Stop and Smell the Roses

There are so many things in this life that we take for granted. We get so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the world that we don't take the time to really use our senses and truly experience what's going on around us. I have always appreciated and enjoyed nature. One of the great things about living in Colorado is the diversity of environments that we have available to us. From the plains to the top of a 14'er there are a lot of different things to experience if you only take the time to. Since cancer, I really have taken the time to stop and smell the roses and to use all my senses and to truly experience life and its many blessings.

Over the last month since my last post, spring has sprung all around us here in Colorado. We have gotten out Geo-caching more again and that is always a great opportunity to smell those roses! A week ago we got out on the plains with my folks who were in town to do some caching. It was a beautiful spring day on the plains and all the grasses are growing and the trees are budding and growing those first leaves. This is a great time on the plains before everything turns brown and dusty! The sounds of the birds - nothing says spring is here to me that the sound of a meadow lark - the smell of cottonwood trees budding out and the feel of the warm sun on your skin.

This Memorial Day weekend we made it back out to do some caching on Sunday. We packed up a picnic lunch and Andrea and I headed up to Lair O' the Bear park. Jefferson county in Colorado (a.k.a. Jeffco) has done an incredible job with their open space parks. Their trails are in excellent condition, they have some of the best trail head markers and trail maps that we have seen and they allow for caches to be placed in them. We first found this park - just a little west of Morrison on 74 - last June on one of the first hikes post treatment. Great park with trails, picnic tables and Bear Creek running through it. The park is pretty popular and with it being close to town and gas prices being such it was jam packed on Sunday! We found a place to park - we got lucky! - but all the picnic areas were full, so we had our lunch in the car. After lunch we headed out for a hike and to get the last two caches we hadn't yet found. Temperatures were upper 70's and the sun was shining - what a beautiful day! We decided that we're not only going to smell the roses but that we're going to get smarter while we do it! Someone (mr chemo brain) forgot the camera so we took pictures of the wild flowers on the cell phone and are going to look them up and identify them - we'll post some pics once I get them off the phone!

After the hike and back to the car I wasn't quite ready to head back to the city so we took a little drive to see some more scenery. I just can't get enough of the mountains! We headed up 74 through Kittridge to Evergreen, then over to Bergen Park and got an ice cream. Decided that still wasn't enough so we headed up Squaw Pass. The aspens aren't budding out yet up top, it's still a bit chilly! Here is a pic we took near the summit at around 11,500 - temperature was 48 F.

We had some snow flurries just before we stopped to take this picture! When we went by Echo Lake (at the foot of Mt. Evans) it still had some ice on the south end of the lake. We head down through Idaho Springs and back home. It was a beautiful weekend to be alive!

We're heading to Salida next weekend and hopefully I won't forget the camera! My son suggested that I tie a string around my finger like Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life", but like Uncle Billy I will probably need a string to remind me of a string! Dealing with chemo brain can be frustrating at times - I make a lot of notes and lists!

One thing that I have found this year while enjoying the outdoors is a bit of a side effect from the sun, I now get a rash and hives after being in the sun! I have a new hat with a drape that protects my neck and ears, and we bought an "Under Armour" long sleeve shirt that keeps you cool but blocks the UV! This weekend was the first try with the shirt and it worked great! I forgot to put sunscreen on the hands and got a rash on them but my arms were just fine! In the grand scheme of things, just a minor inconvenience!

More next week from our trip to Salida! Remember to stop and smell those roses they really smell great!

A Year Has Gone By

It has now been over a year since my last chemo and radiation. What a year it has been. We have changed our life styles and are getting more exercise, eating healthier, and appreciating things more. We did a lot of walks and had some great mountain hikes last summer and fall and are getting ready to fire that up again! It has been a long winter in Colorado this year.

The last month I have been on the road for work; this time last year I was doing good to make a shopping trip to Walmart! Andrea and I made the rounds to some of the companies stores in Steamboat Springs, Eagle, and Grand Junction. We saw some beautiful scenery and got some good geocaching in. Our last night out we drove back to Glenwood Springs and stayed in the Colorado Hotel. Wow, was that cool! If I remember right it was built in 1894 and has been host to Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft (both when they were president) Doc Holiday, Al Capone, Molly Brown and on and on. Neat place. The following week I was off to Montana to visit Billings and Bozeman as well as a trip to northern Wyoming to Cody. I dodged the snow most of the trip and got a few caches in as saw some more country. Unfortunately Andrea couldn't go on this one, it's really great when we get to go together.

I have seen all this country before that I saw on these trips, but I look at it differently now. I guess with a different eye. (No my eyes didn't get radiated!) A new appreciation for what God has created. There is so much to see now, even though I saw it before. Tomorrow we are heading up to Hay Springs, Nebraska for our nephews high school graduation and I am looking forward to the drive and the sights (and some caching along the way as well!).

We, the family, have gotten really involved in our local Relay For Life. I really didn't know much about it and now I am co-chair for Team Development and a Team Captain. Chris, our son, has also join the committee as Luminaria Chair Person. It is such a good cause. Hopefully some day they can find some cures for this beast that affects all of us in one way or another. We are looking to have a lot of fun as well as support others who have had cancer and raise some funds for the American Cancer Society. Our team is called Crusaders for a Cure and well be using a medieval type knight theme mixed in with a little Monty Python just for fun! If you want to see more about our event or our team here is the link: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Crusaders_for_a_Cure to see my personal page: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Steve_Brown.

I'll be posting more about the Relay For Life as time goes along. Our overnight event is June 21-22. I hope to have a full team of 15 by then and have raised more funds. Please support my team or your local event wherever you may be.

Stayed tuned for more posts. Life is in over drive right now and I'm loving every second of it!

Live life to its fullest!

Steve

Welcome!

It has been almost a year since I had my last treatments of chemo and radiation. It's time to talk about life as a survivor. A lot has happened since treatment ended, too much to try to recreate in a posting. In a nut shell, other than work, we did a lot of hiking and geocaching, took walks almost every day, ate healthier, got healthier, enjoyed time with family and friends, re-established a relationship with the Lord, and generally lived life to its fullest!

I am firing this back up to share how much I have been blessed in my recovery process, activities that I'm involved in, and just living life in general. If you've read my first blog "Bill and Earl Must Die", that was a very dark time in my life and the lowest I have ever gotten, I hope you read this blog, because right now life can't really get much better!