Highlights Thus Far

We’re in Colorado! We have been busy and have been in places with little to no internet access so I haven’t really had a chance to update everyone on our awesome trip and what’s been going on up here. A lot has happened over the past two weeks so this will be a pretty long update.

Deckers and Cripple Creek

We headed for cooler summer temps and beautiful scenery on our anniversary. We drove all the way from Dallas to Colorado Springs the first day. We stayed with my parents and went to church with them on Sunday morning. They were really awesome and took us to Chili’s for an anniversary dinner. This was number 5 for me and Aaron so it was kind of special to get to do that. After dinner we went back to their apartment and my dad took a look at the linkage on our car. We’d been told the cable needed to be replaced but he figured out that the problem was really that the clip that held the cable in the right position was missing so he was able to rig something up so we are now able to put our car in park. Yea! It has been working great since he fixed it. After he got done with that we headed for Deckers and spent several days with Aaron’s grandparents at their ranch. Aaron did some work for them and I got a lot of work done on my classes so I could have a cushion for the family reunion. We left our dogs with them and took off for Cripple Creek to spend a day and night for our anniversary. We had Seal with us. He is really easy to take care of and his grandma is allergic to cats so we had to take him with us. Anyway, he turned out to be kind of a problem. We got to Cripple Creek about 3 and stopped at the visitor center to figure out where some hotels were and what their was to do and see in Cripple Creek. We decided that we’d try to stay at one of the hotels connected with the casino cause it was kind of old and had the mining town ambiance. Well we tried to sneak Seal in and got caught and asked to leave. I was pretty upset about that because I’m sure they have people that they rent out rooms to who get drunk and do 100’s of dollars of damage, but they won’t let one stupid cat who is going to lay on the bed and sleep 23 out of 24 hours stay in their junky little room. Anyhow, we ended up going to a more modern hotel on the edge of town. Seal had to stay in the back of the Isuzu but he was fine cause Cripple Creek is such a high elevation that it was very cool for the night.

After we finally got settled in the hotel, we went into town to look around at all the old buildings and put a few nickels in the slot machines. We ate dinner at the restaurant called Maggie’s. It was amazing. It was pretty pricey. We got mussels in wine sauce for an appetizer and Aaron got Honey Smoked Salmon Pasta and I had Elk Tenderloin with spinach. Everything was amazing.

After dinner we went to see a melodrama at the Butte Theater. This theater has been there since mining town days. It was really cool. They sold concessions like at the movie theater. There were about 10 people there to see it so that was kind of cool too because they got the crowd more involved. They had a guy playing the piano for the music and the melodrama was really funny. It was called “An Arrant Knave”. There was one guy especially who was so funny. He was the captain for the duke who was the villain. He ended up helping the heroine escape from the evil duke so he had to disguise himself as a women to keep from getting hanged. He did a great job.

After the play we did a couple more slot machines and then went to bed. The next morning we got up and went to breakfast at a casino. The breakfast was free with our hotel room. After that we just walked around and took some pictures. Aaron got some ice cream and I got a fruit smoothie. We decided there wasn’t much more to do in Cripple Creek so we took off for Red Mountain Camp.

We missed the road the first time and ended up going in a big circle back to Cripple Creek. The next time we hit the right road, Phantom Canyon Road, but by the time we got on it a huge hail storm had come in. It was beating down so hard that Aaron and I were yelling and we still couldn’t hear what each other was saying. The storm was going the same direction as us so we just kept driving and finally got out of it. We probably had hail an inch deep on our windshield. It was crazy. The drive down Phantom Canyon was beautiful. We went thru several old tunnels. We came out in Florence and then took the back way into the camp.

Red Mountain—Family Reunion

We got to the camp about 4:30. A few people were there before us but almost everyone had come by supper time. We had such a great time with everyone. We missed Ethan and Nat and Chrissy and Brian and kids being there. A few highlights were the art gallery, the Cajun night, talent show, and Brad’s meal that he made on Sunday night. The art gallery went great. This was the first year that we’d done this and we had great participation. We had quilts, paintings, drawings, figurines, comics, photos, videos, and scrapbooks. It was great. We did it on Friday night and had refreshments and Tammy did a cake decorating demonstration which was really interesting. We also had a campfire for devo that night. We haven’t had one of those since Jessie’s Cabin.

The Cajun night went great. Everyone was great to participate. We all made Mardi Gras masks. Some were very elaborate and creative. The gumbo and other dishes were delicious. We had gumbo and rice, shrimp Creole, jambalaya, and red beans and rice. We also had King Cake. David S. won the prize in the cake of being king for the day. He got a burger king crown. Everyone voted for best mask and best costume. Brittany got the prize for best mask and Jan got the prize for best costume. Then my mom did a game where you had to guess the meaning of different Creole words. That was interesting. The winning team got pens and post it notes.

It was great to have my new brother-in-law at the reunion. On Sunday, Brad made kabobs for everyone. YUM!!!! He had beef and shrimp with peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and onion and chicken with pineapple. He marinated the beef in a coffee marinade. It was so good. He did the shrimp in a citrus marinade that was great and the chicken was in a Chinese 5 spice marinade. I ate way to much that night.

After that delicious meal we had the talent show. Brittany did a great job getting that organized and getting people to participate. We had great acts this year. Some of the highlights were my mom reading a poem she’d written, the aunt’s song, Grandpa and Uncle Paul reviving Bill Grogan’s Goat, and Grandma and Grandpa’s computer store skit. The Joyners and Brad did lots of excellent singing and music. Great show!

We ended the reunion on Monday night with a really fun game that Jessica came up with. We had to write down the name of a famous person, real or fictional, and then everyone had to try to guess who had written down that name. It was supposed to be a name that no one would associate with you and everyone did a really good job of picking one like that. Grandma was Michelle Obama, my mom was Tom Jones, and my dad was Jeff Foxworthy, just to give an idea of some of the names picked. Nan won the game as Dean Martin.

Tuesday we left the reunion. We had lunch at Qdoba in Colorado Springs with the Skids, my parents, and Cindy, Brad, and Tammy, and Uncle Paul. Uncle Kev, my dad, and Uncle Paul kindly paid for everyone. The Skids headed off and me and Aaron, my parents, Tricia, and Uncle Paul stayed the night in CO Springs. We went to Garden of the Gods and Helen Hunt falls for something to do in the afternoon.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday, Aaron and I went up to Ft. Collins to get our meat. Part of it was Aaron’s grandma’s so we had to bring it to her here in Montrose. We got back to Colorado Springs about 4 and hung out with my parents for the evening. We ate at Noodles and Co. Aaron called his grandparents to tell them we’d be coming the next day to get the dogs. Well we found out that Abbey had gone into heat while we were at the reunion. I felt HORRIBLE. They had to listen to Houdini whine all week long. They will never keep our dogs again and I don't blame them. Anyhow, they saw Houdini nail her once so we may have puppies in October. I was really kind of dreading it at first until Aaron reminded me that we have a garage they can stay in now. I love having puppies. I don’t want them right now since I’m starting my master’s program, but if it happens it happens.

So….as you can see we have already had an action packed trip to Colorado and we still have about 20 days to go. I put some pictures of different things on here. The first 3 pics are of cripple creek and the rest are from the reunion.