Mountains & Sunburns

"Ultraviolet radiation is 36% stronger in the mountains." Yeah, no kidding. That would be why the SPF 65 sunscreen apparently doesn't work for me. I wish it would turn brown, but it's just making me more red. Urgh.

It's ok - I'll get over the sunburn. I wish J would let me take a picture of his neato sunburn. His self-application of sunscreen didn't go so well. He's got a nifty little stripey pattern going on. But more on that later.

To catch everyone up on what's going on with us, a photo essay.

Disc Golf in Pueblo







Our first view of mountains!



We drove up a crazy bumpy dirt road into the wilderness. We thought for sure there was nothing exciting at the top of the road, but we found it... Willow Creek Reservoir. Just breathtaking! These pictures don't do it justice.







And lastly, Olivia played her first round of putt-putt at Snow Mountain Ranch!





We've spent the last couple of days exploring, taking Olivia to the playground in Winter Park, visiting our favorite coffee shop, and eating a Buffalo Burger (YUM!) at a great little BBQ place.
We've gone swimming (it was cold!) and watched some new movies. Today, we rented a bike for me and borrowed one for Jason, and took a 6 mile bike trip from Fraser to Winter Park and back. Mom & Dad came along too - and Dad pulled Olivia in the trailer. It was a great time! I didn't take pictures - I was too busy catching my breath most of the time. The altitude makes a big difference! I can do pretty much anything at sea level, but at 9,000 feet, I run out of breath a whole lot quicker!

After the ride, we cooked hamburgers and watched The Lion King! We had a fabulous day today. I think we may be heading up to Rocky Mountain National Forest to drive Trail Ridge Road tomorrow or the next day. :)

Day 1 of Vacation

Today, we set out early this morning to make the first leg of our drive to beautiful Winter Park, Colorado. We always make this drive over 2 days, but especially now that we have a little one in our midst, breaking it up just makes the most sense.

We left the house around 6:30 this morning, with sleep still in our eyes, and our daughter still in her jammies. We stopped for coffee, had a granola bar for breakfast, and all was well. We drove through countryside, explaining to Olivia (when she was awake) what oil derricks were, she heard her first freight train horn, and she took a lot of naps. At one point, a rather large bug took one for the team on our windshield... and I could have sworn that J told me it was a frog. Of course, that's not what he said, but he exclaimed that he was rather disappointed, as he could have fried up the legs for dinner. He asked Olivia if she'd like to try frog legs. She said, "We don't eat frog legs, we eat SPIDER LEGS because they're JUST LIKE NOODLES!"

Yuck, double yuck, yuck yuck!!

Ahem.

She just totally cracks us up!

We drove on, we made good time. We were supposed to drive over to Palo Duro Canyon today, but both J and I were having serious stomach issues. I really thought I was going to lose my lunch. And the package of Mike & Ike that I ate. We attempted to grab a bite to eat at Cracker Barrel. I agreed to go along even though I was feeling pretty rocky, because I just wanted to be with my family. I figured I'd eat some eggs or some grits or something, and then I'd feel better. But I was wrong. I couldn't even stand the smell of food. Plus, we had brand new waiter boy on his first day. Here's how it went:
Waiter: Hi. What can I get for you today?
J: I'll have tea, and she'll have water.
O: I want Sprite!
Me: No, you've got your water there. We don't need sprite.
Waiter: So just tea and water?
Me: Yes.
Waiter: Are you ready to order?
J: No, we need a few minutes.
Me: I'd like to see a breakfast menu.
Waiter: Ok

A few minutes pass. Waiter comes back with drinks.
Waiter: Are you ready to order?
Me: No, I'd like to look at the breakfast menu.
Waiter: I'll have that right out. Sir, are *you* ready to order?
J (confused): No, I'll wait for her.

A few minutes pass.

Waiter comes back with breakfast menus.
Waiter: Are you ready to order?
Waiter's Trainer Girl: No, she needs to look at the menu you just gave her.

Waiter & Trainer Girl leave for a minute.

Me: Can we just get something to go? I really don't feel well.

Needless to say, it didn't go well. I explained to them when they came back that we were not angry and everything was fine, but that I really wasn't feeling well and that we just wanted to go back to the hotel with some food to go. So they went back to get the food.... and then brand-new-waiter-boy-on-his-first-day dropped the food on the floor on his way back to the table.....

We finally got our food and left. We also bought Olivia a dinosaur egg that promises to dissolve and sprout a full-grown dinosaur toy when immersed in water. When we got back, however, we discovered that we hadn't gotten any flatware... :(

After lying down and eating a biscuit from Cracker Barrel, I felt much better.

We tried swimming in the hotel's pool. It's like, 18,000 degrees outside, so I figured it would be warm. WRONG-O! We were chilly in the water! We went to McDonald's in hope of a playground. I'm sorry, I forgot that everyone in Amarillo is over age 49 1/2. So we went back to the hotel and had a bath. I could go on and on about all the little things that Olivia said and/or did to frustrate us tonight, but instead I'll just show you this sweet face.


Despite all the frustrating things she does, she is still very sweet and just a funny, intelligent, and loving little girl.

In closing, although we were so happy that the drive had gone well (and the whole day, really, except for the less-than-awesome experience at the restaurant) we realized that we'd created a monster. It's now after 11pm and she's still.wide.awake.

Lord, help me.

We're gonna try the "let's watch Spongebob" approach and see if it will drive her into a blabber-induced stupor...
(I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!..... uuurrgh.)

I had a hotel plastic cup full o' wine. I'm thinking I may just pretend to pass out and let J take care of the talkative kiddo that's explaining to her daddy how the pillows will be distributed tonight! Mwahahaha!

Back.. from outer space...

Name that tune?
(I don't know what it is. Someone tell me the name of the song please..)

(Come on let's go... go out the door... something something something...)

I have another personal blog site, but it is really a pain in the stinking butt. So I thought I'd try keeping up here for a while. I don't know if this will work or not. I really want to upload pictures, and this is not so user friendly. Wait... let's TRY it. Hang on.


A-HA!!! It worked. Ok, so I'll hang out here for a bit.

If you're not aware of my "other" blog, here it is:
I don't exactly advertise my name and such on there... so if you want, feel free to read away. Just pretend you don't know it's me, ok?

While I'm on that subject, I feel like it's weird to talk about my daughter and husband on that blog, so that's why I came here to finish posting all I had to say.

1. My daughter is so sweet. We had a really rough couple of days, and then she finally got her sleeping back on schedule a bit today, and she has been an absolute angel. I am probably going to go into kung-fu mode if anyone tries to mess with her schedule. Sorry, just the way I feel about it.

2. There was just a really loud "KER-THUMP" in my house. Wonder what that was? (Have I mentioned that I really think my house might be haunted?

3. I have a really sweet husband. Regardless of what happens at his test tomorrow, he is hell-bent on doing this Air Force thing. I know he wants it. He wants it bad. He shaved off his goatee. EEK! (By the way, the back-story is that he (and I, I'll admit) loved the goatee so much that he refused to shave it. His grandmother finally paid him $500 (before we were married) to keep it clean shaven for a year. He did it, but only for the money. The DAY that the year was up, he grew it back. LOL.)

4. I really hate this template. I think I'll program a new one. Maybe. Just keep checking back. (snort)

Is anyone reading this thing? Tap Tap. Hellloooooo???