Same Spot.....Different Year

This past weekend we went on our second annual Ryan family camping trip to Woods Lake. We are lucky enough to have Dusty's kids close by and are thrilled that we can now do this kind of thing fairly easily. Joe and his family....his wife, Jen, and their kids, Juliana (8), JT (5) and Jack (18 months) came from Grand Junction. And Lori even made it up from Denver. And so the 11 of us (including the two dogs!) descended on the Woods Lake campground for a couple of days of relaxation, visiting, playing, cuddling and laughter!

BEWARE....many pictures were taken! We took 200 pictures, and that doesn't count what Jen and Lori took!! There were so many good ones and I'm having trouble deciding what to share here. So here are a BUNCH of pictures, including my favorites!!!

When we arrived at Woods Lake, the first order of business was to set up our camp. Rain was in the forcast for the whole weekend, so we wanted to make sure that we had our tent and canopy set up ahead of the rain! A few years ago, we discovered a particular spot in the campground and it has become ours. It's always been available each time we arrive and it's "home" for us! Up in the aspen trees, it's quiet and peaceful. Joe and his gang settled into a spot across the road from us. We do everything as a group at our spot.....cook, eat, visit, have campfire. They just sleep and change clothes at their site. It works well, being together but we have the space when we need it.

Here's Dusty trying to figure out how to assemble the canopy. We bought it a couple of years ago, to give us more space if it does rain. Tent camping in the rain can be the pits, as there's so few places to be. This offers us another place to escape the raindrops. But we've only used it a couple of times and it came with no assembly instructions, so it's a challenge each time! About the time I took this picture Dusty was saying, "There's got to be a better way to do this!!!"


Once it was set up, the kids settled in!


Lori hadn't arrived yet when I took this family picture, but it was cute! The next time we're all together (weekend after next for the Corn Festival!) we will take one with everyone in it!!


Last year, Jen had fleece jackets for each of the kids. This year she had denim jackets and bandanas for each of them!! They looked so darn cute!! This is our own "biker gang"!! Thanks, Jen, for always being so generous and including James! He LOVES his denim jacket and bandana!!!


My favorite picture of Jen.....


James, being goofy!!!


Sitting around, being silly....Jen, Juliana and James


That night, just before we started the campfire, Jen pulled out glowsticks for all the kids. James and Juliana had fun with them as we got the campfire going.


This is my favorite picture of Lori and JT together. They have a special bond and love to cuddle!


JT giving "Auntie Lori" kisses...


Juliana giving their puppy, Chloe, love.


We were all enjoying each other's company, when we looked up to see Jack drinking out of Chloe's bowl of water! It was funny and disgusting at the same time!!


One of my favorite pictures from this weekend....of me with my step-daughter and step-daughter-in-law!!!


And the boys cutting wood for our campfires.....


The dogs of the group! Chloe and Lacey did extremely well and make great camping dogs. Having them with us adds a different dimension to the trip. They certainly were entertaining to watch!!


On Saturday afternoon, a thunder storm came through. The timing was perfect for an afternoon nap, so everybody retreated for a couple of hours of rest and listening to the rain and thunder. Dusty and James laid down briefly, but decided that they would rather go up to the lake and fish in the rain! I took this pictures from inside our tent, looking out at my guys, sitting around the campfire pit. It must not have been raining very hard at that point!!!


This was the sunset on Saturday evening. The lake and campground are in a narrow valley and so the only sunset we can see is actually the light being reflected on the mountains to the east of us. It was so pretty, through the aspen forest!!
'

James loves to whittle and he enjoyed showing JT the "how to's" of it all.....


Papa Dusty with JT


This is my favorite picture of James from the weekend! I'm having fun with the "color accent" function on my camera and LOVE the contrast between the B&W and yellow in this picture!


Papa Dusty with Jack. Jack was very interested in showing Papa Dusty something way up in the tree!!


On the way home, James decided to take a nap in the back of the truck. He had his denim jacket over his head and Lacey thought it was a great idea to use James as a pillow! LOL


It was a great weekend and we're already looking forward to next year at Woods Lake! On the way home, I realized that I never made it up to the lake!! Having been there several times and not being the fishing type myself, I'm just as happy hanging out at the camp site and enjoying the trees! I just love being up in the forest! The fishing wasn't good this year, and James was the only one who caught something and it was too small to keep! Oh well, there's always next year!!!

An Update on the Garden

It's been so hot the last week or so! It's wearing me down and making me not feel well. I'm feeling wilted. With each passing day, I pray that the heat will break. Along with the heat, it's been humid by our standards. It all makes for a lot of discomfort! As I write this, it is pouring outside......bring it on! Maybe it'll help the humidity level. We have had very little rain, up until this point, and this is pleasant. I am sooooo ready for Autumn!!

In the midst of it all, the garden is doing really well! It evidently likes this weather much more than I do!! Yesterday, I harvested the very first cucumber and zucchini. We grilled the zucchini on the BBQ last night......yummy!!

Just a few minutes ago, during a break in the rain, I went outside and took some pictures of the garden. I enjoy documenting it's growth!

Standing on the front steps of the house, looking out to the street.


This one was taken from the street, looking back at the house. You can see the honeysuckle growing on the fence in the foreground.


Our Russian Sage plant, up close. We planted this in the garden area years ago because it brings bees to the garden.


Here is our wonderfully silly Lacey! Whenever she goes outside with us, she immediately runs off to find her frisbee and flops herself down in the grass with it. She then sits patiently, hoping that someone might notice that she really wants to play!! She is our love and a joy to have as part of our family!


May I introduce you to our version of "Cousin It"!! This is a silver lace vine, that is several years old now. We cut it back to the ground every Autumn, and it grows faster than anything else I've ever seen! It far overtakes the trellis it's on, before our eyes every summer!!


And here are our two rows of corn! Silly, I know, considering the fact that it's grown commercially for miles all around us!! But we started to add it to our garden when James was very young, so that he could watch it grow. And we really enjoy being able to pick it and put it right on the grill.....there's nothing better!! It's doing well this year, being "knee high by the 4th of July"! We are looking forward to being able to add it to our menu, along with the tomatos, in the next few weeks!!


And so we grow! It won't be long before we're in "harvest mode".....picking, preparing and freezing the garden foods as fast as we can! I don't "can", but we do pack our freezer full with diced tomatos, and blanched corn. There is nothing better than being able to pull a bag of our "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn out of the freezer and add it to our Christmas meal menu!!!

A Belated Post

I didn't want to pass up writing a blog entry about a special weekend. We're a little out of sync, as this all took place the weekend before the 4th of July, and I hope I'll forgiven for my delay in writing about this!!

Our special weekend began when Wendy, Fred and Michael arrived in Montrose on Friday afternoon, June 25th. Wendy and I had become friends via the internet a few years back, "meeting" on scrapbook.com. We share the love of scrapbooking and got friendly through emails and phone calls. They live in South Texas, and we were thrilled when they decided to vacation in Colorado, and to include us in their travels!! We had never met in person, but it certainly felt like we had. After having read Wendy's blog for these years and seeing so many pictures of Michael and Fred (as well as Wendy), meeting them seemed so comfortable! All six of us got along so well and we really enjoyed the weekend with them and were excited about being able to share our area with them! Here is our weekend, in pictures......

Our tour of the western slope of Colorado began Saturday morning, when we went to the Ute Indian Museum, which is right in Montrose. Fred's grandfather was a Ute Indian (how cool is THAT!!?) and so they were very interested in going to the museum to learn more about Fred's (and Michael's!!) heritage. Dusty and I had been to the museum when we first moved here, long before James, and he'd never been! So it was enjoyable for everybody! It's FUN and educational to be a tourist where you live, from time to time!!

Michael, who is almost 7 years old, and James got along well all weekend and had fun together. Here they are, climbing on a bear statue, out in front of the museum.


The tepees at the museum.....


After the museum, we headed up the mountain to our favorite place to camp and fish....Woods Lake! We spent a couple of hours there, doing some fishing, having a picnic and taking pictures. Wendy is quite the photographer, and I wanted to make sure that she had plenty of photo opportunities!!

While fishing, James spotted something in the water that he HAD to go after....and in he went. That water was COLD, but that didn't stop him!!


This is my favorite picture from our weekend together......Wendy and Fred at Woods Lake!


My favorite view of Woods Lake


Here's Fred, balancing on a log and walking across the creek. Wendy, the kids and I kept waiting for him to fall in, but he didn't! Great job, Fred!!


A cute picture of Michael


From Woods Lake we drove to Telluride (just the other side of the mountain) and rode on the Gondola that goes between the town of Telluride up the mountain to Mountain Village. It's free (YES, free!!) and a fun way to spend the time! The view is spectacular!

The boys weren't to sure of it all going up and there were many squeals. Coming back down, they were calmer and seemed to enjoy it more. Wendy kept them busy looking below for animals for her to photograph. They managed to spot some marmots and squirrels! I took this picture of them on the way up, and you can see the apprehension on their faces!


And this is my friend, Wendy! I got many pictures of her behind her camera, but this was a good one with NO camera!! I appreciate your letting me take some pictures of you, Wendy! We know, as photographers, we are most comfortable behind the camera and not in front of it!!


The next morning, we set out again....this time to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. While we are lucky enough to have this beautiful place in our backyard (literally, as it's about 15 minutes from our house!), we rarely go! Once again it was fun to play "tourist" right here at home!!

We took in the visitor's center, with the movie that they show about the history of the Black Canyon, and then set out to explore! Michael and James enjoyed the first overlook we stopped at!!


What an amazingly beautiful place the Black Canyon is!!!


And I came out from behind my camera, once, and Dusty took this picture of me!


The Black Canyon isn't known for having much shade, so we just picked a picnic table for lunch! James and Michael had other ideas......


Michael and James enjoying their lunch, under the picnic table, in the shade!!


After several hours at the Black Canyon, we took the afternoon to rest. Wendy, Fred and Michael went back to their hotel for a few hours and then came to our house for dinner. Before they left, we gathered in the front yard to take some final pictures.

Wendy, Fred and Michael


And James took this picture of our group. It's a good picture, but I wish he was in it too!!


We had a wonderful weekend with our "new" friends! Wendy, Fred and Michael: We so enjoyed getting to know you in person and spending the time we had with you!! Thank you so very much for sharing your vacation time with us!!

Our 4th of July

We had a great holiday! The Montrose Community Band kept Mom busy and the boys tagged along and helped with everything, now both being officially called "band roadies"!!!

Thanks to the band, we all had a busy, busy day!! We had to be in Telluride (an hour and a half drive from our house) at 10am, to perform in their 4th of July parade! They loaded us up on a flatbed, being towed by a dump truck (welcome to small town America!!) The parade is rather "funky"....we are definitely the most "conventional" group in the parade!! This was our second year to do this, and both years we won the parade competition for "best Band"......funny, as we're the ONLY group presenting live music in the parade!! HAHAHA

Here we are, playing our way down the main street in Telluride!

And our leader, Toby, conducting us from inside the back of the dump truck! Classic!!

After performing "The Washington Post" and "The Thunderer" marches through Telluride, we were all invited to join them in their community park for the BBQ done by their volunteer fire department. One of the perks for us is that they pay for all of our lunches....a yummy meal of BBQ chicken and beef, potato salad, rolls, corn-on-the-cob, baked beans, drinks and watermelon for dessert! The crowd really enjoys us and we can barely walk a few yards without somebody stopping us to compliment the band and thank us for being there! That's pretty cool!!

We had a few hour break, to get back down the mountain and "rested up" before we were due at the Montrose RV Park to perform in the evening. It was so very windy (up to 35 mph!) and we almost cancelled, but the manager of the park (who had contracted with us to play) suggested that we eat dinner (yes, we were being fed AGAIN!) with them and wait a while to see what happened with the wind! They had invited us to join them for dinner, and the people who were staying at the RV park had put together a lovely potluck in our honor.......hot dogs, multiple types of salads, drinks, and many kinds of desserts! It was feeling very much like the 4th of July!!!

After eating, we decided to try it with the wind, which was dying down a bit. We set up our chairs and music stands and as we started to play, the wind all but quit!! Dusty said that the band out-blew the wind! We played many of our prepared pieces, and it was fun! There were only about half of our original group at either performance yesterday.....it's so hard to get people to make the committment to perform, especially on a holiday. But those of us who were there, made it work, leaving out the pieces that required instruments or people who weren't there!

This is the group playing under the gazebo, at the RV Park.

Here are Dusty's sister, Vonnie (Yvonne!) playing her sax and me, playing my flute. I thought it was great that Dusty was able to get such a good picture of us playing together!!

After the RV park, some of us took the percussion instruments back to the high school, where they belong. James, Dusty, Vonnie, John and a couple of friends decided to stay at the high school and watch the fireworks from the baseball field there. While waiting for the show to start, James played catch with his Uncle John and Aunt Vonnie, using a baseball he found on the field.

We were treated to this beautiful sunset, while we waited for the fireworks to start!

It was a great show, but I was so tired! It was a long, long day and my lips hurt from playing so much!! Hehehe

We hope that you had a wonderful July 4th weekend....may it have been filled with fun and much family love!!

Good-bye, Little Fellow......

We've had a very sad few days around our house, as our wild robin, Patch, has passed away. He was doing so well, but Wednesday morning, James found him dead on the bottom of his cage.

We've all been effected by this. It's amazing how only 12 days with a little animal can leave such a mark on you! We've all been very sad, but for poor James it's been devistating. He had put his heart and soul into taking care of Patch, and now he's suffering so. It's so very difficult to watch my little man lapse into silence and then tears, multiple times a day. I keep praying that this sadness he's feeling now will improve. I know that he must be allowed to grieve, but I had no idea it would be like this!

James and I have talked and talked over the past few days. He's so intellectual and can understand much at a grown-up level, but then the little boy emerges from his heart and the tears flow. I've told him that there were reasons that God brought Patch into our lives. I pointed out that there were lessons to be learned....look at how much we've learned in the last 12 days! But, at this point, it seems that perhaps Patch was brought to us to teach James a lesson of how to handle death. He said to me, "Mama, you would think that after having gone through this three times, I'd have it figured out!" (What he was saying was after having lost his Grandpa almost six years ago and our dog, Sadie, after that, that he felt he should have figured out death and dying!) It's such a tough lesson to learn and must be learned several times thoughout life! That's how I explained it to him!

To help him through his grieving process, we did a small funeral for Patch out in our backyard. Daddy very kindly found a box for him and dug a whole to bury Patch, next to our beloved dog, Sadie. We are now increasing our very own "pet cemetery". It's such a sad, sad business but seems so necessary right now. James made a grave marker for Patch and said afterward that doing the funeral helped him feel better.

And so, we're taking it day by day. The sadness is still very much there, as are the tears. This growing up business is so very, very hard!! Trying to convince him that we must move forward, is the hardest part right now. He will forever carry a piece of Patch in his heart, as we ALL do when a loved one leaves our midst. Finding peace with it all is so difficult, but I'm hopeful he'll be allowed to do that soon......

Rest in peace, little Patch! You've touched all of our lives!! We're so glad that we knew you!!!