Friday Favorites: Coloradoversary Style

I absolutely cannot believe it, but we are officially hitting SIX MONTHS of living in Colorado, people!  (AKA our Coloradoversary. Yes, I’ve created a word.) There are days that it feels like we have lived here forever and days where it seems like we just got here.  I thought it would be fun to kind of recap our time here with thoughts of my favorites (and not so favorites) of my new state. Also I’ll give a rundown on what I feel like is different about Texas and Colorado (besides the obvious weather situation).

First off with favorites…

THE VIEW.  This so obviously has to go first because my goodness, the view is gorgeous.  I know all the Texans are going to freak out when I say this but Colorado definitely wins in the Beautiful State Department.  Everywhere you turn, you see mountains (at least in my part of Colorado).  Even the ugliest thing like a car dealership can look awesome when there are mountains behind it.  I could go on and on forever but I don’t think I will ever get over the mountains in the background of my life.  Talk about God’s Glory just showing off and being awesome. 

THE THINGS TO DO. So not to say that Texas doesn’t have a million things to do, but I just feel like Colorado just has so many fun things to do, especially outside.  Am I going to bring up the mountains again?  Maybe.  More like probably.  I just feel like there is just so much to explore here.. and maybe some of that is because I am new, but I do feel like even people that have lived here forever feel the same way too.  And it does help that you don’t have to travel like 8 hours across state to go do some of the things.  Maybe smaller states aren’t so bad after all. 

THE WEATHER.  Alright, this may come as a surprise to most of you, but I actually really don’t mind the weather here.  In my Texas mind, I just imagined there being snow ALL OF THE TIME.  And that is just so not the case.  Also, I imagined cold days being dreary and depressing.  Believe me, there are plenty of cold days but the sun is shining as all get out.  And even if it snows in the morning, the sun will probably be out by the afternoon and it’s gorgeous.  (A small disclaimer though is that as spring is “supposed” to already be here and there is snow in the forecast, that is blowing my mind a bit.  I do believe I’m ready for some spring clothes.) 
  

SUMMER.  Now obviously I haven’t lived here yet for summer, but I have visited before and it is AMAZING compared to Texas summers.  The heat is NOTHING like Texas and the lack of humidity is simply wonderful.  What love songs are made of really.  (But if I reach summer and I feel like it’s too cold to put a bathing suit on my wimpy self, I may need to write a whole new blog because that will be a problem.) 

MOUNTAIN TOWNS.  They are pretty much my favorite thing ever.  All of them are just so precious and adorable and usually have such fun stores and restaurants.  I don’t think I could ever live in one but they sure are fun to visit!  Plus Idaho Springs has Beau Jo’s and that’s just amazingness in itself.  

On to some not so favorites…

MY FAMILY DOES NOT LIVE HERE.  I just figured it was best to start off with the obvious.  Would I love Colorado more if all of my people lived here?  Duh.  So if they could get on that, that’d be great.  But yes, it is so hard to miss out on so many life things with some of my most favorite people.  Easter is coming up and holidays are always huge in my family and the thought of not being there totally hurts my heart.  Also, not getting to see my niece grow up daily kills me.  But thank goodness for technology and FaceTime.  Without it, I would be an absolute HOT MESS.

THE PRICE OF LIVING. So although my family doesn’t live here, apparently everyone else in the universe does so houses are so stupid expensive.  Right now we are renting because we wanted to get to know the area first, but the thought of trying to buy a house in this market is scary and ridiculous and stupid.  So there’s that.

THE LACK OF GOOD MEXICAN FOOD. Yes there is Mexican food here, but NO IT IS NOT THE SAME.  It makes me sad.  I once asked someone here where they would recommend as the best Mexican food  here and they said On The Border.  I almost cried.  Someone ship me all of the chips and salsa and quesadillas and enchiladas and tortillas and fajitas, please.  Kthanksbye.

THE SWEET TEA HAS GONE MISSING.  There is this magical thing in Texas that you can now pull up to pretty much any fast food restaurant and order a sweet tea and they give you one.  Here?  Not so much.  They may give you an unsweet tea (or “iced tea” as people call it) BUT THAT IS NOT REAL TEA.  Thank goodness for Chick-Fil-A is all I’ve got to say.

DRIVING IN A SNOW STORM.  Thankfully I personally have not had to do this, but even riding in the passenger seat is a bit terrifying.  And by a bit, I mean I don’t plan on ever doing in my future kinda scary. 

And now thoughts in general…

ALL OF THE SKIING.  It is just a completely different culture to me.  All so brand new to my brain. People literally go up and ski for the day and come back home.  Or they go up every weekend to ski and that is their life for like four months straight.  It is just the craziest thing to me.  I’ve been apart of discussions with moms on the different ways that families choose to teach their kiddos to ski.  Like that’s a thing.  Figuring out the right way to teach your kid to ski.  How about the option of NOT teaching them to ski?  Because I’m pretty sure Caleb doesn’t want me teaching him since I hadn’t ever even been to a ski town until we lived here.  And I surely have never put on a pair of skis.  And I also have no intention of starting because skiing requires being cold and doing something athletic… neither things I am good at.  So sorry little buddy.  You will either need to hit up your dad or have a nice friend’s parents that find the importance in teaching you the ways of skiing.

SPRING BREAK IS LATE.  As I’ve seen on social media, everyone in Texas either had their Spring Break last week or this week.  Here in Colorado it is either next week or even the week after that.  What in the world??  Maybe because they are giving the weather the chance to actually be “spring” for “spring” break.  Or maybe it’s just how they roll.  Obviously it doesn’t really effect me at the moment because no one in my family is in school, but it just confuses me.

  
So as we stood in front of our house on the day we arrived to live in Colorado, I don’t think we had any idea what to expect. We were confident that God called us here so we were ready to see what He had in store. Through past pain and transition, God has shown us His faithfulness in incredible ways and given us so much evidence that this is where God wants us. This is our home and we love it.