Bob and I planned a hike on Hessie Trail near Nederland Colorado yesterday. It is listed as a moderate 4-mile hike in trail books. I’d like to redefine the term “moderate” as the trail was pretty darn hard at parts because of the snow.
I bought some YakTraks to strap onto our shoes since they are supposed to help with traction on ice. I couldn’t even feel them on my feet and never worried about slipping at all, which is a big deal considering I am a klutz.
Bob let Coda off leash for most of the hike uphill and Coda enjoyed every moment of freedom frolicking in the wilderness. He even howled to the tune of “The Hills Are Alive”. Honest, he did.
While Coda enjoyed running around I was getting pretty tired when we came to quite the incline. I made a rule that Bob had stop every 20 yards so I could rest. I wasn’t kidding. At one point I found a rock to sit on and busted out my stash of Girl Scout cookies that I snuck into my pocket before we left the house. I know you’re all wondering what kind they were. I had Do Si Dos! Peanut butter sandwich cookies. Peanut butter has protein so it was the perfect healthy snack for a hike. Yeah… just go with it.
After about 2 1/2 hours of walking uphill we decided to head down. Ahhh this was much better. I didn’t have to stop at all on the way down. I love gravity. You didn’t expect Bob and I to go on a hike just for the fitness aspect did you? No no no, we went out for Mexican food for dinner to re-gain the calories we lost and then some.
Please put a curve in the highway so Bob doesn’t have to hold the steering wheel straight for 8 whole hours.
Thanks,
Jen
The trip was long, as we expected. We packed up all 3 pets and headed to Rochester for Christmas. The dogs were actually amazing and slept all cute and cuddled up the entire time.
Our only issues came with Paco.
Senor Paco does not enjoy car rides and tends to go to the bathroom in his cat carrier. We knew this already and I packed a “diaper bag” with towels, rubber gloves and wet wipes. Paco had 4 baths on the way to Rochester. The most eventful was when he pooped and we took an hour to find a family bathroom to give him a bath in. The sink was not made to bathe small animals and Bob was not happy about it.
Paco had a few more baths on the way back to Colorado. One time he pooped in the corner of his crate and didn’t smear it all over like he had before. I know it is gross, but Bob was very excited that it was a “clean” poop! He praised Paco for getting it all neatly in the corner of his crate to make clean-up easier. Then Paco got wiped down with cat wipes… for cats that bathe with dignity. I’m not kidding.
Paco begs to differ about the “dignity” part. He was still very embarassed.
Ah yes, the holidays are upon us! This past weekend I decorated for Christmas so we could take a family photo near the fireplace with all of our pets to mail out in our Christmas cards. Last year was hard enough with just Coda and Paco. If you recall, we sent out a picture of Paco beating up Coda since it was the best they could do.
This year we threw costumes & Wellesley into the mix and it was incredibly complicated. We knew there was no way to get all 3 kids in the picture to sit still, so Bob & I got in the photo to hold the pets still.
Coda was too bored and kept laying down to sleep. Paco kept swatting at Coda’s antlers and complaining to get out of his elf costume. Wellesley kept trying to eat his own antlers and managed to hold still for a maximum of 19 seconds since the timer on the camera was set for 20 seconds. He always moved right before the photo was snapped. One time he even hacked up a lung when the picture was taken and his mouth is wide open mid-hack.
After what felt like hours of torture for all of us, we finally got a decent picture of all of us. Merry Christmas ya’ll!
Bob had been not-so-subtly hinting about wanting another dog for Coda to play with. He would take me into pet stores and show me pictures of cute dogs and tell me how badly the dogs wanted us to be their parents. Oh the sob stories!
Bob found a picture of a handsome golden retriever online. He was up for adoption at Freedom Service Dogs. He was supposed to be trained to help war veterans, but was too obsessed with tennis balls to focus on his job and was put up for adoption. I said the picture was cute when Bob showed it to me online, and the next thing I knew we had an appointment to meet the pup! I have no idea how that happened.
We took Coda with us and they met at the rescue center play yard and got along well. An hour later, we had our newest son in the car with us and we were going home. Wait a minute…24 hours ago I had no thoughts of getting a dog and suddenly I had a new one in my car?! I must have been drugged.
He is about 10 months old now and fairly mild-mannered for a dog his age. He does enjoy Bob’s shoes, but he doesn’t chew the outside. He likes to rip out the insoles and chomp on that part and leaves the rest of the shoe fully in tact. More incentive to put shoes away so we don’t have a pile at the front door. Looks like the dog is training my husband to put his own stuff away. Hey, I kinda like this new dog!
Wellesley and Coda enjoy chasing each other aroud the yard and trying to figure out what the heck happens to a snowball when I throw it and they catch it. Paco was timid at first, but has no problem swatting at Wellesley now. Wellesley’s tail is much longer than Coda’s and more fun for Paco to play with.
We frequently call Wellesley “Grunter” because he makes a Tim Allen grunting sound to let us know he enjoys being pet all the time. He is also the gassiest dog I have ever met! He burps in our faces daily (mostly because he eats his meals in 2 seconds flat) and has audible farts all the time. At least when we blame the dog we know it really was the dog that did it! Even Wellesley knows how bad the smell is and leaves the room.
We sure knowhow to pick pets with funny, distinct personalities. I can only imagine the shennanigans the three of them can plan…
I got out of work last friday and came home to Christy sitting on my couch! Christy and Bob planned this whole surprise visit and I didn’t have any idea. We had an action-packed weekend.
For Halloween we stayed home for a bit to hand out candy and planned on leaving to meet up with other people around 9pm. While getting ready to go, I put a basket of candy bars on the front steps in case any last-minute trick-or-treaters came. I closed the door and put my shoes on. Two minutes later I opened the door to leave and all of my candy was gone! Two houses down were some 12 or 13 year old boys outside and I knew they took it all. I yelled down the street that they owed me 85 candy bars and they hustled off down the street. Bob scolded me for yelling at teens on Halloween, but luckily they didn’t egg our house later.
Kate Gosselin, Juno and Paulie Bleeker headed to a bar in downtown denver. Some people didn’t recognize my character and thought I was just pregnant and drinking. I suppose you’d have to see the movie Juno to know who I was. Christy was the true Kate Gosselin (evil), and we happened to run into Jon Gosselin and Hailey Glassman for a nice photo op.
The next morning we headed up Pike’s Peak but only made it halfway due to a snowstorm from earlier that week. We also went to the Garden of the Gods and Bob decided to find a random, unofficial trail.
It was against my wishes, but Christy wanted to explore Bob’s route so I reluctantly went along. We were lost. We came out along a paved road and walked for what felt like an hour to find our car. Ok, it wasn’t really an hour but it felt really long. Carrying a purse and coat while wearing a sweater on a hot day is not my idea of comfort and a good hike.
Sunday was football day and a trip to Estes park. I have never seen so many elk there before! There were dozens upon dozens along the roadway. Some were within 20 feet of our car. Christy definitely had a great day for viewing the elk!
On Christy’s last full day we went to Boulder to check out the town, then we went to Coors Brewery for a tour. The tour was self-guided and we got 3 free drinks at the end. I don’t like beer so I opted for pink lemonade instead. This is a good adventure for anyone that likes free beers!
Later that night Bob and Christy were making Pizookies ( a dessert with cookie dough). Together they assembled the Pizookies and Bob put them in the oven to cook. Then he locked it in cleaning mode by accident. Mmmm burnt dessert. There is no way to turn off cleaning mode to open the oven. Bob ended up pulling out the stove and unplugging it.
It was nice to have a surprise visitor for a few days! We’re hoping Christy and Time come visit this summer! Anyone else is welcome as well. YAY VISITORS!
It took us two attempts to find a pumpkin this year. Two weeks ago we went to Anderson Farms because we had a great time there last year. It was the day after the first snow and freeze of the season so we were warned that the pumpkins would likely turn to mush if we got any.
It was still freezing cold (around 26 degrees) so we grabbed some hot chocolate and hot cider and fed the goats before heading home. The goats loved Bob. Must be all of his facial hair that matched the goats.
Today we went to Rock Creek farms that had the same problem with pumpkins freezing and rotting. Acres upon acres of the pumpkin patch were a bust to walk through. All of the remaining pumpkins had already turned to mush. We headed to the pre-picked bins to get pumpkins that hadn’t turned into orange blobs yet.
Since it is getting chilly here, the kids have started to snuggle. Don’t look at the next picture if you can’t handle cuteness. Don’t let them fool you though! They are still trouble! Just ask Coda where my loaf of beer bread and pound of vanilla fudge went.
Bob planned a fall drive near Glenwood Springs last weekend. We passed through a tiny town called Wolcott. Ah yes, visions of a 1-room movie theatre, nude statue fountain and Bobs Big M popped into my head. Wolcott, Colorado didn’t have a signal light, let alone a grocery store. In fact, I’m not sure any civilization existed to warrant a zip code for the town. Since there is barely any evidence that the town exists, here is proof.
We continued on our scenic drive along the Colorado River for about an hour. Purdy yellow Aspen trees and fishermen dotted the riverbanks. It was a lovely, uneventful drive until our gas light came on and we didn’t see a gas station for what felt like hours. I may have over-reacted about the gas light because we survived. (Editor’s [Bob's] Note: We still had almost 3 gallons of gas when we got to the gas station. I wasn’t even breaking a sweat.)
We moved into our new rental house about 2 months ago. The house is a tri-level built in 1977. If a realtor was going to list the house on the market, it may be described as “A 3 bedroom, 1.5 half bath home with a charming and original retro feel”.
In my words, I would say it is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home with ugly carpet and and ugly kitchen that hasn’t been updated since 1977. See for yourself.
Bob and I did some work and painted wood paneling in the living room the day after we moved in. Even Mike Brady would have approved of us painting over the paneling. We also painted the office and two bedrooms. I replaced dark navy blue fabric vertical blinds in the kitchen and hung lighter drapes in their place.
Now we just need some ore visitors! Looking forward to Jimmy, Beth, Kendall and Sydney visiting in February. We are taking reservations year-round, so let us know if you’d like to stay at la casa de Spryns.
There is a lake we can walk to from our house. It is called Standley lake and the Colorado state record for the largest walleye was caught there. The lake has bass, trout and panfish as well so Bob and I decided to try our fishing skills out there. We tried to fish from the shoreline but the water was so shallow where we were so we only caught weeds with our lures. I did, however, fish out two golf balls with the net, so we didn’t go home empty-handed.
Lately I have been feeling old for my 25 years of age. I have been thinking of college and how great it would be to go back with the care-free younger students. Just 4 hours at the CU vs CSU football game made me realize that 25 is a pretty good age. Here is what helped me decide that:
The kid’s underwear in front of me.
The student that took a football pinata, cut it in half, and placed it on his head as a hat.
The guy that couldn’t make it 10 feet off the sidewalk to pee. Nope. It was that urgent.
The drunk guy that randomly tried to high-five Bob. Bob totally ducked and dodged him.
The already drunk guy that was amazed there was a bus with Christmas lights in it, waiting to shuttle students from campus to a local bar. (“Wait…you mean you’ll give me a ride on this bus?! To a bar?! Really?! Are you going to the bar?”)
Aside from the college students there were a few older gems in the crowd. Take Fanny Pack Man with too small jeans, for example.
Or the lady that thought 83 degrees was 38 degrees and wore a long sleeved shirt with a snazzy fleece Buffalo vest.
Can you tell I’m more of a people watcher than a football watcher? Bob and I were rooting for the Colorado University Buffaloes. C’mon… Did you think he’d root for any team that didn’t have a Buffalo as a mascot? And true to Buffalo form, they lost.
Bob, Coda and I packed up the car on 30 minutes notice and headed to Lake Dillon to go camping for the weekend. I read about a regatta that was taking place there and was anxious to get out on the water since I miss summers at Port Bay.
As soon as we got our tent set up we saw storm clouds rolling in so we got in the car and headed to Wal-Mart to get a hatchett and then stopped at Wendy’s for dinner since having a campfire was out of the question that night. When we got back to the tent it had partially collapsed from swift winds, and despite having an extra rain tarp on top, had soaked our mattress foam that we brought to sleep on. It was a damp, chilly slumber.
We woke up to clear blue skies and headed out to the regatta. While waiting for the race to start we watched as Coda enjoyed splashing and swimming in the water. Then we saw a water taxi that gives rides from one marina to another on opposite sides of the lake. We had no reason to go to the other marina, but were itching to be out on a boat so we paid to go for a 1-hour roundtrip water taxi ride.
The views were spectacular and our captain told us that the lake is about 30 miles all around the shoreline and gets to 300 feet deep near the dam, where the water temps hold steady at about 38 degrees. Burrr. I would not want to go overboard there! There was also a slight gap between the floor boards and Coda was fascinated, curious, and angry that water kept splashing up. Watch his reaction:
After our boat ride we went to a nearby park that overlooked the regatta and Chef Bob cooked some burgers while I read a celebrity gossip magazine and occasionally glanced up at the sailboats. I blame Aunt Jodi for my celebrity gossip obsession since she gave me all of her old People magazines.
After the boat race, we headed back to our camp where I was going to read up on breckenridge and see what we might do later.
That evening we had a camp fire and ate modified s’mores. Bob doesn’t like chocolate, so I got Reese’s Pieces candies to put on the graham cracker instead of Hershey’s chocolate. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but the small candies fell off and I ended up cramming them into the sides of the marshmallows. Despite the logistical disaster, they tasted pretty good!
On day three without showers, we packed up and headed to Mt. Evans on the way home. This mountain is slightly over 14,000 feet high. The roads were barely wide enough for 2 cars and there were no guardrails. I was sure we were going to die, but was pleased with the lovely views we would see if we fell to our deaths.
We made it to the top and saw mountain goats that were no more than 10 feet away from us! The park ranger said the goats put up with humans because they needed to be near the rocks at the top to lick the minerals out. They were cute creatures.
We headed back down the mountain and passed a Dodge Colt Vista along the way. My parents used to have this vehicle and I was amazed that one was still running, let alone climbing a 14,000 foot mountain!
