Colorado Summer Vacation

I got back this Friday (at like midnight) from spending the week in South Fork, CO with my mom's family. By "mom's family" I mean her brother and sisters and all their kids and grandkids. There were just a few folks unable to attend (Nolan & Tonya had to work; Bobbie & Greg are insanely pregnant) so it was a great turn out. I took around 400 pictures - because apparently when I actually remember to carry a camera, I go insane!! I promise they won't all be posted here. It was one of those gigs where I'm in almost none of them because I took them all - WTH..

Day one of vacation:

We left DFW about 8:30AM on Sunday. For those of you who know Steve and I well, you know that's just plain "off". I drove the morning and he slept. The goal was to make it to Raton, NM. We were meeting my folks there, it broke the 13+ hour trip up, and it got us close to where we wanted to start day 2. Some things that we learned that day that you should know:

People like to shoot the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign. We don't know if it's because people are pissed to be leaving Texas or if it's that they are just needing to shoot something after being in the car for a long time... there's no reason to be that close to the NM border as the towns around it are tiny.. so you must've come from a long way off if you see the sign.

There's nothing to do in Raton. So time your trip so that you get to Raton just in time to go to bed. We hit up K-Bobs for dinner as it was the "super nice" place in town that was open on a Sunday night. My nephews loved it. Tanner said "These are the best dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets I've ever had." That's high praise if I've ever heard it. Ha! Steve and I ended up at this joint:

If it tells you anything, it was a bar/liquor store combination and it closed at 9pm. It also had a sign posted above the bar that said "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, regardless of who you are, who you think you are, who your father is, or how much money you have." Nice :)

Day two of vacation:

We woke up, had Continental breakfast (what's with that) at the Comfort Inn, and headed out to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. In case you've never been there.. it's pretty dang cool. You're in a valley, looking up at monster sand dunes, that stand in front of mountains that still are showing a little bit of snow. It's really neat.. and the closer you get, the more you realize those "ants" crawling across the top of the dunes are actually people. They are so huge - I can't imagine how long it takes to climb them. My sweet nephew (Tanner) actually was thinking he would climb to the top until we started walking towards them and he realized how far away (and big) they were. At that point - he decided it was just more fun to create sand angels :)

Day three of vacation:

We drove into Creede, Co and did some hot dog eating and sight seeing. The scenery was beautiful but it started pouring down raining in the afternoon - so we didn't stay long. Spent the remainder of the afternoon napping/playing with my niece and nephews/being mellow.

Day four of vacation:

This was the official horseback riding day. It was a great time and a neat way to see more of the mountain behind our cabin. The youngest rider was 5 and the older was 60+. It was quite the ensemble. I had a great time, but I have to admit that my knee was killing me that day from the

trip back down the mountain. My butt was sore from the saddle the next day! My horse's name was Mary Lou and all she wanted to do was eat grass and crowd my sister's horse in front of me. She was feisty and I enjoyed her thoroughly.

Later that afternoon, Steve and Pop took a shot at fly fishing. I'll let you ask Steve about his experience as I'm not sure what the "official" story is. Ha!

Day five of vacation:

This was magical river rafting day. If it tells you anything about the water level, it took a little over 3 hours to travel 8 miles of river. I don't have soft copies of my pictures just yet.. will post them when I get them. Steve and I were in a raft with Tanner, Judy (my aunt), and my cousin Paul and his wife. At first - the rowing was comical.. but eventually we got our acts together and made good progress down the river (Rio Grande). We got stuck our fair share of times and someone would have to get out and push us off.. but mostly we looked like we new what we were doing. It was totally fun and I'd do it again tomorrow (especially if it got me out of work).

As another random thing - most nights, Steve (and sometimes me) would end up at this place for beers and good company. It was amazing how many people from Texas were at this place - sometimes working, sometimes visiting, and sometimes as part of a large group of geologists traveling from a TX university in search of a particularly unique rock that you could only find in this part of Colorado. Never did figure out what was so special about that rock.. but apparently it takes about 15 geologists to find it.

Day six of vacation:

We bit the bullet and drove the whole way home in one long-ass day. It was totally worth it to get to sleep in our own bed with our sweet (sorely missed) pups.

Great vacation overall. Glad we went because it was a good combination of family fun, being mellow, and being outdoorsy.

Seeing the Springs

Consider this a "catch up" post since it's from an event that happened on July 10th. I have GOT to keep up with this whole blog thing...

Thanks to our friend Dina, we got a small group together Friday the 10th and went and saw Eleven Hundred Springs at the Granada (in case the picture isn't ridiculously self-explanatory - ha!).

Great show and good friends. You can't go wrong with that. It had been ages since we last saw the guys and I have to admit two things.
1) They get better each time. Not sure how they manage to do that, but it's still true. I think the song list is way more crowd friendly in format and they just looked snazzy (suits and hats and all that jazz).
2) Either I'm getting older or their crowd is getting younger. Not sure if it was because it was a Friday night - and that makes it harder for working stiffs to still have energy - or what. I do know that although we weren't the oldest folks there (thankfully), there was a higher % of the college-age crowd than I'm used to. I suppose that's a good thing because those are also the folks more likely to buy merchandise. Eventually you look goofy with a raise hell/drink beer t-shirt. They just don't work for casual Friday at the office :)

Anyways.. it was a great show and a good time. Wish more of you could have been there. Kept thinking it would've been cool to have had my chickies to dance with. Next time - I'll spread the word and spread the love!