Day Four and Beyond- Eastern Colorado is FLAT, too. But a house in the mountains means baking is a challenge.

We got up early in Burlington to beautiful clear skies, and hauled ourselves over the final hump to Denver and then to Evergreen and the storage place.  My stepdad David and a smart aleck neighbor kid named Eric (in addition to a couple of pros) helped us get unloaded, and we marveled that all of our worldly possessions could fit into a 10 x 15 room.  Weird.  Once everything was in, we made one last truck stop and then bid a fond farewell to The Behemoth and my mom (Patty) dragged what was left of us up the hill to her house among the trees.  John and I collapsed on flat surfaces, and Punk began reacquainting herself with Patty and David's two dogs, Bonnie the Jack Russell and Gracie the Labradoodle, and also with running amongst the trees and barking at the wildlife and snacking on elk poop.  

And there we have remained.  There's been some errands run and projects undertaken.  John and David fixed the hot tub and Patty and I began refinishing a dresser that my great-great-grandfather made out of Missouri walnut (with a lot of help from David).  We had a BBQ to celebrate David's birthday, and we got to see loads of wonderful people.  John baked David a birthday cake, experimenting both with baking at altitude and with the recipe he's using to make the cake for his sister's wedding luncheon.  But mostly, there's been lounging and cooking and talking and sleeping and reading and watching Punk and Gracie pal around like two halves of the same goofy dog.  The two of them love to go for car rides, so John and I have been taking them with us if we run to get the Chinese food for dinner, or stop by Home Depot for some whatever, both their fools heads hanging out the back windows, happy dog smiles plastered on their mugs.  Hilarious.

Most importantly, John has been learning to drive a manual transmission.  The car that we're buying from my mom is a manual transmission and it's about time he learned.  I tried to give him a lesson after we went to see The Dark Knight one afternoon and I was not a very helpful instructor and therefore John was a little freaked out.  So I turned him over to Patty and she's been doing a bang up job.  He can now drive stick in traffic with people and everything.  A little nervously, but still.  Once he gets a little more practice under his belt he'll be spectacular and I won't have to do all the driving once we're in Portland and John won't have to rely on me to get anywhere in a car.  Woo hoo!

Some photos coming soon.