Experience # 3 - The Orb

Once we were back at the hotel it was getting late.  The kids all got on the pj's and were coloring and watching some TV.  Verna and I - well, we opened a bottle of Apple Wine and continued our good time.  We decided after awhile it was time for the kids to hit the sack.  Dan stayed with our kids and got them tucked into bed and Verna's kids retreated to their room for the night.  We headed back to the bar and the main part of The Stanley. It was definitely erie out at night walking around and surprisingly quiet.  We were at the steps of the hotel and I of course thought - photo op - so Verna and I sat on the steps and had Cory take our picture.  I always like to have a back up picture taken in case one doesn't turn out so I asked him to take one more shot.  We went into the hotel and  had another one of their delicious, yet expensive drinks and then took a look at our pictures.  Ah the wonderful world of digital cameras.  As Verna was looking at the second picture she started zooming in and then got all excited - there's an Orb, an Orb on your hip in the picture.  It was crazy.  We checked it out all night and she started taking pictures of different areas in the bar to see if she could capture another "orb".  We didn't see anything else, but the pictures are below, both of them and you make the call.  Was it an Orb or was it the flash ... hm?  We will never know!

It was time to hit the hay and we walked backed to our building.  I hardly slept at all that night.  I tossed and I turned and kept thinking that I was hearing things all night.  There is no air conditioning in the hotel so we had our window cracked open.  Every once in awhile a huge gust of wind would come through and rattle our window and it scared the living crap out of me.  I couldn't open my eyes afraid that I would see a ghost standing over me or at the foot of my bed.  I made Dan hold my hand the entire night.  He kept trying to turn to his side and I had a death grip on him.  In the middle of the night I had to pee so bad, but there was no way I was walking around my room and going around a corner or looking in the bathroom mirror to see something staring back at me.  I couldn't have been happier when the sun was up and I could function properly again - whew, it was a long night. The funniest part was when I talked to Verna in the morning she had the same exact experience that I did - no sleep, couldn't get out of bed.  She said that one time in the night she did open her eyes and saw an Orb on Cory's shoulder, but she was too scared to move and grab her camera and figured it would have been gone when she turned back around anyway.

Here are the pictures - you decide!

Rocky Mountain Oysters - Experience with my BFF # 2

We all got ready to head to town.  The boys in the truck and the girls in the car (and we took Junior too!)  We jammed out some old school Dixie Chicks for me and Verna and took off towards town.  We had no idea where we were going to eat, but after talking over beers the night before it was decided that where ever it was had to have Rocky Mountain Oysters and everyone was going to try them.  I have avoided this delicacy for 11 years and really wasn't too thrilled to be peer pressured into it, but I said I was game.  We told everyone except the 3 youngest what they were actually going to be tasting.  We walked around the town area of Estes and finally saw a place that wasn't too busy and looked nice and they had what we wanted.  Poor Jordan, Verna's son, was having a slight reaction to the high elevation and had gotten a nose bleed on the way to town.  We found him the restroom immediately to try and clean up and get it too stop.  It eventually did, but the poor kid did have to sit for a awhile with tissue to plug it.  We all ordered some drinks and Verna and I had some wine.  We ordered our appetizers and they started cooking us up some good ol' bull nuts.  We took pictures of course of each us having our experience with our new food.  Dan has had them a number of times so for him it was no big deal and the kids didn't know what they were eating, but when they are older we will show this page to them and watch the girls freak out on their mothers!

In true lady like fashion when it comes to trying new things we made the boys go first!

Dan was up first - Yep no big deal for him.

Cory was up next, not too much expression from him either.

Verna was third to go and as any girl does ya gotta check everything out before you try it!

It was my turn and you can see that I was none too excited for this, but I gave it a whirl.

Verna's kids were next!

And then there was Junior - Look Mom, I ate every piece of my lobster tail.  Expensive little bugger.

Good Job Junior. 

After dinner we were all stuffed full.  We did a little shopping and walked off a little of what we ate and then headed back to The Stanley.  The kids did a great job sitting all the way through the appetizers and dinner.

A Visit from my BFF

It was a long week of company already and we had only 1 1/2 days to clean sheets and do some laundry before our next guests arrived.  I couldn't help my excitement on Sunday.  My best friend was coming to visit with her family and we had a great time planned, even if it was only a few days.  They arrived later Sunday night after driving from Minnesota to Missouri for a wedding and then from Missouri to Colorado.  Our daughters hit it off right away and Katelynn was so happy to have a friend to play with.  We fed them a quick supper and then grabbed a couple of beers for the back patio and some visiting.  They had a little car trouble while on their drive so first thing in the morning they had an appointment at the Subaru dealership.  I headed off to work a half day.  We had them take Dan's truck after they dropped off their vehicle and they were able to go around and do a little shopping.


We had a great day planned.  We were heading up to Estes Park and had rooms rented at the Stanley Hotel!

 I got home from work and started packing overnight bags for the kids and I and then we piled into my car to head up the mountain.  Dan was meeting us later.  And it was a good thing he because although we were only staying one night we all packed a lot of crap to take with us and Dan was bringing most of it because with 7 people in my car there wasn't much room for anything else.  They loved the ride up to Estes.  It is a pretty ride and since it was a Monday afternoon there was hardly any traffic, which was great for me.  I am not keen on the mountain driving (or riding passanger for that matter) and get a little anxiety when people are riding my tail up the side of a mountain.  We made it safe and sound and we were right on time for check in.  The hotel is really beuatiful and you can't help but be in aw of it.  And of course it has a very erie feeling at every turn as well since the movie The Shining was based on it.  We walked around the grounds for a little bit checking it out and then went to our rooms and let the kids run back and forth between them.  We of course made room for a cooler in my car and the adults had a few beverages.  We wandered around our building and took a bunch of pictures.  We then headed to bar and patio area.  It was gorgeous outside and out there.  We ordered a few drinks and got all the kids shirley temples.  They ran around enjoying themselves and so did we.  Dan arrived with the rest of our luggage and we hung out for a little while longer before going and getting ready to head to into town for supper.

The kids running down the haunted hallways!

We went back to our rooms to get ready to head into town and out to eat and the next experience awaited us.