Estes Park/Stanley Hotel

Being a McBride has taught me to be flexible. My first reaction to a change in plans is usually with resistance. So when Dan called me from work on a Friday morning and said there was an opening in an Army Strong Bonds Retreat for that weekend, I tried not to freak out and look at it as an opportunity, not a hindrance.

A Strong Bonds Retreat is a marriage retreat where you get an all expenses paid weekend away, including child care while you take some marriage strengthening courses and get a night out without the kids. We did one in Korea, and while it was nice to 'get away', it was to the Dragon Hill Lodge, the only hotel for us Americans in the area.

This retreat took place in Estes Park, and we got to stay at the Stanley Hotel! This really was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We just had to make arrangements for the dog, for my church calling and get packed quickly so we could leave when the kids got out of school.

We took quite a few pictures of the hotel since it is very old and famous for being the hotel where Stephen King wrote the Shining. It has a reputation for being haunted. It was really neat!


 Our room was HUGE! The thing on the door said it would have been $250/night!

Ever seen a closet in a hotel room this large?

I loved all the hardware and fixtures in the hotel, so old fashioned!

This was the view outside our window.

These faucets were in the hallways. Attach a hose and then you can put out a fire!

Beautiful mirrors!

The is 'the' room. The one where Stephen King stayed and wrote The Shining. You can stay in this room, but some on the third floor are said to be more haunted.

This was along the baseboards, a little grate? Heater?

They had writing tables all around the hallways. Need to write a letter?

This isn't two of the same picture, one is real and the other is being reflected in a mirror. Cool and creepy!

For our date night we did the ghost tour at the Stanley hotel. It's not just a historical tour, it's a 'supernatural experience', where we went around to the most haunted spots of the hotel grounds and attempted to interact with the afterlife. It was... interesting.

Stanley Steamer!!

Want to have a reading while you're here?

Here's a few pictures from our ghost tour. Dan and I didn't experience anything, though others around us were certain they did. It was more entertaining than anything! In this room we sat in complete darkness and looked/listened for things.

In this auditorium we were encouraged to play piano to invite the spirits out, to make them feel more at home.

There were tons of pianos just hanging around

Too bad our room didn't come with one of these keys!

After our stay at the hotel we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park. Apparently this drive is jam packed with cars in the summer, but it was empty in January. It was gorgeous and we saw a lot of wildlife. Dan even took the boys sledding for a little bit, but the wind was INSANE!!

I love living in Colorado!

Holidays 2014

I'm not doing to good at not being busy....

Here's a recap of our holiday season from 2014!

Thanksgiving:
We drove to Utah and stayed with the Robert McBride family. We gathered together with LOTS of McBrides for a wonderful feast. Dan smoked a turkey on his Traeger and it turned out super yummy, just cooked faster than we anticipated. We had the Newton family, Kristina McBride family, Papa Jon and Nana Dee, Jon McBride family, Phillip McBride family, Cobb family, our family, and a Barrow kid as well! It was a lot of people in a small space, but we always make it work. Lots of games were played, food eaten, I learned to make tamales and the cousins had tons of fun playing together. Unfortunately the flu that soon ravaged most of the country started to make it's appearance with Alex on Thanksgiving night and by the end of two weeks at least 2 people from every family that was present ended up with some sort of flu.

Christmas:
Since we had just done a Disneyland trip and a Utah trip, we stayed home for Christmas, which is really the way I prefer it anyways.

 There was crafting

Temple trips

 Holiday concerts

A fantastic opportunity to see our friend Chad play in the pit for How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Making gingerbread houses with the Bennetts!

Sledding!

New Christmas PJs that I altered a bit with my Silhouette

The annual Christmas cookie decorating party!

My mom and brother came down for Christmas, and we started a new tradition, The Christmas Eve box. It included slippers, popcorn and a Christmas movie. We didn't quite make it through the movie as Cade wasn't feeling well and we were all tired.

Christmas morning was fun!

Cinnamon rolls and silly straw glasses!

Dan got me the AWESOMEST gift, and handmade set of Matroyshka dolls to represent our family!

Christmas day we invited a ton of people over for a feast and games. It was a little crazy, but we love entertaining and having lots of people over.

New Years:

Not my favoritest of holidays, but we're so glad to have the Bennetts to hang out with and make it fun! We played pass the pigs, Super Smash Bros, Minute to Win it games, Mario Kart, ate a bunch of finger foods, and did some little confetti fireworks at 10:00pm. Yup, we're those kind of New Year's people, lol!



There you have it! Now maybe I'll catch up with the rest of life :)

Bucket List 2015!

I'm sticking with my bucket list instead of resolutions. Here's my list from 2014:

• Go to the top of Pikes Peak either by driving or by the cog railway
• Play with friends more
• Save money
• Cade's baptism!
• Combined birthday party for the boys
• Summer road trip
• Camp 4 times
• Accomplish these three projects around the house
• Learn guitar
• Get Dan promoted to E6!
• Go horseback riding at Garden of the Gods
• Lose more weight :)
• Finish my Korea blog book

Hmmm, i didn't do as good as the previous year! But I am proud of the things I did accomplish, especially playing with friends more. We've had quite a few parties at our house and have gotten quite good at entertaining! And as you've probably noticed we've become good friends with the Bennetts and we really enjoy spending time together. I'm also really proud that Dan was finally promoted to Staff Sergeant! It only took like forever :) 

So for this year's list I'm just getting the feeling that we won't be here in Colorado much longer. It could totally be me getting antsy because we've never lived anywhere this long. It could also be because Dan's been here the longest of anyone in his Unit. They even just got a new Commander. As we know very well, anything is possible in the Army, so for all we know we could be moving this year! Because of that, in my list this year are a few things we want to do while living in the West and in Colorado.

• Summer Road Trip- didn't happen last year, but it most likely will this year. We're thinking Yellowstone, Idaho, maybe Utah and then back over to Colorado.
• Go River Rafting! Not sure if this will be with the kids or not, but something we definitely want to do
• Horseback Riding at Garden of the Gods- I chose something else for my bday last year, but it's gotta happen this year! I will regret not doing it if we move!
• Finish Korea blog book- this is super time consuming, but will be well worth it when I finish. My goal is to finish it so it can be a Christmas gift!
• Save enough money to have 2 months rent/mortgage on hand. We plan on renting out our property so it's good to have some back up money in case it goes un-rented for awhile.
• Camping! We've really enjoyed our camping trips and hope to do some more. I won't put a number of times because we've found Dan's summer schedule to be so unpredictable that we can't even reserve a place too much ahead of time. 
• Do the incline. It's time!
• Be less busy and more productive. 
• Work ahead!

I think it will be a good year! I look forward to seeing how it all pans out :)

p.s. it may sound like i know something about our future in the Army, but i really truly don't, it's just a feeling!

Halloween 2014!

Better late than never!

We had a fun Halloween with pretty mild weather and good friends. The Bennetts came over and we ate chili, cornbread, went trick or treating, and then warmed up with hot chocolate and donuts!

Alex wanted to be a mummified puppy. I think it's because they had been studying ancient Egypt in school, and he's obsessed with puppies, lol.

 Here's the pumpkin Alex designed and helped Daddy make.

Cade wanted to be a Ninja with Caleb, so we got a few extra bits of ninja gear to up his already existing ninja costume.

And here's Cade's spider pumpkin!

It's great to have such good friends to spend the holidays with!

Alex and Conner

The whole gang! Happy Halloween!