Summer-Colorado
Gosh, where to start? It was a long, and short summer. That may seem contradictory, but that is sure how it felt.
This posting will be about all the things we did while in Colorado, for more on other summer adventures (Mexico City and London) look for the other posts here on the main page.
We began the summer with the still-pleasant feeling of walking into our own home. We are still so happy with the place and our decision to buy a home. However, with that said, we had thought that after the initial start-up costs we had last year that would pretty much be it…ha! Between replacing two windows, a car, a new windshield for the car two weeks later, tinting house windows to reduce heat gain, book shelves, guest beds and linens, and various other things…perhaps we’ll stay in Saudi a few more years just to be able to maintain our house! 
After we settled in, which means we went shopping for furniture and a car within the first three days, we unpacked, moved around 20 boxes of books out of 
the basement and put them out…and boy what a fantastic feeling to be able to see all our books! After we got everything squared away we had our annual visit with the Tippets Clan. And even though this year we met in CO, rather than at the cabin, we still had a great time. Our first question every summer is “When do we get to see the Tippets?” because we so look forward to the time we spend with them. After staying at our house they continued on to a family reunion in Western CO. After our visit w
ith the Tippets, we were able to reconnect with a few friends who are always willing to make the drive up or down to our place. We had a great time playing with Jack and Paul (and nice to see their parents too!) and catching up with Michael and Susan. To keep the momentum going, and not let our summer become too long, Charmagne left for five days to go to New York for an IB certification conference. While she was there she was able to hook up with her friend Sam who lives in the Big Apple and has one of the coolest jobs ever: staff editor in the sports department at the NY Times. Charmagne actually loved NYC and was even able to do some sightseeing and take in a show. Meanwhile Alex and the kids hung out at home and enjoyed our local playground and water play area.
The day Charmagne got back the entire Baier clan, minus brother Gil, also came for a ten day visit. The lack of a car big enough to hold eight people was a bit of a hindrance, but mom and dad Braden did lend us their car for a fantastic trip up into Rock Mountain 
National Park. After about five days brother Gil came in and we all went to the cabin where the boys (Gil, Gil and Alex) played at being men by cutting down seven (of the over 80) trees that had been killed by the pine beetle. Gil the Younger in particular seemed to really enjoy getting out and doing “real work”…now if we can just get those trees to fall in the direction we wish them to! he, he. We had a great time visiting with the family and the cousins loved being able to play together. One of the highlights of their visit, though, was Jan and Gil sitting outside on our patio every evening watching the sun set, marveling at the lack of bugs, and keeping an eye on the neighborhood traffic.
After the Baier Clan departed we had a few days before flying off to Mexico City to visit our old neighborhood, friends and food! For more on that please look for the post “Summer-Mexico”.
Because our trip to Mexico was unintentionally lengthened we ended up with only a few days to clean, winterize and pack for our return to Riyadh (with a six day lay-over in London - see “Summer-London”). Like I said in the beginning it was a short and long summer. We really felt like we did a horrible job getting in touch with family and friends in the CO area. We really intended to, honest! But time just flew by, schedules did not mesh and we were too busy jetting here and there. Our solemn vow for next summer is to stay put, keep visits on a manageable basis and see each and every one of the people we missed this last summer. Hold us to it! (Don’t forget Jen, that you promised to remind us of this!) If you are among the large group of people we did miss, it was not intentional we assure you, please accept our apologies and we’ll look forward to seeing you in 2010.
For more photos from our summer adventures in Colorado please click here.
