How far is it from Phoenix to Fort Collins? Very, very far! But worth it.

At the end of March we loaded Stephen’s Vibe, strapped the boys into their car seats, and began the long trek to visit David and Tammy in Wellington, Colorado.

Although it was tight, Stephen did a great job packing all of our gear into the Pontiac, and we were off for our first road trip through the night! The boys didn’t sleep as well as we had hoped, but Stephen is an amazing driver. His secrets are listening to audio files on his phone, lots of energy drinks and popping candy every few minutes. I also drove for several hours, but the longest, hardest hours saw Stephen at the wheel.

We were glad to finally arrive at David and Tammy’s beautiful new home just north of Fort Collins. They warned us that they were competing for the title of favorite aunt and uncle, and man, did they deliver! They had bought some toys and books for the boys at a thrift shop and had even built an adorable tee-pee out of PVC pipes and a tablecloth. I’d say that’s a gold medal performance!

Silas loved his Uncle David’s superhero shirts and jumped up and down in ecstasy when he got to “skip” Uncle David in the game of Uno.

David and Tammy were thrilled to show us their new life in Colorado. What a beautiful and exciting place to live! Old Town Fort Collins was such a cool place with lots of little shops. They took us to two of their favorites–a kitchen store and a spice shop.

At the Savory Spice Shop we tried some ghost salt (ghost pepper flavored salt), and it felt like having a hole burned in your tongue. We left the ghost salt in Fort Collins but did pick up a spice blend called “Pike’s Peak” for steaks and such.

We drove by some beautiful historic homes on our way to the city park. The park was lovely with lots of trees and grass and a duck pond.

The next day, we drove into the foothills of the Rockies to experience a little of the mountains. We didn’t have a lot of time, but Silas and Cooper loved finding sticks and rocks along the mountain creek. A family picture just isn’t complete without sticks!

The mountains are incredibly gorgeous, and the farmlands in front of the Rockies are so very picturesque. I can see why David and Tammy love it! We had hoped to picnic at a park that day, but the wind was gusting so much that we decided to eat our picnic at home on the living room floor.

Friday afternoon Stephen and I took off for our overnight “date” at a missions conference in Denver. We stopped for some supper at Noodles & Company before attending the evening sessions of the Frontline Experience. The conference was focused on spreading the gospel into restricted access countries.

Our hearts were stirred by the DVDs, Dispatches from the Front (put out by Frontline Missions), and we’re interested in the idea of creative access for sharing the good news abroad. We were excited to attend the conference and were blessed to learn more about our brothers and sisters doing kingdom work in spite of deep personal sacrifice. It was an informative and edifying encounter. Highly recommended!

Meanwhile, Uncle David and Aunt Tammy graciously adopted the boys overnight, and they got a true-to-life parenting experience since Cooper kept waking up every hour until about 3am! In spite of a lack of sleep, the four of them had a grand adventure at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. They even rounded out their day with lunch at Chick-fil-a and an attempt at flying a kite. That’s an awesome aunt and uncle for sure!

David & Tammy moved out to Colorado a year ago to help with a church plant in Fort Collins. Currently, this baby church is a home Bible study made up of young families, couples and singles. We were able to worship with them on Sunday evening. How exciting to see God’s church being built.

Family is a precious thing, and we were blessed to spend some time in a beautiful place with people we love.