Colorado livin'...

As many of you may know, my wife, daughter and I recently moved to Copper Mountain, Colorado and that move was rather spontaneous.  We thought that someday we’d move out here, but never imagined it would be so soon and that we’d leave our beloved Chicago.  We hoped this would be a great place to raise our daughter with all of the outdoor activities and the more laid back culture.  So far, we absolutely love it.  The natural beauty of the mountains is breath taking.  The ability to get lost in nature either on a hike or while skiing is ever prevalent and it is a change we adore.  The people are incredibly warm and welcoming, where every time that I go running people I don’t even know wave and smile at me.  I know that’s a rather small gesture, but it’s a nice one.  We may still be in the honeymoon stage and who knows what the future will bring, but for now, our move to Colorado has been a positive change

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A few weeks ago the three of us went on a hike from Breckenridge and it was truly majestic.  When we hike with Neyla, we strap her onto my by using a Bjorn and she loves it.  Usually she’ll sleep, but when she doesn’t she sings.  It’s really hilarious; she will just stare at the nature around us and starting inaudibly singing.  She loves being outside as do my wife and I.  On this particular hike all three of us were truly mesmerized by the nature and solitude around us.  I had never experienced anything like it and it made me understand the 19^th Century Romantics much better.  It reminded me of a quote I saw here not too long ago, “I’d rather be outdoors thinking about God in creation, than in a building locked away from it.”  It’s so true, the miraculous nature of the mountains truly does inspire one to think about God and the world in different ways. 

We have this image of Neyla growing up hiking, horseback riding, golfing and skiing; and not playing video games and texting her life away.  We hope she is as inspired by the creation around us as we are.  This may be really naive, only time will tell, but we feel it will be much easier to balance technology in our lives living here with this sort of culture.  

Yesterday Colorado voted to legalize marijuana in our state.  Many people would argue and have argued that this has made Colorado a worse place to raise children.  I disagree.  I don’t smoke marijuana, never have and probably never will, but this shows the progressive nature of our state.  It makes an amazing amount of political and economic sense to do this.  The amount of money our state wastes on arresting and prosecuting people who smoke a plant that is less harmful and dangerous than alcohol and tobacco makes no sense.  Furthermore, the black market for this drug has empowered terrorists all over the globe and allowed drug cartels in Mexico to wreak havoc south of the border and in many border states.  In no way do I support the legalization of other illegal drugs, but it is finally time that we rethink our broken policy on drugs in America and the consequences of those policies. 

I know that raising a child is never easy and there will continually be challenges, but we love this challenge so much and we love Neyla.  We made a difficult decision to move to Colorado, but we believe that this opportunity came up for a reason and we can’t wait to find out what it is.