Denver is absolutely breathtaking, and when I say “breathtaking,” I mean exactly that. The air is so thin here, I’m constantly feeling like I’ve just ran an 800-meter dash. My boyfriend warned me about this so I wasn’t overly surprised when I first felt out of breath at the airport, but it still surprises me when I start hyperventilating when I least expected it – like when I’m standing in front of a class, training. I hope nobody noticed me breathing into a brown paper bag in the corner of the room 😯

Today was a hump day so we wrapped the training early and all 23 of us headed over to Peaceful Valley, a dude ranch 90 minutes from Downtown Denver, for some fun in the mountains. We had a choice to horseback ride, fish, hike, or shop for our activity and a group of us (all ladies, of course :lol:) decided to indulge in some shopping at the nearby Estes Park. On the way to the Park, our driver pointed out the famously-haunted Stanley Hotel (the locations for the miniseries, The Shining and oddly, Dumb and Dumber) and we decided to stop by there to check out what the fuss was all about. The place certainly was spooky and most of us stayed in the hotel lobby while a couple adventurous ones went looking for ghosts.

When we returned to the Dude Ranch, we were awaited by an awfully embarrasing line dancing lesson (although a couple drinks beforehand eased the pain a bit), a hayride around the ranch and a BBQ in the barn. We were afraid that the rain will pour on us and while it did rain a little, the Mother Nature was very kind to us. We even went up to the top of the mountains for campfire and some s’mores! This was definitely an experience I will remember for a long, long time!

(Here’s us girls posing at the Stanley Hotel.)