First Stitches

Clementine designed and stitched this herself. It is two hearts and a purple flower under clouds.

Junior Ranger

Clementine earned her 8th Junior Ranger badge this week. We took a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to escape the forest fire smoke and extreme heat. Our first stop was an historic homesteader cabin and the Never Summer dude ranch, which was in operation from 1920 to the late 1970's.

Clementine tried roping a cow and dressing up in aprons and bonnets to do a little laundry with an old fashion washing machine.  We also visited the ranch's taxidermy shop, but Clementine did not want to spend too much time there.
The cutest animals we saw was a nest of baby ground squirrels. There were eight baby squirrels, but they kept running out of the nest and their mom would chase them back. We saw elk, beavers, and a wild turkey.  I was hoping to finally see a Moose, but no luck. We are planning a return camping trip and maybe even a stay at the historic lodge on Grand Lake.

Morning Commute

Clementine on the way to school this morning. Luckily it is only a few blocks. I just spent an hour shoveling and it is snowing again.

Saturday Morning

Michael took this photo of Clementine and I working in the kitchen. I was doing dishes while she was spelling words with refrigerator magnets.

Trick or Treat

We had a great Halloween. This is the first year we have lived in a neighborhood with lots of trick or treaters. We actually ran out of candy. Clementine liked handing out candy as much as she liked going door to door.

First Frost

We had our first freeze last week. Clementine and I dug up the potatoes and carrots. We collected all the red tomatoes and hung up our plants with green tomatoes in the garage. I am hoping it is warm enough in there for them to ripen. We also brought in the last pumpkin. The biggest and roundest pumpkin. We carved Clementine's name in it when it was just a tiny pumpkin. We are sad to see the end of our garden. Here is a photo of it at its peak this summer.

Spiders

Thanks to Aunt Claire we now have the spookiest house on the block.

Fall

My favorite time of year in Colorado. Leaves changing color and pumpkins from the garden. We went this weekend to Color Sunday on Grand Mesa. A little festival to celebrate the aspen leaves. The Grand Mesa is the largest flat top mountain in North America and has lots of beautiful glacier lakes. It is one of our favorite places for hiking.

Colorado Girl

You know you are a true Coloradan, when you never leave home without your snow hat and sunglasses.

Winter Olympics

You know you live in a terrible place when it is 30 degrees warmer at the Winter Olympics.

Valentine's Day

Did you know that candy hearts now say things like "text me"? I got something much better for Valentine's day, a clean house and a pot roast.

Christmas in Fruita, CO

This is a reminder that Christmas should be fun. That is the Grinch in the dinosaur's mouth.

Wontons

Last weekend was very cold and we were all sick, so we decided to stay in and make a big pot of wonton soup. It is simple, but folding all the wontons takes some time. It is the perfect thing to do on a cold winter afternoon. The hot gingery soup made us all feel better.

Snow and Ice

We have had almost two weeks of snow and ice on the ground and negative degree weather. Everyone keeps telling us that this has never happened in Grand Junction before. I am tired of scrapping ice every morning and nearly killing myself trying to walk from the car to the office. Today it was 30 degrees, so at least it is warming up. Hopefully this snow will melt before the next round comes. Clementine took the photo of the man in bathtub. This is one of the many statues downtown. James Dalton Trumbo who was from Grand Junction became a writer in Hollywood. His films include Roman Holiday and Spartacus. He was blacklisted for being Communist and served a year in prison. However, he continued to write under other names. He even won an Academy Award for a movie he wrote using an alias.

Happy Birthday Clementine!

Clementine turned 4 on Dec. 5th. We spent the day at the dinosaur museum in Fruita, CO. Clementine liked the spitting dinosaur the best. After the museum, we went hiking on Dinosaur Hill. In the late 1800's an almost complete skeleton of a Brontosaurus was found there.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in the Denver area with family. We actually went to two Thanksgiving feasts. One with my family in Lakewood and one with Michael's family in Golden. We truly were stuffed by the end of the day. After our second meal, I went back to my cousin Jessie's house to play games and cards. It was a late night, but lots of fun with aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The day after Thanksgiving was a beautiful sunny day with record breaking 74 degree weather. Clementine and I went for a hike with our family visiting from Texas. I think we found the coldest place in Colorado. We went to a waterfall in a box canyon near Colorado Springs. The entire falls were ice and the sun had not shined in the canyon since summer. We were not dressed for the weather, but we bravely climbed the 300 plus stairs to the top. We all really appreciated the hot chocolate in the gift shop.

Halloween Fairy

Leaves

Arches and Moab

Exploring

One gray Saturday, we had to get out of the apartment. We decided to head south for the small town of Montrose. As we drove through downtown Montrose, we saw a sign for Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We had never heard of this national park. We were awed and surprised when we drove up to the edge of the canyon and peered down into an incredibly dark and tall canyon with only a sliver of the Gunnison River below.