The Boy's Christmas Thank You

Amazing! Cody was complaining of wearing a shirt almost exactly like one he received today - only the new one is "awesome!" and he might even wear it tomorrow!! Go figure!

Jay just loves everything! You did GREAT Amanda!

Mom, the science rock kit is AWESOME!! We'll be starting rocks the first day after break! Jay begged to get started on it today! (His teacher was her usual mean self and said, "no.")

Thanks a ton for all the goodies!! We are enjoying them all!! I look forward to enjoying the books, mom! Bill is looking forward to listening to Abbot and Costello!

Merry Christmas!!

Arbuckle Summer Vacation - 8/24-28/08

Just wanted to share a some of the ton of pictures of our family vacation to Gunnison Colorado. We stayed in a KOA Kabin for most of a week. We visited the Blue Mesa, the Alpine Tunnel, Pitkin (supposed ghost town), Crested Butte, and a really cool little cemetery on Monarch Pass. OH! and we did a few Geocaches along the way!



1st stop: the incredibly peaceful meadow and ancient cemetery on Monarch Pass.

A quiet resting place

The only readable marker it says:
Our little Ella, Died Aug 12, 1881, aged 1 y's, 3 m's, 4 d's

The whole cemetery was fenced and locked, so this is the best we could get.

The meadow The boys on a bridge on the water. C(11) J(7)

Next stop: The summit of Monarch Pass.

Summit!

To the west of this sign, the water runs into the Pacific.
To the east of the sign, the water runs towards the Atlantic.


Destination: Gunnison KOA! It did not have what we usually expect from a KOA - ie: a swimming pool and mini golf, but it DID have Fishing from a stocked pond, paddle boats an another pond, a dog run (great for our TWO dogs) and fun 3 wheel rental bikes.

C chilling out on his bunk - watching a movie. We layed around a lot this week - I read, Bill slept, the boys watched movies and rode their bikes a lot. Was SO nice to just relax!

The great fishermen! We ended up with 5 fish!! No license needed - just pay per pound! I think our mountain trout dinner cost up about $30! But we ate it and enjoyed it because "the boyz" caught it!!

We did all of the other activities that I listed above as well. I just didn't get any pictures of them. The paddle boats were especially fun because the guy that rented them to us told the boys that it wasn't a real paddle boat experience until they went under the water of the fountain in the middle of that pond - the boys took is seriously and took Bill there and locked their knees so he couldn't move!! He got soaked!!!!! The rental bikes were fun too - a great workout!!


First outing: Blue Mesa!!
I feel like I had to drag them out to the Blue Mesa. I just didn't want to drive all that way and NOT see it again. I kept saying, "Just want to show it to you - just for a few minutes."

I forgot the power of water, sand, and rocks can have on boys! Neither boy remembered visiting the beaches in MI and VA, so this was a totally new experience for them! I had to inform them that it was OK to take off their shoes and wade... naturally J fell in to his waist!

Throwing rocks into the water - still have the shoes on! They come off soon!
There they are!

On the way back to the Kabin, we stopped at a pull-off on the side of the highway, so Bill could take more pictures of the water. The boys and I took the time to look for "images" in the rocks - this is one that J found and called it his shield with a cross in it -- like a knight!


On other days we went to Crested Butte, and we bummed around Gunnison. After packing up the little car (Kia Sportage), the itty bitty trailer (about 4ft X 3ft - big enough to fit a car top carrier on), the 2 kids and 2 dogs, we decided to take a side trip to the "Alpine Tunnel" - an ancient railroad tunnel built in the 1880's. There was a warning about taking trailers up, but did I listen? NO! I left the trailer hitched - it's so small anyway!LOL! At one point I did pull over and tried to take it off, but it wouldn't budge! The last 10 miles were the worse road I have ever been on - our car IS 4x4, but it's too light to be very useful. Those last 10 miles especially were horrific, but there was no where to turn around except at the end! There was a serious concern for the axle of the trailer and the weather - we were on the east side of the mountain and there were clouds coming in, so... we didn't stick around the top for very long!


Here's a picture of a piece of the road!

Note: NO guard rails, sheer drop off on one side and steep rock field on the other - the scenery was beautiful! I didn't see a bit of it!!! (I was driving)

The tunnel itself was kinda' a bust as it's been colapsed for safety reasons, but the railroad remains were interesting.

Switch track - one way goes through, the other goes to the engine house.The remains of the engine house - it's really a lot larger than this pic shows.

On the way back down, we stopped at this water tank for a snack. The road here is MUCH smoother than that last 10 miles - no boulders in the middle of the road, but large rocks! LOL.

We did eventually make it home, but not before getting pulled over for not having any tail lights - the trailer wires were partially severed and caused the fuse to blow, and blow, and blow, and blow until we figured out what was causing the problem and spliced the wires back together! Aside from the several harrowing hours on the tunnel road, it was a very nice trip overall!

Just the break we all needed!