As most of you know, Nathan was given a grant from NASA to do spacey kind of stuff (don't ask me, cause I'm not entirely sure what it's about). Anyway, he's working with Altius Space which is in Colorado. About a month or so ago, Nathan found out that he would need to take a two week trip to Colorado and work on his project.
Well, my grandparents used to live in Colorado and they had a house way up in the mountains. Ya'll this house was magic. I have so many fond memories of that house and yard. I tell stories to my kids of the fun things I used to do up there. I had mentioned to Nathan that it would be fun to go back to Colorado and take a drive up there again. Well, we figured that we could take a weekend family vacation to Colorado and do just that. The plan was to drive to Colorado on Thursday, play in some hot springs and go to bed. Friday we were going to go see my grandparents house and go to the Buffalo Bill grave and museum. Saturday was going to be for touring the Argo Mine and Casa Bonita. Sunday we would go to church, drive out to see the Denver Temple and then possibly see if we could find the house I lived in when I was really little. And Monday, dropping Nathan off where he needed to be and I would drive home.
So, last Thursday morning, bright and early we hit the road. We had to make a stop off in Salt Lake to pick up a part Nathan would need for his thing that he's working before we could "officially" begin our trip. We had decided that we would go I-70 to Colorado since the hotel we booked was in Idaho Springs. Our adventure began when we hit Springville Canyon and Meow-meow threw up everywhere. We had to pull off to the side of the road and do the best we could to clean him up. We stopped off in Price to clean up a little bit better.
 |
| Starting our road trip. |
 |
| The car ride tuckered out Meow-meow and Spaceman Spiff with a photo bomb from Lion Heart. |
We thought it would be fun to stop off in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and swim around in the hot springs. Well, we took the wrong exit in Glenwood for the springs and decided to wander through town while trying to get Google Maps to work. We finally got Google Maps working and started following the directions. It took us to the middle of a bridge over the Colorado River and said, "you have arrived at your destination." So much for that!! We went back to trying to find it by sheer luck. Glenwood was so busy and crowded that we decided that our best bet would be to continue to Idaho Springs, eat dinner, drop our stuff off at the hotel, change into our swimming stuff, and go to Indian Springs which was right next to where we were staying. That turned out to be the best bet. The Indian Springs was just fabulous and my kind of warm. It was the perfect ending to a long car ride.
 |
| So, there's this rest stop called No Name. |
 |
| Naturally we had to make a pit stop at No Name!! |
The beds in the hotel left a LOT to be desired. I woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep. About 4 am, I was fed up with the situation and started rummaging around for any extra pillows I could get my hands on to lay down on the mattress for some kind of comfort. It worked, somewhat but by the time I got done fixing my "nest" I was too much awake to go back to bed, but I gave it my best effort.
Friday morning we took off for Golden, Colorado. As we got to Golden, Nathan wanted to show us the school of mines and so we took a detour through Golden and had fun with that. The roads were really bumpy which made texting my cousin darn near impossible.
Now, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, let me set the scene for you..... In 1968-69, my grandparents (Deem and Bammer) bought some property way, way, way up at the tippy tippy top of Coal Creek Canyon. They, with the help of my dad, uncle, and aunt, built a three story house. They built a rock fireplace in the Living room with rocks they collected from the creek. The upstairs had two bedrooms. Deem had build a walk through closet between the two rooms. The room that I would stay in was called, "The Pretty Room" It had knotty pine paneling all in it. I used to love laying on the trundle bed and look for funny shapes in the wood. The yard had trails with garden swings, and there were all sorts of rock formations to climb on and roam around on. It was a child's play land. Our imaginations took flight in that yard. Deem also owned a chunk of the mountainside across the street, which we named "Scarface." We would hike all over that mountainside, climbing the rock formations up to the top. When I was 4, we moved from Colorado to Utah and since it was just me and my two brothers, we could split our summers up so each one of us would get to spend an entire month up in the mountains at Deem and Bammer's. It was a sad day when my grandparents got too old to stay living up there and had to sell the house. Deem passed away four years ago and ever since, I've had a desire to go back and see the old place.
On the drive up to Coal Creek Canyon, there are two spots that have these railroad bridges, our trip through Golden circumvented the first one.....good thing there are two of them!! Anyway, my older brother is the oldest of the grandchildren and he started a good many of our traditions. You knew you were close when you got to the "ZOOM." After a really long car ride from Utah to Colorado it was the highlight to see this. The first one to see it would start "zzzzzzzzzzz" and it would build in "ZZZZZZZZZZ" all to see who could be the first to say "ZOOM" as you passed under it. Heaven's, even if you were the only kid in the car, you had to say "ZOOM" while going under. My kids thought I was nuts when I started with the, "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!"
 |
| zzzzzzz.... |
 |
| zzzzzzzzz.... |
 |
| ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ |
It was a wonderful trip down memory lane driving the old but familiar road to Deem and Bammer's. I was a bit nervous about seeing the old place. I didn't just want to drive by it, I wanted to stop, get out, and maybe the people living there would humor me. When Deem died, we had looked up the place on Google Earth and it had said something about the place being a physical therapy facility. That has bugged me to no end for the past four years.....just trying to wrap my head around how!! I decided I was going to be brave and walk up to the house, knock, and say, "Hi, I'm Ellen Davis and my grandpa built this house!" We pulled up to the house and I could see some kids in the Sun Room. They were peeking out the glass door trying to figure out who was pulling up in this big, strange, white van. I took a deep breath and walked down the steps to knock on the door. A woman came to the door and I said just what I had planned to say. She was very kind and gracious and let us wander around the property and even let us go inside the house.
 |
| This was the old pull out parking that Deem built, later on he put in a garage and porch to attach to the house. |
As I was talking to the lady of the house, Christine if I remember correctly (funny because that's my middle name), her oldest son came out. She was telling him who I was, then she looked at me and said, "what did you say your name is again?" I told her "Ellen" (not Elena because it wouldn't have made sense to anyone). Her son said that there was some cement out in the back that had that name on it. Christine said that when they had first moved in, her son was worried that someone by the name of Ellen was buried in the back yard. I said, "Nope, I'm the Ellen that is on that marker."
 |
| On the upper left it says, "Ellen". On the Upper right, it says, "Norman" (my older brother and oldest grandchild). The bottom middle says, "Aug 1978" |
 |
| Ellen |
 |
| Norman |
 |
| Aug 1978? 75? |
I totally remembered it when I saw it. Those people must have thought I was nuts for how excited I was to see it all. My kids were totally thrilled to see the place of my stories, but I noticed that the three boys that lived there hung on every word I said with wide wondering eyes as we walked around the yard. The next stop was to the old fire pit. The people who live there now, have never used this rock formation as a fire pit, I don't think they even knew what it had been used for. They aren't the original people who bought the house from my grandparents. You can still see the scorch marks on the sides of the rocks. I dug around under the pine needles that had collected and found old remains of the fires. My guess is that they were from the last fire that we ever had up there. Firebolt snatched up a few pieces of the remains.
 |
| You can still see the fire marks |
Naturally I had to show the kids Butterfly rock. Oh!! How many adventures my cousins and I had on the wings of Butterfly rock!! Flying over mountains, rivers, towns, and cities. We were wizards, princesses, and anything else a child could imagine.
 |
| Spider Monkey climbing on Butterfly rock. |
Many years ago, down behind Butterfly rock, Deem placed a chain that we could use to "rock climb" up the back of Butterfly Rock. Being the curious creature that I am, I had to know if the old chain was still there. To my delight, it was......old and rusted, but just as secure as the day it was set into the rock. I don't think the boys who live there now explored the yard in the ways my cousins and I did because they seemed genuinely surprised to find out these secrets and they've been in that house for the past 15 years. I believe Deem and Bammer sold the house in the mid 90's and the people there now, bought it about 2000. It was like I was a kid all over again. I couldn't climb the chain like I used to, but the kids sure had fun climbing it.
 |
| The back of Butterfly Rock |
 |
| Firecracker trying to climb up the old rusty chain. |
I knew going up that things would not be exactly the same. I knew that whoever owned the house would have made changes and I had made peace with that. And not surprisingly there were many changes to the place. It was truly magical and thrilling to see that somethings hadn't changed. As we were wandering over to where the boys hut used to be, a huge lump jumped to my throat when I saw what was there.
 |
| The old fiberglass tube!! |
So, when I was a wee babe, we moved to Colorado. We lived in the mountains with Deem and Bammer while my parents were looking for some property. Norman attended Kindergarten in the mountains. I was too little to remember that. My parents found some property in Littleton, and while the house was being built, my dad worked on a dam in Montrose. I have vague memories of that (the mice incident). Anyway, we didn't live in Littleton for very long, moving to Tooele, Utah right before I started Kindergarten. I'm not sure when or even how my dad got his hands on this fabulous fiberglass tube, but he got it for Norman and I to play on in our yard in Littleton. When we moved, we didn't want to move it, nor did we want to get rid of it. So, we took it up to Deem and Bammer's. In our day, we had kept it over by Butterfly Rock and the Fireplace Rocks. We would put it up against the rocks and use it as a slide, or we'd brace it with rocks and use it as a launching platform for the tire swing, or even better.......we would cram as many of us as we could into the tube and go rolling down the hill only stopping when we hit a tree or a big rock. Usually several kids would get flung out of the tube as it was wrecklessly rolling down the hill. I don't recall any major injures, occasionally someone would get their fingers rolled over. Even the adults would have their fair share of fun rolling in that tube and were quite often the ones pushing the tube down the hill with all of us in it. I'm pretty sure I gave those other boys some ideas their mom might not be too thrilled with!!
 |
| Let's roll |
 |
| Just like old times!! |
 |
| I remember it being a lot bigger!! LOL!! |
While the gazebo is gone, the foot bridge is gone, the girls hut is gone, the boys hut is gone, Pinkie's parking spot is gone, the fence is gone, the garden swings are gone, the tire swing tree is gone, some things still remained. The most important thing that remains are the memories and Deem's spirit. I felt it there very strongly. It was as if I was wrapped up in one of his homemade Afghans sitting on his lap, begging for a bite of ice cream.
 |
| Deem's old work shed is still there as well as the chicken coop. |
 |
| The rock fire place in the Front Room is still there. |
We didn't get the chance to hike up Scarface, but we did play a little on some of the rocks. I took some of the kids on a walk around the circle. Every day, without fail, we would take a walk around the circle with Deem. Quite often Deem would be pushing several of us in the wheelbarrow. On the 4th of July, Bammer would break out her box of musical instruments and with Deem in the lead with Old Glory, we would have our own musical parade around the circle.
 |
| Scarface |
 |
| Climbing on Scarface. |
 |
| View from Scarface |
I have a thing for collecting "pretty" rocks wherever I go and without fail, every summer I would get pocket after pocket full of "pretty" rocks. Naturally, as we took our walk around the circle, we collected "pretty" rocks.
 |
| Walking around the circle |
 |
| Looking for rocks |
 |
| That's Scarface up ahead! |
 |
| Goodness I miss this place!! |
I got some quick shots of the house before we left for the next adventure for the day.
 |
| Down by where the boys hut used to be. |
 |
| Coming up the road |
I had a lovely time touring the property and was very grateful and thankful for the generosity of the current owners who welcomed me into their home and let me re-live some of my fondest memories. The only change they made to the house that made me catch my breath was when I saw that they had taken down all of the knotty pine paneling in the Pretty Room. I did find out that Christine, the lady of the house, teaches physical therapy/strength training every Thursday but they do it outside on some of the old trails we blazed as kids and some they made themselves. So, that answered that question. I got the impression that they enjoyed having us there as much as I enjoyed being there. Christine and I had a grand time talking about the way things used to look. While we were in the basement in Deem's kitchen and I was telling her about how you could find Deem in there making ice cream, or raspberry jam, she told me that she had something for me. It was an old brass coat hanger. I vaguely remember it. I believe it used to be downstairs where Deem would hang his overalls. The people who owned the house before them didn't make many changes to the house, so she guesses it was original to the house and since Deem built the place.....it stands to reason that it was somewhere in the house. Anyway, she had ran across it a few weeks prior to our arrival and had set it off to the side. So, when I showed up, she felt that I should have it. I don't think she will ever know just how much it meant to me to be given the opportunity to see the place again. To say my cup was full and overflowing would be a gross understatement!!
I seriously need to collect old pictures from Deem and Bammer's. These are the only one's I have scanned in on my computer. I want to go through all of my mom's photos and get copies of one's she has. I need to find Bammer's photo's and get copies of one's she has. To any of my cousins that may read this, I would love to have any copies you may have. Let's share the memories of this grand and magical place.
 |
| 4th of July flag raising. |
 |
| I believe this was the last family photo taken. |
 |
| Going for a walk in the wheelbarrow I'm the little girl in the back. |
I"ll admit, it was a bit hard to pull away from the old place. It very well may be the last time I'll ever get to go see it. But our day had to move forward as we had many more adventures to accomplish in our short time in Colorado. We decided to take a scenic drive back to Idaho Springs and tour the Argo mine and hit Casa Bonita and Buffalo Bills museum on Saturday.
The Argo mine and mill was quite fascinating and fun. Nathan was in his element. Our tour guide loved having him on our tour as the two of them could talk about mining and such. We met "Meow-meow", the mountain goat who's personality is very much like our own "Meow-meow." After the tour, we got the chance to pan for gold!! Book the cruise!!!
 |
| I threw the kids in jail!! |
 |
| And I'm not letting them out!! |
 |
| There was a jail break and I somehow ended up in jail. |
 |
| "Meow-meow" the mountain goat |
 |
| Going into the Gold Mine!! |
 |
| Digging for gold |
 |
| It's a good thing we like each other, there wasn't a lot of room in there. |
 |
| Getting ready to tour the mill |
 |
| Old mine carts |
 |
| So, the Argo tunnel is a 4 mile long tunnel. It was shut down in the 40's when some miners were excavating and accidentally unleashed some water that had built up. They lost their lives and the mine shut down. There have been attempts over the years to re-open it, but it's never worked. |
 |
| The mill was HUGE!! |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| Getting ready to pan for some Gold!! |
After the mine tour, we went back to the Hotel where the kids promptly took off to the river to look for gold. They (including me) found a dearth of gold but a plethora of "pretty" rocks, all of which we just HAD to bring home because there was NO WAY we could just pick one!! *Cue Nathan rolling his eyes* Actually he didn't say anything because he's realized by now that it's a lost cause when trying to convince us that we don't need that many "pretty" rocks. LOL!! So glad he puts up with me!!
One CANNOT under any circumstance make a trip to Denver without going to Casa Bonita, it would be a sin, and unforgivable sin!! I believe you could hear my squeals of delight clear back in Utah when I caught first glimpse of the pinks stucco tower. I cannot begin to explain the delights of Casa Bonita.
 |
| eeeeeeeeee!! |
 |
| You don't go for the food, you go for the atmosphere. |
 |
| Attempted Selfie |
Check out the Wiki on it:
Casa Bonita
 |
| On the bridge looking out to the waterfall. In the background you can see the cliff diver climbing the cliff |
 |
| A veranda eating area. |
 |
| Looking down from the bridge. |
 |
| Behind the waterfall |
 |
| Me behind the waterfall |
 |
| Beware!! Black Bart's hideout |
 |
| Braving Black Bart's cave |
 |
| There's no way out, except through the belly of the beast!! |
 |
| At the grotto down by the waterfall |
 |
| Exploring the mine |
 |
| There's a miner back there sound asleep. You can hear him snoring and occasionally he talks in his sleep |
 |
| Oh No!! It's a cave in!! We're trapped!! |
 |
| From the mines we went spelunking. Careful or you might fall in!! |
 |
| Posing by the waterfall |
 |
| Dive!! Dive!! Dive!! |
 |
| All of us down by the waterfall |
 |
| We all are going to brave Black Bart's cave. |
 |
| Trapped in Jail!! |
 |
| Everyone had a great time and they all want to go back someday!! Mission accomplished!! |
After Casa Bonita, we went back up to the mountains to see Buffalo Bill's museum and grave site. The kids were all happy to be back in the mountains as the wide open plains of Denver was really strange to them. I learned some interesting things about Buffalo Bill that I didn't know, like how three different states were arguing over who had the rights to his last remains. His wife and close family and friends all said his dying words were to be buried on Look out mountain. What I find very puzzling is that he died January of 1917 but wasn't buried until June of 1917 because they had to wait until the snow at Look out mountain melted. There was some dispute to whether or not the body in the casket was actually his, so his wife made them open it up so they could all verify that it was indeed his body in the casket. So January to June is six months........what in the heavens name did they do to preserve his body for that long!!!!!!! Anyway, they had this cool area where kids could dress up and ride on a plastic horse that had been chopped off at the legs (creepy but necessary so kids could easily climb on) That's pretty much all I took pictures of. I didn't feel the need to take shots of his grave.
 |
| YEE-HAW!! Get along little doggie!! |
 |
| I'm gunna rope me a cow!! |
 |
| Must ride like a lady! |
Then there were these shots I got.
We had ONE and ONLY ONE criteria for church on Sunday.........we don't attend any meetings that start before 10 am!!! I thought the "Celestial" time for church was 11 am, but I was wrong. The "Celestial" time for church is 10:20 am!! You can still sleep in and get out of church at a decent time. After church we decided to take a drive out to the Denver temple and walk around the grounds.
After that we had a decision to make, do we, A.) Try and find the house in Littleton that I used to live in and have vague memories of, or B.) Take the freeway around the outskirts of downtown Denver? We opted for option B. The kids really enjoyed it but were still very weirded out by the lack of towering mountains on all sides. When we returned back to our hotel, I prepared dinner and worked on getting things packed for the car trip home the next day and the kids played down at the river. They made some epic sand/rock castles. And we found more "pretty" rocks that were just begging to be taken home.
 |
| I even made an attempt at making a Cairn. |
Monday made for an epically long day. We left the hotel at 7:15 am. We made a 45 minute drive into Denver to drop Nathan's luggage and bike off at the place he will be staying for the next two weeks. Then we drove another 20 minutes to drop him off at the office he'll be working at. Naturally the kids all had to use the potty and check out the place. Now, I had three options for routes home; I could go up I-80 through Wyoming......please don't make me drive that long and boring route!! I don't care if it's shorter!!! Or I could go back the way we came on I-70 which is a pretty drive and about the same time difference as I-80..........Or I could be adventurous and take Rabbit Ears pass on US Route 40. Well, since this whole vacation was about a trip down my memory lane......I had the brilliant brain fart to drive us home via Rabbit Ears. So what that it's the longer route. The kids were all game for it......at first. I was game for it........at first. Glad I got that out of my system! Things would have been okay if we hadn't had some interesting delays. Bear with me here: As we were sitting in the parking lot of the place we dropped Nathan off at, I got my Google Maps all set up and the route through Rabbit Ears plotted. We took off, got on the freeway and were making great time...............until I hear Tiger Lily holler out, "Meow-meow is throwing up!!" Well, we started out our vacation with him puking no reason why we shouldn't end it with him puking, right? So I start looking for a good exit to take so we can clean him up. As luck would have it, Google Maps directed me to get off on a surface street and I was able to pull into a parking lot to clean him up the best I could. No one was anywhere near my phone, just so you know that. I got back in the car and we took off. I had been driving for about five minutes when I realized that we were going the wrong way. I looked at my Google Maps only to realize that somehow Google Maps decided that it wanted me to go I-80 and changed my route on me. Well I don't want to drive I-80, thank you very much!! I switched it back over to US route 40, just in time to catch the right exit that we should take. Not more than five minutes later we got stuck in traffic, the cause of the traffic jam.........A really nasty four car accident. It looked like someone tried to change lanes and didn't look very well. A truck, the size of my van had been completely demolished. As we drove past, both Spaceman spiff and I felt really strongly that it hadn't been a glitch in Google Maps switching me to I-80. If that hadn't happened, I know I would have been in that accident. I had the chills. The rest of our trip was extremely long, tiring, but thankfully uneventful. We hit a few more traffic slow downs. Then there was road construction......and more road construction.......and road construction up at Rabbit Ears pass. We stopped at Rabbit Ears to have lunch and let the kids stretch their legs a bit. It was 7:45 pm when we pulled into our driveway. I was so glad to be home and so glad to sleep in my own, comfy, soft, beautifully wonderful Tempurpedic bed.
 |
| Meow-meow and Lion Heart. |
It was a really great vacation. I am very glad we were able to enjoy the time together as a family and very blessed to take those trips down memory lane and most importantly to know that Deem was watching out for us on the trip home.
