Before.....part 2

When we arrived in Estes Park, we hit a tremendous amount of traffic.

This is not so unusual for Estes because it is a major tourist town. This location marks the entrance into the Rocky Mountain National Forest. It was a little crazier than usual, though....it turns out we had arrived during their annual Elk Fest.

The really nice surprise for us was stumbling upon the start of a Native American storytelling and music performance.... 

  

I got a little bit emotional watching them.

These displays of music, dance and art are so incredibly important to the preservation of a culture. It's an identity....and for many people that identity is slowly becoming lost. So for me, it is an honor to be able to experience this beauty. I find the conscious determination of these people to preserve their identity so beautiful on top of the already enthralling performance. 

I feel this way whenever I get to experience a culture outside of my own. Add food and architecture to the arts and you have a very powerful personal experience and one of the reasons that traveling is so appealing and important to me.

And new generations are living and breathing their tradition...

Believe me, it was a meaningful day, and one that I was thrilled to share with my boys.

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Estes Park

So I promised I would tell you about my day yesterday...I did not forget ;)

We headed up to Estes Park to hang out and check out their weekend Art Fair. It is a beautiful and short drive from our house so we did the usual, for any long morning outing, and we packed coffees, homemade muffins, water, extra snacks and lots of books for the boys, to go and headed out.

When we first arrived to Estes Park we hit a traffic jam, which we thought was odd, and found out moments later that a group of elk had decided to hang out along the highway. So like all of us curious creatures, people were stopping to stare and take pictures.

I am one of those people who like to photograph everything and I snapped some images as well...because seriously how cool is it to see wild reindeer (okay not reindeer, but close!) hanging out within spitting distance??

Okay....so after that exciting interlude (you should have seen my boys!) we headed to the fair.

I was very impressed by the artwork displayed at this particular fair. Incredibly lovely pieces everywhere.

I have always loved arts and crafts fairs and I now have a greater appreciation for the setup of each individual artist!

Today was great, but primarily because we got so much done. I know I've mentioned that I can not exist well, at least in chaos...so putting everything in order has such a calming and purposeful effect on me. We did get our regular Sunday morning bike ride in but after that we cleaned and organized in between dancing and playing with the boys. Oh yeah, and all the boys in the house got a much needed haircut.

So the weekend is over and tomorrow is back to work! (okay that's not really true because I worked on and off all weekend long....such is the life of owning your own business, its hard not to sneak it in when possible!! ;)

Visitors, music and wine

I am listening to Missy Higgins and drinking some cabernet....specifically this song. I wasn't kidding when I posted in my profile page that I love music. I really, constantly, have music playing. I used to always joke that a soundtrack would more appropriately detail my life instead of a written biography. I can hear different songs and I am instantly transported to a specific time in my life. Do music and art go hand in hand? It seems so at least for me this is the case. There are two routes that I thought I would take when I was young. One was as an artist...the other was as a musician. I played the clarinet for a good chunk of my youth. I really thought at 13 that I would play in orchestras as a profession.

Right now my parents and nephew are visiting from NM. My oldest monkey turns 4 in a few days so they wanted to make sure and come celebrate with us. Yesterday we all went to Estes Park for the day, which is only an hour's drive.

We walked around the town, had a picnic at the lake and then ate some ice cream at a local shop. It was a really nice day and the town is quite pretty.

In other news I finally ordered my signature stamp for all of my jewelry. I will include a picture of it as soon as it arrives. It has my intials and includes '.925'. We are also getting ready for my first fair for Labor Day weekend. There is SO much that we are doing to prepare....least of which is my need to increase my jewelry stores. Tomorrow I will be posting some new pieces, but I'll preview them here first.

Time for a movie and ice cream sundaes....