Family Dinner

Yesterday, relatives from all over the western United States descended on Avon, Colorado for Terry’s son’s wedding today. In the early afternoon we drove to Avon, which is sort of a bedroom community to Vail, to get together with everybody at her son Cody’s house.

We had not seen Cody and Jonna’s place before, and it was pretty impressive. Located high on a hillside overlooking the valley, they have a great view, but I really wouldn’t want to drive down the steep roads they have to navigate in the wintertime.

Terry’s mom and dad, and her sister Dani had arrived from Arizona just a few minutes ahead of us, and her son Shawn pulled in from New Mexico an hour or so later.  Then we all headed to a Mexican restaurant for a family dinner. The kids’ father, Larry Wyse,  and his significant other, Jane,  were in from Wyoming and met us there, as did the bridal couple, Casey and Leslie, pictured below.

Here is a picture of (left to right), Shawn, Leslie, Casey, Cody, and Cody’s wife Jonna. If Casey and Cody look very much alike, it’s because they are identical twins. Terry and I have been married over thirteen years, and I still can’t tell them apart. I think they should wear name tags like RVers do. It would sure make my life easer! (Yes, it really is all about me!)

And here is one the waiter took of our dinner party. That’s your truly on the left, then Terry’s dad, Pete Weber, Shawn, and then from the far back right we have Cody, Jonna, Casey, Leslie, Shawn’s date, Faith, Terry’s mom, Bess Weber, Miss Terry, and her sister Dani.  The young man in the dark shirt and head brace next to Shawn is Casey and Cody’s friend, Bob. He broke his back in a bicycle accident just two weeks ago and is in a body brace and looks pretty rough, but there was no way he was going to miss the nuptials. You can just barely see Larry’s cowboy hat behind Bob, and Jane was hiding someplace.

This area is very pretty, but I have to tell you, it’s just not for me. Too many people crammed into too little space, and every inch of that space is very expensive. Cody told us that a small run of the mill two bedroom, one bath apartment, goes for $1600 a month, plus utilities, on a year lease minimum, in this slow economy. When things are booming, the same apartment will cost upwards of $2,000 a month. It is not uncommon for as many as four to six people to share a small apartment, all of them working two or three low paying jobs just to make ends meet. All so they can live in this natural outdoors playground.

Cody pointed out what he called “get away homes,” perched on the mountainside, owned by wealthy out of town people who come here to ski in the winter and mountain bike in the summer, and said the lowest priced house costs over $2 million. Since Cody is the accountant for one of the major development companies in the region, he knows what the current values are at any given time.  A lot of sports and Hollywood celebrities have homes in Vail and Avon, and enjoy coming here to rub shoulders with the ”little people.”

Don’t get me wrong, the area is beautiful, but I wouldn’t trade our life on the open road for the fanciest, most expensive house here. Our motorhome may not have as much square footage, but we can turn the key and go wherever we want, whenever we want.

Today we’ll get those two young people hitched, and spend some more time doing the family thing, and then things will get back to normal and we’ll get back to real life.

Thought For The Day – A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

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