Road Trip

We are in countdown mode and decided to take another road trip before we left this part of the country for North Carolina.  Uncle Glenn came for a visit to come along with us on this trip.  We headed for Wyoming to see Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park spending a few nights in Jackson Hole.    My goal was to see wildlife and Old Faithful and some of the other geysers in Yellowstone.  It took many hours to arrive at our destination and viewed many cattle and horses along the way.  I mostly sat in the backseat looking out the window to see what I could see.  I was hopeful about getting to see a moose, maybe a bear, wolf, etc. etc. etc.  We took lots of pictures and viewed many beautiful sites, but the most impressive of all, to me, was the moose and her calf that I saw looking out the window from the car after we left the parks and Jackson Hole.  I had prayed for our safe trip and also to enjoy the beauty around us and to see a moose.  There she was along with her baby!  My trip was complete!

December 4, 2011

As many of you know that read this blog, I don't get into football in a big way, but we were invited for lunch at Carl and Sara Wade's house to watch the Broncos football game today along with more couples which turned out to be very exciting and lots of fun! Sam made the comment that it was lots more fun watching football over there than at home alone with me. I guess I have caught Tebow fever and was excited to see the game and especially excited that the Broncos won. Lunch was sooooo good too! (especially the Christmas goodies that Sara made, brownies, fudge, homemade cookies...)

Thanks Carl and Sara for inviting us.

I am getting prepared for a very cold week. This week reminds me of the week that Sharon and Mia came for a visit and was so cold and snowy. It's snowing as I write this for about the third time in a week and it will probably get down to 0 tonight. I went to the grocery story this afternoon and bought stuff so that I could make Christmas cookies and other delightful things I only make at Christmas time.

After writing this, I have thoughts of my childhood and my favorite foods we only had a Christmas time. I remember at my Grannys house at Christmas time, there were boxes in her "front room" of oranges, apples, raisens that were still attached to the vine, peanuts in the shell. I loved the chocolate covered cherries, and these candies that were pure sugar, white on the inside and chocolate on the outside and can't remember what they were called, but they were very yummy to me. Home made fudge which I have never been able to figure out how to make the old fashioned way, but settle for the fantasy fudge recipe on the marshmallow cream jar. Egg nog, which I still look forward to at Christmastime. At the grocery store today as I was shopping, the coffee shop was giving out samples of EggNog Latte's...guess where I headed. My Dad loved to have company and especially during the holiday's. Getting together with his family was always lots of fun and I remember how he and his brothers and sister would sit around and tell stories about their childhood and laugh.

I know I have rambled long enough and so very thankful for those memories and for our friends here.

Playing Tourist

Sam and I have enjoy playing tourist and took off on Saturday morning on a new adventure.  We headed to Aspen, Colorado.  I haven't heard that much great about Aspen from friends that live here, but it is a famous place especially for the rich and famous, I guess.  Since ski season is over, the hustle and bustle was not there, but with trees blooming and flowers blooming, it was very beautiful.  There wasn't a lot of stuff open because of the season, but we did manage to find a place to eat lunch and visited The John Denver Memorial.  That was special to us as John Denver music brings back so many memories for us.  After we ate lunch we drove to Maroon Bells, a popular scenic area that we had been wanting to see.  It was very beautiful and we were enjoying our hike until a snake crossed our path.  I was ready to go back to the car, but Sam, insisted that we continue.  Another mountain peak that was very beautiful on the way was Mt Sorpris.  We headed to Glenwood Springs to spend the night after visiting Maroon Bells.  At that point in time, we were pretty tired, but decided to find a restaurant we had heard a lot about, Italian Underground.  I have to say that our experience was not good, but we did try it.

Our most exciting and challenging adventure was our trip to Hanging Lake.  We couldn't decide if we were up to this hike challenge or not, but decided.....why not.....So glad that we did, even though it was very difficult for me especially.  The trail is very rocky and is 1000 ft up to the top.  It was worth it but still don't think it is as pretty as St Mary's Glacier.  The climb down was pretty tough on the knees, legs and ankle's but we didn't fall and have recovered from it.  After the hike, we headed back home as we had reports that the weather was going to get bad.  We started out on Sunday with temperatures in the high 70's and enjoyed a late lunch on the way back.  After lunch, the temperature started dropping and by the time we got to Vail, the temperature had dropped and it began to snow.  We drove through a little snow for a while and then rain the rest of the way home.  Rain is so rare out here.  I can't believe it, but it rained the rest of that day and evening on in to the next day.  That is a first for out here.

 Snow falling on our way home

 Hanging Lake hike, I somehow managed a smile

 A view as we were walking down from the top of hanging lake

 behind the waterfall at the top

 We made it!  Hanging Lake

 Maroon Bells

 Maroon Lake

 One of Sam's favorite songs

 Mt Sorpris

Aspen, after lunch