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| Picture with Santa Clause 2011 |
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Jack O Lanterns 2011
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| My pumpkins! |
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| Laurie with her Cheerleader Pumpkin |
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| Daniel carved Darth Vader |
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| Ashley's Greek Goddess |
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| Adorable! |
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| Master carver! Look closely - he has pumpkin in his hair! |
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Fall 2011 School Pictures
It is school picture time again!
Ashley is now in 4th grade and just shy of 10 years old. She devours books, is interested in horses and art, and has an affinity for math & science. She wears a size 7 women's shoe and is almost 5 feet tall! And she tells everyone she meets, EVERYONE, that she has a hamster - Isabella Fluffball Jones. She is taking dance again, this time enjoying "funky jazz," a cross between traditional jazz and hip hop. On any given night, you can bet you'll find Ashley snuggled in her huge bed filled with stuffed animals reading a book late into the night.
Daniel will be 8 in a couple of weeks and loves the 2nd grade. Much of his time is spent playing iPad, making movies with his iMac, and playing soccer. This is his first season playing Academy soccer with the same league and second year as a cub scout, on the track for Wolf. He enjoys math, Legos, Star Wars and making people laugh. He is quick to smile his infectious smile no matter what he is doing. Daniel is always the first one out of bed, dressed and prepares his own breakfast (and usually Laurie's too.) He absolutely loves his sisters and will do almost anything for them. A true helper.
Laurie started Kindergarten 2 weeks after her 5th birthday and loves every minute of it. My "little" girl is not so little anymore and will do whatever she can to keep up with her siblings. Not only will she talk your ear off, but will impress you with a vocabulary that doesn't belong to a typical 5 year old. Laurie loves doing homework, reading books and telling jokes. She joined her first dance class, enjoying ballet and tap once a week while wearing a lavender leotard with a huge tutu! She is fiercely independent but will agree to anything if it is Daddy asking.
Friday, September 09, 2011
A New Look
So this week, I went from this....
... to this...
After years of lightening my hair, I finally had the nerve to have it dyed back to it's natural color (with a few highlights still). And... have begun wearing it straight. Really straight. We will see how long straightening it will last, cause it is a real effort every day. But I have to admit enjoying the fact people do a double take right now and don't recognize me at first. I'm not really sure which way I like it best, and everyone else definitely has an opinion on it, but for now, a big change is nice.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Ride Em Cowboy!
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| Stanley Hotel |
Monday morning in Colorado we decided to visit the inspiration for the book, The Shining. The 102 year old Stanley Hotel is very pretty and elegant, but unfortunately, unless
you were a guest at the hotel or pay for the haunted tour, there is not much to
actually see in the limited public spaces.
So, we headed into Estes Park for lunch. Main street in
Estes Park is a cute, quaint, touristy spot with many restaurants and shops. We found a little family restaurant called, Local's Grill for a quick
bite to eat. Our waitress turned out to
be from Rosenberg, just a few suburbs over from where we live. Small world.
After lunch, we ran into a tourist shop to pick up
some t-shirts for each of us to take home. They had t-shirts that said, "My loved one went to Rocky Mountain National Park and all I got was this t-shirt." We thought about picking one up for Brian, but settled for a nice navy one he'd actually wear.
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| Ready to Go!! |
Our big event of the day was horse back riding. Nana chose Cowpoke Corral Stables in Estes Park because all 6 of the biggest kids were allowed to ride. My kids are always excited for the rare
opportunity to ride, and this was to be
Laurie’s first time on a big horse. Alex & Laurie seemed a bit nervous about riding the horses until they learned they only walked. Turns out, they had visions of racing horses across a field at full speed.
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| Birdie's Big Smile |
When
we got there and saw how huge the horses were, I got a little nervous. I
couldn’t imagine putting my 4 year old baby on one of those big horses. The trainers reassured me and Birdie was
ready to go. From the moment they put
her up on “Shadow” she started smiling from ear to ear. I don’t think she stopped smiling until they took her
off at the end of the trail ride. Once again, Mommy was
wrong and was nervous for no reason.
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| Megan on her pony, Duke |
The little kids did excellent
holding on as we rode the horses up the side of the mountain and back down
again. Megan, at 3 years old, was allowed to sit on a pony and walk it around the property with Papa while the rest of us were out riding. She had a great time.
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| Alex on Caddy |
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| Daniel on Jaybird |
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| Cameron on Mr. Wilson |
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| Ashley on Socks |
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| Brenna on Doc |
Daniel rode an old crotchedy horse name Jaybird. He would walk backwards and kick my horse,
Rascal, if we got to close to him during the trail ride. Ashley’s horse, Socks, was blind in one eye
and she loved him the more for it. Cameron and Brenna rode like the pros they are on Mr. Wilson and Doc. David rode Rocky, Leah on Cinder and I rode Rascal.
The last time we rode as a group was in Lajitas, just outside of Big Bend National Park. These two riding experiences didn't even compare. Lajitas was riding through a dust filled hot desert, this was a beautiful trail ride up a tree filled mountainside with a breeze and nice temperatures. Really nice.
Day six of our trip meant that Mom and I needed to do some
laundry, so we dropped everyone else back off at the cabin to head over to the
laundramat. First, let me say, I haven’t
done laundry at a laundramat since law school and they were never this
clean. Wow. This was a nice place. We were able to do 7 loads of laundry and
fold them in less than two hours. Pretty
awesome. I need to do laundry
like this at home. Forget doing them one load at a time.
It stormed really good while we were there,
of course. Have I mentioned that
Colorado has the most intense thunderstoms?
The storm clouds roll down over the mountains and create the most
incredible lightening shows. Thankfully,
it stopped raining in time for us to put the clean clothes in the car and drive
back to the cabin.
We arrived back to find Leah and the boys preparing hamburgers
for everyone out on the patio. It was an
enjoyable last night in Estes Park. Even
though it rained every day, it was an incredible stay.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Mountains, Snow and Elk
Our cabin in Estes Park has a family of fox that lives
nearby. Sunday morning I was able to get
pretty close to one of them and get some pictures. He seemed pretty comfortable with me and only
ran off when a dog came up and sniffed it back into a hole.
We are staying in McGregor Mountain Lodge, just outside an
entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
The grounds surrounding our cabin are beautiful with lots of trees,
birds, flowers and wildlife. My mom told
us that after seeing all the beautiful birds here, she can understand why
people get into bird watching.
After breakfast in the cabin, we rounded everyone up and
drove into RMNP. It was very
crowded. Lots of cars, people and slow
moving traffic. We stopped first at
Alluvial Fan, the site of a flood in 1982, with splendid waterfalls. A truly majestic and beautiful spot.
The kids all had to touch the water to feel how cold that
melted snow was coming off the mountain. We took so many pictures at this nice spot in the mountains.
We decided our next drive should be to take Trail Ridge Drive up to the Alpine Visitor's Center over 12,000 feet above sea level. To get there, we
drove up and up, winding around the sides of the
mountains on a road with severe drop offs. It was slow moving due to
congestion. At some point, it started
hailing and our drive became a crawl.
All through this time, Dad was busy on the walkie talkie with David’s car
behind us. Mom started to get scared of the
heights and the hail slowing us down.
She was determined that we needed to stop and turn around (where, I’m
not sure). Dad passed her the walkie talkie so she could convince David and Leah we needed to turn around. It was actually just a tactic to distract
her. I think Cameron was on the other end of the walkie talkie, not a grown up. The hail cleared up and on and up we
went.
As it turns out, David’s car was having a bit of drama of
their own. Ashley decided she HAD to use
the restroom during this winding drive.
Unfortunately, all of the pull offs with restrooms were jam packed with
cars. She was crying and offering to go
squat in the snow when David managed to get her into a rest stop.
As we came to the highest point in the drive (12,183 ft) and onto the
tundra, Dad was inspired to begin singing The Sound of Music. Drivers all over the mountain with walkie talkies got to listen to Dad warble, “The hills are alive, with the sound of
music, ah –ah –ah-ah…” not once, but twice.
It was a huge hit in our car as the kids were laughing and cackling
hysterically. |
| Elk sitting by the roadside |
The tundra was so beautiful and not what I’d expected. I was expecting the top of the mountain to be
rock, covered with parts of snow.
Instead, it had grass, flowers and lots of elk. We saw several herds of elk at various points
in the tundra. Some were so tame, they
just stood and posed for pictures while cars stopped. 
When we made it to the top, we realized we’d left all our
jackets back at the cabin. Oops. It was a little chilly, but the wind was
blowing so hard, we didn’t spend much time outside anyway. There was a nice visitors center with a café
where we had lunch. While up there,
several of us started having problems with altitude sickness. Mine started upon arriving in Denver, but was
made worse during our drive. Lots of
dizziness, headaches, fatigue and queasy stomachs. After buying a few souvenirs, we started the
drive back down, hoping our symptoms would subside a little.
Daniel had been so excited to see all the snow on the way
up, so we made a point to stop on the way down to play in a big patch of
snow. Brenna didn’t stay out long, her
head was still hurting, and Alex and Megan were not thrilled with it. But the other four kids had a ball throwing
snow balls at each other. It wasn’t
quite long enough for them and protested as we went back to the car to
continue our descent down the mountain.
At the end of the day it was really nice to have the cabin to come back to and relax. A good storm rolled in and kept us all inside for a couple of hours before dinner. Would you believe we built a fire in the fireplace in July? It was fun and really nice.
David and Dad grilled steaks after the storm passed so we could all sit outside and eat.
It has been a great vacation so far. We miss Brian a great deal, but I have gotten to video chat with him via Skype a couple of times. The kids love the opportunity to see and talk to him while he is in Alaska.
It is really really late, so I must get myself to bed. It is too easy for me to stay up late with the kids all sleeping in the bedroom. I've put myself on the sleeper sofa just so I can get some "alone" time on this trip. What that actually means is I stay up late watching tv or reading, then throughout the night, the kids come out and get in bed with me. Maybe tonight I'll go sleep in the bedroom when they get up and come in here.
Monday, July 18, 2011
First Full Day in Colorado
Saturday
found us getting in the car for our last long drive before we get to stay for a
few days in one spot. We started out with a nice breakfast at Mickey D's.
It was funny, one of Shelly's girls (I think it was Brenna) informed me
that they do not get to eat breakfast, nor any other meal at McDonald's, so this
was a real treat. The kids have gotten ordering in a restaurant or fast
food place down to an art with our large group. I’ve been impressed how
smoothly it can go. We were thrilled to
get more compliments on how great our group was behaving.
Leaving
Pueblo heading towards Denver the kids were very excited getting a peak at the
growing mountains. We got a little frustrated at the crazy Saturday
morning summer traffic leading up to Rocky Mountain National Park. After
passing through Boulder, we were surprised by the shear number of bicyclists on
the winding roads. The ones riding by themselves weren't a problem, but
at times we passed five on one side of the road and a couple on the other.
Within 45 minutes we passed a couple hundred cyclists. Guess people
take this outdoor living very seriously here in Colorado. Course, if I
had to put up with their winters I would live outside all summer also.
Our favorite quote during the drive came from Papa. The kids were talking about which cute little
cabin they would want to live in next to a stream on the side of the mountain
and asked Papa he preference. His
response, “I don’t want any of those houses cause I’d have to drive on
this stupid road with all these stupid people every day.” Yep, it was lots of fun encountering all the
tourists who had our same idea of where to go for vaca.
The best
part about arriving in Estes Park was catching up with my brother and family.
David and Leah flew to Denver the day before with their three kids.
The children all acted like long lost cousins who hadn't seen each other
in ages when we met for lunch.
Our
family is staying in a cabin rental just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain
National Park at McGregor Mountain Lodge. The cabin is broken up into a four-plex of which we have 3
of the units. I do feel a little sorry for the couple in the other unit
because we have lots of kids and can be quite loud. Mom and Dad have a
wonderful view off the upper porch, but down below, we have several picnic
tables, Adirondack chairs and porch swings. We love hanging out while the
kids play in the yard, porch and patio.
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| Laurie & Megan |
The
weather here is a little strange. One minute it is sunny and
"hot" (80) and the next, storm clouds are rolling in with a
spectacular lightening show over the mountains. After a brief rain, we
saw a glorious double rainbow driving through town.
David and
Leah, having already been in Estes Park for a day, filled us in on what there
is to do in the area. It was quickly decided we needed to go to the
Rooftop Rodeo that night. This rodeo has won national awards the last three
years for being the best in small town rodeos. I've of course been to the
Houston Rodeo many times, but can't think I've ever been to a small town rodeo.
What a treat!
It was a
blast. Alexander's favorite was the mutton busting (little kids riding
sheep, holding on for dear life), Daniel loved the bull riding, and the big
girls all seemed to love the barrel racing. There was lots of interaction
between the announcer, the rodeo clown and the crowd. There wasn't a bad
seat in the house, but boy – it was packed. What a great first night all
together in Colorado.
The kids were so cute. Alex & Laurie had their own cousin bonding going on during the rodeo. Adorable.
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| They just love being together. |
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| It was a great rodeo and lots of fun!!! |
When the
kids and I got back to our cabin, we spotted Brian's first catch of Alaska King
Salmon on FaceBook. He arrived in Anchorage Friday night and to his spot
on the river sometime on Saturday. He and his friend, John, are living
their dream of salmon fishing this week while the kids and I are here in the
mountains.
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