In December I flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado at the gracious invitation of Focus on the Family to be a guest on their show. I was so honored to be asked and also incredibly nervous about this because for one thing, that is a lot of people listening to me talk and for another, I had to fly over mountains to get there. In an airplane. I am a girl who does not like to fly places or experience things like “turbulence” so this all required a lot of bravery on my part.
The show I recorded airs today and you can listen to the segment here or on your local radio station! And I would so love for you to listen and share it with a friend you think could use an encouraging, hopeful word today ♥
(They are also featuring my book, Anchored: Finding Hope in the Unexpected, today and you can read a never-before-seen excerpt from it on their site here.)
Unbeknownst to me, they have a viewing theater in the studio where people can come and watch the segments that are being recorded! It’s kind of like how when you were a kid you would stand in department store windows and pretend to be a mannequin while people walked by. Except a lot more nerve-wracking than that. So if you’re ever visiting, check and see who the day’s guest is and you might get to meet one of your favorite authors!
As you can imagine, there were huge lines of people waiting to meet me.
(Just kidding. There were no lines.)
I took my husband and the baby along with me and we decided to make a weekend out of it and go sightseeing because I had never been to Colorado before.
My six-year old cried when I told her that we were going to Colorado Springs because she “wanted to meet Lightning McQueen,” so then I had to explain to her that Colorado Springs and Radiator Springs were not the same thing.
After the interview was over we hiked The Garden of the Gods, which we really loved. Ridley mostly just slept in my carrier while we climbed around on the rocks on account of how very little impresses him. Not even stunning feats of nature.
It was gorgeous and I definitely recommend making a stop there and taking the time to walk around. If we hadn’t had the baby with us we would have loved to have ridden the bike trails in the gardens.
We wanted to do the Pikes Peak Cog Railway but on Friday afternoon a huge snowstorm blew in and not only shut it down but trapped us in our hotel for much of Saturday.
I am a Georgia girl so I was not prepared for this at all. In fact, I spent a lot of time asking people what I should pack for Colorado in the middle of winter. I was kind of envisioning that I needed to dress like this:
Turns out, when everyone says “Oh, it’s a dry cold,” that is actually a thing. I have never experienced anything other than a soggy southern winter and I have to say that it is not an exaggeration. 30 degrees in Colorado does not feel as bone-chillingly cold as it does in the south. It’s pretty comfortable and I could totally get on board with how good the lack of humidity was for my hair.
(Turns out, I don’t have terrible hair. I just have HASHTAG HUMIDITY PROBLEMS.)
What I was not prepared for, however, was -6 degree weather. NEGATIVE SIX DEGREES, Y’ALL.
When I was packing for Colorado I couldn’t find my gloves so I was just like, “Oh, fingerless gloves will be fine.”
Spoiler alert: THEY WERE NOT FINE.
I went outside to document what negative six degrees felt like and then I managed approximately one selfie before I booked it back inside the hotel to huddle in front of the fireplace.
Also, I mostly ended up packing all of the exact same things that I wore in Ireland and it worked out perfectly. That capsule traveling wardrobe for winter weather is probably the most useful thing I’ve ever put together using Pinterest.
(Let’s not even talk about the Pinterest-inspired “calming toy” made from a water bottle and glitter. That did not make my kid calm at all. That made my kid douse herself in glitter water. BECAUSE SHE BIT IT. You know who needed some sort of calming toy after that? Me. I did.)
On Sunday morning we made brunch reservations for the Sunbird Mountain Grill. We had a table with a gorgeous view and the food was phenomenal. I highly recommend grabbing a reservation there, it’s pricey but was our splurge experience for the trip and totally worth it.
Also, we don’t drive in the snow here in the south. Our whole state shuts down for just a couple of inches, literally 2 inches of snow and the governor declares a state of emergency, y’all. So another thing that reminded me of Ireland?
Driving around curvy cliffsides with no guardrails. I was very calm and just really chill and not at all terrified that we were going to slide on the snow and careen off of the edge. Except the opposite of that. It is super fun to hang out with me.
Even though we missed a whole day being snowed in, we had an amazing time in Colorado Springs and would love to go back. Huge thanks to Focus on the Family for giving a voice to our story and sharing the message of hope found in Anchored.
