For Jeannetta

I'm not very loud about my political views..lol..well sometimes I'm loud (much to my democratic brother's delight). But Jeannetta over at My Book of Common Days makes me laugh. Her posts are so enlightening and intelligent... I just LOVE them! (plus she has a Christmas counter on her page...whats not to love!) So, when I saw this over on facebook today, I thought of Jeannetta!









On a side note....little Marky Mark ROLLED OVER today! AHH! I'm hoping its a fluke cause I'm SO not ready for him to be mobile. Go Mark go!

The big 3! Yeah Ben!

My Ben turned 3 last week. He is such a cutie!!! We had a water party with a few friend, barbecued some burgers and then that night had some cake and ice cream. Very simple, but just what a 3 year old wants. Now that he is 3 ...maybe he'll potty train!

Of all the days for his birthday, it had to be the ONE day that it wasn't sunny in the mid 90's. It was a nice, overcast day in the 70's that any other day we would have LOVED! But it makes it for a chilly water day. Yes..those lips look a little blue!!!


On a side note...Marky Mark is four months old. He is arching his back like he wants to roll over..thankfully he isn't yet! Isn't he CUTE!!!

HAPPPY BIRTHDAY KATY!

Happy birthday to my OLDER and wiser sister Katy. Katy has been such a great friend to me. I count her amonst my best friends. When we were younger we fought a little..ok maybe a little more than a litttle....and I always thought that once we grew up we would finally never have to put up with each other. But now, I don't know what I'd do without Katy and she has become such a rock for me.

So happy belated birthday Katy!!
I love you tons!

Today I spent $102.04

And yet another massive grocery trip. Here is some of what we purchased
12 packaged of hot dogs (they were free!!--my freezer is stocked for the summer!)
20 bottles of ketchup --believe it or not we were low, now we are stocked for the year! .75 each
6 boxes of electrosol tabs .50 each
12 boxes of bisquick 1.60 per box
6 packages of cream cheese .40 each
6 bags of frozen veggies 1.00 each
8 bottles of kraft salad dressing .18 each
8 bottles of kraft barbecue sauce . 11 each
14 boxes of cereal
6 cans of grands biscuits
3 jars of pickles
3 boxes of wheat thins
3 boxes of tricuits
potatoes
oranges
etc. etc. etc

Would have spent 306.54 but I only spent 102.04 and I saved 204.50
happy day



In my adventure in saving money, Cory put up a clothes line for me. I've wanted one for a while so I'm very excited. :-)

Arches

On our last dayof vacation, on our way home, we drove through Arches National Park . I have always wanted to SEE Delicate Arch. I know my license plate has a picture of it on it but I wanted to see it. I did not know what I was in for!

There are three levels of hikes easy, moderate, and long/strenuous. Delicate Arch is in the last category.
Luke and James at the top of the mountain side.

Once again I was relieved to go Ben's speed--who hiked the entire 3 miles! I am not a hiker. My husband loves it. He was carrying the baby in the carrier and was still doing circles around me. Not only that but JAMES RAN THE ENTIRE HIKE! He ran to each rock marker and would sit down and wait for us..."Hurry up Mom!" He did great! After he ran up the mountain he still ran back down afterwards. I could not believe his energy! Luke could have kept up with James no doubt, but he can be Ben's security blanket at times, so Ben would not let him go very far away. Also, no joke, about 20 minutes into our hike we watched an entire group of 30 or so senior citizens arrive at the park, catch up to us and then pass us. They all cheered for us when we arrived at the arch. I cheered too! The hike is straight up. But I did it! And now my boys have SEEN the arch.

Our vacation was the best thing for our family. My boys were SO GOOD! We had minimal arguments and they were so obedient. I am so blessed to have such a great family to make such awesome memories with.


Cory, Luke and James trying not to get blown away! It was so windy!



We made it!



At the top, that arrow is pointing to the parking lot!

Day three of our trip

On Wednesday we traveled to Mesa Verde. It was about an hour from where we were staying. It was a beautiful drive. The view was very impressive. Mesa Verde was SPECTACULAR! It was amazing to learn about these dwellings and how they were built in the middle of nowhere! I thought that the top of the mesa was great and would have been a fabulous to live on, but they insisted on building them on the cliffs below the mesa. INSANE! I'm sure they had their reasons...but who knows what they are! I was only aware of Cliff Palace at Mesa verde but there were many many dwellings built into the sides of the cliffs. We were able to hike two of them; Cliff palace and Spruce Tree House. We were able to drive around and look at the different places also. We didn't get to most of the park because it was so huge, but what we did see was amazing!


The hike down to the cliff palace at Mesa Verde was I believe about 1/4 of a mile. It was mostly stairs but not to difficult. Of course, I made sure I had Ben so that I could walk the pace of a two year old...which can either be at running speed or really slow...depending on the moment. We also visited the musuem which was FULL of exibits about the Anasazi native americans and




Down in Cliff Palace








At the kiva in Spruce Tree.

More pictures

Here are some more pictures from the train ride...I'll post tomorrow about Mesa Verde and Arches National park.





The trainride on the way up the mountain looking down to the Animas River.




Refueling the train with water. The train used 1300 gallons of water on the trip.


Its a long way down!!