Christmas at the Beach

We took Jessica and Trace to the Beach for Christmas with my family. That was the big reveal for the baby news. I framed the kidney bean shaped ultrasound photo for my mom and put it in her stocking. It was a show stopper!! We were so excited to share the news. The rest of the trip was great too. The weather was good. Not bikini weathers but super fun. We rented bikes at the beach, walked around Universal City Walk, plenty of shopping and eating out too! We always have fun out there.

We're Pregnant!!

On November 19, 2009 I stopped at Walgreens on my way home for my lunch break and bought a home pregnancy test. I was a few days late and couldn't resist... So I got home and took the test. I saw the beautiful bright pink lines before I even turned around to flush!!! I can only imagine what my face looked like!! I was so excited! I wanted to think of a really cool way to tell Trace... But then he came home for lunch just as I was heading back to work and I couldn't resist. I dragged him to the bathroom and showed him the test! He was excited too. :) We decided not to tell anyone for a while. I had a faint line a few months before that turned out to be a false alarm and I didn't want to risk spreading the good news too soon. So we kept our special secret to our selves for several weeks and we waited for our blueberry to grow.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday present last year (Oct 2009) Trace took be with him to Denver in November to his Managers Meeting. While he was at work for two days of meetings I got manicures/massages/and shopping. The perfect birthday! We had dinner at PF Changs and I took the rental car from one end of Denver to the other. It was amazing. I would love to live in Denver!! We even went out dancing with friends in Downtown and I got to dance on the bar at Coyote Ugly. I keep waiting for Trace to come home and say we're being transferred there! But he has no desire to live in Denver so I won't hold my breath. But we had a GREAT time. Everything I love.

Catching Up

Yikes, so today I realized I haven't updated my blog in over a year!! So here is my quick attempt to catch up before I keep up.

Petroglyphs

Last weekend, 8/12-13, we went to the ranch to hang out and to collect some boxes we had stored out there. We left the house Saturday morning and about 20 minutes from the ranch Trace took me on a little detour to see more of the area. We were in Big Gypsum Valley heading to the Dolores river. He spent a lot of time there as a kid, riding his dirt bike out there, fishing in the river, family picnics, etc. Apparently there was a good rain the night before because there were puddles here and there... then there was a big one! we rounded a corner and came up to a wash area. Trace thought hmmm.... and we slowed a little, kicked in 4X4 and... got stuck. crap. our tires sank about 6-10 inches in wet clay mud. So Trace dug us out, backed up and punched it and we were back on our way. then we came up to another wash that looked pretty muddy and washed out. so we reved up and were ready to gun it and push thru. well it turns out this one wasn't soft and muddy. it was a solid dried lip so when we punched it we went flying and bouncing instead of sailing thru. Yeeee Haaaaa!!

Then we made it to the river and we stopped a little before the turn off to get to the shore. Trace took me up the other side and we saw a huge sandstone rock. When we walked up and around there were petroglyph's on one side. Trace had told me about these before. That not many people know they are there or dont' bother with them. And most say they are drawings of aliens... well, they are something... hard to say for sure what the artist was thinking but they don't look human. they both have tails, distinctly 4 fingers on every hand and foot, and and something sticking out of their heads. 3 on the small one and 2 on the big one. Interesting for sure!! When you look at them up close you can see remnants of color on some of the etching, the eyes and face, and the 2 horizontal lines at the top. on the middle right side, someone carved his name or cattle brand and dated it 7/11/38. you can tell it's a very different carving. there were also a few small deer carvings and what is propably a river. but the main figures are much larger than the other animal carvings. Crazy stuff.

Labor Day

I can't believe Summer is over already!! We decided to go camping at McPhee Reservoir for Labor Day weekend and get the boat in the water at least one more time. I went to Walmart and bought a little tent and two cheap sleeping bags and we went for it. it's been a while since either of us have been in a tent but it was nothing new. Both Trace's kids, Casey and Jessica, met us there with a few of their friends. We had a great time. All the fun camping stuff.

Casey brought whole tree trunks for fire wood, we took 3 hours to cook brats on the little Weber. It was a stormy weekend any way and just about 10:00pm the fire was winding down and so were we when the sky opened up and the wind and rain sent us running to our tents just to sit inside our sleeping bags and watch our tent flap like crazy for the next 4 hours. i know i fell asleep eventually because around 2 we were woken up by the classic drug guy at the site next to us talking too loud about nonsense at his camp fire. so we chuckled at that and went back to sleep.

the next morning we all made it thru the storm and woke up to make an awesome campsite breakfast. then we loaded everyone and everything in the boat and headed for the water. Casey's buddies had one of the double tubes so they all took turns being knocked around and thrown into the wake. We headed back to camp for lunch and we had more friends show up. Two of them were going to stay the night and two just came for the afternoon. so we finished our lunch and headed back to the water. What a great way to wrap up the summer.

trip to MO

Seems like we slowed down for most of July and August and there wasn't much to blog about. So I'll fill you in on a little... We were keeping our schedule pretty light because we had a trip to Missouri planned. Trace's brother, Ash, lives there in Fulton. It's pretty close to I-70 between St. Louis & Kansas City. Trace's parents and son went with us. So they came down to Gallup for a day or two before to check out the town and then we all loaded up in the Suburban and head out from Gallup on 8/13. it's about 16 hours each way so we did it in two days. There was plenty of room for everyone and snacks and A/C so the drive was just fine. just long! we stopped in Oklahoma city for the first night then got in to Fulton around 5 on Friday.

Ash is married to Lori and they have two kids, Miranda in 8th grade, and Gage is 7...1st grade i think? they had been building a new house on their property for the last year or two and it's done!! so we wanted to see them and the new house. it's awesome. perfect size for a family of 4 and beautiful! Of course i hardly took any pictures of anything so you'll have to take my word for it. Friday night we hung out at their house and had enchiladas and visited before we headed out to our hotel to crash.

Saturday we had a BBQ at Lori's dad's house. John has a cool old house, late 1800s early 1900s out in the country. They took us for a little tour around the country side and showed us where a lot of John's hayfields are and some great old houses. Just a day or two before John found a camp set up in the trees behind one of his fields. it was abandoned but the guys just had to get in there and snoop around. I was trying desperately to avoid chiggers so I stayed out. Chiggers by the way are AWFUL and very prevalent out there. they are a might, look like tiny fleas or ticks and they live in the tall grasses and will latch on and bite you for a few days even if you don't get them off. not to mention the mosquitoes and biting gnats. oh did I mention it was 85 and 85% humidity the whole time. I was a hot sweaty mess. so nice when you're meeting your new family! but I did some research on Chiggers so i did everything I could to avoid them. everyone else thought i was crazy. I'm happy to report I didn't get one chigger bite and the rest of the family was scratching and crying for a month!!

Sunday was a mellow day back at Ash's house. we went out for pizza and it POURED rain on us for a good hour. it's no wonder everything there is green and lush. it was beautiful! but i take the dry colorado air anyday. i thought it got humid at the beach! i was wrong. this was a whole new level of humid! Monday morning we loaded up and headed home. It was a quick trip with more driving that visiting but we all had a good time and i'm glad we went.