around town: The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center!

On a recent camping trip, Gabriel and I visited a museum we've been itching to go to for a while. Passing through the little town of Woodland Park on our usual way to our favorite nearby camping destination , we decided we just had to stop. (I think this had a lot to do with Gabriel's frantic shouts of "Tri-cerops! Tri-cerops!" as we drove past the building and its realistic dinosaur statues that grace its front lawn.)

The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center turned out to be a great way to spend the morning, as well as quite a subtle gem in terms of fossil finds and original pieces. As a frequent visitor to our Denver Museum of Nature and Science (whose dinosaur exhibit does dwarf Woodland Park's but would be half the size without original fossils shown in the Woodland Museum), I was happy to find a number of familiar fossils, skeletons, and stones. I was impressed with the amount of original fossils the small museum had, as well as its perfect collection of vintage movie posters inspired by our extinct friends.

After a very animated story time, a peek through the large, unique gift shop, and a few games of paleontologist, we were back on our way. Despite its small size, it's certainly worth a visit, especially if you have anybody in your midst who can mime dinosaur faces as well as this monster of mine can.

A Summertime.

With each new season, I can't help but wonder at how quickly time seems to pass. As soon as I find some peace with the silence and personal timing of winter, and really realize the immaculate ways of sleepy squirrels and floating snowflakes, things change. And as I begin get a hearty fill of sprouts, spring clouds, tender shoots, and bare feet, things change. And once those bare feet have lost their tender winter soles and we're just getting the knack of eating every meal in a hammock, things change. And then Autumn, oh, that painfully beautiful Autumn. Fall flies by much too quickly for my taste; I doubt I could ever fill up enough on the energizing air, the leaves changing and moving on so sadly and enchantingly, the smell of Earth preparing for hard, quiet times ahead... oh goodness, no.

Although I can hardly contain myself for the coming of Autumn, this summer seems to have danced past entirely too quickly. Gabriel and I did our best to enjoy each drop we could (and we most definitely did), but I'm left with a strange sense of loss. I am excited for the change to come (not only in the seasons, but in my own blooming son and my own self), moreso than ever before, but I feel we've left behind a great deal this season.

Friends who lose touch, souls ready to move on, flowers finished with their cycles of life- the end of summer is a natural time for loss and appreciation. I haven't felt the pain of fall this acutely before, or noticed how well it seems to conicide with the seemingly random chaos of our lives. As far as we may remove ourselves, we are still spirits of the ground, the wind, the world.

I enter a new chapter knowing how much I've left behind, some for better and some for worse, and in full faith that we'll find answers in the rhythm of our lives. The small babe I've spent every moment raising has gone, and in his place is a little person- a real, thinking, talking, joking person independent of me in so many growing ways. I know I have to say goodbye to the tiny, sleepy baby that once was Gabriel, but am so incredibly happy to welcome a growing, laughing boy into my life.

Our summer has been so busy, so blissful (if less full of basil and pesto than I'd hoped), and a growing experience for all of us. And I do think we're ready to see what the next season has in store for us...

around town: The Pillar of Fire.

I've spent a great deal of time dreaming of all the places I'd like to visit and all of the buildings, architecture, and masterworks I could see. Thailand, with its endless temples and waterways; Romania and it's dark, incredible monuments tucked at its heart; Egypt and the infamous pyramids and larger-than-life statues; Wales and the hundreds of castles hiding among the hills... There seems to be no end of places worth visiting. Somehow, though, we tend to forget about the land we live on and all of its unexplored, sometimes forgotten nooks and crannies. A few blocks from our home lies a historic landmark I always tend to under-appreciate.

Westminster, my hometown so humbled by the looming shadow of Denver, has its own castle: The Pillar of Fire. Some call it the Westminster Castle, the Witches Tower, or simply "the Big Red Castle," but it has an interesting history and can be seen from nearly every area within a fifty mile radius on a clear day (or so their groundskeeper tells me). A broadcasting spot for AM radio, it's a place that is easy to find thanks to its tall radio tower with a bright, red-blinking beacon on its top (something I always tried to scout out before my brother on late trips home).

It's currently partially used for K-12 education, but was opened in 1908 as Westminster University. The initial hopes of the university were illustrated in its premature title: "Princeton of the West." After multiple abandonments, supposed hauntings (this was a very passionate belief during my childhood, namely in the form of the high tower witch), a number of Klu Klux Klan meetings (the group used the campus for gatherings and cross-burnings in the late 1920s- eek!), the castle has been restored and is open for classes, church gatherings, public tours, and library use.

On our last tour, we climbed carefully to the second-highest tower peak. My mother and I looked around for clues to where the witch may have lived (of course), but only found a small, hidden ladder tucked into the corner of the dark room (which, I'm assuming, lead to the highest, and tiniest, tower of the castle). For now, I'm afraid the legend of the Pillar of Fire witch remains a mystery.