Vacation in Colorado Part 1...

I took this picture with my iphone this morning around 6:30 a.m. from my balcony in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We (my wife and 2 kids) arrived last night around midnight, so we had no idea what to expect when we woke up. Pagosa is in the Southwest part of the state near Durango. This may sound crazy, but I actually like it better than the rockies up in Estes Park. There's a lot more color here. And I can promise you this, after living in Dallas for a year I was ready for some color (anything other than concrete). That's not a bash on Dallas, but bragging on God's handywork here in Colorado. It truly is beautiful here. I've only been here for about 18 hours, and I can already say this is going to be a place I'd like to come back to every year. One of the reasons is there's not a lot of people here. You can truly have sabbath here, and practice the presence of God a lot easier than our busy lives in whatever city we live in. Most of our blog readers should appreciate this since most of you are in decent sized cities (yes, I am watching you :) This morning we went to Centerpoint Church in Pagosa and worshiped with the folks there. It was pretty similar the church I worked at in seminary, so it gave my wife and I some fun flashbacks to our days in North Carolina. I actually contacted the youth pastor there ahead of time and asked him if he had any good babysitters. Is that weird if I'd never met him? David will probably think so.
Our friends the Oakes are going to be coming in tonight to stay with us for the week, and we are so pumped to see them and get to spend our vacation with them. I'll update more soon!!!