Happy Thanksgiving & Robyn and Steph come to visit!!


Wednesday, November 21st: Robyn and Stephanie came to visit!! I picked them up at the airport in the morning and we drove back to the house. It had snowed for the first time in Longmont the night before they arrived, and we sure enjoyed it (especially trying to throw snowballs at me)!


















Thursday, November 22nd: Happy Thanksgiving! We pretty much lounged around while the turkey was cookin' and played games.





Artwork by Stephanie Powell :)
















We also started a puzzle (a difficult Snoopy photomosaic!!) that took us until Saturday to finish the darn thing (but we did it!!). Steph's favorite piece: Thanksgiving Snoopy:



















Friday, November 23rd: We stopped by the store and picked up some sleds and headed into Estes Park. Although it was very cold, we sure had fun sledding!




















Steph's final run: The large rock got the better of the sled and I think of Steph!














We also saw a couple of coyotes eating some grub and of course, lots of elk!!

We walked around the town a bit and stopped to get some hot chocolate. Robyn and Stephanie pose by the river.












On the way out of the park, we saw this huge heard of elk! We watched them migrate through the meadow for awhile and then headed home. It was very cool to watch.

















Saturday and Sunday: We just kinda lounged around and relaxed. We went for a walk at the lake and drove around town and went to visit my godmother Patt.

















Winter in Colorado has sure been beautiful so far! Well, I'm off to try some snowshoeing and waxin' up my skiis! I sure had fun and until next time Powell People:

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...