Lovely Ladies, Leaves, and Lance

Disclaimer: The picture formatting was on here is all out of whack. I know, it bothers me too. I tried to fix it for entirely too long and then gave up. 


Ryan and I had been told about how beautiful the Aspen trees are when they turn yellow in the fall.  After our time at the Maroon Bells in August, we set a goal of making it back in the fall.  Last weekend, we planned a camping trip to see the leaves. Anna and Miriam joined us and spiced up our trip.  They were such a fun addition to our trip and were up for anything (which was perfect because we didn't exactly plan any of it out...). 

We left early Friday morning and drove through the gorgeous Independence Pass to get to Aspen and our campground. We found an area to set up camp before we headed to see the Maroon Bells.

                                                  
I could try to describe how gorgeous it was there, but I will let the pictures do that for me. We had such a fun hike to Maroon Lake, even though it was mostly dried up. The weather could not have been any more enjoyable.

  

Our hike ended about 5:00 p.m. and we realized that we had not eaten a real meal all day. So, instead of freeze-dried food at the campfire, we decided pizza in Aspen would hit the spot. 

Afterwards we headed over to the local grocery store which ended up feeling more like a zoo. We got supplies for a fire and s'mores and Anna and Miriam almost got lost trying to get to a dungeon bathroom under the grocery store. Mir actually took a video so I'll try to get a hold of that to include here. 

The next day the girls (accidentally?) slept in while Ryan woke up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise at Maroon Bells. He got some pretty incredible pictures.

When he came back, we headed into Aspen to explore while Ryan listened to the Tennessee game on the radio. We were in Aspen most of the day checking out all of the stores, the street market, and the coffee shops. We liked to consider our day in Aspen "pampered camping".  It worked quite well and all of our food was delicious and easier to enjoy than the freeze-dried camping food that we brought to eat (it ended up back at REI).

On Sunday we woke up and drove back through Independence Pass and on to Kenosha Pass.  Ryan had read about a Ghost Town that was rumored to be one of Colorado's "most preserved" Ghost Towns.  It was the last day of the season there so our timing was perfect. 

 

Now, for Lance.  Lance Wheeler and I became friends our freshman year when he briefly dated my roommate.  Lance was in Denver recruiting for Lipscomb for a couple of days so we made every effort to get to hang out with him.  Lance, this picture is probably about 6 years old, but I thought I would put it here for old times sake. It is so nice to have friends around from home.  We had so much fun getting to show Lance different areas and restaurants that we have found.  We are hoping to see him a couple more times during ski season.

I'm still getting used to this blogging thing and Ryan won't blog about anything he can't make funny, so you'll just have to bear with me here. I've promised Whitney that I would put up pictures of the apartment soon so I'll be working on that for my next blog. I've also got some other feature blogs coming up so get excited people. I figure, if Libby Barker can blog about everything (and do it well) then I can give better and more frequent updates. I know you are dying to know about our lives. Thanks for tuning in.