Mountain getaway

For the long holiday weekend, Brian and I headed out to his family's cabin in Buena Vista, CO to meet up with several couples from our old Bible Study in Kansas City. On the way out, we stopped in Denver and spent the night with Brian's sister, Abby, and her husband, Adam. They bought their first home a few months ago and have been hard at work remodeling it. It was really fun to see in person all of the fruit of their labors!

In Denver, I also got to spend a little time with the other Emily Mann Smith. For anyone who doesn't know the story, Em and I met while rushing at Baylor - we were both Emily Manns at the time. We pledged Tri Delt and got to be great friends, and after college we both married Smiths! She has two precious little boys who I do not get to see enough... she and Justin have done such an incredible job with them. When I walked up to the house, Jacob stuck out his hand so I could shake it! Adorable little two-year old gentleman!

We had a great time reconnecting with our old friends at the cabin - they all brought their kiddos, who we hadn't seen since June. Crazy how babies grow up SO fast. We laughed a lot, ate a lot and talked a lot, which adds up to a really fun weekend. Brian and I also got to ski a day in Keystone with Abby and Adam while we were out there.

On our way home, we encountered what had to be the reincarnation of the great Dust Bowl. On I70 just west of the Colorado/Kansas border, the winds started howling and all of a sudden we saw a thick wall of dust in the distance. A man emerged out of it, running down the shoulder of the highway, motioning for cars to pull over. And then we were in the thick of it. We literally could not see the car in front of us, much less the sun. Sirens were screaming all around, although we couldn't see the vehicles they accompanied. It was a little bit scary. We ended up driving very slowly through the grass over to the feeder road, where a few other cars were also waiting. We sat there for a while while the winds got even worse. Brian finally decided to see if we could make our way out of it. With our seatbelts tightly fastened, we ventured forward and a few miles later, we made it out ok, although both the inside and outside of our car were plastered with dust. We must have squeezed through just in time, because on the other side we found that the police had closed the highway and there was already a long line of cars backed up. Who knows how long they had to wait until the dust cleared!