I grew up in Castle Rock, Colorado. I was born and raised in this little town that’s named after this small mountain that’s located in the middle of all the development and has a large, rectangular shaped rock sitting on top.

On top of The Rock is The Star. Every November is “The Starlighting”. At The Starlighing many events take place. The most famous is the fire department’s chili cook-off. Downtown Castle Rock just swarms with friendly citizens. Then we all gather around the old courthouse, sing a few Christmas Carols and then somebody has the honor of flipping this gain light switch that turns on the Star on top of The Rock. Events like these are just one of the many great community times that I grew up in.

My friend, Jim, and I used to ride our bikes down to the Wal-Mart and hang out because there wasn’t many places to go, until one day we got an Outlet Mall when I was in 8th grade. It was this monumentous event (which our local taxes are probably still paying off) that put us on the map and really got the ball rolling. For a while Douglas County was the fastest growing county in the nation. We were getting all sorts of people (mostly from Texas and California. I could tell you a few good jokes….). We all knew who was a newbie to the area because all of a sudden there was a flood of new SUV’s bearing the same 3 first letters on their license plate: “DAD - ”

After the outlet mall was built Junior Highers and retirees alike had something new to do: walk around the food court and order a cinnamonster. After the Outlet Mall came the free city-wide-clean-air-shuttle. My friend Jim and I were good friends with most of the drivers. Sometimes we would just sit on the shuttle for two or three laps around the city.

Castle Rock continued to grow. Once Wal-Mart built a new location on the other side of town and turned into a Super Wal-Mart everything changed again. Safeway moved to Wal-Mart’s old place. The Public Library got the old Safeway, the Fire Department just built a whole new building, so the Police Department did too. The old fire station turned into retail and the local coffee shop, Crowfoot Valley Coffee Company united us all as espresso connoisseur.

Since I moved to Kansas City in September of 2001 there have been so many changes I can’t keep up. Every time I am home visiting there is something new. Chick-fil-A, Cold-Stone, Red Robin, Target, a new wing to the Outlet Mall, a new middle school, etc…

What really blew me off my rocker this weekend while I’m here for my cousin’s wedding and my brother-in-law’s H.S. Graduation was that the community rec-center which I used visit regularly with, (you guessed it) Jim has a new addition: A Water Park!!!! What??!! I remember when the big upgrade was a pool table in the lobby. I used to count the days when I would be old enough to go into the steam room. My cousin Nate and I had to go experience the new city toy. We quickly assessed we might not be the ‘target audience’ the rec-center was aiming for when we found ourselves standing in line for the water slide behind 6 year olds. Oh well. There was also the lazy river which took about 1 minute per lap. But once again, oh well. At least there was the hot tub. About 10 girls got ‘carded’ when the lifeguard told them they wern’t old enough to sit in it. It took us about 45 minutes to fully exhaust all the resources of the water-park although it was a great time nonetheless.

The other out-of-control addition is a 12 screen movie theatre. What in the world? Where was this when I was in High-School? I went with 3 of my other cousins this weekend and we must have been followed by the water park crowd. I felt like the kids behind me had just discovered ‘being out without your mom and dad’.

What a reality check. I don’t think of myself as being that old but I realize that the majority of my stories from back home happened at least 5 years ago if not 10 or 15. It makes me sad sometimes to think that I’m spending some of the ‘prime time’ of my life (meaning my 20’s) in Kansas City instead of “God’s Country”. I love looking out my parent’s back porch to see the rock mountains. People come from all over the world to ski there. In many ways I will be very glad when the Lord brings Anna and I back to this state to do what we love doing now: Prayer. It seems like a no-brainer to start an IHOP out here.

Hey come love Jesus and the weather doesn’t suck.