ice palace

This is pretty random...

I just found the link to the Bed & Breakfast we stayed in for our first anniversary: The Ice Palace Inn. We stayed in room #3 "The Crystal Carnival." What sold us young newlyweds was the "claw foot tub for two." If you manage to find the virtual tour you can take a look at the room.

Leadville's beauty defies it's ugly name. It's way up in the Rockies, the views are amazing, there's a surprisingly rich history and quite a bit to do for being as isolated as it is.

We remember fondly our stay at the Ice Palace Inn. Hopefully we'll make it back there one of these days. We missed our eighth anniversary this year due to me being in another state the entire month, so perhaps we'll have a make-up anniversary trip to Leadville this year.

let there be life...

I met my niece Mary for the first time today. So did everyone else. Her mom, Sarah, did an amazing job, and she looked absolutely beautiful holding Mary later this afternoon. Andrew, her dad, was nearly beside himself with joy.

Our little girl, Emma, enjoyed all the activity surrounding the new baby, and just couldn't get enough of her. Corben was crazy all day, and was more interested in his Cheerios than in his new cousin.

Nancy had her follow up after last week's operation today, and all is well there.

We went on another drive up the Poudre yesterday, this time as far as Rustic. We headed North on Pingree Hill Road from there, and looped back around via Livermore. Need I mention that it was beautiful?

Last Friday, during Nancy's operation, the kids and I went on a drive west of Lyons, CO and headed up a dirt road to the Little Thompson River. We only saw a little of the river, but the low clouds made for some more nice photos.

You'll notice deer in some of the photos linked to above. These are some of Colorado's Mule Deer. We also have Whitetail Deer, which are more common in most of the Eastern US. You can read more here.

Another full, great week.

another beautiful week in Colorado

I realize that the title of this post could be the title every week now. It is really beautiful here.

Here are 2 more small galleries of family and the Cache la Poudre River.

This is my favorite photo.



Nancy has been occupied with getting started with her new job and getting ready for a minor operation. She has the surgery tomorrow, it is to remove a painful cyst in her ear.

While she's been away during the day, I've been spending a lot of time with our kids, which has been great. Corben's play is really fun. He loves to cuddle, get tickled, butt heads and crash into me while I lay on the floor. Emma likes to keep tabs on him and let me know when he's into something she doesn't approve of. I need to take her fishing again.

In the galleries above I had some photos of a little trip we took up the Cache la Poudre River Canyon this week. We left for the drive at 5PM and got home around 8PM. I would have 100 more photos of breathtaking views, but we needed to keep moving after we stopped by the river because it was getting late for the kids.

I love that -- going for a drive after a day's work and being able to see such beautiful places.

I wish I could describe the smell by the river. You smell sagebrush, pine, and the crisp air drawn from from the mountains by the cool rushing water and it makes you inhale deeply again and again. If I could bottle that smell I would be a rich man.

Another thing I love is describing the drive -- not only the views, but the places. "We drove up to Ted's Place, then headed up the Poudre. We went south on Stove Prairie Road then back east on Rist Canyon Road. We split south in Bellvue and headed up over the north dam and along the east ridge of Horsetooth"

This page on Microsoft's Terraserver site actually shows most of where we drove. I really dig topo maps. Being able to look at a 2-dimensional piece of paper and make sense of it in a 3-dimensional world is pretty cool.

Tomorrow I'll wake up and get to look at the mountains again.

and there was noise...

I think I just added an audio clip to my site. Check the link below to make sure:

As long as I'm posting, let me update everyone.

I arrived in Fort Collins, Colorado last Tuesday. I had a good drive from Karl and Kathy's house the previous day.

I had been house-sitting for Karl and Kathy for the week leading up to my departure. Karl and Kathy (I'll just call them "the K's") are special friends to our family. When we found out we were pregnant with our first child, we were surprised to say the least -- terrified to be more accurate. I was a staff leader at Willow Creek in the high school ministry, and the K's were both volunteer leaders on my team.

I mentioned as a prayer request during one of our meetings that we needed to figure out what to do about a house or apartment once we had our baby, since Nancy's income was paying for our apartment, and once we had the baby, that income would be absent.

After our meeting, Karl came up to me and said something to the tune of "I had a dream that you and Nancy and your baby came to live with us. I talked to Kathy about it, and we agreed that we would love for you guys to come live with us."

So we did. For the first months of our daughter's life, we lived with the K's in their great home, and it was awesome. During this time, I started working at Studio North. So I was commuting 50 miles to North Chicago when I started at SN.

It's pretty cool that my last week at SN I was commuting from the same home.

So I left last Monday from Streamwood, IL headed west. The drive was generally great. I had some new music I had purchased legally from iTunes to keep me company. Norah Jones, Shawn Colvin and others made the drive even better than it already promised to be.

I ran into some very cool weather in western Iowa and Nebraska. At one point near Grand Island, NE the sky got completely black. It started raining a ton, then the warning messages started blaring on the radio. "Dangerouse Wind in excess of 70 MPH, tornados, the 4 horsemen of the Apocolypse, hail, etc." I snapped some action shots with my digital camera.

I spent the night Monday in Ogallala Nebraska at the least expensive hotel I could find, then discovered that there was a busy train track right outside my window. After a few hours of intermittent sleep I got back on I-80 West.

About 3/4 of a mile on the interstate and my '89 Civic started making a funny engine noise, I lost some power, and the check engine light came on. I stopped and opened the hood, couldn't hear anything terribly bad, couldn't smell any burning, saw no excess fluids or any obvious physical damage. So I prayed that God would help the little car make the rest of the trip with no problems, shut the hood, turned off the engine and restarted it.

The light never came back on, the engine never made any more funny noise.

I stopped in Sydney, NE to make use of the gift certificate from the Studio. The great folks at SN took a collection and bought me a gift certificate to Cabela's. For those who don't know me well, I am a committed outdoorsman, and Cabela's is the sort of place that's right up my alley.

I bought a wireless fish finder and a few fishing accessories while I was there, then I hit the road for the last 2-hour stretch to Colorado.

I came straight to our new home in Fort Collins. We had not moved in yet, and I didn't have the key, so I hung outside waiting for Nancy and the kids to arrive. They drove up, and we had a great reunion. It had been a solid month since we last saw each other. Nancy and I had some good PDA, Emma gave me some great hugs. At first, Corben wasn't sure who I was, but then it hit him and he started saying, then yelling "Dada". I tossed him high in the air and he squealed a happy squeal.

We spent that night at Nancy's folks house in Berthoud. I took some pics of the great view. Nancy's sister Sarah and her husband Andrew came over and we spent the evening together.

Wednesday morning I took Emma fishing for the first time. She caught a nice rainbow trout, and while we were taking her picture, she yelled "A FISH!" as her rod started jerking. She pulled in an even bigger rainbow. The second was 16 inches long and FAT. We made a nice meal of the fish that night. Here is the video of Emma catching that second trout: 10Mb AVI File) | 2Mb WMV File)

Here are the photos from the drive and the first 24 hours here in Colorado.

So I've been here a week. We're in our house, still trying to figure out where to put everything. We've met our neighbors Mike and Erin, and the folks that used to live on our house -- Michael and Amber. We're going to have a barbeque tomorrow night in our great yard with all of them and Sarah and Andrew.

I've had my hands full getting started in business for myself. I've managed to do some work that will pay, and have some small leads for the time being.

And we're in Colorado.

last goodbyes

I just finished one of the more meaningful nights of my life.

My last day at Studio North was Friday. Friday evening I ended up being the last to leave. I packed my stuff collected in drawers and spread on my desk, took a few digital photos, turned off the lights, lowered the blinds near my desk, set the alarm and left.

It felt like the last moment of the last episode of some great sitcom. But it was just me in an empty place.

Yesterday and today I spent with some great friends. The best years of my life so far were spent serving at Willow Creek Community Church as part of a group of friends that I will hold close to my heart forever.

Nancy and I left Colorado in 1997 so I could be an intern for 2 years. 7 years later, I'm spending my last night here. Yesterday and today were great. Lots of hugs, laughs and sharing memories. Most of my time this weekend has been spent with Jill and Eve. Friends Mindy and Aimee were around a lot, too. And the person I served closest with, Jackie, and her husband Mark came later this evening and spent some nice time with us.

The last 3 hours were spent on top of one of the dorms at North Park University in Chicago. We drug out some couches, and sat and watched 100 fireworks displays all over the city and suburbs from the best seat in town. The air was warm and moist with enough breeze to make it very nice. Some of my closest friends were there to make the night perfect, and to say goodbye the best way possible.

Thanks guys.

what do you mean westward expansion?

Today is my last day at the greatest place I've ever worked.

Studio North has been my home away from home for the past 4 years. I have worked with some of the greatest people I've known and been a part of some amazing projects.

Monday I join my family in Colorado to continue my journey toward my dream... starting a camp in Colorado.

The path I am on involves building a business in Colorado over the next several years, and using that business as a financial base for the camp.

westward expansion seemed like a simple name for what's next on my journey.