balloons from the deck. There were about 5 out this morning, and we kept watching and they kept getting closer and closer and closer. A few flew right over the house!! I have never seen them get that close to the house ~ it was quite spectacular to see them that close!! Note that those two trees in the first picture are my trees in the backyard. Then we had a nice bike ride around the lake.

Monday, September 17th: Happy Birthday, Papa!! We drove out to Golden and did the Coors Brewery Tour. I still can't believe the size of thier "tasters"!! Then we went to Bass Outdoor World and this was the HUGEST store with so many mounted animals everywhere! Don't worry Dad ~ I won't post the picture with you in your new waders and that cool hat Mom made you wear :) After that, we had a great birthday dinner at Pappadeux's ~ good seafood with great views.

Tuesday, September 18th: We went to the Dodger game, I mean ROCKIES GAME!! Ok, the Rockies were playing the Dodgers and it was honestly one of the best baseball games I have ever seen. Rick and Bonnie Bennett came with us and just a great game all-around, and of course the Rockies won in grand style. Coors Field is such a great ballpark. No worries ~ our seats weren't this high up; we just went up to get the picture.

Well Mom & Dad ~ it was great having you guys out (although next time I'll have to put you to work on the house !!) . Come visit again soon :)

A quick update on the Memorial Day weekened: Kim and I went to Red Rocks for a concert (Dirks Bently, Gary Allen, Eric Church) and it was AWESOME!! What a fantastic venue!! The music sounded great and the atmosphere was incredible. They even had Blue Moon (Kim's fave brew) and Fat Tire (my fave local brew) on tap!! It rained a bit but we saw some cool lightening over the city. There was also this huge red moon rising over the city and it was just beautiful! (I couldn't get a good picture, but these are the best I got).

Lacy and I camped about 5 miles from Red Rocks, at Bear Creek Lake Park. It was not my most favorite campground (it was right off the freeway and sites not on the lake and it wasn't very shady) but I rode my bike around the creek and the lake and Lacy just kicked it in the trailer...

Well, until next time!! I am off to Aspen this weekend to hopefully catch some good fall folliage and do some hiking before the winter sets in...

August 10-20th: The Powell Family Arrives for a Visit!!

My brother Bryan, his wife Michelle and thier kids Emily and Alex came for a visit last week and we had a blast doing all kinds of cool stuff!

Sunday, August 12: We went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game. They played the cubs (and won 6-3!) but boy was it HOT!! Although we had awesome seats, we were sitting right in the sun in midafternoon and there was very little cloud cover during the game (it was probably over 100degC).

Alex getting ready for a foul ball...We were so close!! A guy caught a ball in the same row, just 5 seats away. Alex ~ we'll have to get tips from Kim. She caught a foul ball a few weeks ago!! (and what a great catch that was!!)

The Rockies have autograph Sundays, so we went to the game a bit early and Emily and Alex got four autographs: Alex is chatting with Ublando Jimenez (pitcher), Emily is getting Dinger's autograph (the mascot), Kazuo Matsui (2nd baseman), and Edwin Bellorin (back-up catcher).

Of course, we had to taste the Rocky Dogs and although there are no pictures of the Squishies they were very tasty also, especially in the heat! That's me and Emily enjoying our dogs and Bryan and Alex grubbin'.

Monday - Tuesday: Bryan and Co. went down to visit some friends in Castle Rock. I went to work.

Thursday, August 16th: We went rafting on the Cache le Poudre river, which is just above Fort Collins. It was so much fun!! We had a boat all to ourselves and our guide was Julianne. She was awesome!

The river was definitely faster than I had expected from a "splash" trip. There was one section that was even a Class 4!! (don't worry Nana and Yaya ~ Julianne was great and Emily and Alex were inside the boat on this short section). Nobody even fell out although I think a few of us came pretty darn close. I think Emily and Alex were grinning the entire two hours and they were even paddling the whole way down. Of course the rest of us weren't having any fun at all...


















We stopped at one spot along the river, and we got out of the boat and swam in a neat little current.












Alex also got to help Julianne guide the boat for a bit ~ he did a great job!! A paddle Hi-Five:



Friday, August 17th: Bryan and I went on a fly-fishing trip along the Blue River. It was my first time fly-fishing and I really enjoy it! Just what I need: another hobby. Of course, John said it compliments many of my other hobbies perfectly. The river was absolutely beautiful:


Bryan caught the largest and prettiest fish of the day (cutthrout) and I even caught three fish! (ok, I know it looks small but I think it was a pretty average size fish for a stream...maybe...). John said it was a tough day on the river but Bryan and I had a fantastic time! Don't worry, we let the fish go after the pictures :)

Saturday, August 18th: We cruised on out to Estes Park and did some hiking. We hiked around Morraine Park to scout out some Elk and Deer.

Alex and Emily scouting out good camera angles:

Then we hiked around Bear Lake:

Some fun sites along the trail:

And then on to the falls in Glacier Gorge. Along the way, we passed a huge beaver dam. We went back into town and at lunch right along the river ~ what an awesome little lunch spot! We also did little bit of shopping.

Sunday, August 19th: We went to church, then to the lake and did a little bit of fishing. Although we didn't catch anything, we found a nice spot on the lake under some trees. Bryan and Michelle went to Denver to meet up with some friends and Emily, Alex and I hung out at the house. We played Life (Pirates version rocks!) and Alex ended up with the Black Pearl and Monopoly and I think Emily ended up with almost everything!! Lacy even came out to play with Emily and Alex (finally!).

Below is a picture from the deck one evening. We had to have seen about a hundred of sky-divers during the last week! We saw a good amout of hot air balloons too.

And the times in-between, we enjoyed sitting on the deck, playing games (yes, I will admit Alex beat us all ~ especially me ~ in a roudy game of 31!!) and just relaxing. We also rode our bikes around the lake and went fishing. And Emily and Alex also managed to get to SuperTarget.

Can't wait to have more guests! Mom & Dad are out in a few weeks. Robyn & Steph ~ you guys need to come out soon! Anyone else is more than welcome to come out and play :)

Well Powell People, I hope you guys had as great of a time as I did!!