Hello, friend!
I am on the way home from Denver, Colorado as I write this, and I want to share with you all about what I’ve been up to in CO this weekend! I have a very close friend named Naomi<3 who lives in Colorado. I met her on my mission trip last summer in Mexico and have continued to stay in touch with her since then! After a couple months of planning, I decided that I would go out to Denver to visit Naomi and go to Estes Park, where her church was having a teen retreat.
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| LITERALLY DENVER {heart eye emoji} |
Last Thursday, I hopped on a plane and flew to Denver right after school and experienced a beautiful sunset as I flew across the middle of the US.
I got to Naomi’s at around seven o’clock, and we just talked and caught up which was very much needed!! It’s fun and kind of crazy meeting one of your closest friend's family and seeing how she lives for the first time when all you know about her is from a two-week long trip! Only in the kingdom could that happen!! The next morning, we woke up and Naomi brought me to a butterfly pavilion which was such a cute place! Unfortunately, it was cloudy/foggy out so you couldn’t see the mountains which she lived RIGHT by but I did see them later. The butterfly pavilion had all sorts of living things! I saw tarantulas, fish, starfish, bees, worms, etc. It was so fun being in the butterfly pavilion and I was a bit freaked out that I would step on a butterfly who happened to be resting on the ground(thankfully I didn’t!).
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| Are they glowing? Basically. |
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| Yes, we found Nemo AND Dory! |
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| Sheldon. |
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| More butterflies waiting to be hatched! |
Then we drove back to her house and drove up to Estes park a bit before the retreat so that we could see the mountains a little bit!
I was BLOWN AWAY.
I’d never seen mountains this big in my whole life. They just kept on going up up up and I’m so amazed that God created something so grand and beautiful!! It reminded me of my Niagara Falls experience, when I just could feel God’s power through nature.
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| ELK!!!! |
After visiting a taffy shop and looking around in the little downtown area, we drove to the YMCA, which was where we were staying, and I got to meet all of Naomi’s friends which was super fun!! We heard an awesome lesson by one of the ministers in Colorado, and it was really convicting.
The next morning, I woke up at 6:00 to get ready to see the sunrise and I took a ton of pictures of the sun rising over the tops of the mountains. AMAZINGGGGGG!!
Colorado is one of my favorite states now! Saturday was spent hanging out with friends and playing ukulele, listening to fantastic lessons by great speakers, and eating a lot. I also spent some quality time with one of my very special friends, Christina, and studied the bible with her and a bunch of other fantastic teens from Denver. On Sunday, it was time to leave and of course I took some more pictures of where we stayed, and of the girls in my cabin! I am so grateful for this experience, and for everyone who I met.
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| Naomi!! :) |
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| One last picture! |
This trip felt like a huge blessing and gift from God and my parents :), especially since my birthday is coming up(march 1)!
Happy days! xx
Joy :)
