Everything I Need

            It’s been a good week, team. Work flew by- I finished filing and started working on cabin donor things. I also got to travel to Denver for another YMCA Collaborative meeting with the Y’s in Colorado. This time around we talked about the annual campaign materials. I loved seeing what other YMCAs did. Some of their things will lend themselves to our annual campaign as well as various projects we can do. I ran some cool ideas by the co-worker that went with me and I think we’ve got some great projects in line. On the way back we talked about different projects that could be done to accomplish those goals. One of those things is helping with prep work for the annual campaign, which will be most of my projects this week (along with a visit out to Snow Mountain Ranch)! Another great thing that happened on our trip to Denver was that we saw a bear walking across the road on our way home! Bears are incredible- I definitely forgot how big they were. The sighting made both my co-worker and me happy because I was hoping to see a bear again and she was seeing one for the first time. So cool!

          Monday night was supposed to be $1 bowling but the computers broke down so Rachel, Elizabeth and I weren’t able to play. Instead we hung out in the arcade (I relived the glory days of losing in the computer race cars AND air hockey) and went in town for ice cream. We went to the LT service on Tuesday as well.

            On Wednesday I went hiking with Suzy, one of the other EXO interns. We decided to take on Lily Mountain. For some reason I was having a hard time breathing so we had to stop a lot. If that hike was a battle, the mountain would have been winning about 90% of the time. Luckily we were able to get to top to watch the sun set over the mountains. It was stunning- definitely worth the difficulties we faced climbing up. I loved revisiting the hike and hanging out with Suzy.

            Thursday, a small group of us planned to go to Lake Yipsilon. When we got to the trailhead we realized that that hike was eight miles, not four. We didn’t have time and we lost part of our group so Amanda, Elizabeth and I ended up going to Bierstadt Lake. I did it last year and though it’s not my favorite, it was easy to crank out. Since we started late we missed dinner at staff dining so we went to a small (and amazing) Thai place in town. They were fast and nice despite the fact that we walked in about ten minutes before closing time (not our fault, the whole city practically shuts down at 9 PM, it’s weird).

            Erica was in Colorado Springs for two weeks attending curriculum training for her school, so on Friday Rachel and I took a road trip to visit her. The drive wasn’t too bad. It felt super long on the way back but we had a blast talking about life and singing along to the radio. Country music was one of the only consistent stations the whole way so we listened to that most of the time and picked up on some fun songs. We heard “Sangria” about one million times and fell in love with “Homegrown” and “House Party.”

            Colorado Springs was great. We didn’t get there until about ten on Friday night so we just walked around the town for a bit. In the morning we went to the Olympic Training Center for a tour. The Olympics invokes a strange amount of pride and joy in me so I was pumped. The tour started with a video recap that ended with a preview of Rio de Janerio (!!!!!!!!). After that we went on a tour of the facilities. Most of the athletes don’t train on the weekends so we didn’t see anything special but it was still interesting. Chandler joined us for the second half of our day as we navigated the Garden of the Gods and then ate/explored the awesome town of Manitou Springs. It was similar to Estes Park but we all agreed that it had a lot more variety and less of a tourist feel. Erica's birthday was on Thursday so we went to a fondue place for dessert to celebrate. We stuck out like sore thumbs because none of us were dressed nice (I was definitely in Nike shorts and a t-shirt. Whoops). It definitely didn't help that we were in a room with two couples who weren't talking to each other. It was horribly awkward at first but once the whole room accepted that we were going to be the rookies who were a little too loud it was just fine. All in all, it was a great way to spend a day off travelling and exploring.

One of the most American things I've ever seen.

          

Appreciating my heritage. 

Accepting my gold medal in the sport of Diet Coke consumption.

Continuing my streak of not falling on any hikes (I know, I'm just as surprised as you).

Amanda, Kristina, Rachel and I all decided to go to Fern Lake on Sunday. Kristina brought her friend Kyle out with us as well. He told me halfway through our hike that I would be perfect on a Disney show, so we got along great. The hike started out perfect- it was flat and wildflowers were blooming all along the trail. At the last mile things got more difficult. It was basically all uphill. We made it to Fern Lake still feeling good and we spent a lot of time hanging out there. I love lake hikes a whole lot. There’s something so beautiful about the way the sun sparkles on the water.

Fern Lake!

After consulting our map we figured that Odessa Lake would be a reasonable trek. It was only 0.7 miles, how bad could it be?

As it turns out, pretty bad. The whole 0.7 miles was uphill. It was brutal. The good thing is that the lake was one of the best I’ve ever seen. It was gorgeous and I could have stayed for hours.We read somewhere that it was one of the most popular hikes in the park and I definitely understand why.

Beautiful Odessa Lake!

            The good thing about all of the uphill sections was that getting back to the trailhead was a piece of cake. It took us about four hours total to hike everywhere and we made it back to my car in an hour and a half. It was glorious.

            A group of us went down to a campfire that our friend Katie and her family made for us. They even bought s’mores supplies. All was well- we were making delicious s’mores, singing along to a guitar and oboe (a beautiful and unexpected combination) and admiring the stars when someone made a request for the guitar player to play “5,000 Candles in the Wind” from Parks and Rec. It took a few Google searches but we eventually found the chords and the lyrics and sang at the top of our lungs. It was hilarious- especially when we continued singing other songs and then closed the night out with “Shake it Off.”I hadn't done a campfire up until then and it was great to be next to the fire and underneath the beautiful stars again.

I am still reeling from how good this past week has been. Coming back to Estes was something that gave me a lot of comfort when things got rough this year. Whenever I thought about how great it would be to return, weeks like this were just what I imagined. It’s nice to feel like I’m thriving instead of just surviving. Don’t get me wrong, K-State is great and I’m super excited to go back in the fall. I just needed a break and I’m super happy that my break gets to be out here. I’m constantly reminded that despite having a year with disappointments and frustrations, there was so much hope and opportunity in it all. I still have a good chunk of time before school starts, but I already feel ready to take on the year. And that’s a really nice feeling.