I'm MA. Mom of R and S and wife of J. I'm a 43 year old Christ follower, mom, wife and worker bee for a great company and probably many other random titles. I am so blessed by God to have a wonderful family and friends network. I love to spend time with the kids and to spend time with my husband, who is an over-the-top Dallas Cowboy's fan! I love all the following things and in no particular order (as they all fight for my attention each and every day in addition to the family): bible learning, coffee, wine, photography, scrapbooking, vegetable gardening, mystery book reading, computer playing, blogging, game playing, food-lovin, couponing, camping (my style) and traveling.
John
My Handsome, Loving Husband who is die hard Dallas Cowboy Fan and loves all of us tremendously!
R
R is my beautiful little girl who is now 17 years old. She is alternately sweet and sassy (which gets her into trouble sometimes). She loves God, soccer, texting, music and playing her flute. Annoyed easily by little brother (but loves him a lot).
S
S is my very handsome young son who is 13 years old! He's good at annoying his big sister (and also loves her a lot). He loves God, baseball, video games, computer simulation games, music and playing his euphonium. He's a smart cookie and I expect he will be an engineer to come.
A
A is John's oldest daughter who is just beautiful, head strong, and very independent! She's making a way for herself in this world. We don't get to see her very often, but enjoy every minute when we do!
L & J
L is John's youngest daughter and J is her husband! They are just beautiful and sweet people inside and out and have hearts of gold! Also making a new and wonderful life together with lots of new paths to walk down. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like either, but sure enjoy it when we do.
No - we did not fall in the river although there were a couple of times that it was very, very close. It was a very fun, fun ride. The river has calmed down now from it's originally III+/IV rating rapids. It's now Class II/III+ rapids. Still possible to fall over board but luckily for us - a little less.
We had a great guide named Adam who is Ski Patrol in the winter here at CB.
Adventure thrill loving Rachel rode "The Bull"! She sat up front with her feet hanging over the front of the raft with a guy (Scott from Denver) holding on to her life jacket. She rode like this through a rapid called "The Last Chance". Here are the pics - funny! I'm in the back on the right keeping a close eye on her. She's so adventurous! I am just trying to hang on for dear life.
The Boys all returned from their fabulous Guys Trip to the land of nowhere. It was quite rustic. John is trying to figure out how to talk me into going. HA HA HA HA HA ... shouldn't have brought pictures. I told him perhaps he and Rene should take a week and go up next summer. I'll stay home with my indoor plumbing.
I have lots of pictures to compile and will do that on our long drive back into Texas tonight as well as a post about their trip while I have them captive in the car for a few hours today.
One hint - our Trout dinner last night was supplemented with chili dogs!!! :-)
Off to pack up now to start heading back to Texas!!
This is our last FULL day here in this beautiful country before we start heading back to Texas!! I wouldn't mind this kind of life all the time..... just fishing, playing, relaxing... whatever... all the time!! Hmmmm.... guess I should keep buying those lottery tickets then huh.
Ok - enough of the "Sorry for me" stuff. Below is one of my favorite pictures of this trip (and I have a lot of favorites). This is summer stuff here. Picture of my youngest niece, Allie.
The Stinky Boys are still up in the high country roughin it and should be back later today. I'm sure they'll be stinky when they all return.
I caught a really good size trout yesterday - bigger than all the others so far and we'll see what the Stinky Boys bring home.
Rachel and I are leaving in 30 minutes to go on a river raft trip on Class III/IV rapids. I'm really not sure why I let her talk me into this. It's been a long... long... time since I've ridden on rapids like this. She's very, very excited .... I'm a little bit nervous actually. Just hoping I don't end up in the 40 degree water is all I have to say.
I think Day 13 is Tuesday although I’m writing this on Wednesday early am. The really, really nice thing about vacation is you tend to lose track of the day and date when you don’t have to deal with the real world or wait for the next Friday to come around!! My only concept of the days right now is what day are we rafting (Thurs) and how many more days (only 2) do we have left before we have to head back to HOT Texas!!
Here is the fish count as of Tuesday!
There were two BIG STORIES yesterday! The first is all the GUYS left us GALS at home and went off to a place waaaayyyyyy up in the mountains for some guy time in a very rustic place for a couple of days. Dad, John, Stephen and Scott all left us to head up to Quarter Circle Circle Ranch. Link is HERE if you want to check it out. Not sure where the name came from other than it has to probably have something to do with their Quarter Horse business. It’s about 2 hours from Almont back south kind of close to Lake City/Creede area where we were late last week but higher in the mountains.
Did I say rustic?.... yes....yes, I did. The definition of the word in this case means no electricity and the facilities are in an outhouse! LOL... oh... have fun boys.
The GALS were happily waving goodbye to the boys. We don’t mind having some time to ourselves to shop and eat bon bons. :-) ha ha ha
The second BIG STORY from yesterday is that Rachel caught a good size trout in our fishing expedition yesterday! She’s the only one of the 8 of us Gals left that caught a fish yesterday. We could literally see them jumping out of the water but other than her catch, the others weren’t biting on our flies too much. Was frustrated because you could see the little buggers and you’d put your fly right where you just know they are and they wouldn’t take it. Maybe we weren’t using the right flies. It’s the Guys fault - they took all the good ones .....
Back to the Second Big Story - Rachel’s fish. Catching it was fun.... but oh... cleaning it was more entertaining!! LOL... I have a whole video of this and it’ll make you cry from laughing so hard. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get it to YouTube at some point because it’s both hilarious and gross at the same time. The ONE AND ONLY time we have missed the GUYS was THEN!! No one left at the house - 4 adult women, 2 teenage girls and 2 girl children - had ever cleaned a fish nor did we ever want to. Before the BIG GUYS left, we asked them how to do this and they happily described to us how to clean the fish. Hmmmmm...... One by one all the adults exclaimed they were not touching the fish. We all decided that since Rachel caught it, she should have to clean it!! (Almost makes me not want to catch another one today.... ). And... she did.... while we were all watching, laughing and being grossed out at the same time. Absolutely hilarious!!! (and gross - yuck!).
Whew ... we made it through Fish Cleaning 101!! Yucky.. yucky.. yucky.....
After that experience, we all piled into the cars and headed into Crested Butte for dinner and some walking around the little town. It’s a cute little place with some of the most beautiful flower baskets I’ve ever seen. They are all over the place almost at every store along the way. Very pretty! We had a pizza dinner that was really good at Brick Oven which seems to be the happening place. Lots of young, heathy, attractive people hanging out there.
I couldn’t help but wonder what people do in Crested Butte to earn a living that would even begin to pay for the cost of living there?? I mean come on... it’s expensive to stay... its expensive to eat... its expensive to do anything. Maybe they are all just wealthy trust fund babies. I’m not knocking it - I wish I were!! :-)
So we ate some good pizza and took a stroll along the little town sidewalks meandering in and out of some stores. Eventually fed everyone some ice cream cones which were a happy hit and then made our way back home for a little bit of game playing!
We’re going fishing again today.... not sure whether I want best wishes to catch them or not as I really, really don’t want to clean em. :-) If Rachel were smart, she’d come up with an effective cost for her fish cleaning services as none of the adults want to do it.
We are TWELVE days into our vacation and we FINALLY got to a real fishing day. And I mean... a real fishing day!! Unfortunately, not long enough but it was successful.
All TWELVE of us made our way following Poppy (aka my Dad) to THE spot for today. We were going to fish some beaver ponds up near the Spring Creek Reservoir. Why this place? Well, a couple of reasons.
1) Not to tough for the kids - they can stand on the side and not have to struggle with moving water while learning to fish. 2) Easier on the teachers in the crowd - aka Poppy and Perry - who were charged with having to teach ALL of us how to fly fish properly 3) Easier on Meme (aka my Mom) to be able to get out and watch us without too much exercise while she’s still adjusting to the altitude
Imagine - the prep work for TWELVE people to go fishing together!!
Ensuring everyone has the correct shoes, clothing
Lunches/beverages have to be packed
Fishing Gear for 12 have to be packed
Everyone has to get in the cars ... :-)
Fishing Licenses for the 6 grownups have to be obtained
Driving to the location
Setup of the Rods (entire section below about this one..... )
We had a great time once we got there!! Truly...
Ok - so a moment about the fishing equipment we are using. Poppy is an avid fisherman and has been for most all of his life. He doesn’t get to fish as much as I’m sure he’d like to but he has enough equipment to outfit seven of us (not including his and Meme’s which are too expensive to let anyone else handle). At least one of his rods is the one his DAD gave to him long, long ago when he was a kid. Poppy takes extremely good care of his stuff. We were all the lucky beneficiaries of his loving care of this equipment. Made you a little scared to put them in the hands of these kids who have no idea how old and meaningful this stuff is.
The thoughts kept running through my head wondering about the number of times this equipment has been touched by not only my Dad and my Mom over the years but by my grandfather perhaps when teaching my Dad long ago. About how many fish have been caught and the fun times had with these fishing rods. It was indeed an honor for Poppy to let us all use his rods! Hopefully, we don’t mess any of them up!! :-)
Dad also brought tons and tons of flies!! Cute little flies that look like ants, grasshoppers, regular flies, nymphs, etc. etc. That’s good he brought so many because we were pretty efficient at losing them. :-)
Setup of the Rods There is a setup time (a very long time) required in order to fish. One reason these rods have been around so long is that after each and every fishing expedition, you take the whole thing apart (i.e. separate the rods from the reels) and put each piece back into it’s respective box or container for the next time. Even if the next time is later the same day or the next day. Consequently, when it comes time to putting them all back together, it takes a little bit of time. Doing it for 12 people.... a really long time. We thank both Dad and John for going through all the effort it took to put all those rods together and then tie flies on to each one of them!!
While they were doing all the hard work, much of the rest of the crew decided to just sit down and eat some lunch. Seemed like a good plan while we waited.
One by one the rods became ready and eventually enough were ready that we could start learning to fish. Dad and Perry proceeded to teach each of the grandkids, me, Stacey and John how to handle our fly rods!
How did we do, you ask??
I think we were quite successful on our first day of fishing!! Three fish surrendered to our capable fisherman skills yesterday!! :-) John caught one, Holley caught one and I caught one!! Brown Trout - ranging in size from 6 inches to about 10 inches. I’m told they will be yummy when my Dad cooks them on Thursday night. I’m trying not to be skeptical. The only kind of fish I enjoy is one that I can’t taste the fish. :-) No fishy taste for me.... no sir. My Mom tells me that she doesn’t like the fishy taste either and that my Dad cooks it very well.
One interesting tidbit is a story about my Mom and Dad recounted by my Mom yesterday while we were fishing. Mom & Dad spent their first anniversary (so 1965) up in the same Crested Butte area we are in now camping and fishing. They rented a trailer and camped out somewhere around the area. Given my knowledge of my Mom’s love of camping, I would never have guessed that this even occurred. I would have been wrong!! Mom tells me she is convinced that when she first started fishing, my Dad would make sure that she caught lots and lots of fish. That way, she would enjoy the fishing so much that she’d want to come back which furthered what he wanted which was to camp and fish! (He’s pretty smart that way.) Mom says it worked. She really enjoys fishing a lot now.
This is why we are spending time here this summer - time with Meme & Poppy and all the family making some great memories!
I’ve decided that fishing up here is kind of like playing a slot machine. Huh, you ask? Stay with me. Each time you throw out your line (and you do this a lot), it’s a chance to catch a fish. You toss (ok, throw) out your line, slowly bring it in and hope like crazy that a little fishy takes the bait and you get to yank it out of the water (you win!)!! :-) Here’s my analogy to slot machines. Each time you pull the lever (or just hit the button which is way to easy), you are hoping like crazy that your symbols, numbers, characters, etc. line up and you win! The similarity is that in both cases, the winning occurs very infrequently, but you keep gambling. There you go.....
Ok - so now that I’ve written enough for the first chapter of War and Peace.... I could go on and on with some other stores, but it’s time to go fishing again!! I’ll get some more pictures out soon. Takes a while to upload out in the middle of the forest. Amazing it can even be done!
I’m working on a combo post today because we just didn’t have the internet signal the last couple of days to get one up and we were traveling a bit between cities. We are settled again in Almont, CO, which is just south of Crested Butte.
We’ll catch you up though....
Saturday - Lake City, CO
We didn’t get started until a little later in the morning today. Of course, I was up, but the rest of my family was snoozing. One by one the awoke and we waited for the next one, until finally, I just woke John up when the rest of us were restless. We also made a decision today to leave the Texas Resort and stay Saturday night in Gunnison. Why? Good question. While the Texan Resort was OK, don’t let the “Resort” in that name fool you. Not a “Resort” in the way we think of “Resorts”. In fact, our cabin was down right rustic. There is Really Rustic which means - no electricity, no running water inside the cabin, outhouse. I consider that Really Rustic. The only difference between the Texan and that is there was electricity, running water and the bathroom was inside. The cabin .... though.... very rustic. The flooring was simply ply wood with no flooring over it in many places which made splinters in your tootsies a risk when walking around on it. They did have a refrigerator which didn’t work. When mentioned to the owner, he simply said it would take a week or so to get someone out to fix it. So sorry. It wasn’t bad... it just wasn’t great. And not knowing really what I had reserved up in Almont (for certain), I wanted at least one night in a hotel bed with a nice shower.
But.. before we left, we made a great drive up to Engineer Pass which is at 12,000 elevation. Beautiful drive.... beautiful mountains. The weather changed about half way up to cold and wet again today, so my pictures weren’t quite as good as they could have been had it been sunny and blue outside! No worries though... we got some great pics. See below.
One really interesting thing we saw as that almost to the top - in the Alpine Tundra - someone has built a pretty little house that is only accessible by a bridge over a crevice!! Here are the pictures!! I just had to take them because it was so strange to see this house up here. My thoughts of this were wow, you have to have a lot of extra money to build a house WAYYYY up here, only accessible for four (maybe five) months of the year!!
After our trip up/down Engineer Pass, we packed our stuff and drove the hour into Gunnison to stay at a really nice and new Holiday Inn Express!! Call me spoiled. Yes... I am. And it was nice! We had a pizza dinner tonight at a great place in Gunnison called Pie-Zans. The pizza was excellent and not terribly expensive as many of the other places in the mountains were very expensive.
Sunday - Almont, CO This morning was another leisurely morning however, this time spent at the Holiday Inn Express! Had a great breakfast here and just lounged until they kicked us out at 11:00 am checkout time!! What’s up with that?? :-)
Packed up the Jeep again which is just bulging at the seams right now and headed to the grocery store to pick up just a couple of items. Can’t pick up more than a few otherwise we’ll be sitting on them! Jeep is full. Hit the grocery, gas station and headed up to Crested Butte to hang out with my parents and Perry until our cabin was available for check in later this afternoon.
Perry rented a beautiful house in South Crested Butte for a few weeks. Graciously invited my parents along for the stay as well as my other sister, Stacey, and my 4 nieces/nephews. Perry, Meme and Poppy arrived there on Friday and Stacey and crew to arrive late Sunday evening.
A little wrinkle in the fun this time is my Mom has some lung issues and it’s been getting harder and harder to come up to this altitude for her over the past couple of years. On Friday, when they arrived, her oxygen stats dropped into the low 80’s with some readings in the upper 70’s so off she went to the hospital. They fixed her up with some portable oxygen and she was back home later that evening. She’s slowly acclimating to the elevation but it’ll take a little while. I know she’s not happy about it as it restricts what she can do for now. However, she’s doing better each day being able to spend a little more time off the oxygen without her stats plummeting.
We had a nice afternoon/evening with my parents and Perry. John the Great made a fabulous BBQ dinner of ribs, chicken, corn and salad!! It truly was devine. We didn’t eat until 9:00 pm, but it was wonderful. Worked out that my sister Stacey arrived literally right in time for dinner!! :-)
We played games and just hung out. John, Dad and I went and checked into our little cabin at Three Rivers Resort which is really cute. Really little, but cute and nice. Clean.... comfortable.... coffee maker.... working refrigerator. What else do we need?
It’s Monday when I’m typing this and today... we are going fishing. With a bunch of kids. Likely not to catch a thing with all the noise from the kids. But... we will have fun (hopefully) trying!!
I’ll post pictures from Sunday later today.
PS - Please take a moment and pray for a little baby boy (9 months old) named Stellan. You can find his Mama’s blog on the right hand side under “My Charming Kids”. This little baby boy is currently in the hospital deteriorating rapidly from a heart problem. He and his family need a army full of prayer warriors right now.
We spent our day today up in the mountains fishing and driving through beautiful mountain passes. We visited Dan’s Fly Shop in town to gather our fishing licenses and a couple of items John wanted to get. After that the Jeep was ready to start climbing up into the mountains.
Our first goal was to find a place or two to fish along the way to American Basin on the Alpine Loop which was the goal.
The interesting thing is there is a lot of private land up here along the mountains with clear No Trespassing signs. You aren’t allowed to fish in those waters. You have to find the few and far between public areas to fish which along that side of the Alpine Loop were not very frequently seen. We did find one area that required a walk down to get to the stream - steeper than it looked. The climb up wasn’t all that easy and my seal level lungs didn’t like it much! We were not very successful in catching fish but some interesting tidbits for you from here:
Beautiful little stream
Takes awhile to put all the stuff on the fishing rods so we can go fish
John slipped in the stream while walking over to the other side... landed on his butt.
Stephen tried our patience (and scared the fish away too) by yelling, crying or screaming at some point during the fishing time
Rachel is the official “hook rescue” person.
Rachel almost stepped on a snake that was coiled up in the water..... wonder what kind of snake that was?? anyone??
John had to go in after a caught hook that was too deep for Rachel
John almost caught a fish - alas, almost. The fish took the fly.
The rest of us were just trying not to catch a rock.
Once finished with fishing at this place, we continued on our Jeep ride up the mountains on the Alpine Loop. Lots of ATV’s along here zipping up and down. We were going very slow even though the Jeep can do much more. The scenery is just beautiful along here. We saw perhaps some marmots although they are kind of small. Guess they could have been beavers sunning themselves as we were near some beaver dams, but we’re not sure. We didn’t do the entire Loop but did get to American Basin which was full of beautiful wildflowers. Unfortunately for us, it was raining a bit up there and quite cold. It’s also where we chose to eat lunch so Rachel was making sandwiches in the cold rain in American Basin!! :-)
After we ate, we were going to go a little bit higher along the American Basin road and then changed our mind. In the process of backing up and turning around, the Jeep ended up high centered on a large rock spinning the wheels. UH OH!! Hmmm... what do we do? Well, John the Great, gets out and I get in the drivers seat. From the front of the Jeep, he pushes the Jeep backwards over the rock and uphill no less until we were back onto the regular path (not road as we lost the paved road miles and miles before). More pictures below.
And now.... for the debut of Stephen’s comments to the blog!
Stephen’s Super Sweet Square: My Eye,Fishing and Alpine Loop which includes John Guess what we did 3 days ago ,we went on the Durango to Silverton train. While we were on the train I got a lot of soot in my eye and I guess I rubbed it around and scratched my cornea three times. Two times on the side and once on the top of my eye. Other than that, my week has been good. today we went fishing. We (mom, me and R) .John was using Poppy’s fly rod and a fish took the fly. We also did a part of the Alpine Loop called American Basin which has the cool flowers and chipmunks and also where John pushed Jeep, by himself, off a rock (How strong is JOHN?)
There was not a whole lot exciting that happened today. John cooked a great breakfast this morning. After breakfast, we went in search of some general information about what to do here and in the area including maps to roads around the mountains on which we can drive as well as some good places for fishing.
We also had to find a clinic to take a look at Stephen’s eye which has not gotten much better. We went to the Lake City Medical Center and as I thought, he had scratched his cornea in three places. So, got some antibiotic cream and went along our way.
Our next stop was to drive the hour into Gunnison to go to the grocery store. Parts of it are pretty, parts of it are really isolated!! We did our business and then proceeded back to Lake City with groceries in hand for the next few days.
The kids went fishing in the stream when we got back.
I guess the exciting news is there is apparently a bear that frequents this area. There was a sighting of him last night (Day 8) as well as this morning about 10 minutes before I’m sitting here writing this blog. One of the guys who works here chased it off this morning from some of the cabins.
Rachel wants to bear hunt. Bet you can’t guess what I want to do!!!
Today we’re going to drive up into the mountains, look at beautiful scenery and wildflowers, and find a nice fishing stream and fish.
After our fairly “leisurely” morning, we left Durango (Lake Vallecito) around 11 am and started our way over to Lake City. We stopped a few times along the way - for lunch, for a new lightbulb for my right back blinker on the Jeep, and for some drops for Stephen’s eye.
Stephen’s eye - it seems as if Stephen got some soot in his eye on the train day and I suppose rubbed on it a lot trying to get it out. While there is no soot left in his eye that we can see, the rubbing may have caused some irritation/scratching. Consequently, his eye is puffy, stings and hurts. We’ve tried some lubricant drops and eye wash to help him but it seems to be getting worse. We may have to find a local clinic around to have his eye looked at and perhaps treated if he’s developed a little infection or something.
The drive up to Lake City, CO from Durango takes you West on 160 through Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek Pass, Southfork and then north on 149 through some beautiful passes way up in elevation like 11,000 feet. Here are some shots we took along the way.
It’s a good thing we didn’t go to Mesa Verde. Have no idea what time we would have rolled into town had we gone there first. As it was, leaving at 11:00 am from Durango, with the elevation climbs and stops, we didn’t arrive there until about 6 pm. Not as short as we had anticipated.
One thing we didn’t have room for in the Jeep yesterday were much in the way of groceries. We’ll have to go back and get them today in Gunnison. We went out to eat last night at a local Italian restaurant owned/run by Czechs. Pasta House (I think). It was good, but very expensive as is everything up here. We went to the local grocery and decided we’d get a couple of items we needed (like breakfast items) and then get the remainder of our groceries later. Everything was crazy expensive. Example - Starbucks coffee - normally around $8.00/lb in Houston. Was $12.00/lb here in Lake City. Crazy.. crazy.
Today we rode the Durango - Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train. And we rode... and we rode... and we rode some more. In total we rode about 8 hours which is WAY TOO LOOOONNNNGGGGG. We were in the last car on the train which was an open air gondola.
It was beautiful, no doubt. We enjoyed the ride up very much. It was the ride back that felt like an eternity. I would recommend that you find an alternate method back to Durango and just ride one way. The train will provide you with that alternate method, for an additional $36 per person on top of the full round trip fare of the ticket. Nice, huh.
So, yes, it was too long. But, yes, it was beautiful. Here are a few pictures. It started raining closer up to Silverton and rained a good half of the way back and the temps dropped considerably into the 50’s once we were nearing Silverton and with the rain, all the way back to Durango. We had a really nice lunch at a place called Handlebars Saloon & Grill. Yummy stuff.
John ordered Mountain Oysters. If you know what those are, good for you. If you don’t, I’m not explaining right here. Each of the kids and I tried them. Apparently, they liked them. I didn’t. Probably a mind thing. Here’s what they looked like.
It’s cold here this morning and since the only good point for internet is outside, my fingers are cold. Thus, my typing will be short!! :-) John says it feels like there should be a football game today with this fall like weather here!!
We were going to go to Mesa Verde National Park today but after our marathon train ride yesterday, I was overruled when it came to today. In order to go to Mesa Verde and then be up at Lake City before dark, we’d have to be packed and heading out of here by 7 am, which meant up by 6 am. No one else thought that was a good idea today. So... Mesa Verde will have to be a visit we do next time.
We’re heading out of Durango today to our next stop for four nights in Lake City, Colorado at the Texan Resort - and yes, it’s owned by a Texan who went to Rice University!! Good trivial knowledge for you.
Until next time,
MA
PS - Dad, John said he lost the Ted Williams autographed fly. Your favorite. :-)
Here are some pictures from the other day - fishing & Bar D Chuckwagon. More Train Pictures will come later tonight/tomorrow or whenever we find an internet access point.
Day 5 of our Great Summer Adventure begins with a Fish Tale! We tried our hand at fishing today. Rachel was the only one who caught something ... part of a tree branch. We used some worms on normal casting rods for the kids to try fishing with. Not the fly rods my Dad sent with us. They weren’t ready for that one yet. Neither were we apparently! LOL... We found ourselves a little place along side the lake to setup for a couple of hours.
Worms - Rachel will touch them. Stephen won’t. Go figure. Because of that, Rachel did more fishing than Stephen because there was a rule out there yesterday. John put the first worm on your hook. You do the rest.
The fish ate well yesterday and avoided the hooks.
John tried his hand at fly fishing as did I. My first attempt ended up getting caught in the Aspen tree behind us. John and I rescued it. John did better than me - his didn’t get hung up in the tree. However, he did lose a fly (sorry Dad!) somewhere with no fish to blame.
Finished up there and had a little snack at Pura Vida Cafe at the marina. Was pretty good really. Then headed back to the cabin for a little rest/shower before going to the fun event for the night!
Bar D Chuckwagon Dinner Show
We weren’t really sure what to expect here other than my parents both recommended it. We had a pretty good feeling the music would be something John would enjoy and probably we all would like as well, but maybe not as much. Didn’t have high expectations for the food though.
Well, we all were pleasantly surprised. The dinner was really good and the show was quite entertaining and enjoyable for everyone! We would highly recommend it to anyone. John and I both had rib eye steaks that were cooked very well. The kids ate all their meals of BBQ Beef. The only comment is the BBQ is on the more vinegar side than typically we prefer, but it was good still. The beans, applesauce, biscuits were all quite yummy as was the coffee!!
The show was really entertaining. We enjoyed watching and listening to these guys play the fiddle, guitars and sing. Really good and at times, funny which made the kids laugh. They ended the show with a patriotic medley which was inspirational as well as thought provoking for where we are as a country.
The last song was “Proud to be an American”.
And I’m Proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free
And I won’t forget the men who died to give that right to me
And I’d gladly stand up next to you, and defend her still today
and there is no doubt I love this land
God Bless the USA
Are YOU proud to be an American? I believe if you choose to live in the USA - you should have to learn English, live by our laws, pay the taxes we all have to pay and respect this country. Respect your heritage, certainly, but respect the country that is providing for your family or go back home. Do YOU vote? Do YOU stand up for all that our forefathers and many before us fought to maintain as a country? Our future is being leveraged as money is wasted, taxes are raised, and our country is being socialized. We will be told how to live, what choices we have and don’t have across many different areas. That is socialism my friends. CARE ABOUT IT. PRAY ABOUT IT.
OK - off the soapbox now and back to the vacation.
Off to ride the train today (Tuesday, July 21, 2009). I'll have to post the pictures later when we return!
It’s 8:00 am... I’m the only one up. I’m always the only one up first thing in the morning. I live with a bunch of bears who hibernate as long as they possibly can!! It could also be the air up here at 8000 feet which is so cool, feels good and smells good.
So, I’m sitting outside in my pj pants, tshirt and sweatshirt (because it is a little cooler here - YAY) with my coffee at the picnic table in front of the cabin by the big tree which is the one and only spot we can best pirate someone’s unlocked wireless network signal!! :-) It doesn’t seem to work so well from inside the cabin, so sitting outside the cabin is the only option if you want to communicate with the outside world. Note - cell phones still don’t work. Ask the teenager who is devastated she can’t do much texting with her friends and Bryan. Hi Bryan. She tells me Bryan is reading the blog so everyone say hi to Bryan! Everyone: “HI!”. :-)
Back to the peace and quiet that is surrounding me at this moment. It’s lovely. No car sounds. No horns. No morning commute. No kids griping (yet). No phones ringing. No emails to check in my inbox. No Starbucks (oh darn, I like this one).
All replaced with calming, lovely sounds. The lake lapping against the shore. The birds twirping and singing in the tall pine and aspen trees. The squirrels scurrying by. The occasional fishing boat on the lake trolling for fish. The coffee brewing in the kitchen (not Starbucks). Me typing on the computer. THAT’S IT my friends.
We’ve made it to Durango - or rather, Lake Vallecito, CO!! It’s cooling off quite nicely right now at 8:30 pm. Nice breeze going through the cabin cooling everything off. Feels really GREAT!!
While we don’t have cell phone coverage currently, someone around us has wireless service that is not locked!! So... we’re pirating internet usage which is allowing us to have some intermittent wireless service which makes communication with the outside world possible.
The teenager isn’t happy about the no cell phone coverage. :-) She just insists her friends are going to think she fell off the earth!
Not too many pictures today to add to our trip today... Here are a couple!
Electronics Count As I mentioned on my last post, the Cox family goes no where without some electronic something or another. The game was to guess what types of electronics we brought and in some cases, how many of each of those types.
So far, my sister Stacey, has made a suggestion in the comments from the last post. You are close, Stacey! Not quite it though. But, when thinking about this list - we are way too technologically connected. :-)
Here you go..... so far, we’ve counted 21 items (amended to be 24)
2 laptop computers 1 PSP 1 Flypen 3 cell phones 1 Blackberry 2 GPS devices (car and handheld) 1 Satellite radio 1 Satellite radio receiver 3 Cameras (2 P&S digitals, my 50D) 4 Camera Lenses 1 Video Camera 1 Hair Straightener (for the teenager, cause mine is oh so straight ALWAYS)
PS - amended on Mon as I forgot a couple!! told you I would. 3 Ipods 1 Kindle
I’m not altogether sure that’s all either!!
Ok - we’re done for tonight. Tired really. Hungry too. John the Great is fixing us dinner. More tomorrow!!
Hi everyone..... from New Mexico where the cactus are abundant!
We had a leisurely morning today. We also had a little change in plans as we decided at breakfast to go to the Carlsbad Caverns. It was a fabulous idea... just a little bit of a backtrack as it was south of Roswell! (Ten points for you if you already knew that!) Back through Artesia and Carlsbad and then West. Would have been better timed to do it yesterday on our way up but we just didn’t think about it because well... we had gotten up at 4:45 am and the brains weren’t working all that well.
Before we left Roswell, we did make it to the UFO International Museum and Research Center. Up close and personal with aliens. Sometimes, I think I live with a few aliens (and definitely work with a few too! :-). Anyway, back to the museum. It was somewhat interesting. I suppose if you are a UFO nut, you’d probably really enjoy it. We found it interesting but didn’t stay around all day and watch all the videos you can watch. Just enough to explain to the kids what it was all about, buy Stephen a magnet for his collection and a postcard for the scrapbook!
Question: Do you think there really are UFO’s and aliens and that the government covered it up?
Once finished with the UFO museum, we made our way back south along the same tracks we had already come the day before yet this time we went West at Carlsbad about 20 miles to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Not sure I had everyone’s buy-in for this stop, but we ended up having a really good time here so I believe we were all happy we made the detour.
Main reason - it was so much cooler inside the cave than outside the cave - 57 degrees. I think that’s it main draw when it’s 100 degrees (like it was today) outside. Yes, the coolness is a benefit, but it was really neat and interesting inside the cave as well. You start down a continuous looping pathway that sometime slopes steeply downwards as you descend into the cavern. We walked down about 750 feet into the cavern which is equivalent to about 75 floors in a building. Just not doing it by stairs, just pathway in the dark mostly with a rail along the way. The climate in the cavern is a consistent 57 degrees but 90% humidity! So, even though it’s cool, the humidity keeps everything (and you) just a little on the moist side!! Of course, that level of humidity doesn’t really bother us Houstonians much, but you should have heard the other people complaining about it!! LOL... Tons of stalagmites, stalactites and tons of other formations. A couple of pictures here ... TONS more in the gallery (just in case you didn’t get enough of limestone formations).
My photography class sure did come in handy as in the dark with little light, I knew exactly what to do with my camera to get a desirable picture - or at least several that we could live with! YAY Karen Russell!! There is only one picture I used a flash for. All the others were captured without flash and it's not as bright as it might look on the pictures. I had my ISO cranked way up to 3200 to get these pictures and using a 50mm lens at f1.4 (wide open). My pics will likely be grainy, but they aren't bad!
Our old friend, Blackie, is back with us for our Road Trip. For those of you who didn’t follow us on our Road Trip 2007, Blackie is our bear friend who came along with us through Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. He enjoyed seeing his siblings in real life. We didn’t. :-) He decided to join us on this trip as well. Hopefully, he doesn’t seek out his brothers and sisters in the Colorado clan to come visit.
For those of you wondering just how we did for many, many hours in the jeep with all 4 of us! Well, only a few times did I have to threaten to leave a kid on the side of the road.... or put them on a plane in Albuquerque heading home. Luckily, they think I’m serious. They are pretty smart that way.
Here’s a quiz for you!! Be the first to guess all the types of electronic gadgets we brought along and in some case, the number of each.... there might be a prize for the winner. Then again... there might not. :-) Just for fun. I’ll reveal in a day or two.
Arrived into Albuquerque for the evening around 10:45 pm. John the Great is doing laundry at 11:52 pm. Yes, he’s a dream and he’s mine. :-)
PS - forgot to mention that we went through some incredible storms on the way from Roswell to Albuqueque. The kind where lightning streaks across the sky horizontally and everything! I tried to capture a few pictures of the storm and sun. It was kind of cool watching it. John would probably say not as cool driving in it. :-)
Temperature Check for Today Low - ?? not sure, we were still sleeping High - 100 degrees (we weren’t sleeping for this one)
Interesting Comments Captured Today MA - “Stephen, come stand by your relatives for a picture!” As I strategically placed him by the Aliens picture.
MA - “Duck!” to John as we were walking through Caves and had to duck to go through a tunnel John - “Do they teach you anything at school?” - upon receiving blank stares from the kids when asking some science questions about stalagmites and stalactites and basic chemical reactions. Yes, they have already forgotten what they learned last year.
Pictures for your Enjoyment
For my friends following from work, I'm even looking out for Mr. Wells here in Roswell!! WFB played a role in the 2002 Dig by storing all the "stuff" in a lockbox in Roswell. Interesting, huh!
Pictures from the Cave - many, many, many more in the Gallery on the right!
Next Stop - Durango, CO!! (and let's hope some cooler temps!)
Day 2 started bright and early with our 4:45 am wake up call courteous of John! Yes, he did wake us all up at 4:45 am and we were in the car pulling out of my parent’s driveway at 5:15 am!! Geez... my brain was not really functioning at that point and thank goodness, John got everything into the Jeep. I needed coffee something fierce and sometime a few years ago, my parents switched from caffeinated coffee to decaf coffee!! Something’s just not right there. Needless to say, my thought about decaf coffee is why bother?? So no help ensued from my parent’s house with coffee. We made our way to the nearest Valero to get coffee because the Starbucks isn’t open at 5:15!! (yes, there is one in Boerne, TX!)
We stopped for lunch at Brantley Lake State Park just north of Artesia, NM. Really a hot, flat, unoccupied state park! We just wanted to find some place shaded to stop for a picnic lunch and that was about all we could find. It was hot, but there was a dry breeze so it wasn’t toooooo awful!
Roswell is approximately 8 hours from Boerne, TX. We made a few stops along our way so it took us about 9 hours with a time change along the way at the border of TX and NM. We arrived into Roswell around 2:30 pm CST and were able to check into our hotel.
The rub about us leaving so early is that we are all so tired we didn’t want to leave the hotel to go do anything! Stephen wanted to swim in the hotel pool so we went swimming and then just chilled until dinner. We had an early dinner and are now just watching some tv and chilling while one by one, everyone falls asleep from getting up so early!!
We’re going to be hitting the UFO Museum tomorrow morning and then make our way to Albuquerque for our next stop!
Temperature Along our Way Today! Morning - 79 degrees Afternoon - 97 degrees
We’re not to cooler weather yet... but we’re getting close.
Interesting Comments Captured Today!! Stephen: “Did you know you could half-love a pillow?” at 5:15 am this morning talking about the small pillow he brought
“Can I try it?? She’s not going to let me!! Moooommmmm!!! Mooommmm!!!” when complaining about Rachel’s decision to not share her candy
Rachel: “I’ve never been in the car THIS long!!” (which isn’t true by the way)
“My life is too complicated” when talking about her stomach issues this morning
“I feel bad for anyone who has to wake up this early in the morning all the time!” - 5:15 am comment
Some pictures for your enjoyment ..... more in the gallery on the right!
This is what happens when you go to bed at 11:00 pm and wake up at 4:45 am! Just classic!
Scored some candy!! (although she's not sure which way is up!)
Well hi everyone! We are kicking off my blogging of our Cox Family Summer Road Trip for 2009!! The very happy family you see above - John, MA, Rachel & Stephen - has left our hot city called Houston, Texas, in our Road Warrior - Jeep Wrangler - in search of cooler temps and a relaxing couple of weeks doing fun things like fishing, hiking, and jeeping!
ROAD TRIP 2009
Colorado here we come!!!
Day 1
Day 1 has taken us tonight to to our first night's stay in Boerne, TX with my parents. Mom & Dad graciously allowed us to bunk down here for the night. My husband's grand plan is to get up and be OUT of the house by 5:00 am!! I was hoping to maybe make it until 6:00 am... but no, we're starting off from Boerne, TX to Roswell, NM for Day #2. It'll be REALLY hot along this part of the trip so the earlier we do it, I guess the better. I'm hoping my body will agree tomorrow morning. Perhaps it'll take a lot of coffee to get that done.
So.. we're off!! Pictures to come tomorrow and each and every day afterwards! Come along with us!!
We’re still here... it’s been a week or so since I posted. The kids have been gone (they come back tonight - YAY) and I took a week off from blogging. Busy at work. Busy getting ready for our vacation.
This weekend we had a wonderful visit from Laila on Saturday. Her friend was coming down from Dallas for a party so she decided to come down as well and visit with us! Always nice to visit with her. We spent sometime upstairs scrapbooking her pictures from her graduation in May. It was sure fun and I think she got the hang of it!! Created some really nice pages on Saturday night and Sunday.
Ariane joined us for breakfast on Sunday morning and it’s we enjoy seeing her as well. Even though we live in the same city, we don’t see her very often. She’s working so hard right now at two different jobs - she doesn’t have a lot of time to socialize!!
Here’s a couple of fun pictures from the visit.
John cooked breakfast for all of us on Sunday morning - waffles and sausage! Made a happy face with the waffles!
Next Blog.... Stephen’s Birthday Party in June....
Reminiscing about our wedding a year ago. I posted last about our beautiful intimate wedding. Go see if you haven’t already. It was lovely.
This post is about the PARTY that came the next night!
John & I enjoy a good time so while we wanted our wedding to be special and small, we did want to include our friends and have a great party to celebrate our marriage.
It took us awhile to come up with a good place but on a whim, we called Blanco’s which is on Alabama in central Houston. We go to Blanco’s on occasion to dance to the great music so thought it might be a good venue for party. Blanco’s is a great place for local Texas and Houston live music and dancing. Come to find out, it’s not open on Saturdays and you can rent it out. So... we did!! We called one of my favorite Texas musicians - Jesse Dayton - and arranged for him to play that night for our guests. John called Cantu’s and voila, we had a great catered BBQ meal. All done but the guests!! Very cool.
I have general memories about this evening.....
Lots of Friends!
Lots of Family!
Got to meet Jesse Dayton and listen to him sing. Even spent some time at the end of the evening just chatting with him and his band.
We have a lot of friends who don’t dance (:-)
The BBQ was really good.
The wedding cake from Cake Lady Bakery in Friendswood was really good too!
It’s hot in there when you’re dancing.
Lee Ray takes fabulous pictures!!
We had a great time and lots of fun!!
Slideshow with music by Jesse Dayton for your viewing pleasure.....
Hope everyone had a Happy & Safe July 4th Celebration with your friends and families!!
HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY TO US!
On July 4th last year:
We celebrated our marriage and the beginning of our life together! We had a beautifully small and intimate family celebration of our marriage on Friday, July 4th at Villa Capri in Clear Lake followed on Saturday by a wonderfully fun Texas party with many of our friends at Blanco’s. Two days of family, friends, fun celebrating our marriage. It was so very much the combination of our two personalities. We typically like to say, I got to plan the wedding celebration, he got to plan the party!
Here’s a slideshow of some of my favorites from that day! It’s about 10 minutes long.... so enjoy.
My memories of our wedding day!
Family and friends arrived in Houston the day or two before. Terri & I ran last minute errands (thank you for coming in early). We all had our nails done and Chef John cooked fabulous meal that evening. 12 family members staying in our House - Mom, Dad, Perry, Stacey, Macie, Holley, Scott and Allie, MA, Rachel, Stephen & John in the upstairs garage Other family staying elsewhere locally - Laila & Justin, Ariane In the morning, we all went to the Friendswood July 4th Parade as Rachel marched for the first time in the high school marching band It was pretty hot (but not as hot as this year) Terri & Jim flew in for our celebration and were picking up the flowers in the morning while we were sweating at the parade (good choice) Had a lovely lunch with everyone at the house - more food than we needed, but when do we not? Finished packing and headed down to check in to the Four Seasons downtown so graciously provided by Laila as a wedding gift It had been raining off and on this afternoon. Hmmm... the wedding was to take place outside on a balcony. Not sure about contingency planning here. God fixed it! (Praise Him!) It stopped raining at 5:30 pm, just 30 minutes before everyone was supposed to start arriving We arrived to Villa Capri, on Clear Lake Family & Friends joined us for drinks, snacks and pictures at 6:00 pm. Everyone looked beautiful! General color palette was light/pale greens with a little pink. Used the cymbidium orchid as the star! The wedding began at 7:15 pm. John was very nervous. I was nervous, but not as much as He. Our children escorted us down the aisle. The music by which we joined each other at the end of the aisle was Bless the Broken Road sung by Travis Cottrell. I picked it because the lyrics were so applicable to each of us as we have both lived our lives on a broken road at times and that all that other “stuff”, well, they were just stops along the way to you.
I set out on a narrow way, many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
Yes He did
I think about the years I spent, just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost, and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there, you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
Married under a beautiful old Oak Tree! The dinner crowd below clapped as we tied the knot. More pictures (very important) Lovely dinner with all of us by Villa Capri - the food was excellent, the service was excellent -we were treatedwell Beautiful cake made for our wedding by the chef - vanilla white cake, strawberry filling, white icing with chocolate dipped strawberries. YUMMY! The night was capped off with the most amazing Fireworks show. We know this was God planned because from the balcony, there is a narrow sightline straight out to the lake. Both sides are surrounded by some large, relatively thick trees. We had no idea where the fireworks would go off, but bless Him, the barge was literally straight out on the lake directly in front of the restaurant so the show was magnificent!! We have God to give praise to again for arranging it so perfectly. It was really & truly quite lovely.
Next post - Memories from the Party!! That was fun!
PS - We went back to Villa Capri last night to celebrate our First Anniversary there with dinner and fireworks!! Dinner was great ... no fireworks though on Clear Lake. We did get to see the fireworks at Kemah!! Beautiful!
July?? Already??? Wowzer... half the year is gone. Amazing how quickly that happens. Seems to go by faster and faster each year.
July 1 is also another meaningful day for me for a couple of reasons.
1) John and I had our first date on the 1st of April a few years back, so we always have a race to see who remembers to say "Happy Anniversary" every month on the 1st. Nine times out of ten, he's first!! Darn him... I need to write myself a note or something to remind myself. The brain doesn't kick in until after coffee and then usually I'm driving starting to think about work. Pooh....He did again today!! However, I'll memorialize it here. Happy First Date Anniversary!!
2) The kids go with their Dad on July 1st usually for a month. While I do enjoy a little peace and quiet and some alone time with my husband, I do actually miss them and all the noise they create. They just have a presence here and when they are here... all is well in the world. Even when I'm fussing at them for something, I know they are home and safe where they should be. Their absence gives me a little glimpse into how my world will be when they go off to college in a few short years. I don't think I'm going to like it much. I do enjoy talking with them and hearing about their days. Being a part of the every day with them.
This year though, while they are off with their Dad on vacation to Washington DC and Virginia right now, they are not spending the whole month with him due to schedules and vacations, etc. So, I'll see them in a couple of weeks.
************* Switching Gears......
Finally got solar screens put on the windows today ... all 22 of them!!! Can you say expensive?? Yes. Yes, they were. But, I can already tell a difference in that the air conditioner isn't having to work nearly as hard as it has been and hopefully.... hopefully... that will turn into some $$ savings for us on the electric bills. With several weeks of 100+ temperatures, the electric bill is going to be gigantic. Scares me to even think about what it will be. We went with 90% blocking on the windows, so the tradeoff is the house is a little darker. I'll trade darker for cooler right now. We can take them off for winter to add the suns warmth back to the house if we want. Kinda cool.
Other Free thinking thoughts right now.....
Found out from some blood work I had done recently that I am deficient in Vitamin D. Only had it tested because my sister found out recently she is too. It's interesting because Vitamin D is commonly known as the sunlight Vitamin. Most people in the South shouldn't have a deficiency in this vitamin if you're healthy and ever go out doors. 5 - 30 minutes, 3 times a week should be sufficient for Vitamin D absorption. While I'm not outdoors all the time, I get outside enough in the garden and general outdoors stuff that I shouldn't be deficient. So, begs the question as to why am I deficient? What happens when you don't get enough Vitamin D? For starters, without Vitamin D, you don't absorb enough calcium and you end up with bone issues. You can experience fatigue, gain weight, depression, higher rates of cancer. All sorts of fun things. Maybe that's partially why we have such a weight issue amongst my sisters and I? It plays into the metabolic process. Who knows... will find a good supplement and report back any changes. Hey... if it can help me lose weight, I'll be over the moon.
