Colorado trip

I'm late posting this, but back in August we flew out to Colorado to visit our Burji friends in Denver and to camp in the Rockies.

Things I want to remember from our Colorado trip:

• That moment at baggage claim when I turned to see a man swooping down on my children with his arms outstretched, and them scrambling into his hug as if they'd known each other all their lives.
• Playing soccer with a bunch of Ethiopians, most of whom are Burji.
• The freshly killed and cooked goat for D's 7th birthday (he now has a summer birthday, too). I'm a strict vegetarian, but this is what he wanted for his birthday, and this is what he got. 
• M telling D, "You are Burji. You have a strong heart."
• NO ONE asking about our kids' names: "A__? You mean _____? D__? You mean _____?" the way most Ethiopians do.
• Our campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park. The mule deer walking through our campsite. Cooking over a campfire every night. The Milky Way. 
• The high-altitude lakes. The COLD water in the streams feeding the lakes.
• Doing several leisurely walks with our kids, and then doing an actual hike with significant elevation gain. Rock climbing at the end of the hike. Note to self: Things go well on a long hike if I bring a chapter book to read aloud from every half mile or so.
• LOOK, ELK!!!!! WOW!!!! Look, elk! Cool! Look, elk. Meh.
• The aerial obstacle course that A completed in Estes Park. As my sister would say, "Dweam come twue."
• D terrified to ride a horse. D overcoming his terror. D telling me, "I am Burji. I have a strong heart."
• Vedauwoo State Park in Wyoming and the huge boulders that A and I climbed, just the two of us.
• Our gorgeous shortcut on a dirt "forest" road in southern Wyoming: huge sky, ranches, horses, pronghorns. 
• My normally very calm husband yelling "EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!!" because the car was on fire he saw a bald eagle.
• Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in North America. Watching the temperature drop, feeling the wind pick up, and finally, seeing snow fall. 
• D calming his anxiety by repeating country names over and over and over: MaliMauritaniaMalawiNigerNigeriaIndiaChinaKazakhstan BangladeshBangladeshBangladeshBangladeshBanGLAdesh BanGLAdeshBanGLAdesh... Not a good memory, but I should remember it.
• Back in Aurora, meeting another Burji man and discovering his mother is Gooda, which means that my kids are considered his "uncles." 
• The weekend after we returned, D playing Monopoly with his cousin C, smiling with his eyes.