My family and I recently returned from our Colorado Vacation.  We stayed in the Rocky Mountain National Park area (Grand Lake) and then again near Durango.  We had an incredible time.  You can see some of my children and a son-in-law in the picture at left.  Two daughters and a son-in-law couldn’t go this year.

Whenever I travel with my family, I learn some things about life, about myself, and about my family!  Here are a few of the many lessons I learned this year:

• My kids are crazy, and I don’t know where they get it, because their mom is normal.
• My kids tremendously enjoy watching me get into trouble.  I apparently parked my car in an inappropriate way when we stopped to take pictures of some elk in a meadow.  The Park Ranger came up to me in a stern voice to ask, “What were you thinking?” I thought my kids were going to explode with suppressed laughter.  They still ask me 4 or 5 times per day, “What were you thinking?”
• As a lifelong desert rat, I can’t get used to seeing snow on the ground in July.  My brain doesn’t accept it.
• Colorado is a beautiful state and most of is is 20-30 degrees cooler than Arizona.  I had to suppress laughter myself several times when the locals complained about the heat–when it was in the low 80’s!
• I missed the people at FSBCA and EFBC.  And I missed going to church one Sunday.  The bridge over the upper Colorado River was in danger of washing out on Sunday morning, and we couldn’t get back to the highway for most of the day.  It seems strange not going to church!
• Someone gets hurt on every vacation.  Lorissa fell off a log and cut her leg, requiring 9 stitches.  She cried when they gave her a shot to numb her leg, and then she giggled all the way through the stitching.  I’d like to stash some of that medicine around the house for the next time she cries.
• Kevin is a compassionate older brother.  I think he cried more when Lorissa got hurt than she did.  (But don’t make fun of him.  I like that compassion!)
• My kids are growing up.  I’m pretty sure that my son grew another inch in the two weeks we were gone.  Kenneth is now about 2 inches taller then me and he’s only 14 years old.
• Seeing a bear–from about 18 inches–is rather startling.  Fortunately, there was a door between us.  Seeing moose, elk, deer, squirrels, beaver, turkey, osprey, pelicans, eagles, and marmots is a treat!
• It was nice going on vacation and not having car trouble.  My minivan with 219,000+ miles on it just keeps going.
• My kids love horseback riding; I just get sore.
• My wife likes it when I do all the cooking on vacation, and I like giving her two weeks off from kitchen chores.  It has become a family tradition.
• I have more energy now that I’ve lost 25 pounds; after another 25, I will have even more!

Vacations are an adventure, but let’s not forget that serving Jesus and loving your family and growing a church and making a difference in your community are also adventures.  Life itself, if you live it right, is the greatest of all adventures!