Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's Off to Colorado We Go!

My perception of the passing of time is way off.  It seems like just yesterday we were in Colorado for Thanksgiving 2015.  But last week -- what do you know? -- it was Thanksgiving again.  So we headed to Evergreen for our yearly celebration of food and friends.

Last year it was bitterly cold and snowy.  Driving was hazardous and the annual Christmas tree hunt was very difficult.  I might even say it was extremely unpleasant.  But this year the temperatures were warm, the sky was blue and the weather was perfect.  So perfect that we were able to take several hikes.

Elena on a rock at Three Sisters

Mount Evans from Mount Falcon

We also managed to squeeze in a couple of museums.  The Denver Museum of Nature and Science was very interesting.  The Prehistoric Journey exhibit was fun, but my favorite was the Extreme Mammals.  This Macrauchenia caught my eye, with his camelish body, giraffe-ish neck and elephantine nose.  And he was very tall -- about 10 feet from nose to tail.  Quite the looker!

Macrauchenia 

We also visited the Morrison National History Museum.  And saw several very impressive dinosaur fossils.  This one liked Elena:

Help!

 But Brian managed to keep this T rex in check.

Stay! Good Dinosaur.

The Christmas tree hunt in Lincoln National Forest was fabulous!  It was a beautiful day.  Brian and I found a smallish spruce to take home.

We decided that the 20' tree our friends wanted would indeed fit in their living room.

So we cut it down and wrestled it into submission.

Five geologists vs the tree.  The tree nearly won.

Begs the question, how many geologists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

The tree nearly engulfed the truck.

In fact, after we secured it (quite a feat!) we gathered behind the truck to look at it.  It looked like a tree on wheels.

But is it big enough?  

Somehow we got it into the house and into the stand.  Lets just say it was a challenge getting the thing upright.  But it did fit, if you don't mind the top being bent a little bit at the ceiling.

It fits!

We decided it was perfect just the way it was.  

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!