Colorado has been wonderful ...

I have had a wonderful week and a half in beautiful Colorado!  But I must come home to reality at some time and that time is tomorrow morning, when I leave for the 2 day drive back.
I have packed so much into the last week, from running up in Leadville, Co at 10,200 feet altitude to running the last 6.2 miles of the Boulder marathon with my daughter, Caitlin (and my husband, Mark), as Caitlin finished her first marathon on a very tough course in 3:59:29!  I am so proud of her.  Mark flew out here to surprise her and he ran the entire marathon with her.  I jumped in at mile 20 and her boyfriend Julian jumped in for the last 2 miles (Julian ran the 1st 4 with her, then ran 13 with a friend of his and the last 2 with Caitlin - he ended up running 23 miles in total!).  

Caitlin & Mark after finishing the Boulder marathon!

Start & finish of Boulder marathon

Place I stopped on way back from Leadville

I must say that I can understand the draw that Colorado had on both of my children, and why they felt the need to move out here.  It is such a beautiful place and the sun seems to shine almost all the time.  This morning, it was only 37 degrees out but with the strong sunshine, it soon felt like 70.  

I'm spending my last night here at my daughter's apartment, carving pumpkins and drinking some red wine.  

Life is an amazing gift and I am so grateful that I was able to spend so much time with my family in this beautiful place!  Thank you to my wonderful husband, Mark - my two wonderful children, Kyle & Caitlin - and to God for providing such a beautiful place and giving me the health to enjoy it.  

I love hiking!!!

I've been in Colorado for a week now and I'm really loving it, although I'm missing my husband (he arrives tonight :) ).  On Monday, I drove up to Leadville, which took me about 2.5 hours but was so beautiful along the way.  But yesterday was such a good day - I hiked up to Royal Arch by myself after spending some time at the Denver REI store and having lunch with my daughter, Caitlin.  Because I was on the trail at about 1PM on a Thursday afternoon, there were very few people.  I've hiked in Boulder before, but usually on a Saturday, which has been packed.  Being out there alone was so peaceful and relaxing.  I took almost 70 pictures in a 2 hour period, but it still did not capture the beauty.  My legs are a bit sore today due to all the climbing, but it's a good sore.  I really felt so healthy up there yesterday - it's so good to feel that, as I come up to my 4 year survival anniversary.  Life is SO good!

Royal Arch - view from bottom

View from arch

Colorado adventure...

Tomorrow, my Colorado adventure begins.  I'm leaving at 7AM for my solo drive from Ohio to Colorado.  The purpose of the trip is to watch my daughter run the Boulder marathon (her first marathon), spend some quality time with my son & daughter in Denver, check out part of the transrockies run course, do some hiking (if the weather is nice), and look at some possible retirement homes in the area (or at least narrow down a city/area where we'd like to be).  But most of all, it's a 2 week vacation - some time to enjoy just having the time to enjoy.
For the last 30 years, except for some time off when my children were born, I have worked full time in the Corporate accounting world.  It was never a good time to take vacation, so my time off revolved around the Corporate calendar, which was not very forgiving.  But as of July 20th, I am no longer working.  I decided that life was just too short to be spending 50-60 hours per week sitting behind a desk.  So I took an early retirement at the age of 52 to start enjoying life.  My ever supporting husband was behind my decision and says he likes it that I'm home now (I think he's serious :) ).  We would like to relocate to Colorado, but more and more, that is in the more distant future.  I'm having so much fun being home with the dog, running a lot, and signing up for a lot of races for next year.  A year of getting some things done that were on my bucket list.  Then we'll see...
Tomorrow morning, my two week adventure starts.  I'm excited...