Year around School and Businesses

Year around school does not only affect the children and parents it also affects businesses as well. I work at a local gas station where the summers are absolutly crazy. Children who are leaving for vacation or the beach and the oh so popular kids that have just learned to drive and think it is a milestone to get there own gas now. If school were to become a year around thing a business like the one I work at would not get the amount of customers as we do now. That can lead to businesses folding if it were to be a drastic change which would lead to more unemployed people, and in living in Elkhart County it is understood that we really do not need more people without jobs.
I can remember the first summer I was old enough to get a job. I had just recieved a car and needed to find money. I was never a kid who would only want a summer job so I kept my job even when school started back up. I thought at first that I was going to get buried alive with all of the stress of school, work, and my new car bills. If there were year around school children would not be able to adapt to a new job as well because they would not have that break to only focus on their job. That could lead to poor work habits and bad grades during the summer sessions.
Overall children need those few months of no school to be able to adapt to new jobs and opportunities that they would usually not have to face if they were in school. Yes children would more than likley get into more trouble but if they cannot make the mistakes in the first place they will never have the opportunity to learn from them and that is what children need to grow.

Colorado: The Splendor of Mountains

I feel as though my last post may have brought a little tension, so I would like to lighten that tension by going back to our groups first topic, which is travel, and talk about my trip out to Colorado last summer.  

Last summer I was able to take a week vacation over the 4th of July out to Colorado.  I was so excited to be able to see the beauty that Colorado possesses.  I had heard from many people just how beautiful it truly is.  To talk about all of the beautiful things I saw is nearly impossible.  First of all, it would take forever to write and second of all, words cannot describe its majesty.  I will however do the best I can to summarize with words and pictures.

It's amazing after such a boring drive through Iowa and Nebraska, how the landscape butterflies into something so breathtaking.  When we got to Colorado  There are literally mountains 360 degrees around you.  Everywhere you turn there are new lines and curves of mountains.  My jaw dropped when we arrived.  I couldn't even express my emotions because I was speechless.  My emotions, however, had to

 be dripping from my face.  

Our first stop on our Colorado excursion was Breckenridge.  Breckenridge is the place to go if skiing is your thing.  I am glad that we went in the summer when there was no snow, because skiing is definitely NOT my thing.  There isn't a whole lot to do in Breckenridge in the summer, but just to stare out your cabin window is enough to get you through a couple days.  We were fortunate enough to do a few things while we were there.  One of the days we were there we got to go horseback riding through the mountains and the ski slopes.  Now here's the thing about horseback riding in the mountains, horses have minds of their own and at some points were were at the edge of the mountain and could see TOO far down.  I am not great with heights.

  I actually get a little lightheaded and feel like I'm going to faint.  Luckily, my horse was pretty good for the most part and there were only a few times when he wanted steer off course.

This is a view from our cabin/condo in Breckenridge.

Our next stop in Colorado was Denver.  It was so crazy to go from Breckenridge to Denver because the change in weather was tremendous.  In Breckenridge it was in the mid to high 60's the entire time we were there and when we got to Denver it was almost 100 degrees.  Denver isn't too far from Breckenridge but the change in altitude is so different that the temperature changes that much.  Denver is a really cool city.  It was awesome to go to downtown Denver and still be able to see the mountains.  I felt like I were still a part of nature even though there are buildings all around me.  I love nature, so that was really intriguing to me.  I unfortunately don't have any pictures of downtown Denver because an ex-boyfriend was in the pictures with me, and in my anger deleted all of them.  

Colorado was an amazing travel experience.  I felt so much more in tune with myself being surrounded by the beauty of nature out there.  If anyone has an opportunity to go out west, take the time to visit Colorado for awhile.  It is well worth it.  Some advice for travelers who have never been out there:  Take medicine for headaches and migraines because the altitude will make you sick, and take lots of lotion and moisturizers because your skin will dry out faster than you can imagine.  Eye drops are good to have too.  My eyes were bloodshot for the entire week.  Oh and one more thing, I run two to three miles everyday, and I couldn't even make it a mile out there.  Prepare yourselves for an adventure you will never forget.  Below are some pictures I took out there.