Some things never change

And I'm glad that my friendship with these three--Kathryn, Brooke, and Lan is something that never changes no matter how far or long I've been gone. These girls have known me since high school and college and we have been through a lot together (unemployment, culture re-entry, broken engagements and relationships, job dissatisfaction, death of loved ones, and the list goes on). I can always know that when I come home to Colorado, our evenings will be filled with dancing, eating, drinking, and deep conversations about what is really going on. Our circle of friendship is a safe haven and something that I miss when I'm gone. I'm blessed by these girls and their willingness to pour into our friendship even when I'm so far away.

Thank you girls for these past two weeks and for making my birthday so special!

A Birthday Hike

One of the first things that I wanted to do as a 27-year old was to go up a trailhead that overlooks the city of Boulder, one that I had climbed a great deal in both high school and college. I realized that I was no longer the Colorado girl that I used to be since I was the only one that didn't have my climbing equipment strapped onto my REI sport pack with my golden lab running ahead of me. It is good that I had enough sense not to completely let my time in Vietnam shape me and attempt to wear poorly-made plastic high heels up the mountain, as you would witness women doing in Vietnam.

Back when I was a Country Girl

My mom and I went to Sterling (Eastern Colorado—about 2 hours from Boulder County) to visit my Nana and Papa. My Nana and Papa are the parents of my mother’s ex-boyfriend. They had dated for years when I was a young girl and when the relationship ended, his parents still wanted us to be part of their family. So, my mother and I spent a lot of time on their farm when I was young and I have always known them as my Nana and Papa. I have a lot of great memories of the farm—a turkey poking me in the eye, running the John Deer tractor/mower into the metal shed (age 6?), jumping off the bird coop onto the trampoline, and being surrounded by lots of animals and hay. Nana would be cooking up meat patties from the cow that they had just sent to the butcher and kneading the dough for the cinnamon rolls and Papa would have just returned from working outside (since 4 am) and torturing me by pulling my toes until they popped.

I haven’t seen them since they came up for my high school graduation almost 10 years ago and so I knew that a visit was long overdue.

On the way back home, we saw this sign on a gas pump just outside of Sterling. I love to think of someone actually putting the nozzle back and counting to 20 slowly in their head. Notice also the picture of the police officer.

My brother is Amish!

My brother, Derek, with his almost fiancé Dani. I couldn’t help but make fun of his little beard that he has growing on his chin. Was it funny looking because it just is or because I live in a place where men can’t grow facial hair?

Monte playing basketball

Good Times With the Fam

My mother invited the family over for food and alcohol…otherwise, I don’t know if they would actually come. Every family event that is held in the summertime ends up in a water balloon fight, of which my mother buys in bulk every time we go to the store (As a note, EVERY family event, no matter the time of year, must include some kind of word game. You get my mother and my aunts with a scrabble game and it gets crazy.) As I was just about ready to head out to celebrate my birthday with some friends, my older cousin Shane decides to throw me over his shoulder only to position me in the middle of the lawn where all my little cousins can douse me with water. So loved. I changed quickly out of my wet clothes and didn’t notice until I was at my friend’s house that my bra which was still wet had made impressionable marks on the clothes that I was planning to wear out.