Long Weekend Living

Ooooh, I love three day weekends! l.o.v.e. them. It has been almost a month since Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, and a very long, busy one at that. Here's a brief synopsis: Kids' swimming lessons every Monday evening, Bible study Wednesday nights, a two-night German Immersion Weekend field trip in the mountains with students and some amazing colleagues, Mark's parents were here for a week, 8th Grade Parent night at school (which resulted in a 13-hour day at school for me), a couple of sick kiddos (and husband), and planning for presenting two sessions at the upcoming Colorado World Language teacher's conference next week...oh, and I can't forget planning, grading, and teaching, too...Whew!

With all of those activities, I have not had much time for anything else, let alone blogging, but I want to post some memories from MLK, Jr. weekend before launching into President's Day weekend (Did I mention that I love three day weekends?!?!) I am so thankful that we have Monday off. I probably wouldn't be catching up here if it weren't for that fact. I have a lot of work to do, but I need to take some time for myself and record these memories. I have missed writing...

We spent Saturday at the Stock Show, and I got together with some dear friends from high school after attending church on Sunday. We had a lovely lunch together celebrating Sarah's birthday and looking forward to the birth of Laura's baby girl. We also had the Broncos' playoff game on in the background and were happy when they won. [Too bad they didn't play as well in the Super Bowl a couple of weeks later...] The kids all had fun playing together and the weather was gorgeous. It was such a pleasant day!

Then, on Monday, we drove up Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park and took advantage of a free day at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was the first time I had been up the canyon since the flooding last September, and even though the recovery efforts have been nearly constant, the damage was sobering. It was sad seeing Viestenz-Smith Park, where I had volunteered in high school, helping teach on nature field trips for local fifth graders.

I have made so many wonderful memories at Viestenz-Smith park: my surprise going away party before leaving as an exchange student in high school, friends' weddings, and many picnics. I even remember when I was a fifth grader on the field trip there. A few of the stations were washed away, and the public side of the park was gone. Just gone. I wasn't able to get a good picture of it as we drove by, but I did get some drive-by photos of some homes and a picnic area we enjoyed up by Glen Haven. I can't even begin to fathom how these people feel. The photos are blurry, but you still get the idea...

On one of our fall drives a couple years ago, we stopped at this picnic area on the way to Glen Haven and the girls played in the babbling brook...It is hard to imagine the sheer volume of water that came through here...

There used to be much more land in front of that picnic table and there were several picnic tables that were washed downstream. And the bathroom is obviously out of commission...

One thing that amazed me even more was the extent of the flood damage further upstream in Rocky Mountain National Park. I had seen some photos of the Alluvial Fan area by Fall River Road, and seeing it in person was even more incredible. This rock field was piled up behind the rails of this little bridge:

 And the handicapped sign in this parking lot was nearly buried.

The sign below marks the entrance to the parking lot you can see in the background...

This picture gives a glimpse of what the Park Service will be dealing with when trying to repair Fall River Road. This section was totally washed away.

We had a full weekend, and I ended up paying for it a bit when I returned to work, since I had fallen behind on grading and planning. That said, I wouldn't trade this time making memories with family and friends for anything. It was a weekend well spent and I loved all the little adventures we had.