8/5/08 Grand Junction, CO - Dinosaur bones & Colorado Nat'l Monument

Yeah .. a town with morning AA meetings.. those are my favorite, I love early morning folks and the 7am meeting in Grand Junction is fantastic! Such a small world, my 2nd or 3rd day attending the meeting one of the women in the meeting approached me after the meeting, I had really enjoyed listening to her share
the past few days.. it so happens that I am currently in a 6 week teleclass with a spiritual teacher named Neelam that has been really incredible for me.. there are 18people in the class, from all across the US and abroad as well.. well this women i'd been hearing at the morning meeting came up to me and said.. I just have one word for you... Neelam.. yes she is in my class.. such a small world..

Another guy I talked to after the meeting offered me some advice with Luc (I was sharing about some current challenges and it just so happens he teaches parenting classes) and we got to talking and I asked them where we might go swimming and he said how about my place, i have a pool no one ever swims in and so we did. This guy Tom turns out is a jeweler and he has the most incredible collection of stones, rocks, dinosaur bones, metals, etc.. in his house. Reese was in heaven, we spent hours looking at his treasures and then he invited us to go out the next day and look for dinosaur bones & petrified wood and so we did.
We drove an hour of so out of town to a dig site Tom knew of, he gave each of the boys bags for rocks and pick axes, one of which Tom's dad gave him as a boy. It was so cool, we did find several petrified bones and tons of petrified wood and lots of dinosaur bones in the cliffs and canyons, really spectacular
day. Later Tom drove us to Colorado National Monument, just outside Grand Junction, red rocks, amazing rock formations caused by erosion, etc.. I drove around in awe and the boys well they were busy watching a movie.. scenery is ok for a minute of so and that is about it..

Oh yeah ... the real highlight of Grand Junction was getting my tooth pulled.. it took over an hour to get it out, a real ordeal to pull a tooth that you've done a root canal on, they are brittle and difficult! But the real fun was 2 days later when it really started to hurt.. I did end up getting the pain medicine he prescribed
which meant it really hurt cause I do not like talking medication, but tooth pain is some of the worst in my book.

8/2/08 Major Hot Springs pool in Glenwood Springs..

We were ready to soak and swim, it's hot here, over 100 degrees every day, no AC, beautiful scenery but hot..
we are pretty much looking to swim everyday.. or spend the day indoors doing something fun. In Glenwood it's
the hot springs.. Pricey but very fun, all day we soaked, rode the big slides, swam in the biggest pool I think
in the world.. the boys made friends of course and I oohh'd & aahh'd at all the cute babies and little kids. We
all had a blast.
We also had a nice visit with a brother & sister who we met in the am, they were selling jewelry on the corner
that they had made. It was dead bugs in glue, made into necklaces & bracelets, very creative.. I had to stop
cause I could not read the sign they used to advertise cause it was so badly misspelled, so I helped them make
a new sign and we heard just how they caught the bugs and preserved them in the glue. Reese also showed
them some of the beaded jewelry he had made. We bought a bracelet of course and headed for the pools.
I also got to hit 2 AA meetings in Glenwood, very nice folks, so cool to hit meetings and meet folks in so many
different places..

8/1/08 Beautiful Vail..

So we hit Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, what's next.. well Vail of course.. parking the RV downtown was a bit of a challenge so I headed a bit away from downtown (which we explored quite a bit a few years ago when we stayed there) and discovered the Ford Amphitheater, Park & Garden as well as a Nature Center of course with a creek running through it.. all of Colorado actually has a creek running through it. We spent the whole day playing at the park, exploring the awesome gardens complete with meditation pond and benches, and learning lots of cool animal facts at the Nature Center.
They were preparing for a ballet that night and I even got to watch a bit of the practice, very cool, I have not seen a ballet in probably 15 years so every little bit was quite a treat!

7/27/08 The Next Exciting Adventure..

A happy life is about attitude.. let's face it, there is much about life that constantly surprises me.. it is out of my hands.. shit happens.. right.. well some major shit was about to hit the fan.. and truly it was a test of my serenity.. you find out where you are spiritually when stuff happens and I am faced with myself, my discomfort, my fears, that's when i find out if I am truly peaceful from the inside out or am I just peaceful cause I like my circumstances.. what happens when I am not so fond of my journey, how do I respond then?? What happens inwardly when my crown breaks and I have to get to a dentist out of town right away (what is it about vacations that always invites teeth crisis in me?) and the dentist can't fix it and refers me to an oral surgeon to pull my tooth and recommend me to get an implant.. and then the motorhome breaks down, Steve goes back home, I am alone with the kids and the breaks start squeaking on the mountain roads at 10,000 ft and no brake shop in town has time that day to look at my brakes? and the water tank on the RV is leaking and there are no RV repair places for 500 miles.. lucky for me, I got to explore all of this and more.. cause we were also in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning, the icing on the cake so to speak..

So the story goes.. that I waited all day and eventually one guy looked at my brakes and found the problem and fixed it.. i found an oral surgeon, made an appt for a week later to have my tooth pulled, and off we went down the road.. meanwhile i got to get humbled one more time.. seeing really clearly how rattled i can get when life goes "wrong" and how i have to use the tools to get back to the natural state, flowing, and how my kids will forgive me when i fall short and get grumpy.. it's all good..

We went to Breckenridge the boys and I, another beautiful ski village with a river running through it to play in. We rode our bikes, played in the village, found a great park right on the river and went to the community center and saw a children's circus that was awesome!

7/25/08 Fellowship of the Spirit

Well it just so happens that there is this awesome AA convention that happens at Copper Mtn (2 hours from Boulder) and it just so happens that our good friend Bill Cleveland (who Steve worked several years for and who performed out marriage ceremony) is the main speaker Sat night, so of course we wanted to go.. It was great cause 10 or so folks from my morning went along with 3 of the women I sponsor, what fun. Not only did they have terrific speakers, a dance, step workshops and meetings galore, but Copper Mountain has Bungee jumping (both boys can do double flips), go carts (Luc & I won the race), bumper boats that squirt water (oh I have not laughed so hard in ages), rock climbing (Reese climbed a 5.9 & Luc climbed a 5.7), mountain biking down the ski runs (Steve & Reese were the brave one's riding down the blue run), live music every night and mini golf.. we were in heaven, the kids were in heaven, we all had a great time together, Boys rode their bikes a ton and we met some nice new folks too. There were several friends from So Cal there and that was a treat.. and Bill talk was amazing, he brought the house down. love ya Bill!

7/17/08 Chilling at home..

We had 9 days to relax at home before we loaded up the RV and took off traveling for another 6 weeks.. it was very nice, I went to my morning meeting everyday and connected with friends, we threw a pool party and had 20 or so friends over to swim in our pool and played chicken foot (dominos), we had a few playdates with our pals Joseph & Kelly and played in the Boulder Creek, we attended a 3 day satsang with Sharon Landrith that was absolutely fantastic, and mostly we just enjoyed each other and were very grateful to be living in Colorado and have such rich friendships come about so quickly.. thanks to AA.