Happy Happy

The end of August has been great. I'm very pleased with the watermelon I have growing and my Japanese eggplant. I made an omelet this morning with the zucchini I grew and I use the tomatoes almost daily. I've love to shop and have date nights with Bri, Emmy, and Joseph. We went to see Pacific Rim on Tuesday night. It was a little scary for me since I used to have nightmares of giant monsters storming down the hill to my court accompanied by water and Tsunami like waves! I was being adult about it and only squeezed Brian's hand for comfort a couple times.  Bri and I went to Jac
k's Urban eats with a few couple and watched Disco night at the fountains. It was a fun concert , loved the weather, conversation, and frozen yogurt after.


Spence did get a crack on his IPAD screen this week, but I am sending it in to get fixed from our warranty and so it didn't put a damper on my happiness. We were fortunate enough to receive some couches people we know in the ward are getting rid of. They are purple and so comfortable. I'm pretty happy about it.:) The couches are one of those things I thought would be nice, but wasn't even looking at them to get. Now, we have a great sitting area for visitors and for family prayer and family home evening. I love to hear about the kids day, listen to them play their musical instruments, and read from the church magazines We have The friend, Ensign and New Era. We have hymn books on a table in there too. Singing songs and playing board games with the family make me happy too. I'm looking forward to playing a game about rescuing people from house fires and we would work together to make it happen. There are fires around our area, it makes for beautiful sunsets. Im always trying to find the positive and count my blessings to be happy happy!

Our Anniversary and Chama

We have this way of saying Chama in our family. It is quite raspy and loud. Who wants to go to CHAMMMA? Brian will say and the rest of us say Chama. It is silly, but we love the beautiful ride there. We always see deer and animals. I saw over 20 elk grazing on the hillside. Even with my super zoom lens, it was still so far. It was exciting to see four bucks hanging around in a meadow although only three cooperated for me for the picture. Culmbres and Toltec railroad runs through the mountains to Chama. It truly is a scenic route. I love the national forest there and that we go from Colorado to New Mexico in our visit to Chama. Also, we visit the family dollar that the kids love.

Brian and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary while in Colorado. We went to the Great Sand dunes. The stream was dried up so we filled and refilled our water bottles and tried making a sand castle. I liked covering my feet in the sand and the kids ended up making a hole in the sand to find wet, cooler sand. Joseph made sand angels and Celia wanted to go back day after day.  We tried making our way up the Zapata falls trail, but the road was being worked on and the rocks were huge. We got stuck in our mini van on the trail for a little bit then headed back. It made me laugh and smile to be bouncing around and getting stuck. We'll have to go back in a 4x4 another time! Joseph was all about gift shops and loved the arrowheads he got. The sand was great sensory for Spencer and pizza hut in Alamosa tasted pretty good after a long day on the sand. being together and having a great day made for a wonderful celebration for our anniversary. Bri and and I played games after the kids went to sleep and I think I won.:)

Colorado Cabin

When we first get to the cabin we have to go into town and get food. This usually involves a trip to the local grocery store and some visiting Sanford and Manasa. We visited the Sanford cemetery this time. Celia insisted on getting out and placing flowers on each of the headstones. Good thing there was morning glory growing everywhere waiting to be picked. I'm not a fan of cemeteries, but it is nice Celia is so concerned with her ancestors and hearing the stories of who is who. We visited Platoro reservoir .It was very low this year and almost a turquoise color.  It was a bit too rainy for a picnic when we were there. We didn't mind. I was able to snap a shot of a few wildlife as the clouds cleared. We were able to get picture and nice little nature walks in. We had to drive through a washed out area of road and 4 x4 over a tree in the road from the storm. It was a fun adventure. Eventually someone from the county told us to turn around and we did. Not until we had seen two waterfalls and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I loved the clouds there and throughout all of Colorado and New Mexico.

Emmy and Bri made to the meadow this year and were pleased to get home just in time for the rain to start pouring down. I was worried when I saw the lightning and heard the thunder, but all turned out just great.  Each day Spencer and Brian would walk down to the river. After a while we'd take a family ride to see the beautiful area. We visited the Rio Grande Gorge. They had vendors there and it seemed commercialized, but we still got a kick out of the view. We walked around Taos and ate at the Lot a Burger for the green chiles on the burgers of course. I was happy to stop off and get some beautiful earrings at a souvenir shop on the way out of town. We passed thru San Luis and after much searching found a restaurant to make us some sopapillas.:) Brian is so great to indulge me in looking for such treats. I think the lady was surprised when I ordered ten of them, but sure enough they were gone the next day. Spencer liked them a lot too.

We are long overdue for a family picture. I decided the BBQ in the backyard of the cabin could hold my camera while I set the timer and jumped in the picture. We only got two shots, but hey A family photo! We are perfect and are quite the characters so our photo should be too, I think. I'm just happy for anything we can get. We are a happy family so that is what counts!