First Class to some R & R!!

My flight to CO was free, I had some airline miles saved up, but when I got to the airport Wed, I had the option to upgrade to first class for my flight into CO for only $150! So I paid it.. I figured if that is the only out of pocket flight expense, it was worth it. So I got to zip past the security line and fast forward directly to the scanning machine, I boarded the plane first and was treated with a hot towel, real glasses for drinks, a full breakfast.. It was pretty nice.

When I landed I was having no feelings of being emotional about seeing Danielle & Collin, I was excited for sure, but had no idea that when I walked around the corner by baggage claim and they were standing there, that I would start crying.. it was like being hit by a ton of bricks in my throat and I just immediately teared up w/o warning. :) It felt great to see my friend again.

Here are a couple pics of Collin and us..




When I arrived, the day was VERY warm, 65 degrees! We had the front door to the house open, I sat outside on the porch, it was just a beautiful day and yet I was sad thinking what a bummer, I go all the way to CO in November and its too warm to snow! Day 2 (Thanksgiving Day) a different story, it did not even reach 40 degrees that day. Day 3, back up to 55. Day 4 (Saturday) no higher than 34, day 5 the coldest at no higher than about 30 and then finally day 6 back up to about 50. This pic below is my first day there
It is so nice outside, short sleeves and sun! The picture below is of "Castle Rock" which is the name of the town Danielle lives in and this is the rock the town is named after. At night, there is a big star that is lit up. This pic is taken from in front of Danielles house.
Our Thanksgiving was really nice, Danielle cooked a full turkey dinner and I enjoyed having turkey sandwhiches and turkey salads for lunch/dinner for the remainder of my days there. :) I did miss spinach dip, that is one of my favorites at the holidays, but when I got home last night, there was some in our home fridge, so I ate away!

Danielle drove me around parts of CO, it is not as mountainy in her area as I thought it would be and the hills in the distance didnt have snow on them like I thought they might. Denver is very flat! I could see that flying in, not what I expected. In Castle Rock, the elevation is around 6500ft, which is higher than Denver, so there were more hills and a nicer area I think. We did a lot of driving around, she took me past lots of nice barns, unfortunately in CO, almost every farm/stables has a gate at the entryway, so we didnt get to drive up to as many barns as we had wanted to. Danielle works in the horse industry in a couple different avenues, so we tried to stop at the barns for her work, but w/o an appointment, you're not getting in! We did drive to one hunter/jumper ranch that was gorgeous. We did this on Friday, noone was around, but there was no gate, so we drove right up to the main barn.. It was beautiful!! The horses inside that barn are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.. I was afraid to touch them! lol What if someone saw me and yelled at me for touching the horse, I'm sure that a couple were stallions. I figured better to just observe from a distance. I'd say in a 20 mile radius, I saw every kind of riding discipline ranch/farm/barn there was: jumping, dressage, polo, fox hunters, reining, cutting, barrel racing, ranching, etc..

Here is a picture taken of the hills in the area when we were out on one of our drives. Lots of big open fields like this.

When we were out driving, at one point Collin says "Mom I gotta poop!" Danielle whipped that car off the road as quickly as she could. During the day Collin does not wear a diaper, he is 3.5yrs old and when he's got to go, he's got to go now! He doesnt understand what "hold it" means, he literally grabs his peepee when told to hold it.. lol So we had to pull over, he did pee, but the poop was a false alarm this time...
After all the worry and wonder of snow, we did get snow! It snowed Friday night and we woke up Saturday morning with about 2 inches.. It was really nice. It warmed up a little during the day, but not enough to melt it all away. We went for a hike in the snow, about 2 miles maybe. They have these "open spaces" parks is what they call them. They are not really parks, just open areas with a designated trail that loops around. It was a nice walk, I actually over-bundled up and was pretty warm, wheras I think Danielle was freezing, but she does not have the meat on her bones to keep her warm like I do! lol

Here is the pic taken when I woke up Saturday morning. The road had snow on it, but by the time we left for our hike it was mostly slush or gone from the road.

Here are some pics from our hike.. There was still a good amount of snow to walk through. It was a lot of fun, we took the dogs and they had a great time running free! Collin got tired when we were almost back to the car, so Danielle had to carry him on her shoulders the last 500 yards or so.

Sunday morning we woke up to a little more snow and it was still snowing.. It snowed ALL day on Sunday.. By days end, there was atleast 8 inches of snow on the ground. Danielle lives down a very untraveled street, so it is not one that gets plowed or sanded, she could have gotten the car out, but we decided to just stay inside for the day and not chance it. We spent the day hangin out, reading, a little napping and doing the girly thing of painting our finger and toenails! We did get up and walk into town around 3:45pm, which is only about 2 blocks away. The antique store was still open, but the other stores I had wanted to visit were closed, so we decided to come back on Monday before I left for home. It was fun out walking in the snow.

I took this picture of the pillar on her front porch and how deep it was on Sunday.
Here is a picture looking down the steet from in front of her house with all the snow
I paid for a horsey ride for Collin while we were walking in town
A picture of part of the town streets and then one of "Castle Rock"

It was really nice spending time with Danielle & Collin. I got in lots of relaxation and some rest too! Hard to sleep in when Collin is up and awake bright and early! lol He doesnt have a quiet mode... :) Danielle does not have TV service hooked up and the only working TV/DVD player was in Collins room, so I got caught up on 4 magazines and my fill-it-in puzzles. Danielle's Jack Russell, Sobe, slept with me most nights.

Here is Sobe, chillin on the couch
This is Danielle and her dog "Blue" Blue seems to be camera shy, cuz he is hardly in any pictures I took, yet Sobe is in lots!
Monday we drove around a little and stopped for lunch in a cute little town, then headed to the airport. I was there about 3.5 hours early, but that was okay. I was not able to upgrade to first class for my flight home, I had a window seat and was feeling a lot of anxiety about my flight.. I was worried about having to sit next to someone and be crowded. It is nice when Derek & I fly together, we flip the seat divider up and it works great, but with a stranger next to me, would they be OK with the divider up! So I got myself seated, there was a guy in the isle seat, and I watched in stress mode as every person loaded the plane and walked our direction. It appeared that almost everyone was on the plane, and there was one guy left to be seated... he was at the front of the plane, waiting for others to get out of the isle, I was nervous.. he walked our way, kept coming closer, as he got to the row in front of me, he was looking for overhead storage, which of course there was none. Then he looked at the row in front of me and indicated his seat was there in the middle! Then I hear on the loud speaker that the doors are closed, attendants prepare for take-off! OMG.. HOW did I get soo flippin lucky!! The guy that was last to be seated did put his carry-on in our row under his seat. So I had a very nice flight home. They did show a dumb movie called "Son of Rambo". It was dumb dumb dumb.. I started to watch it for about 20 minutes, decided it was pretty hokey, so I listened to music and then just watched the screen and got the basic idea of how the movie went. It was about 2 kids making a movie about being the son of rambo and it was so cheesy, what a bummer. but it helped occupy the time for the 3 hour flight.

I was pretty happy to be back home. No offense whatsoever to my friend Danielle, but it felt great to be home with my family. :) I was realizing on my flight back, that I had missed Derek more than I had realized. My flight home, was the first time I really spent some time thinking about Carrie over my holiday vacation, so I cried a little on the plane ride home. I forced myself to stop thinking about her because I did not want to loose control on an airplane! It felt great to think of her though. I was not sad over the holiday, maybe because I was away from home and I had found a way to escape those feelings for now...

I sure missed my kids too... I was happy to pet them and love all over them, but Russell seemed more interested in wanting to know exactly where I had been and why my bag smelled like other dogs!!! He would not stop sniffing my bags.. lol I sat down in front of the TV and watched one of my recorded shows, I just had to get in some TV time! So I am happy to be home, but glad I was able to spend my holiday with Danielle.

I had hoped the trip would revive my holiday spirit... Well it kinda did. The snow definately helped and Danielle had her christmas tree up, maybe we'll work on getting ours up this weekend... :) Happy December Everyone!