Colorado: Part 2

On Monday afternoon, after hiking Helen Hunt Falls near Colorado Springs, I head north toward Denver to visit JL and family! We mostly hung out and enjoyed each others company. She has four adorable children who are full of energy!

About an hour after I got to her house, I had an interview with an online school. The interview went well (good thing for prayers), but I didn't get the job :( The school called about a week later letting me know (something that doesn't usually happen in that district) and saying that they really liked me and that as they expand, they'd like to contact me again. Of course I told them that they can!

Whenever, I come to town we end up working on some sort of domestic project and I teach her how to make a few new dinner dishes (last time: Pasta el Forno and this time Eggplant Parmesan, yum!). Last year, I taught her how to make apricot & pineapple jam, yum! This year, we attempted to make whole wheat bread. First, the children, mostly S, ground the wheat using a hand grinder (she was almost 5 at the time and is working on getting big muscles, too cute!). The bread dough turned out well, even though we deviated from the directions in order to hand mix and hand knead it, instead of using a stand mixer. Everything was going well and it was in the oven ready to go when we left to check the teacher lists at the elementary school. We got back about 8 minutes before the timer went off. Upon peeking through the oven window, the bread had fallen! Once it was done, we took it out and tried some. It tasted great and was nice and soft even though it was all whole wheat, yay! But there was still the mystery of why it fell. After talking to the YW president's mother-in-law the other night after we had made rolls, she thinks that the dough rose too much before it was baked, so it got a big air hole and then the air hole collapsed. Hopefully the next time JL attempts to make bread, it will be perfect!

On Wednesday night, JL and I were able to go to the Denver Temple for her ward's Temple Night. We were hoping to get into the 6 o'clock session, but since the temple is closing for six weeks of renovation work, it was incredibly busy! We were put on the list for the 7 o'clock session instead. I mentioned that it was too bad that I hadn't printed any cards out to bring with us and JL suggested that we go see if they'd let us print some there, which they did, yay! It's been a while since the two of us have been able to go through a session together and it was great to have this opportunity! (The two of us were together for our very first time - April 6, 1994 in the LA Temple.)

One day, JL decided that we should check out a fun park nearby. She's been wanting to go for a few years, but it never works out that she can, so we made it happen! Here are some pics from our fun trip:

Friday, right after lunch, I left for UT again. After an hour of driving, I began to wonder where the I-70 was. Luckily, my cell phone worked at that point and I was able to call my mom for directions. I ended up giving myself a two hour detour, yuck! It was much later than I had planned on getting home and I was completely exhausted! Someday, I'd love to live on a farm/ranch in CO and be completely self-sufficient!