Different kinds of Adventures ~

We have such a nice home to stay in when we go to Colorado Springs.  Sister Sally and Art are great hosts! 

Garden of the Gods ~

I guess this is a random blog post.  Many things have happened since we came home from Arizona in the middle of February.  We have SO enjoyed having all the kids and grandkids come and visit us in Buena Vista for their Spring breaks.  Today, Stefan, Rachael, and Louisa arrive for the weekend.  It is hard to believe Louisa is 9 weeks old!  We haven't seen her for awhile and are so excited to see how she has grown and changed.  We loved having Josh, Amanda, and Linden here last weekend.  We went tubing in Leadville and went to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  We get to celebrate Linden's 2nd birthday next weekend.  Grandson Sheldon turns 8 this weekend.  It is amazing to us, how quickly they grow up.

Our biggest, greatest, happiest news is that Steve had his one year anniversary cardiologist appointment this week in Colorado Springs.  The Dr. told Steve that everything is great and Steve can stop taking the blood thinners.  He will continue with the Statin drug.  Steve has done an amazing job with his diet and continues to exercise (alot).  We are happy that we have found such a great cardiologist.  Dr. Carlson is the doctor who did Steve's stent surgery a year ago today.  We will continue to go to Colorado Springs and love that we have a wonderful place to stay while we are there.  Sister Sally and Art are great hosts. 

Spring has arrived in Buena Vista and most of the snow is gone around our house.  There is still LOTS of snow up in the mountains.  I have planted my cold frame and already have spinach, arugula, and lettuce coming up.  I LOVE Spring!  I won't be planting the BIG garden this year until after we come home from Australia.  We leave for Perth on April 16th and are getting so excited to see Rebecca and Antonio.  It will be Fall while we are there. 

Adventures with Grand kids ~ Spring Break

 Eva, Coranelle and Sheldon in the new baby trailer, Turtle.  Sheldon and Coranelle slept in it all three nights.  I think they REALLY like it! 

                                     Coranelle and Sheldon feeding our neighborhood turkeys.

                                Tubing at the Leadville Tubing Hill was a big hit for all ages!!! 

                                            Steve went down as many times as the kids did! 

                                    I think Eric and Kari had as much fun as the grand kids

                                                                        Snow Angels

                Eric's cousin, Ronja, is here from Germany!  It was so much fun having her here, too. 

 Adopted neighbor, "daughter" Lisa and Kari.  SO much fun.  Lisa speaks German, so she and Ronja spoke lots of German.

                                   Kirt and Eric playing ping pong.  Nobody could beat Eric!!!

                     Kari braiding the girls' hair.  (Coranelle, why did you stick your tongue out???)

                             We went to the Salida Hot Springs pool on Sunday.  That was a big hit, too! 

                                                                    Eric and Ronja

Sooooo...... I have had NO voice (laryngitis) and a yukky cold, sore throat, and  plugged up ears since last Thursday.  On Friday night our first set of kids and grand kids showed up at our house.  There were only six of them.  Eric, Kari, Eva, Coranelle, Sheldon and Ronja, Eric's cousin.  I think they all enjoyed their weekend in Buena Vista.  We went to the tubing hill in Leadville on Saturday and the Salida Hot springs pool on Sunday. Coranelle and Sheldon slept out in the "baby" trailer, Grandpa and Grandma slept in the BIG trailer and the others had plenty of room in the house.  Steve cooked lots of breakfasts and we had yummy dinners.  Sunday night, we had German night and Ronja cooked a German potato dish and our neighbor Lisa brought cucumber salad and fruit strudel.  Yum!!! It has been pretty quiet around here, since they left yesterday. 

This weekend Amanda, Josh and Linden are coming and the following weekend Stefan, Rachael, and baby Louisa will be here. My goal is to be 100% healthy by this weekend.  You can't imagine how hard it is to NOT be able to talk.  I did some whispering, but that got old quickly. 

A new "baby" trailer and hiking in Brown's Canyon

 So.....  Steve found a cute, homemade trailer on Craig's list.  Long story short, we are now the new proud owners.  It will serve two purposes.  We can use it to do more "off road" camping and take it to places we don't want to take the Arctic Fox.  It will also be a great extra place for kids and grandkids to sleep in when we have them all show up at our house.  I think the grandkids are going to love it.  It is really cute.  The dinette makes in to a queen size bed, there is a really cute kitchen, and even a porta potty.  We think the guy who built it, did a great job.  Now we can't wait for camping season. 

Today being the first day of Spring and a most gorgeous, beautiful, blue sky, sunny day, we decided to go hike down by Ruby Mountain in the Browns Canyon National Monument.  Amazing hike and we had the trail to ourselves!  Happy Spring! 

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!