Busy Having Fun

 I've been running around having a good time with out of town guests the past few days.  Ben's brother,  John, and his wife Dawn and their two boys are here along with their friends, Paul and Linda and their son.

 We've taken the requisite pictures in front of the Flatirons.  

We went into Denver to see Beautiful, the musical about composer and singer Carole King.

We went to Estes yesterday and toured the historic Hotel Stanley.   Here we all are waiting for the tour.

 Stephen King spent one night in the Stanley but that one night inspired him to write the horror story The Shining. 

Here's the front of the hotel.  It doesn't look like the hotel in the movie, does it?  That's because it wasn't used in the film.   A hotel in Oregon was used instead.  But still.....the Stanley milks the connection.     

We were told that there are many ghosts in the hotel and indeed, one came and sat by Michael in the Billiards Room.   Do you see him? 

No ghost came and sat by John in the lobby and he seems quite okay with that. 

After the tour we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked around the Alluvial Fan with its cool waterfalls. 

 Last night we celebrated Paul's 16th birthday which was on Sunday.  He had a brownie cake which we used to make sundaes with oreo topping.  Good choice, Paul!

This morning we had breakfast at the Chautauqua Dining Hall and then most of us hiked two hours up and down the wonderful Lion's Lair trail.  

 Now we are all relaxing at home before we drive down to Colorado Springs for a couple of days. My Paul is showing our guest Paul his card tricks and getting an enthusiastic reply.  

I knew July would be busy, busy, and it has been and still is.  Luckily it's also been fun.