Travel & Exhaustion

Well, well. Let's see how long this lasts, considering the fact that I apparently started this blog in 2008 and haven't written a word until now. Life has been insane for the past month or so, I've been traveling for fun & also for work. Let me recap.

I visited my friend Sally in Portland. We ate delicious food, wandered around the city, and went camping at the coast. She and I also had a bit of a conversation about blogging, since I've been thinking about this post for some time. Sally finds it's interesting to see another person's view of things that you experienced also, and sometimes your take on the situation is so completely different than the friend that is blogging about it. I agree.

Also during this Oregon trip I had the chance to visit some lovely Steamboat boys (Alec & Nick) in Bend. We made elaborate breakfast, went hiking at Smith Rocks (picture to the left), and drank bottles of wine. I did not take nearly enough photos in Bend, I'm training myself in the art of documenting my life aka getting the damn camera out.

Thinking back on the past few years, I am so glad that I've had the chance to meet people like Alec, Nick, and Sally. Sally and I worked in the same school district last year. Alec and Nick were instructors when the kids at said school had their ski program. Good people.

Oh my, so I got back from Oregon around 11pm on a Saturday night and then left for Crow Canyon in Southern Colorado the next day at 7am. And I was gone for a week. Whew.

Crow Canyon is an experiential education program based in Cortez, CO & it teaches the kids about Ancient Anasazi peoples. I love love love this type of learning. I got to go on a real archaeological dig, learned to start fire, and threw spears. We also went to Mesa Verde to check out the cliff dwellings and climbed up into Balcony House.

Hmm...so I felt a little crazy after the two weeks of travel...especially the second week with kids non stop. There is no way I could be a mother at this point in my life. I had four days back in Steamboat and then left for Dinosaur Nat'l Monument in Utah for some camping and bonding AmeriCorps style. I cannot believe that my second year out here is coming to a close. I'm so conflicted about my next steps. I have officially decided to stay and play in Steamboat for the summer, but am on the fence about where to go next. I'd like to move to Oregon. It's beautiful there. It's green and also has the mountains that I love so much.



And now I'm FINALLY back home. I'm hoping that the snow stays away and I can start riding my bike & playing outdoors after school. This upcoming week is going to be hell. There are 3 large scale service projects going on and mine rounds out the week on Friday. I'm sure my next post will be an update of that and include some of the anxiety I'm having about the future.



Isn't this cake AMAZING?! My friend Mandy made this for Joe, it was his birthday last weekend. She's got some talent. Plus, it was delicious & I felt like I was going to die from frosting overload. Yummm.