It's Been Three Months...

We've officially been Coloradans for over three months now and are truly enjoying being residents of this state! We were a little leery at first when April and May brought snow to Fort Collins twice! In May? What? Did we move to Minnesota? Or, North Dakota? Our new neighbors and store sales clerks assured us, "This is a very unusual year. We've had much more snow and cold than normal!" By the end of May, we were hoping this was an anomaly!

The clouds parted and temperatures finally started to rise in early June; we actually started to believe that Colorado may really get about 300 days of sunshine each year! (Well, maybe not full days of sunshine, but a good portion of each day!) The tulips that had greeted us in April were finally dropping their petals and new plant growth began to emerge in their place.

Signs of true spring were everywhere. The bike lanes throughout the city and surrounding areas featured many more riders than when we first arrived. The gray pigeons (they actually look like large gray doves, but by any other name can be called "pigeons") set up camp in our gutter just outside our front door. After further inspection, we could see that the previous tenant tried to squelch this effort by placing a wire mess over the gutter area. These crafty little birds figured out how to bend the wire back and have now set up a nice home there...hmmm, need to be smarter than a pigeon!

Wasps began to hover at several peaks of the house but Mark foiled their plan by spraying them before they had a change to build their nests.

Our grass started growing, the sprinkler system was checked for proper operation (with the unusual amount of snow Fort Collins received this past winter, we wanted to ensure all sprinkler heads were working), and, we had to make some improvements to the Koi pond so that we wouldn't wake one morning to find floating fish!

As Mark organized and unloaded boxes over the next two months, I continued to work part time at my previous job by telecommuting. In between working and unpacking boxes, we tackled the decorative elements of a house and it now feels like "home"!

In early June, we flew to Philadelphia to help my Mom host a wedding shower for Sara and Zach! We surprised Sara by flying out her sister, Holly and our grandson, Ezra for the event!

Following our week visit with Mom and Gene, we drove our third car to Vermont and attended my 35th college reunion just outside of Burlington, Vermont. We stayed in a lovely B&B in downtown Burlington. It was the first time I'd been back since I graduated!

We added another day to visit a friend of ours in Syracuse and also spent a night in Niagra Falls, NY. I have always wanted to see Niagra Falls and they were certainly spectacular!

We rounded out the trip by making a quick stop in Champlin, MN to spend two nights with Mark's Mom and sister then did a long 15 hour drive to home! Our cat must have thought we were gone for good! The vet said he did just fine.

We hosted our first BBQ on the 4th of July and had the pleasure of having Zach's Mom, Dad, Grandma, and brother join us!

We were very happy to enjoy two visits already from family! Mark's Mom and sister, Sue visited us for a few days in May and my Mom enjoyed a week with us just last week!

In between all this activity, we've all been busy with Sara and Zach's wedding plans! Things are falling nicely into place now! It's going to be a beautiful wedding in the mountains!

Mark and I are walking a lot more, biking when we can, and "exploring" the surrounding area every chance we get! We've even taken up disc golf (our son-in-law's passion) and have found several courses in the local area. (Now we just need to get Erich to visit and try them out, too!)

We are about to embark on a two-day "tent" camping trip in the Rocky Mountain National Park--that may prove interesting since we haven't done any camping in tents since we were in our 20s!

Finally, we are anxiously awaiting Holly and the grandkids' visit in about three weeks!

So, life in Colorado is good! While I do miss my family on the East coast, I have no regrets with our decision to move. We are closer to Holly and her family and especially closer to Sara! And, this area is absolutely amazing...friendly neighbors, very helpful, pleasant store clerks who really know the meaning of "customer service", and a LOT less traffic! It's actually a pleasure to drive out here! And, above all, the beauty of the mountains are breathtaking! Every day I walk outside my door or drive down the street and I realize that we are definitely living in a postcard!