Boulder, Colorado

Chuck and his sister, Mary

We take a hike
Prairie Dog checking us out
Scenes along the trail

Cactus in bloom


Chuck and Natalie in love

We had been planning a trip to Colorado in July to attempt to hike up Mount Elbert and to see Chuck's brother, Dan . Then last week Chuck received a phone call from his sister Mary who lives in Boulder (as does his brother Dan) saying she had accepted a job in Nicaragua and had to leave immediately. Chuck said he would rather give up his hiking trip (his reward for losing 40 pounds) in order to see his sister before she left.

We left early Thursday morning, June 26th. While in Colorado, my tooth fell out again (see previous blog entry). I was able to get into an emergency dental clinic and left with my tooth back in place and about $100 poorer. Then on Sunday night, my tooth fell out again. This time however, I accidentally swallowed it. I went to the dentist yesterday but basically will be toothless until next Wednesday when they can replace the tooth permanently. I now have a charming lisp.

On Friday we were able to see Chuck's brother Dan and his family. We really enjoyed our visit with them. Then Friday night while packing, Mary fell down and broke her wrist. We spent several hours in the Med-Assist and Hospital Emergency rooms. We had planned on going home Saturday since we had some things to do on Sunday but decided we should stay and help Mary due to the accident.

Since we prowbably won't be able to make another trip to Colorado in July (with $4.00 a gallon gas we may not be able to afford a trip to Kansas City), we decided to take a break from our long work days and take a short hike Saturday afternoon. The pictures above our from our 3 mile hike on a trail just south of Boulder.

Chuck hung a few new light fixtures and made some handyman repairs that were needed before the house went on the market. The Boulder real estate market seems for the most part to be isolated from the housing problems affecting the rest of the country, so she should have no problem selling the house. We're thinking about hauling our house out to Boulder and selling it at their prices...we could retire then!

Chuck said even the bras must be expensive since so few of the women in Boulder seemed able to afford one!

We finished packing Mary and took her to the airport on Sunday morning. We arrived back in Topeka around 4pm.