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.

Dear Kansas highway department,

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.

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 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.

Meet Wellesley from Bob Spryn on Vimeo.

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…

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.

Oh, and Bob wanted to show off his pumpkin again:

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.

We found a couple of guys with bulging calf muscles in the parking lot and figured they would be perfect to ask which trails to go on. Bob made sure to tell them I had never been mountain biking before. They gave us some guidance, wished us luck and said “Maybe we’ll see you out on the trail in a bit!”. HA! The only way we’d see them on the trail is if they passed us on their way back to the parking lot, while Bob and I were still chugging along… just leaving the parking lot.

We saw some deer and got pretty close to them. One in particular didn’t seem too scared and I thought he was getting ready to attack me so I told Bob to get pedaling, and fast. After escaping with my life, we passed a few horses along the way and several near-pro bikers that whizzed by.

Yet another scary moment was the first big down-hill part of the trail. It was steep and had lots of rocks. Bob greeted the challenge with a smile and enjoyed it. I slammed on my grown-up brakes and walked down the hill. I’m the world’s biggest klutz, so a hill + rocks= trip to the emergency room. I wasn’t going to take my chances. The bottom of the hill took us to a lake. And by lake, I mean a really big pond (nothing compares to a lake after growing up near the great lakes).

At this point I realized Bob left the trail map in the car and was just guessing where to go. We ended up at a dead-end because the trail ran into a swift-moving stream. I wasn’t up for swimming across it with my hand-me-down bike, so we backtracked a bit and Bob finally got us back to the Skunk Lot. Bob enjoyed the trails and I think I may have accidentally agreed to go again with him.

View Disney Trip in a larger map

Saturday had warmed up but still called for contant rain all day. We decided to go on a tour of Hammond’s Candy factory. They make lots of hard candy and candy canes. Anyone in my family would appreciate a candy factory tour. We put on fancy-pants hats and watched the workers roll out candy canes while indulging in free samples. Good thing we had a few freebies because their chocolates were over $22 per pound!

We drove around downtown Denver in the rain so mom could see Investco Stadium where the Broncos play and Coors Field where the Rockies play. Then we mosied up to Boulder for the late evening. The rain let up and we had a chilly walk down Pearl Street where mom purchased some more candy (beacause free samples aren’t enough!). We took a little drive to Nederland so she could see a small mountain town, but we couldn’t see much of the town since it was covered in 3 feet of snow.

Sunday suddenly became sunny so we headed to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. I believe mom said “It is just so beautiful” about a trillion times, give or take one or two. She also took the same picture a trillion times because she just couldn’t get enough of the views. Her highlight was seeing the elk that we had told her about. Oh, and the prarie dogs. She loved those, too.

Monday afternoon we took her to Red Rocks amphitheater to see a cool, natural phenomenom. She was quite impressed with the views, but less impressed with the many steps she had to walk up to use the restroom there. I think that was the first time she realized the altitude can do a number on ya!

From there we went to Roxborough state park where Bob pelted me with snowballs. Mom decided we should ban together and shove Bob in the snow, and I stupidly agreed. When Bob was near me, I shoved him, and somehow I ended up getting more snow in my face. Mom tried to clobber Bob with some snowballs, but Bob grabbed me and used me as a human shield. Mom, your brilliant plan backfired and I had to pay the price. Thanks.

Jen is doing ok as well. Her neck is still sore and hard to turn all the way to the left or right (kind of like a kink in the neck from sleeping.) Her nose is still sore as well, but she should be ok.

Hopefully everyone keeps improving from here, and Mom can enjoy a little bit of her stay.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers again. Bob