Hello, Fall.

Hello, fall. What a pleasure to be greeted by you. Your mustard yellow ignites the hillsides and steep mountain slopes that meet the bluest sky. Your breezy air, campfire smell, and glistening gold take my breathe away. And truly, truly, in Colorado, you do it best of all. Fall, I'm glad you're here. I think I'll keep you for as long snowy days stay far away and your aspen leaves glisten in the sun.

Three weeks ago we ventured through Western Colorado. Each night we camped, each day we explored. It was wonderful. And now, life is busy again in the very best way, with a trip to California this past weekend, house projects crammed in on days off and between rain, and quality down time when swimming, or cooking, or working doesn't take up the majority. So, here's just a snapshot from our trip, with a promise (to myself, really) to share my favorites from Salida, the brewery's in Ouray and Durango, and the hikes to waterfalls and ghost-homes that filled those days out west. 

Oh, and in case you've ever wondered if I can do a cartwheel. I can't. But, this picture might make you believe I darn well tried.

Cold Brings Snow

"It's negative 13 degrees outside right now, you might have a snow day" are words that I never imagined waking up to on a regular weekday morning. Forever used to the default of California warmth, what a jolting reality of winter it has been. 

But you know what? Cold brings snow. The snow! Oh the snow is amazingly beautiful. Beauty doesn't even really begin to describe the view when you're on a ski lift peering down to the slopes and valleys below. Tree tops reaching up to touch the crisp blue layer just beyond reach--stretching, peering, almost grazing clouds as they pass by with the whisking winter wind.

Matt and I made a trip up to Keystone together for a morning of skiing, and how quick my breath was taken away. Yes, literally, because it was so dry and cold--but figuratively speaking too, as the sight of the mountains captivated my heart like that of a child on Christmas morning. The snow is different here. Not sticky and wet, or icy and hard, like what I found myself learning to navigate as a beginning snowboarder in California's limited winter landscape, but dry and just waiting to be fluffed up, waiting to be swiftly passed through, making turns and edges not as scary to take--a snow that builds my confidence as I take to it strapped in a board, bundled up head to toe, racing down the mountain.

"Its negative thirteen," is never what I thought I'd hear right before I had to get out of bed, and drive to work. But never did I imagine I'd live just an hour away from mountain top beauty with a white layer of winter that dares me to race down its slopes. I'll take negative numbers any day, if it means views above pine trees reaching towards cotton candy strands of white and snow that goes fluff.

To the Hills

Wide open space. This was in our top five reasons for why we must move to Colorado. Days like this are the ones I hold onto when the city gets to be too much. When to-do lists and chores try to become my focus, and when its easy to forget this, this beauty, that I was created to find solace in. There is a longing in my heart, and I think in all of us deep down, for wide open space. A space to feel so little, so vulnerable, so out of control as the world around feels so big, sky so high, while wandering at the will of the rising and setting sun. I like to imagine what it must have been like to discover this place. This western wide open space. What did they say? What did they see? Truly, where the buffalo roam, to the hills and through the valleys is what I hold onto. I hold onto it and keep it tied up in a leather bag that I open whenever I need a reminder. A reminder that this, this beauty, is what I was created to find joy in.

These photos were taken just outside of Morrison, Colorado.

Linking up with Annapolis & Company.

Follow Via Bloglovin' & Summer Adventures

You may have seen stamped all over your favorite blogs that Google Reader is going away this Monday. So let's have this be an official au revoir to the reader that has kept us in the loop with our must-reads. I have opted to stick with Bloglovin' to organize my own blog lists, and I'd love for you to follow me over there! Follow me on Bloglovin' here >>

--end housekeeping. onto summer dreaming.--

One of my all time favorite memories in our first year here in Denver, is from a Saturday last summer when we went tubing down the Boulder Creek river with our neighbors. Matt ran to Wal Mart the morning of this impromptu tubing adventure, to find only one tube left of the shelves. He bought a tube for me, and a little inflatable boat for himself (see here). This is where things started to get pretty funny. As you can probably imagine, a 6 foot 3 man in a child size boat floating down a rocky creek was a sight to behold. That, and my friend Lauren braved the rapids with her dog in tow, the little cattle dog pup sitting on her lap the entire way down the creek.