Proud owners of NEW cross country skis, boots and poles!!

Today we drove to REI in Dillon to buy new cross country skis, boot and poles.  Steve and I both owned cross country skis (many moons ago) in our younger lives.  We have decided we still like to cross country ski.  We have skied twice with borrowed skis, boots and poles.  We enjoyed it so much, we decided we wanted to buy our own skis.  We were partly successful today.  We bought skisand I bought boots.  We had to order poles and Steve's boots.  It was definitely worth the drive up there.  The scenery, the mountains, the snow....  amazing.  We are always SO amazed at all the places we can drive to from our house.  We came home and did our usual walk from our house to the railroad bridge along the Arkansas River and saw our first bluebird!  Yay!  Spring is almost here! 

Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge

Steve & I drove to Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge on Friday to see the Sandhill Cranes.  It was a beautiful drive.  We drove past  Great Sand Dunes National Park, stopped and checked out Sand Dunes Swimming Pool and RV Park.  We will definitely go back there this Summer.  The Cranes were amazing.  We spent most of the afternoon and evening watching them.  We stayed at the Rio Grande Motel in Monte Vista, had dinner in Alamosa at the San Luis Valley Brewing Company.  They had great beer and food and live music.  Saturday morning we got up early and went out to see the cranes and the sunrise.  We found CR 28 just south of Monte Vista.  What a beautiful early morning drive up toward Rock Creek Campground.  We didn't make it to the campground, because of all the snow.  We will definitely go back there this Summer. We had breakfast at a wonderful restaurant called the Sunflour Cafe in Monte Vista.  We stopped at Joyful Journey Hot Springs on the way home.  It was a wonderful way to spend a gorgeous weekend.  Blue sky, sunny, Colorado weather.   

Different Types of Adventures ~ Water Yoga, Hiking and Painting!

 We have discovered Water Yoga at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs and we love it.

After class we have started swimming laps.  Steve is getting much better at freestyle. He took swim lessons about 5 years ago when we lived in Longmont. 

 We walk almost every day from our house.  We walk north along the Arkansas River and then walk as far as we want on County Road 371.  It is beautiful! 

Steve decided he wanted/needed to paint the inside of our house.  What a job and quite the mess! 😏  I love that he loves to paint.  I help with the taping, covering everything with newspaper, cleanup, and running to True Value for more paint. He has painted the kitchen, dining room and our bathroom.  Are we ever bored around here??? 

Tomorrow we are going to take a break from painting and drive to Monte Vista to go see the Sandhill Cranes.  We missed the Crane Festival last weekend, but the Cranes are still there.  I can't wait to see them.  We have never gone to see them in March, because we are usually in Arizona. 

I am sure my next post will be about Sandhill Cranes.  I am practicing posting to the blog.  I hope to post ALOT when we are in Australia in April. 

Hiking and Cross Country Skiing in Buena Vista and Leadville

Saturday Steve & I hiked on the Midland trail in Buena Vista.  It was a perfect day.  We hiked in the snow and broke trail for most of the hike.  One long distance runner passed us and then we saw one other couple hiking.  The weather was perfect ~ Blue sky, sunny and the views of the Collegiate Peaks were amazing.

Today, Monday, March 11, we cross country skied in Leadville.  We skied on the Mineral Belt trail.  We went with our neighbors, David and Bob.  We had two cars, so we were able to start at one end of the trail and we skied almost 10 miles back to the other end of the trail.  It was amazing!  The trail had been groomed.  David and Bob cross country ski alot.  This was our second day skiing this season.  It was great and I was glad I could keep up with all of them.  Steve & I are SO thankful that we have been able to use David and Ellen's skis, boots and poles, but we are definitely "hooked" and now need to go buy our own equipment. 😃

We came home to MANY birds and deer in our yard...  We love this place!

Everything Happens for a Reason

Yes, I am really going to try to blog, AGAIN.  As many of you know, I post photos to Facebook almost daily and I also have my Instagram account.  I love Facebook and Instagram, but sometimes I feel like writing more about our adventures and not just posting pictures of where and what we have been doing. 

The reason for the title of this blog, is that I have been really thinking lately about how and why things have been happening the way they have been happening.  Our plan for this Winter was to spend January through March in Arizona.  This is what we have been doing for the past three or four years.  We love Arizona in the Winter~ We love the hiking, the mountain biking, kayaking, spending time with all of our friends and spending time with Lois.  We knew we wanted to come back in February to meet our new granddaughter.  Our plan was to come back to Colorado and meet Louisa and spend time with all of our kids and grand kids.  So, that is what we did.  Unfortunately, while we were home, Steve started having what he thought were more heart issues.  After a trip to the ER and then 24 hours in the hospital, we still didn't know what was going on.  Long story short, it turned out NOT to be his heart, but it took a few weeks to figure that out.  We went back to Arizona and since he was still having problems, we decided we needed to come home and see his cardiologist in Colorado Springs. 

We have now been home for almost three weeks.  Buena Vista has received LOTS of snow.  We are loving being home.  We have spent hours hiking, snowshoeing and enjoying the beauty of this place we get to call home.  We have been able to go visit the kids and grand kids again.  Today we went cross country skiing up in Leadville with a neighbor.  Steve & I can't remember the last time we cross country skied, but it was MANY moons ago.  We loved it!  It was beautiful.  We can't wait to go again.  Now we just have to buy skis, boots and poles, because we no longer have the old ones we had so long ago. 

We are SO lucky that we live in Colorado, but we love the fact that we can travel in our Arctic Fox trailer.  We love camping in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

We are looking forward to having all our kids and grand kids visit us in March.  Spring Break is just around the corner and we are hoping to see all of them here at our house. 

Oh, I forgot to mention how much we are enjoying our yoga classes at Peak Fitness and our water yoga classes at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  Are we bored in Buena Vista?  Never!  Sometimes I wish there were more hours in the day! 

Then....  A BIG Adventure for Steve and me, from April 16-May 15, when we spend a month in Perth, Australia with our daughter, Rebecca and Antonio.  We haven;t seen them for almost two years! 

Life in Buena Vista