Sunday, August 16, 2009

colorado and birthday weekend

i'm 22 and i'm not ready! matt and i had were able to drive out to where his parents and his sister, cassi, were visiting buena vista, colorado where jenni, jonathan, ethan and noah were living for a short time. we went camping and they were nice enough to sing me happy birthday and surprised me with a birthday cake. the kids enjoyed the river by the campsite while matt, jonathan and bill kept the fire going and cooked our delicious soup, brats, steak, and corn on the cobs, that jenni and christi had prepared. it was delicious! the next morning at camp, matt, me, jonathan, and bill drove up to the trailhead to hike up mt. harvard and it was beautiful, but tough! there was always a constant change of scenery from the aspens, ponderosas and the river, to small bushes, then to lots and lots of rocks and finally snow at the top. we saw tiny squirrels and marmots along the way and the wind and altitude became gradually intense, especially at the top. it took 5 1/2 hours to get up and 4 hours to get down. coming down was even harder, it was steep and i'll need to give my knees some time to recover before i'll go hiking again. after the hike bill found out that mt. harvard is only 75 ft smaller than the tallest mountain in the continental u.s. (mt. mckinley) mt. harvard is 14, 420 ft tall! it was my first time to climb a mountain to the highest peak and i had no idea how tough it would be, but i'm glad we did it! it was nice to be out in nature in "colorful colorado" and the small town of buena vista was so nice. we would constantly see deer roaming the streets and matt and i had the BEST pork nachos from a bbq stand. SO GOOD.

matt's parents and cassi left on saturday and sunday (my birthday) jenni was so nice and had a big breakfast for matt and i when we woke up. we hung out for a little while and then matt and i had to go back to utah because i had a final the next day, so on our way back i was studying while matt listened to the book 1776 on audio. we drove through aspen this time and ate at qdobas mexican grill (yummm) at the last big town we were going to drive through. when we got home, rachel and alayna came over with a delicious birthday cake and i was able to open gifts after my final the next day that my parents sent with rachel. i has a great birthday! thank you so much to everyone who made me feel so special and loved!

the view from the top of mt. harvard

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