A Visitor!

The 3-day weekend brought my mother to me for a visit. I had been looking forward to her visit for a long time...well, since she bought her ticket. I always enjoy it when people come visit me but for some reason, all the things I think of that I want to show people I can't seem to remember when they are actually here. It's rather unfortunate since there's tons of awesome things to do in Denver and surrounding areas.

Thank goodness my mom likes to relax so I didn't have to come up with much to do...we just hung out and caught up on life stuff. I've been so busy lately (I have a social life?) that my usually abundant amounts of chat time have practically evaporated. So it was nice to sit and talk without being interrupted by the need for sleep, or the need to run errands, or the need to acknowledge other people's existence...like my dad. ;-)

Besides seeing me, another reason for my mom to come visit was to upgrade her 2-year old cell phone. People keep cell phones for more than a year??? Heck, I can't even keep one for 6 months without getting tired of it and wanting a new one. (I am going to confess something to you...I have had 5 different cell phones since I moved to Colorado two years ago. Eek!! I may have a problem...) Anyhoo, my mom surprised me and decided to get a Samsung Epic 4G...that's the top-of-line, newest phone that Sprint has out right now. And it's kind of large. Not my mom's style, really. However, it is an Android phone so I fully support her adventuresomeness (if that were a real word, it would be a long one). Except now I have to teach her how to use it... Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a gadget geek. That new phone of hers is pretty slick. I'm a little jealous but I am actually very happy with my current phone (gasp!) so all is well...for now. Well, so far she is very happy with the phone...especially because there is Kindle app that will sync with her actual Kindle so she will never be without a book every again (she's extremely excited about this). I also shared with her my current obsession...the game WordUp! I can't help but play that game every waking moment...it's kind of pathetic. I blame Carrie! But I digress...

So that was Saturday...buying her a new phone and then teaching her how to use it. On Sunday, we had lunch with Stefano and Carrie at El Camino (mmmmm...queso) and then decided to venture to Mt. Evans. I love it when people come to visit...it means that I get to do (as long as I can actually remember what I want to do) all the touristy things that I haven't done since I live here and it's not cool to do touristy things without actual tourists. And so we went to Mt. Evans (thanks for the idea, Carrie...sorry for being such an obvious copy-cat). Now if I could only get myself to the Coors Brewery...

Mt. Evans is basically a 14-er that you can drive up (instead of hiking...which is harder). The drive up is crazy scary...narrow roads that you have to share with cars going in the opposite direction and silly cyclists who want to challenge themselves. But we survived and made it to the top alive (isn't there a similar line from Princess Bride?). There is a little hike up to the actual top of Mt. Evans...we decided to do it. I was fine and didn't even break a sweat (I cheated though...I'm in training for New Zealand so I won't die). But my poor mother was gasping for air almost immediately (going from sea-level to 14,000 feet can be a bit much). Needless to say, she realized why I said that I wasn't going take her and my dad to hike a 14-er and has forgiven me for such a slight. Here are some pics we took (with my mom's new cell phone, of course!) from the top of the world:

Her flight left Denver early afternoon on Monday and so that was it. A good but wayyy too short visit from my mom.

Who's coming to visit me next??