Cartwheels, Mountains, & lots of Sand: Week 9

Alright folks, it's rally time. Week 9 out of 11 has come and gone which means there's just two short weeks standing between me and Texas.

Monday

Monday was GREAT. The day flew by because:

1.  Interviewed my friends at Sweet Memorial for their blog post. (You can read it here)
2.  Posted flyers around for the Craft Fair with Brady and we stopped by the Library. I had never been in the library here and had great conversations with the couple who runs it.
3. Lunch was nachos. Can I get an amen?

Monday night, you guessed it, was volleyball night! It was our final night of our last tournament so we were pretty pumped. We showed up and played well against the first two teams, making it to the championship game against my friend Jenna's team again. It was a close game, but they're team pulled ahead and got to 15 first. It was super disappointing after coming so close to winning again, but we were happy to play with each other one more time.

After volleyball I played BS with some friends in Hague lobby and then we got a bigger crowd of 8 people and switched to playing a game called Capitalism.

Tuesday

Tuesday I posted more Arts & Crafts flyers around the YMCA and finished up a few stories, like my Faces & Places of the Y stories.

Tuesday night I worked overtime to go to the International Fair hosted every year here.It was SO fun. I have so many wonderful international friends and I had a blast visiting with them and talking to new people I didn't know. I interviewed people from all over - China, Jamaica, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Spain, Iceland, Netherlands, Mexico, South Africa, Columbia. It was amazing to see all these cultures coming together, celebrating their traditions and learning about each other.

Afterward I had a friend date with Abby and Jenna where we basically sat outside McDs for 2 hours, then they did their laundry and we hung out another 2 hours, talking about everything from our crazy weeks and the best parts of our days, to leaving Colorado soon and deciding on coming back next year. It was awesome.


 Wednesday

Wednesday was good - I designed a brochure to put out on tables in Spruce for the Arts & Crafts fair. I also wrote an article about the International Fair, posted it to our blog, and sent it out to several newspapers like the Estes Park News. The YMCA posted it to their "YourHub" account for the Denver post and shared it with the ENTIRE YMCA. That was super cool because lots of my other friends came up to me and told me congrats about my article! You can view it here. (The more views it gets the higher up on the web page it is!)

I ate dinner with friends really fast and then we had to head down to the volleyball courts again for the annual Top Gun volleyball tournament that the LT program hosts every year. It was set up pretty much the same way our normal tournament was, but it was a one night kind of tournament so they started early at 5:30pm.

We played well but it was different because we 8 people on our team instead of 6 so figuring out a rotation was a little rough. We still had a blast though and ended up making it to the semi finals and losing to the team that won the championship, so that made us feel a little better. (and their team has that crazy jump serving Romanian on their team)

Erica, Me, Matt, Ryan, Raoul, Jenna, Emily, & Dan

After the volleyball game we went into town, grabbed some TBell and firewood, and went out to Allenspark to camp again. It was just 4 of us this time but we still had a blast.

Thursday

Thursday work great. After work some friends and I decided to climb Eagle Cliff. As my first hike here, I was really excited to do it again (and the right way this time) We left around 6:20 and reached the summit at around 7:45, which is pretty great. We took lots of pics and hung out on top enjoying the beautiful view of Moraine Park. Once the light started fading we booked it down the mountain and reached the trailhead in 20 minutes, nearly running at the end. (I had a flashlight, but we really didn't want to be going down a mountain in the dark) I really love the Eagle Cliff hike because it may be steep, but you go straight from the YMCA, you don't need a park pass, and it's a beautiful summit for a short hike.

After the hike we grabbed some food in Rustic Cafe and then I played cards with a few friends in Hague. If I haven't said this 100 times already, I love living here. It's like college, without all the homework and all the fun of living with a bunch of other college aged kids. There's always someone willing to do something, always people going to town or going on a hike or playing volleyball. It's the best. 

Friday

Friday was awesome for 2 reasons: I found out that I won scholarship money through the Reush-Garrish Scholoarship essay contest here at the YMCA of the Rockies! So much money to put towards school and student loans! 

Friday was also the BIG day my friends and I have been talking about for weeks! There's this wonderful place in Colorado called the SAND DUNES and we've been dying to visit them. The only problem is they're 5+ hours away, so figuring out the right time has been tricky. 

We finally arranged it: Erica, Chandler, and I left around 3pm (they had the day off, I was close to 40 hours and left a little early), and the other car left around 5:30 when they all got off work. Our route took us through Boulder and unfortunately we hit all the Friday night traffic. Fortunately, I was able to try Dunkin Donuts for the first time ever and we were able to stop at the cutest burger place in Buena Vista.We finally got there at 10:30pm and camped out at a place called Zapata Falls near the dunes, set up tents. The other car got there an hour later and we made a fire and hung out awhile, then called it a night since it was late.

Saturday

The plan was to wake at 8 and get to the dunes semi early, but we kind of woke up later, hung around, then some girls went to town to get food and wanted to cook it over the fire, so we didn't leave the campsite until 11:30am. 

It was still gorgeous at the dunes when we got there and we had a solid 3.5 hours climbing, sitting, and breathing in the Dunes. We had more than our fill of sand. Fun fact: the Colorado Sand Dunes are the tallest dunes in North America. Cool right? 

Once the afternoon clouds rolled in (seriously this happens everyday. Always plan to do things in the morning here. Afternoons might bring rain or clouds or wind or the cold, you never know.) we decided to head out. We were going to go back to our campsite and check out this cool waterfall called Zapata Falls, but we were really tired and it started sprinkling so we decided to just head back. 

This time we drove through the Colorado Springs route, stopping in the city for some Buffalo Wild Wings and a break. It was a pretty long drive back (though not as long as the way there) and I fell asleep in the backseat until Boulder, then stayed awake until Estes.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip! If you ever have a chance to check out the Sand Dunes, it's awesome. Wear shoes and socks (your feet will burn in flip flops) and rent a sand board at the Oasis down the road from the visitor center if you can.

Sunday

Sunday I was able to sleep in a little, and then the other intern and I had to go over to Snow Mountain Ranch for this media event they were putting on for the new Tubing Hill.

We set up a conference room and made signs and waited for the people to come - the meeting was for a  group of Mom Bloggers with huge followings that they invited out to try the tubing hill with their kids and talk about it to their followers. Some of these moms travel all over Colorado and the country and are invited to all kinds of events and get sponsors. Can you say coolest job ever? When I'm a mom, I know what I'm doing. (haha).

They had a cookout and a hayride and a campfire and the kids had a BLAST. It was so fun hanging out with the families and getting to know the kids. 

The next day we got to do something super cool....but you'll have to read my next blog to find out what! (cliff hanger...bum bum bum)