Quite the Adventure!!

So we took our teens to the mountains like I said in a previous post, and of course in true Dena fashion, I totally forgot to pack what everyone else deems shoes. And I have never been more thankful for someone have the same shoe size as me, without the tennis shoes she let me borrow, I would have missed out on one of the most breath taking experiences of my life. But before I talk about that let me fill you in on the rest of the weekend.

One of our volunteers opened up her lake house in Granby, CO which is at Grand Lake, in/near Rocky Mountain National Park, not sure if it is by it or in it. We took 9 teens, 6 guys, 3 girls. Carol loaded up 4 of the boys in her car and headed out while Deb and I finished packing up the food and loaded up the minivan we use for our food bank. After some very creative packing that I learned from my wonderful father, we were picking up one of the girls and hitting the road, hoping to beat the rush hour traffic. As we were pulling out of her neighborhood I noticed the gauges flipping out and the van was overheating. After talking to my amazing and all knowing Padre, we headed back to ROP and were scrambling to find away to get 7 of us into the mountains, the van was out of commission. After several calls and trying to stay calm, we found a suburban and hit the road about 2 hours behind schedule, which shouldn't surprise me, I never make a trip to the lake on schedule. The drive was long, filled with "Are we there yet?", "Are we lost?", and "How much longer?" After finally arriving we threw together some pizzas (Mom's recipe, they are a HUGE hit!) and hung out. After an exhausting day we tried to get the teens to wind down, if Deb and I only knew what we were in for. At one point when I was getting on to the boys, I saw out of the corner of my eye, 2 were doing chin-ups from the rafters of the basement. After taking 1 step to go upstairs and head back to bed I heard some loud thuds, turned and they were having a massive pillow fight, this was after several times of getting on to them, and it was 3 something in the morning. Crawling back into bed, Deb and I started laughing at how ridiculous everything was, then I heard what sounded like someone trying to tear down the house. I went down into the basement and they were having yet another pillow fight, I separated them and had hit my point of being done. Deb and I were still somewhat laughing at everything going on when I heard them one more time, at this point I was going to hurt someone. When I walked out one of my guys looked at me, instantly pointed to the door, and informed me of the huge raccoon that was scratching the door, I started cracking up and went back to bed. The next day snowed non-stop, so our plans to hike got changed to bowling and games at the cabin, which was perfect. I got to bond more with 2 of the girls I've been mentoring and got to know one of the teen boys, who I've now adopted as my little brother, he's precious, I'm attached. That night, Carol and her husband took us to "Spook Hill" which turned out to be a random and weird graveyard. It was funny to watch them all get freaked out, and I thought I was safe walking at the end of the pack back to the cars, with 2 of the girls when the next thing I know I'm basically on the ground letting out the loudest shrill ever due to one of the boys sneaking behind me and scaring the absolute tar out of me, needless to say everyone is still laughing about it. The next morning was a little clearer and we jumped on the opportunity to take the teens on the hike to Adams Falls, a set of waterfalls not to far up into the mountains.

The walk was absolutely gorgeous, the snow that was randomly on the ground, the combination of green, orange, red, and brown, made the walk incredible. About 4 minutes into the hike you could hear the water rushing, I was so pumped to see the waterfalls, no longer focusing on how cold I was or annoyed by hiking. And that is when I saw it, snow, snow falling all around me, and instead of me being frustrated about my hair, or the idea of getting wet, I embraced it and it was wonderful. Then we got to the Falls, they were some of the most beautiful things I've seen. We decided to hike a little bit more to a meadow, it was phenomenal, the views were so incredible, I couldn't take enough pictures and I can't wait to hike again. So I leave you with the best of the tons of pictures I took during the hike and weekend.

Muchos love!!