Company 10 Year Celebration

I'm lucky to work for a pretty awesome company.  The believe in taking care of your family, working hard and playing harder.  This September marked the 10 year anniversary of the founding of the company and I have to say, a celebration like no other was had for all employees! 
The day started with a limo pickup and Starbucks.  Then we were off to morning horseback riding, a catered lunch with wine, more wine to take in the limo and then race car driving.  All during our drive to our next destination, the Navy's Blue Angels were practicing overhead for the airshow that was that weekend.  It was AMAZING.  The weather was amazing and a good time was had by all!
As if that wasn't enough, we then got to go to my bosses lovely home in Glade Park and play volleyball for the rest of the afternoon.  Shortly after, all of our families were picked up via limo and brought up as well for a wonderful dinner, lots more wine and SO much laughing.  It is so fun to kick back and relax and just have an overall great time with such wonderful people!  I found it more funny that one of my coworkers had to continue to sit beside me, even though we sit beside each other every day in the office :)  I can't get enough of these great people!  Here are a few shots!

The fist pumping in the limo was out of control!

 

View from Glade Park, CO

Celine and Skyler were the first to be picked up in the limo for the evening festivities

Seriously can NOT keep this woman under control!

How many people does it take to put up a driveway Flagstone?

Sara and Sherry "supervising"

Silverton, Colorado

My mother is scared of heights.  No, let me rephrase that.  My mother is scared of heights that involve winding roads with no guardrails and extreme inclines :).  However the only way to get to Silverton is up and over Red Mountain Pass, which also happens to meet all of her criteria of winding road, no guardrails and extreme inclines.  This is how we got to do a quick day excursion to Silverton and back on September 2nd with Alina (from Wiesbaden Germany and visiting my mom and stepdad for the week) and Celine (from Frankfurt Germany and staying with us for a year)!  As I told Celine on the way home, "I'm pretty sure we've managed to see all the sights on the Western Slope in the first two weeks of your stay!" 
 
We had planned to stop in Ouray on our way to Silverton, but time got away from us since we had a deadline to be back in Grand Junction for a party and then the baseball game.  Whirlwind trip, but worth every minute of it.  Silverton is a very small town, nestled in the San Juan Mountain Range.  Information on it can be found here Silverton, CO.  There is a scenic tourist train that runs from Durango to Silverton every day and we were lucky enough to catch it right as it was coming into town.  We also had lunch at Grumpy's which is always yummy.  By the time we had strolled through a few shops, taken pictures, and had some fudge, it was time to turn around and come home.  Here are a few pictures of the drive up and over!

Our views up the pass to Silverton

 

Bear Creek Falls - Red Mountain Pass

Alina and Celine at Bear Creek Falls overlook

 

Durango - Silverton Steam Train Durango Train

Getting your picture taken should always be this fun!

Tom and I with the Durango - Silverton Steam train

Alina and Celine

Celine trying to hitch a ride back!

Red Mountain - Here's a link that tells you more about this mountains mining history Red Mountain Mining

 

Coming off the pass into the town of Ouray - Ouray, CO 

We hope to have the opportunity to go back in a few weeks and visit the town of Ouray more.  It doesn't involve a winding road with no guardrails to get there, so it's accessible more months out of the year!

Baseball and Fireworks

Due to the extreme weather Colorado experienced over the summer (massive wildfires and extreme drought) most towns opted not to have their 4th of July
fireworks display.  With everything being so dry, no one wanted to take the chance of a stray spark igniting any type of fire that could not be kept under control.                                                                                                  
That brings us to the evening of September 2nd!  With rain having graced many places around the state, towns all over began rescheduling their fireworks show.  Grand Junction decided to hold theirs on September 2nd, after a Grand Junction Rockies Baseball game.

The Grand Junction Rockies are our new minor league baseball team.  You can find more information about them here Grand Junction Rockies  This is the first team you'd come to if you were trying to work your way up to the major leagues.  The Grand Junction Rockies are a "farm" team for the Colorado Rockies.  What's ironic is that their "next step up" is my hometown baseball team, the Asheville Tourist Asheville Tourists located in Asheville, NC.  If they make it there and do well, their next stop would be moving on up to the Colorado Rockies Colorado Rockies.  It's such a small world :)

Here are a few pictures from that evening!  The Rockies won that evening and the fireworks were a great way to celebrate!

Alina, enjoying the game!

Celine, enjoying the game!  (Skyler was done with pictures at this point)

That's a homerun hit!

The other team leaving the field

Scoreboard score didn't show up in the picture, but the sunset was equally as nice

Last play of the game!

Pictures are coming soon!

Oh my GOODNESS, I'm so behind and I actually feel guilty about it!  The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind with some trips over the mountains to Silverton, CO, baseball games with fireworks, and then last weeks adventure to Disney World!  So much going on and SO many pictures!  I promise I haven't forgotten and will update this weekend once everyone's camera has been downloaded accordingly :)

Hope all is well!

Moab Music Festival

Yesterday evening, we ventured off to Moab, Utah to attend one of the concerts for the Moab Music Festival Moab Music Festival

I've driven and floated by Red Cliffs Lodge (where the concert was held http://www.redcliffslodge.com/) on many occasions, but never stopped to check it out.  I can now say, I will be going back!  It was amazing, and the concert was wonderful!  

My favorite was the end piece.  I had been made aware of it by my fantastic hairdresser.  Her family had owned Red Cliffs before it was made into a Lodge.  This link tells you about Amasie's great grandmother and her life on this ranch.  "Tales from Essie White" It was just amazing and I can only imagine what it was like to live on this property almost 100 years ago!