Colorado Picture Post, Numero Tres

I'll have to switch over to English at some point, because I can only count to 20 in Spanish. (Well, 29 if you want to be picky about it, but anyway) I apologize for the fuzzy pictures in the last post--I find that if I upload pictures and then save the post without enlarging them immediately, they get all pixelated. So I'm going to try to do better with this post.

This week has been staff training week, which basically means we work in the morning, do some games/'team-building' exercises in the afternoon, and continue to work until 6 or the dinnerbell rings at 6:30, whichever comes first. Two days ago, for example, we all met up in the afternoon, broke up into our smaller groups (I'm in 'Team 3'), and did this obstacle/challenge course thing. Some parts were easy, some were hard...and yesterday was 'Olympic training' (basically doing these little games like an egg toss, Ping Pong ball on a plate, holding a ball between one's knees and weaving poles, etc). Between Darron and I we've gotten SO MANY PICTURES. Good grief. He's taken to borrowing my camera at every opportunity and filling it with pictures. I'm not complaining, but good grief.

Okay. So here we go with pictures! I'll start with Sunday and take it from there, shall I?

(More after the break!)

This is the 'Sleeping Mute', according to one of the girls who lives here. Look for the profile on the right and take it from there.

An overloaded Jeep is just another normal sight in Estes Park, apparently.

Memorial Day flags...

Thai food! Now I'm all starving and hungry--I get so hungry around 6:00, and by 6:30 I'm *not* hungry. My stomach has been so weird around here. (And I've lost 7 pounds and my pants are looser, so I'm not complaining.)

Tess and her plate o' food! (I changed my lens to my 50 mm, and it changed the entire look of everything. Apparently the 50mm alters reality somehow.)

Jake looks very intent here, though I'm not sure why...

Emily and her bum leg--but no more! She's actually standing in the doorway of my room right now sans brace or crutches!

Early morning horse pictures...

Lunch crowd!

This is Charissa, one of the wranglers. She is an absolute sweetheart.

Kas, our amazing cook who makes amazingly delightful culinary offerings daily. Seriously. The food here is SO good.

Darris, Darron's younger brother, taking a picture of me taking a picture. PIC-CEPTION!

Speaking of Darron, there's the man himself goobering over to the playing field...

See what I mean?

Playing Ninja, I believe.

I think at this point I was in the Cocoa Cabana (the room off of the dining hall) playing piano, and Darron had stolen--er, borrowed my camera. 

Alijah, one of the wranglers, getting ready to start on 3-ball (I think).

Group picture! I could probably name everyone here, but their names wouldn't mean anything...this is about half of the staff, I guess.

David from Illinois! Finally, another Illinois-er to collaborate with!

The audience in the Cocoa--well, Darron was there too but there is no photographic evidence of this fact. So if a person's picture is not taken in a place, were they actually there? O.e

Getting ready for some singing in the library...

Love this picture of Tess. :D

Okay, so Sunday Darron told several of us about this aspen bench behind staff housing up the mountain, and at the time I thought he meant an entire aspen tree had been turned into a bench. I was a bit disappointed to see this was the actual result...but the walk was still a pretty (if asphyxiating) one.

The rock crew leader...

...but we housekeepers have our own list of things to do.

Oh! Waiting around for the obstacle course to start here--this is one of my roommates refusing to make a nice face. XD

Moriah (on the left) is the other housekeeping girl staying til October, so we are in it for the long haul. Mwahahahaha....

Cody, one of the wranglers, looking as though he's posing (but actually I was just being surreptitious about taking the picture).

Oh, Jordyn....

Kay is a kitchen girl, and she takes amazing pictures but she hates having her picture taken. I don't understand this phenomenon...

The first challenge: walking on a log to the platform. (It was actually really easy.)

The second challenge: walking on two boards in sync. (Also a relatively easy one)

And our brave group....I have no idea what's happening here. I think the general consensus is that Alijah is a goober.

I think Cody was 'blind' here, and we had to help him across some logs...it was interesting.

I think this was an over-under-over 'spider web' thing...that one was harder, because our boot heels kept catching on the strings and ringing the bells attached. *facepalm*

Emily B, pre-miraculous-healing...

Our brave group again! I think I like having a small group. It makes for good times.

The challenge?

Walking across the wires. This was the last one, and probably the hardest in my opinion. Gah.

Everyone was commenting on form and persistence and such nonsense, which was making me laugh...fun times, except for the falling bits. -.-

It took 4 tries, but I finally poked the tree with my foot and technically 'made it'. It was hard, though. Eesh.

Campfire glow...I went out for a bit without my jacket but wandered back into the Cocoa after nearly freezing my tail off. There were some people in there, and I had a good time listening to some talking and encouragement and good stuff like that. That was the same night that Emily was healed--I've got some pictures of her crutch-less somewhere, but it's too late to post more now. More pictures as time warrants!