The ABQ

We spent the last four nights in Albuquerque visiting the McGuirk cousins (and the McGuirk brother and sister-in-law).  We had a lovely time.  The weather was perfect, or as Dana calls it, "too f*cking hot."  To each their own I guess :-)  Ashley and I wanted to take Bode for a hike, as he really enjoyed this when we were in Breckenridge.  We convinced Devin to go with us, and we were off.  Before starting, we snapped a quick photo.

Right off the bat, we encountered some wild-life--a caterpillar (or maybe it's a centipede).  Ashley was brave enough to let it crawl on her finger.  Bode was worried the thing would poop on her.

We then headed out in search of petroglyphs.  The terrain was rather forbidding.  I packed my camel-back and six bottles of water.  Bode enjoyed pouring the water on the dirt and making puddles.  I tried to convince him we ought not waste our water supply.  He wasn't buying that we'd run out of water, and he pointed out my full back pack.  Next time, I won't be as prepared.  We were a bit surprised by the incline of the trail...but we managed.

After about 30 minutes hiking a circuitous route, we made it to the top plateau.  I thought the view was great.  Bode was not in the mood to be photographed.  He was too hot--evidently he shared his aunt's sentiment re the heat.

On our decent, Devin spotted some petroglyphs, so we had to stop for pictures.

The hike lasted close to 90 minutes.  As a treat, we took the kids to lunch, and then because it was so hot, we wanted to get a shake at Sonic.  Unfortunately, on way to Sonic, we were involved in a minor fender-bender.  We were starting to pull out onto the road, but then we had to stop (there was blind curve, and a car came round the bend).  The guy behind us likely thought we were going and simply wasn't looking ahead.  His car was in far worse shape, and we really couldn't have asked to be in an accident with a nicer guy.  We pulled over, exchanged information, called insurance companies, and we were good to go.  His company called us today and said they were covering all our damages, so that's good :-)  Here's a shot of the Xterra's bumper--very minor and cosmetic, but still needs to be fixed.

Bode loves playing with his cousins.  They went swimming, and every night, watched movies or something on their electronic devices.  We also spent some time on the back patio.  Pat, Sean, and Brenna are very good at juggling a soccer ball.  Bode tried to get involved.  They were kind enough to let him start off each attempt.

I did take one movie, and it happened to be a great rally.  It's amazing Sean can keep things going with Bode shoving him.

There's also the obligatory tether ball game...

a nerf gun battle...

and some quality time playing video games.

On Friday night, Sean wanted to do smores over the fire.  It was rather windy, so we (Ashley) thought the smores weren't going to happen.  This being the case, she ate a candy bar.  The winds died down a little after nine, which was late, and I don't think the adults wanted to start smores at this ungodly hour.  Sean was raring to go, so we told him we couldn't do smores because Ashley had already eaten her chocolate.  Talk about a disappointed kid :-)  (not to mention he was probably upset after losing eight games to his uncle in Ping-Pong).  Fortunately, we did smores Saturday night.  It's probably best we delayed because my Dad and his wife, Janet, arrived on Saturday evening (they have a "business" golf event...yes, golfing for work.  What, does he think he's still in the military?)  Sean prepared the fire pit, and we were ready for smores.

Maybe too much wood in the fire?

We managed to not burn down the house, and everyone had at least one chocolatety treat.

The kids stayed up late last night and built a rather elaborate fort.  I took this picture this morning before waking them up.

Before leaving, we took a bunch of family photographs.  Here's a cute one of Bode and Devin.

Sean tried to get into the picture, but you can't get Bode and Sean together without a little shoving.

After many hours, Brenna finished getting ready, so we could take the large-group shots.  First, all the McGuirk cousins.

Next, the McGuirk grandchildren with Grandpa and Janet (this was the best picture I got--I'm hoping Pat got a better one).

Finally, one big picture of the family (Janet was kind enough to operate the camera...if I had more skills, I'm sure I could photoshop her into the shot :-)

We had a wonderful time in Albuquerque.  We safely made it home.  The dogs were fine, the garden was fine, the house was fine.  All was well...until a neighbor informed us (and he was very nice about it) that Joey barked all night for most of the nights we were gone.  Any one want a boxer? :-(  It's actually kind of funny, because we were wondering why Joey seemed so tired (he's zonked out right now, and it's only 7:50).  Oh well--we'll figure out the fix for this problem next time.  Back to work for both Ashley and me this week.  School starts next week (for me), so the quiet time at work has come to an end.  Why am I not retired? :-)  Pleasant week to all!

Mommy's Home

Just a quick video to show you the reception Mommy gets every day when she comes home.

Harley is the most excited, as she is the one whining.  We aren't sure if Joey is happy to see us, or if he just wants to be pet anytime Harley is getting some affection.

The Petersons Part II

Yesterday, we climbed up Hoosier Pass.  Well, climbed isn't probably the most accurate word.  We drove from our house up to the parking area where there are some nice trails.  We paused for a group photo.

The web stated this particular trail should be easy.  Thus, we were confident we wouldn't have any troubles.  The trail also supported motor vehicles.  We didn't see any, but it was wide enough in most areas.  However, I don't think the Beamer would make it up this section.

In the above picture, we are still below tree-line.  This will quickly change.  Off to the left is the Pacific side of the Continental Divide.  To the right, the Atlantic.  Lots of beautiful scenery everywhere whenever we looked up and paused to catch our breath.

Bode and Cody are birthday brothers--their birthdays are both 28 November.  Very cool.  We pressed on, and before we could blink, we were above tree line.

There was even snow on parts of the mountain.

We got a second wind, and the top of the hill was in sight.  Jon sprinted ahead to get a pretty neat looking picture.

The views were incredible.

We took a number of family photos...

We were surprised how tired we were, as we only hiked for a total of two hours.  That afternoon, we headed over to Frisco and walked on the pier and watched some of the boats on the lake.  Come Sunday night, we were all exhausted, so much so that today when we went to the Minions movie, I fell asleep.  We had a bunch of rain in the mountains, so it was a good nap-day anyways.  Forecast is for beautiful weather the rest of the week.  The Petersons had to leave early today.  Bode and Ashley might head home tomorrow, while I will stick around to get some things done around the house.  Pleasant day to all.

The Petersons Part I

Jon, Shelly, Brendan, and Cody Peterson came and visited us in Breckenridge for a couple days.  Brendan is 15 and will be a sophomore in high school.  Cody is 12 and is starting middle school (sixth grade...I think).  While the adults appreciate the beauty and outdoorsyness of Breckenridge, I think the kids prefer the Xbox to anything else :-)

They arrived on a Saturday.  We went to down, had some lunch at Fatties, walked around, and then headed back to the estate.  The boys spent some time in the hot tub while we all sat around enjoying the nice weather.

We had a nice dinner of burgers and brauts.  We then tried our hand at making smores.

We figured we needed a big meal, as we planned to hike to the top of the Continental Divide the next day.  Stay tuned :-)

Garden Update

The garden has been going great...or perhaps I should say had been.  I thought I had adequately protected the crops with my ~10-inch high mini-fence around each of my boxes.  Sadly, I failed to realize rabbits can jump.  Silly me.  I realized this when we got back from a weekend in the mountains and my entirely broccoli crop was decimated.  I first thought it must be hail damage.  However, nothing else was damaged, and then I noticed unmistakeable proof:  rabbit droppings.  And not just a small number of them.  I looked around, and they were everywhere--in the boxes, outside the boxes, on every level.  The rabbits had themselves a little party.  To combat the rabbits, I worked diligently to set up some fine plastic mesh running around the entire length of the garden, and I also sealed up the space under the gate.  I think this worked...although Joey thought he'd have some fun with the plastic, so he proceeded to chew up a good section of it, destroying a good portion of my work (d*mn dog).

Despite my troubles with the animals (feral and domestic), the garden is producing.  First up is a picture of my peas and corn.  They are growing great--I've had a couple pea-pods, and they are very sweet and delicious.  Perhaps next week we'll pick a whole bowl full for dinner.  No corn yet, but I do see some tiny stalks starting to form on some of the bigger plants.

I think peas would grow as high as their support would let them.  I have a couple plants that are almost as tall as me.  Next up are my tomatoes, more corn, pumpkins, and peppers (although I think the pepper plants are buried in the shade of the tomatoes).

The biggest corn plant is the plant Bode started in school in a tiny plastic cup.  I plan on doing this next year--no sense waiting until late summer to eat corn!  There are nine or ten tomatoes growing, and some pepper buds.  I had forgotten how much room pumpkins need--I think the vines are making their way out of the garden.  The fruit is also going well, although I don't know if we'll get anything other than strawberries.

There are twelve strawberries growing...but it's hard to say how many will make it.  I don't know if bugs get to them or worms or what.  I put some netting over them (in addition to the netting over the entire garden).  The big plants are sunflowers.  They should bloom in the next couple weeks.  No fruit from the blueberries or raspberries, but I figured it would be a few years before they produced anything.  Finally, the lettuce, broccoli (what's left of it), carrots, and onions.  All are doing superb.

We had some yard work done a couple weeks ago.  We had a rock wall installed just beneath the garden and added a nice stone staircase.  We think it looks pretty good.  We aren't sure what we'll put down beneath the wall--maybe a patio or some type of fire pit or a water feature.  Plans are still being kicked around.

We will probably put some type of plants along the top of the wall--maybe more raspberries...but that area seems to be a favorite place where the dogs run, so we aren't sure what to do.  Note the trees towards the middle of the third picture.  Sadly, two of our three trees seem dead.  The plum tree and the cherry tree were budding up beautifully in May, but then we had a hard frost and major hail storm.  The apple tree survived and is thriving.  The experts told me to wait until next spring before declaring them lost causes, as there are still shoots coming up from the trees' roots.  Here's hoping.  Finally, a picture of the yard from our rock patio.  It looks amazingly different than three years ago when we bought the house.

I'm taking the entire week off from work--not even going to check my email.  Should be nice and relaxing.  Pleasant week to all.