Today was a long, flat day of driving. We left St. Louis at 5:30 this morning and after 827 miles and 12.5 hours we arrived in Denver at around 6 p.m.. The majority of our drive was spent in the large, straight state of Kansas. Some interesting encounters amidst the never ending corn included advertisements for the world's largest prairie dog, the roadside "museum" of used farm equipment and the billboard painting of Jesus' head floating in a field of wheat. (Perhaps this was a sign that we were among the "chosen ones"? Highly unlikely though-endless fields of corn and wheat were not exactly included in my envisions of heaven..) We enjoyed Kansas' hot, windy weather during our lunch break at a rest stop. Lunch included goldfish and a can of cold baked beans followed by a quick jump rope session for some exercise before retreating back into the van for the second half of our trip.
We arrived in Denver to the home of Lindsey Bieging, Kate's family friend. Kate met Lindsey when she was 18 months old. Lindsey, her twin sister Sarah and Kate's brother Thomas were all in Kindergarten together. Lindsey and Sarah also have a younger sister, Laura, (whom we will be staying with in San Fran!) who is 1 month younger than Kate. These common links between all of us kids allowed for our mom's to form a great friendship that is still going strong today. Even our dads, both DC attorneys, enjoy each other's company, especially when their wives schedule "play dates" for them to get together and watch football, typically ending with them both fast asleep.
The Bieging-Griffin clan have made many great memories over the years-joint vacations at the beach and in Maine, annual Christmas dinners and many fun evenings when the parents would go out for a double-date while the kids shared a babysitter. As all of us 5 kids are now spread out across the country (Sarah lives in NYC and Thomas is in Florida) it is rare all 9 of the crew is together these days. Marriage seems to be the current event that allows us all to be in one place at the same time and the trend seems to be for that place to be Maine. Two summers ago Sarah added her husband Chris to the group with a beautiful wedding in Maine and next summer we will all meet in Maine again as Thomas brings Shannon into our growing brood.
Upon arriving at Lindsey's place in Denver, we went out for a great Mexican dinner and are now settling into a delux aerobed. Tomorrow we are planning to go into the mountains for some hiking!
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