"Rocky Mountain High"

I spent the weekend with Brenda and the boys as well as several members of our church at a beautiful Rocky Mountain retreat called Horn Creek in Colorado. At nearly 10,000 ft it was difficult breathing and excess activity was hampered. However it did not stop us from playing basketball, racquetball, and rock climbing--I am certain I must have sounded at times like a chain smoker. The weekend was an overall enjoyable time but there were a few hangups. Joshua is a creature of habit and thrives best when his structure is unaltered. Needless to say this weekend was a bit of a departure from his normal day and it caused some problems with his sleep patterns. It would probably be more accurate to say that it cancelled his sleep patterns for Friday night and replaced them with a new program. This new program called for bedtime to be moved from 8:00 pm central time to 2:00 am central time. This new bedtime did not figure into mom and dad's plans for the night and meant a restless night for us all. After about 2 1/2 to 3 hours of sleep we ate breakfast while Joshua slept off his night of defiant torment of his loving parents. He slept for another 3 hours or so and then woke ready to conquer the day. He did pretty well inspite of his short night as did his mother and I. Through all of this Benjamin did well and seemed to sleep much better in the higher altitudes--lack of O2 will do that for you. Joshua slept much better Saturday night and thankfully we all got an adequate nights sleep, although a good night's sleep would have been preferable. After a long 6 hour drive home we wound down our night playing, watching the Super Bowl and then fought with Joshua to go to bed which was easier said then done since he slept 4 hours of the trip home.
This is a retreat that our church has been putting on for 30 some odd years. It was nice spending this time with members of my community of faith. Brenda and I, although frustrated and sleep deprived, enjoyed playing and worshipping with our brothers and sisters. We appreciated how others spent time with Joshua and Benjamin and truly gave us opportunity to have some rest and quiet time together. We are continually blessed to be a part of such loving people. All in all it was a good retreat but I do still agree with Jim Carey's assessment from Dumb and Dumber, "That John Denver's full of crap."