Snowshoeing on the Grand Mesa

Well, winter is finally here! We've had 3 storms come thru Western Colorado in the last week, all leaving snow in Fruita. The last storm dumped nearly 6 inches, which is quite a bit for us. Normally Fruita doesn't get more than 2-3" and it melts off by noon. That is the perfect amount of snow in my opinion! With all the white stuff in the valley, we knew there would be a lot in the mountains, so we decided to break out the snow shoes today & head up on the Grand Mesa. The elevation up where we were playing was nearly 11,000 feet & the temps were in the single digits! Though it was a bit chilly, the sun was out and once we got moving we felt fine.
















Daisy was having a blast, she loves being out in the snow. There were quite a few other people out either on showshoes or on cross country skis and it seemed like they all had dogs with them. Daisy had so much fun playing with the other dogs, running thru the powdery snow!






















Catherine seemed to be having just as much fun as Daisy, she really gets a kick out of snowshoeing. Guess that's what happens when you grow up in Sunny SoCal! She also likes the 'workout benefit' of running around in the powder.






























Me, running thru the snow. With deep powder, elevation of near 11k feet and me being out of shape I had a hard time running more than 50 yrds! Sad, huh?

















Catherine seemed to think there was a pretty funny comparison going on here, the ice beard! What, it was cold!

Fall Family picture & a motorcycle ride

Around mid-November Catherine, Daisy & I took a drive to the La Sal Mountains, which is in the range that sits above Moab, UT. I had been up in this area the week before on my motorcycle & thought that it was a simply amazing area & I wanted to show Catherine.

We took our family photo up there, it was pretty hard getting Daisy to sit still for 30 seconds, but after a few tries we got it.














When I was up there on my motorcycle the week before I saw a Lynx, which was a first or me. It was just larger than a house cat, had big, pointy ears, massive paws & a round bobbed tail. It was a pretty amazing sight. That ride was my first 'big' ride on my new KLR, I rode from our place in Fruita to the La Sals by the way of the Onion Creek trail. I quit counting the stream crossings after 15, I think there ended up being near 20, it was pretty fun crossing the stream that many times, I had to try not getting too wet. Riding up the canyon was amazing, there's some neat scenery up there. Eventually I crossed into the La Sal Natl. Forest. While riding thru the forest I thought to myself, 'I have to get back in this area, it's amazing!' Huge pine trees, amazing views, etc! I stopped the bike & walked around the area as the road started to loose elevation.

























I saw some footprints from a massive wild turkey. I couldn't help but wonder where he would be around Thanksgiving, probably doing his best to hide. I rode into Moab for a early dinner, then rode back to Fruita. It ended up being nearly 250 miles round trip, with about 1/3 of it being offroad. I can't wait to do it again!

Halloween

Daisy dressed up for Halloween and gave all the trick or treaters candy. She only made 3 little kids cry. You would think that with her large tongue hanging out of her mouth it wouldn't be that scary.

She tried to get the costume off at first then realized that people gave her more attention with it on.


What a good dog. She didn't get any candy though.


I like to take nose shots of her. I think they are soo cute. She is a well behaved dog and knows like any child that I love to take pictures of her.

New (to us) motorcycle

Well, I found a deal I couldn't pass on... a 1998 Kawasaki KLR650. I have liked these bikes for a long time, they're kind of like riding a 2 wheeled Lay-Z-Boy... big, cushy & comfortable! The neat thing about it is the ability to carry Catherine comfortably, run at highway speeds all day long, travel over on dirt roads, get 300 miles out of the 6 gallon tank, etc. They are one of the ugliest bikes ever built, but they're also one of the most reliable. I wanted something I can take on multi-day adventures with the wife and this is the bike. It's ugly, the paint is faded & has the aerodynamics of a cinder block. I love it!


I need to do some work on it before it's ready for a big roadtrip, but it runs & drives great. We're thinking about taking our first big trip down to Telluride, CO. We'll have to do it soon, before it gets much colder. Of course Catherine is excited about getting to purchase riding boots, a riding jacket & a helmet.

Once it warms up again next year, I'd like to plan some great trips. We've been thinking abouot Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Zions NP, etc.





The day after I bought the bike, I took it out for a 100 mile test ride. I went up thru the Colorado National Monument & kept going South. The paved road turned to dirt and eventually the dirt road turned into a small trail. I ended up in the high-country surrounded with Aspen and Pine trees, seeing the fall colors as they turned. Here's some pics from that trip.-



























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my dog ate YOUR homework!

Some of you may be asking what is that a picture of? It looks like shredded paper on the floor. Yes, in fact it is shredded paper. One word...DAISY!

My students keep notebooks that they write in everyday that are personal. I brought them home because periodically I check them to make sure that they are in fact writing in them. Some of my students have very personal journals in them that are not shared with anyone but me. So how do tell you students that YOUR dog ate THEIR homework?

Here is yet another angle of the notebooks Daisy nibbled on.

Daisy barfed!

So yesterday Greg and Daisy went for a ride up to one of the local passes to see if the colors were nice. They got out and walked a couple places. Then today I get home from school and Greg proceeds to tell me that Daisy threw up this morning before she got outside. Gross you say? Well it is but it is kinda funny...She threw up a pine cone. Apparently dogs are not suppose to eat pine cones!

The new post

Melissa and the kids came to visit. We had so much fun! I took a couple of days off to hang out with the little ones. Daisy loved having people her own size to play with. In fact when it was nap time and everyone got out their blankeys Daisy wanted one too. She kept trying to take pheonix's so we made her one real quick. Here they are with the blankeys before bedtime.

Willow and Poppy getting ready to hop on the merry-go-round.

Pheonix trying to convince melissa to carry him up the slide (2 minutes earlier he climbed right up them)

So it may a little hard to tell but the fish was born and lived most of its life completely orange. One day when pheonix was "playing with it" a serious accident occured. We found Daisy Duke's pet (she thought she would stay with the whole dukes of hazard theme, lulu) stuck in the filter. Now we aren't sure if it got sucked up or if someone put it in there. Anyway goldfish usually have three flowing parts to their tail, lulu now has one. She has also started turning black. So if anyone is a fish expert please enlighten us. I'm assuming that it is kinda like my hair turned gray after a tramatic event. anyway lulu is swimming fine and Daisy checks on her everyday.

my garden is enjoyed by some...

This past month I have been noticing that my tomatoes were not getting ripe. I see the green little beginnings then nothing. Aleca's garden is flourishing with vegetables and mine was not. Then last week when I mowed the lawn I realized that someone, not going to name dogs, had been picking the green tomatoes the carrying them off to the corners of the lawn. the lawn mower found them and spit them all over the yard. Well i had a stern talk with her and have checked then lawn every day. I have not found green tomatoes instead I have found the fist sized orange tomatoes that are almost ripe. tonight I found the fourth victim this week.


Notice that the tomato still has some green on it. The teeth marks are what gave it away. I know I'm better at this detective stuff than Sherlock Holmes...it only took me a month to figure it out.

Her she is the tomato theif!!!

back to school

Well the summer is over and I am going back to school. I get to go a week early because the literacy teachers all decided that they need to meet and discuss the pacing guide and test scores. FOR 3 DAYS!!! I was also selected by my principal to be on a committee that decides what the other teachers are teaching when I am teaching AVID. the nice thing is I get paid extra for going in those 3 days. I would take a picture of how happy I am but sadly the camera batteries are dead.

Greg is in Chicago working his usual 12+ hours and enjoying the famous deep dish pizza. the lovely Daisy is sleeping all day long.

mud volleyball

We had an activity this week that the YW and YM loved. We were invited by another ward to join them in playing mud volleyball. It was quite the experience.

Here are the other YW leaders with me. We "tried" to make it out clean.

This is one of the young men's leaders...he got it the worst out of all the leaders. I don't know if you can see the twigs and brush that was on his face.


After the activity they had a big water truck there to hose down everyone. The water was freezing cold.


It was a good time. The mud however was everywhere. I still have yet to get my sneakers clean.

packages from Santa?

Every week I am collecting packages that come for Greg. This week I have collected only part of them and already it feels like Christmas. This week I have received 4 new wheels for the jeep TJ and an air conditioning unit for the TJ as well. Notice how large the boxes are. Maybe one of these days there will be a box for me that has tons of my favorites.

Oh and I had to add a picture of Daisy sporting her new outfit the purple collar.

the new project

This last winter greg got a great deal on this TJ and decided to modify it into a rockcrawler. He has slowly been collecting parts over the years to put on something like this. This summer he had been taking off parts and selling them if they were not needed. This is what it looked like before I left for San Diego 2 weeks ago.

Why yes that is correct those are huge tires try to guess the size.

The TJ looked like this when I came back from San Diego. Greg is building it using nice beefy parts to make it the official RME Rockcrawler.


Yep, that is correct there is nothing in the front of the jeep. Hopefully by september it will be running again. We are staying optimistic because it is a ton of work.

greg's 4runner

While I was in California greg made a trip to Utah to see his sisters new babies and to sell his 4 runner. (I wish I could have gone to see the little ones.)


Greg sold his 4runner to make room and to focus on the TJ. It was a sad but exciting day. Notice that the picture is in front of our old house in Hemet, Ca.

ceviche recipe for Joe

Here's the recipie:
Marinade in a glass bowl overnight:

raw fish and/or shrimp chopped finely (about a handful and a half)
lime juice
lemon juice
orange juice
dash of ground oregano
finely chopped red onion

Then when you are ready to eat/serve drain off the citrus juices (save a little in case you want it saucy) and add:

1-2 chopped roma tomatoes
cilantro chopped
1 squeeze ketchup
El tapatio sauce to taste

I usually eat it with chips like a salsa. You might want to salt and pepper it also. Enjoy!

shrimp ceviche!!!!

I love cooking and this was one of my favorite dishes when growing up. I remember getting this at the las palmas restaurant in Cabo all the time. When melissa emailed the recipe I had to make it. YUM! it tasted exactly how I remembered.
I tried to find a large sea shell to put it in...but I don't have one. I had some avocado in the fridge so I cut it up and used it as an accent. Okay so secretly I wish I was the executive chef at a fancy restaurant here in fruita. Someday I'm totally going to a culinary arts school.

4th of July

Daisy and her newest toy. I thought since she loves the fish so much I will get her one that she can play with and lick all she wants.
Daisy got this little fish named "Tuna" for the 4th of July. She loves it. I thought it was cute because of all the vibrant color it has. Daisy and I also went to the parade today. When the firetrucks came around the corner with the siren on she freaked out and tried to run away. She can be a baby sometimes. I'm just wishing that tonight she will not be scared too much by the fireworks.

Playing outside

Hey kids, Greg here... I thought I'd post some fun pics of our outdoor adventures so far this year. We took a trip out to Goblin Valley NP early this spring & hiked around the amazing rock formations. Goblin Valley is quite erie when the sun's going down. Strange shadows appear & the formations play with your eyes. It's weird, you almost want to run around each rock looking for a troll or something. If you've never been, it's a place that you need to add to your 'must see' list.



We have been out on the mountain bikes a few times as well. Fruita has an incredible network of trails and is well known to be one of the mountain biking meccas. Here's a couple shots of Catherine looking oh-so-cute on her bike one of the times we rode Rustlers Loop. She has been doing quite well with the biking, some of the trails we have ridden are probably a bit difficult but she hangs in there like a champ.






We'll add more as the adventures come!