REDRUM

On Thursday Jeff and I left to attend a wedding in Estes Park, CO. The hotel we were staying at was where Stephen King got his inspiration for his book, The Shining. The story goes like this. It was a cold night and King and his wife stopped at the Stanley hotel. The hotel was closing for the winter, but Stephen talks them into letting them stay there. He drinks until he is drunk at the bar and then tries to find his room. He can't find his room and instead runs into two twin girls bouncing a ball on carpet, but it sounded like it was being bounced on a hard wood floor - not on carpet. The girls where ghosts. King was scared and ran back to his room. From the time he saw the ghost twins and ran back to the room, the plot for The Shining was born.

The hotel is supposedly haunted by a number of people. The builder, his wife, a dedicated maid and numerous children and nannies on the fourth floor. The movie wasn't filmed at the Stanley hotel, but King came back later to film the mini-series. They had a channel at the hotel that only played The Shining, movie and mini-series, it was pretty neat.

The Stanley Hotel

The Manor House where Jeff and I stayed. It is right next to the main hotel.

The front door of The Manor House.

The view from our room....it was beautiful!

This is how you keep the windows open in a 100 year old hotel! All the windows
had sticks of wood to hold them open.

This is what Jeff had to drink the first night, Redrum punch!

On Saturday Jeff and I took a ghost tour of the Stanley. They kept talking about orbs. I had never really heard of these, but I guess they are the balls of light that can show up on your photos and supposedly they are ghosts or spirits. So, below are two photos that I took at the hotel that have these orbs in them. One is in a room that is known to be haunted. Guests have said they have heard children laughing and playing in the closet. The next one is a tunnel that is under the hotel. Not sure I believe all this orb talk, they are in a ton of photos that I took at the hotel, not just these two, but who knows!

OK, so the reason we were there, a wedding! My friend Shaina, married her love, Ben, on Friday night. The wedding was at this stunning church on the side of a mountain and the reception was at the Stanley Hotel. Below are some photos. Oh, Ben works with Freddy's Frozen Custard. I thought the grooms cake was too cute!






Of course Jeff and I did some shopping! I found this great Christmas store and got all kinds of neat ornaments for this year! They are mailing them to me and I can't wait to get them!!

So, it was the first time we left Natalie. She stayed with Mom and did great. We missed her terribly, but it was nice to have some alone time. She is getting braver by the day with her walking. In fact tonight she just took off from a kitchen chair. It was too funny. Below are some of my new favorite photos of her. She loves to pretend that she is drinking from a soda can and of course there are more "cheese" photos.