It has become common place anymore for Chris and I to refer to Fort Collins as “the promised land.” If I’m not mistaken, the term is actually biblical and refers to the land given by God. Well, I’m OK with that. It seems fitting!

In case you were wondering, I have Fort Collins on the brain because Chris and I are going there this weekend to celebrate our anniversary! We will drop the children off with grandma and grandpa and then go off to just look at each other and maybe even have some adult conversation, uninterrupted! I can’t wait for this!

Do you know about Fort Collins? Shall I give you a little back history and inside scoop about it? Alright! I will…

You see, Chris and I met in the city that sits just two hours north of where we are living right now. It’s an hour north of Denver.

Photo Source

See? Fort Collins is up there at the top and Colorado Springs is just a little more than half-way down.

We both pretty much grew up there, except we didn’t. He moved there with his parents when he was 8-years-old and I moved there with my parents and my sister when I was 13. And, even though it is said that a person experiences their most crucial stages of development before the age of five, I might beg to consider that, at least for me, my most crucial stages of life happened after I moved to Fort Collins. All that said, we sewed our oats there and therefor it holds a very special place in our hearts.

So, these days we find ourselves down south here in Colorado Springs, which is fine, I truly love our friends and Logan’s school, our neighborhood and our church,  our jobs…Even yesterday I was reminded by my friend, Shan, who doesn’t live here, that I live in a very beautiful part of the country. And, far be it for me to disagree. I do love seeing Pikes Peak every day. I have a nice view of it from my front window. Want to see what it looks like right now?

Pikes Peak never looks the same from one day to the next.

Indeed I am happy where I live, so I ask myself every time I prepare for a visit to Fort Collins why the longing in my heart starts…why the nostalgia sets in…why I get giddy and weirdly excited every time we pass Denver into northern Colorado…

Did I appreciate Fort Collins as much then as I do now? Probably not… I was a snarky tween and after that a self-centered and emotional teenager…

So now that I’m all grown up I can appreciate all that the city has to offer. I thought I might try to write a list today of my favorite things about Fort Collins, but I decided against it because for one, I am struggling to put into words the way my heart feels when I think about going there and also, there might be a place or two that I love and would want to list, but it wouldn’t be fair to you if you don’t know what I am referring to. So, I leave you with this: You had better bet your bottom’s dollar (what does that even mean? My whole life I don’t know what that means?) that I will be a picture-taking-fool all weekend and you can come back to see my pics in my Instagram photo gallery which can be accessed from the pic-of-the-moment on the home page of this here blog site! Oh my word!  How presumptuous of me to assume that your  curiosity has been sparked enough to stop back by to see my pics. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t hope that you would…

See you on the flip side! (Oh, um…I mean from the Promised Land!) Woo Hoo!