Colorado post--long past due

Cousins in Colorado: Anna, Brady, Naaman, Eric,

Jake, Kyra, Daniel, and Kelsie

Kids in a valley on the west side of Rocky Mountain

National with elk in the background. The elk were

even closer for our picnic.

Kids in a stream off Coyote Valley

Nature Trail.

Random cute pic of Kelsie demonstrating her

fabulous hair. Hope the curls don't

disappear when she gets older.

Sad picture of water and mold damage. Liz's

entire room looked like this when we got back

from Colorado.

In my last blog we were getting ready for a much anticipated vacation in Colorado. At the time I was feeling overwhelmed by a few issues at home--kids going to bed late, leaky faucet, Kyra's teeth not falling out, messy house, etc. I had no idea of the disaster that would befall us while we were gone on vacation, but that will come later...

The Colorado trip was wonderful!!! We left on a Friday after I got off work a little early. We drove to Des Moines, Iowa without incident to stay the night ( a 5 hour drive from Normal.) The next day we got up and drove the remaining 13+ hours to Estes Park. Our kids are amazing travelers, so we had a very nice trip. We always stop a couple of times for a long meal so everyone can get out and run around, and I always pack lots of snacks. It was a bit nostalgic driving through Nebraska and Iowa for the first time since I was a kid. My dad was stationed in Omaha, Nebraska for a while, so I spent a few weeks there each summer.

Rudy was going to Estes Park to meet with the staff team out at Leadership Training (Rob and Mike) and the other staff team who traveled from Normal (Karen and the Gerbers.) It wasn't a bad place to have a 2 day staff meeting:) We had 2 days prior to the staff time to vacation as a family and hang out with the students who are doing the Leadership Training program. The time was very refreshing. John Drage set us up with a nice lodge room in prime location on the Y grounds. We even had a lodge room within viewing distance of the lobby so we could hang out with people after the kids went to bed and still know they were safe.

The first day after we arrived my cousins Kym and John and my Aunt Wanda came from Denver to visit us for the day with Kym's kids and John's kids. John and Aunt Wanda just happened to be visiting Kym in Denver while we were 1.5 hours away in Estes Park! We had a great time hanging out, although at times it got a little nuts with 8 children under the age of 9. We went to the craft shop, played at 2 different parks, had ice cream, and even attempted to eat a sit down meal (since it was Father's Day.) The meal was the most harrowing part with the adults being so outnumbered by the children, but we all survived:) My family is just so cool.

The second day we took advantage of Rudy being off work by driving into Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a wonderful day. We loved the drive up to the tundra--12000 feet--with the spectacular views we remembered from being there for the whole summer 2 years ago. We had a perfect picnic right next to a field of wildflowers where the elk were grazing--a nice breeze wafting our hair. We hiked along Coyote Valley Nature Trail and then played in the stream running along the trail. We saw 3 moose on our way back over Trail Ridge Road. Then we stopped for a quick run in the snow at 12,000 feet. Life was great except for the call we received from Liz that day saying that our basement was flooding. That call was the beginning of our summer worries and woes.

The third day in Colorado was plagued with the knowledge that things were not going well at home, but the kids and I still had a fun day. Rudy also had a good meeting day with the staff team. We hung out with Katie Gerber and played a lot with the Klunke kids. I also spent some time in the late morning preparing for Kelsie's birthday party to be held at the Klunke cabin after dinner. Half the day I didn't even know where Naaman was because he was so busy doing sporty activities through the Y's programming. Kyra and Kelsie also did some programs, but we mostly had fun playing with the younger Klunke kids and making Father's Day gifts in the craft shop. Toward the end of the day we got the not so wonderful news that our insurance would not cover the water damage to our house. There were a few tears, but what could I do about it? We heard from Liz that it had rained again, and that the water was still coming in. Ugh! We still enjoyed some mini golf in the afternoon. Naaman did an archery class. And Kelsie's party was very fun. She loved her Dora cake and decorations. She also LOVED her gifts, especially her big book of princess puzzles, blue whale pillow pet, and My Little Pony Sticker Book.

I spent the last morning in Colorado hanging out with our friend from Texas, Ana, and then Michelle Klunke and her kiddos again. Michelle, the kids, and I went on a short hike and did some stream wading in the National Park in the afternoon followed by a Y program called Bird Banding, where we got to see a scientist actually capturing, banding, and releasing birds. It was a pretty cool program, especially because Naaman and Kyra had the opportunity to hold and release birds. They were quite excited. We then had a very nice staff dinner, put the kids to bed, and hung out with the students one last time. We got up at 5AM the next morning to start the long drive home. I had to go to work the next day, but we all did ok and had a very nice trip home. Our whole trip was very inexpensive. Cornerstone paid for our gas going to Colorado and back, and we ended up eating for free in the staff dining hall at the Y for most of our meals. They wouldn't let us pay! We also had a surprise when we tried to pay for our lodge room; the room had been complimentary. I guess the YMCA of the Rockies just loves GCM. Apparently they gave all Cornerstone staff free rooms for the week. Amazing!

We discovered what a mess we had at home the day after we returned. Friends had come over to help clean up the water mess while we were gone, but Rudy cut back the soaked dry wall in Liz's bedroom in the basement and discovered extensive black mold. We had to hire mold remediators. We found cracks in the walls and foundation of the house when the drywall was removed, and there was a lot of water. We can just be grateful that Liz was there to save our furniture and most of the basement carpet, baseboards, etc. by stemming the flow of water. We can also be grateful that June was the second wettest month on record in Normal because, if this incident had happened one month later, we would have been too late to be compensated for damages from the previous owner of the house. As it is, we will have to pay to excavate around the entire house and install a new drainage system. We will likely have to have someone repair the foundation and walls of the house. We will have to have the yard graded and probably put in more landscaping. There is a lot of work to be done inside and out. We finally qualified for a home equity line of credit after a very stressful appraisal (because the water damage is obvious and extensive), so at least we have a way to pay for everything without using credit cards. We hope we will be reimbursed for most, if not all, of the repairs by the previous owner, who knew water problems existed but did not disclose the problems on the seller's disclosure. Now we have lawyer fees to pay on top of everything else, but we think we are doing the right thing since the guy who sold us the house is a contractor who continues to buy and resell houses throughout this area. The whole process of figuring out what to do about our house was very stressful for a few weeks, and our hearts are saddened that we have lost the equity in our home. But, as my Uncle Mark says, "If money can fix it, it ain't worth worrying about." (At least that's how my mom quotes him.) We found a good contractor to do the excavating and foundation work and hope to have our basement functional before the fall semester at ISU, which is coming up sooo fast! I can't believe summer is almost over.