Getting ready

Well it's almost time for our annual spring break trip and this year we're going to Colorado Springs!! The past 7 years we've gone to Glorieta, New Mexico (right outside of Santa Fe) and while I will miss certain things about Glorieta like the Chuck Wagon and Thunderbird lounge, it's also New Mexico, which, let's face it, is not as fun as Colorado :)

Here is where we used to stay:



aaaaaaand here's where we'll be staying this year! Plus all the ladies get to have a tea in the castle during the week - woot!



Now, there's more to it than the castle, apparently it's a huge area of land that the Navigators use as their headquarters, with the Garden of the Gods right nearby. I don't know what that is, but everyone says it's beautiful. I'll update on that when I get back.

I am so looking forward to this, to a week away to just relax in some of God's creation and hear from some amazing speakers. I also realize that there won't be a lot of relaxing, more like long days and late nights, but that's how my weeks normally are so it's not that big a deal :) One of the things I look forward to most are the deep conversations you always have at these retreats, usually late into the night! I'm looking forward to what God will do and I am praying that I will be able to truly enjoy it and not have endless lists in my mind of things to get done.

Oh, and how are we getting there you might ask?? Private jet? No, not this year. Train? No, apparently they don't go through Colorado, which leaves......THE BUS!!! Yes, it should be about a 20-24 hour ride, and while not my first choice, I've done long bus rides before (we've taken the bus twice to Glorieta) and you can always find a way to make it fun.



Plus, we're supposed to have free Wifi in the bus (have no idea how that works in a moving vehicle) and top-o-the-line TVs for movies. No matter what it will make memories!!


And in completely random news, I dyed my hair!! It's the first time I've ever done it before and I figured after 26ish years of the same color I was cool with changing it a bit (and no, it's not orange, as much as I love orange I don't want it on my head - just went a little darker). Before this year I never even wanted to dye my hair because you always hear horror stories of how someone wanted red streaks and it came out bright orange everywhere, but one of the girls in Challenge, Michelle, has dyed her own hair before and it looks really good so I thought I'd give it a whirl. While we were talking about it she even said I seemed pretty low-maintenance so I wouldn't freak out if it didn't turn out well. Little does she know how uptight I used to be with this, and now that I've done it I don't know why I was so against it for me. I can always get my normal hair color back and besides, it's fun to play around with hair color! Below are some pictures from when we dyed my hair (last Friday actually!)

This is the nice, before picture :) Jane and Lauren decided they wanted to come along and watch the party!



This is the fun picture, with all of us imagining what my new hair will look like...



I would have the actual "after" photo, but it won't let me upload it, so you'll just have to see me to look at my new, darker hair!




Lastly, the Academy Awards were this past weekend, and while I've only watched them sparingly in the last few years, this year I went to my good friend Katelin's place and watched it with her fiancee Matt, her little sister (also named Kourtney - makes for some funny "who do you mean?" moments), her two neighbors and her fiancee's "little" brother Brad (I used quotation marks because while Brad is younger, he is also 6'8''...so...tall). It was a great time! Katelin and I are both really into movies so we were talking all about the red carpet, the nominees, their filmography, our newest celebrity crushes, all the usual :) We also used ballots for our choices of who would take home the Oscar and I got second place with 12.....Katelin and Matt tied for first with 14! I was just happy that the movie I wanted to win for Best Picture won!! I saw the Hurt Locker and while it is extremely intense, it was also really good I thought and I'm proud the Academy rewarded story over box office records (no offense Jim...)



And Sandra won too!! She's my favorite actress, well, tied for favorite with Meryl Streep, but this was Sandy's year and I'm so happy she won! Her speech was heartfelt and hilarious and I loved it!