New Job!! - 7/2007

Jason started work and is doing well. I rarely get to see him cuz he works 8 am - 10ish pm. I just keep reminding myself that we are only out here to pay off our debt and then we can do what we want to do. I guess the harder we work now, the faster we can pay off debt and get back to the things that are really important to us. It is still hard though.

Jason is doing REALLY well out here. He is setting up leads for Home Depot. Last week he was the #2 representative IN THE COUNTRY! This week he will be #1 for sure. Last week, the #1 rep set 28 leads for the whole week. Jason has already done 44 by the end of the day Wednesday. I am so proud of him. He is working so hard and doing so well!

I got a job so that makes it a bit easier. At least I am busy. I am working for a company called American Combustion Industries, Inc. Katie (Jason's bosses fiance) works here so that is how I found out about it. I am working in the service department, but I am basically helping anyone that needs help. They pay me well so I will do what ever. I work 7-4 so then I have my afternoons off to spend with the pups. I am learning a lot, it is just going to take some time to get everything down.

I always look forward to Sunday when I get to spend the whole day with Jason. We are going to the beach again this Sunday. We are looking for a new beach that is not so crowded so we can let the pups run wild. Stay tuned!

Virginia Beach - July 1 2007

I am so sunburned!!! It is great! I had been spending too much time indoors so I was almost transparent.

Jason was supposed to go to a meeting in Philly this last weekend. It was supposed to be all day Saturday and Sunday. He has been to at least 6 of these meetings already. They are always the same, boring and pointless. He decided not to go so we found ourselves with a WHOLE weekend together! That never happens so we were so excited. We decided on a whim to pack up the pups and take them to the beach.

Virginia Beach is theoretically 4 hours away...unless there is traffic. There was traffic. It took us about 6 hours to get there. Not fun, but since we never get to see eachother any way, it wasn't so bad. At least we were together. We got the a little before dark.

We got a hotel room and dropped off our stuff. Then we took the dogs to the beach for their first beach experience. They were excited at first. I had Toby's Leash and Jason had Maya's. As we got closer to the waves, Toby started getting worried. He did not like the sound of them crashing. We walked toward the water and were watching the waves roll up the beach. A rogue wave came out of no where and rolled Toby. Maya was ok cuz she is stocky, but Tubs got swept off his feet. He was not happy. Maya was not a big fan either. We walked down the beach, on the sand, away from the waves. Toby just wanted me to carry him, he was miserable. I made him walk though and eventually he looked like he was having fun dodging the waves when they washed up. We walked a long way and wore the pups out. We took them back to the room, bathed them and left them to sleep while we went to dinner. The weather was great. We ate on the boardwalk and people watched.

The next day, we went down to the beach around 9ish. We had a big umbrella incase the dogs got too hot. We were there for like 10 minutes and a cop stopped Jason and told him that dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk at all. We no longer had a hotel room and came all the way down there to go to the beach. So we kept the dogs on the beach anyway. I know, we are rebels :)! There were so many people on the beach, it was amazing. I have never seen that many people on a beach. It was really windy and a little chilly so we didn't go in the water much. We just hung out in the sun and people watched. Toby loved it as long as he wasn't near the water. He lounged in the sun and slept. Maya decided to dig a very large hole. She and Jason dug for a long time. Jason would bury her toy and she would get it out. She loved the sand. She was covered in it. She dug for over and hour. Then, Jason decided to dunk her in the ocean. She was not happy. She came back and abandoned her digging venture. She crawled into a towel and went to sleep. We stayed a little longer and then decided to head back. I had to be at work at 6 in the morning so we wanted to get back at a decent hour. It only took us 4 hours to get home, traffic was much better.

We had a great time. It was beautiful and away from the city. Exactly what we needed.

This is after we got home...forgot to take the camera to the beach. As you can tell, we got a bit of sun. Maya was so tired, she decided she did not want to join in the family picture...so, all you get is her paws next to Jason's head.

Trip to D.C. - June 2007

So, Jason and I decided to close up shop and head to the big city. Jason had a opportunity to work in an office in Washington DC and I had possible job openings so we decided to check it out.

Jason wanted a dog he could wrestle with (Toby is too little) so we went to the Humane Society and he fell in love with Maya. She is a 4 month old pit bull puppy. So, now we have 2 dogs. She is a great dog though. Still frustratingly a puppy so she has her moments, but for the most part she is much better than Toby was at her age.


Mom and Dad came in town from New Mexico and helped us load up the truck. We took one last adventure to the mountains before we headed to the coast. We spent the day in Eleven Mile Canyon with Mom and Dad and the pups. It was gorgeous.


Then, we went to Miranda's house to see her and the kiddos. We had a nice dinner with them and Maya and Trinity wore themselves out in the back yard. Then, it was time to head out.

We had some time before we had to return the truck so we decided to visit Bryce and Ed in Illinois on our way cross country. We left Miranda's at 4:30 a.m. and got to Ed's at 11 p.m. that night. It was a loooooong drive, but we made and the pups were great all the way there. Toby slept all the way and Maya slept or chewed on chew toys. Maya rode part way there on the dash. Silly Pup!


We spent 2 or 3 days at Eds and had a blast. Olie put Maya in her place and they had a blast chasing eachother around the yard. We did a lot of relaxing and drinking and swimming at Eds. It was great to see Bryce! We went and visted Grandma also. It was a great time!


Then, it was time to go again.

We left for DC at 5 a.m. and got in around 10 p.m. We stayed outside the city at Jason's bosses house that first night. The next morning we drove into the city (traffic was crazy) and found the apartment. We were taking over Jason's bosses (Chris) fiance's (Katie) apartment. It is right in the middle of DC so it is close to everything, but it is insanely expensive! It is a tiny, 1 bedroom for $1550. I think it is insane and having two dogs in there is crazy, but oh well. At least we have a place to live.

We unpacked the truck and remembered what humidity was. I got so spoiled in Colorado. The humidity here is about the same as the humidity in Texas, but I had forgotten what it was like.

So far the city is awesome! I love being so close to everything. Not such a fan of parking, I am not very good at parallel parking. The history on the east coast is amazing though.

We have been wandering around the city getting aquainted. It is going to take some time to get used to city driving again.

Trip to Gunnison Area 5-12/13-07

Another adventure involving the Jeep, the mountains, and us...
Jason and I wanted to get out of town for the weekend so we decided to go to the Gunnison area. We bought a winch (I spelled it right, Dad) and all the necessary chains, etc. that the winch requires. We also bought a book of 4WD trails in Colorado. Then, we packed lots of warm clothes/blankets, food, flashlight, matches, water, Toby (he is a portable heater) and his accessories and headed out. I only tell you what we brought with us to demonstrate to everyone (especially Mom), how prepared we were. We left the Springs about 3 on Saturday and took a beautiful drive down through Canon City. We left the windows for the Jeep at home because the weather was supposed to be sunny and 85. Never believe the weathermen in Colorado. We drove through a rain storm just outside of Canon City, but it wasn't bad. We saw a beautiful rainbow though. It was actually 3 rainbows on top of eachother...well worth having to drive through the rain. We got to Gunnison at about 7 and found a cheap motel. Jason set up the winch and realized we needed a few more accesssories to make it work, so we picked those up the next morning on our way out of town. See Mom, we are even testing our equipment, just in case we get stuck! SO PREPARED!!!
I planned our route the night before, we were going to drive up to some tiny mountain towns and then get on a 4WD trail to St. Elmo (a ghost town I really wanted to see). Then, we were going to take another 4WD trail to an old mine and snoop around there a bit. There are supposed to be a lot of old buildings where the miners lived and some storage buildings up there. We were then going to wander our way back past a big resevoir and through a really high pass next to the collegiate peaks...all 4WD trails.
So much for plans...
We started out toward the tiny mountain towns, got to the start of the trail to St. Elmo...CLOSED till the end of May. 2 weeks away!!! Kinda frustrating since the book we bought said nothing about this. All the other trails I wanted to take could only be gotten to from that road...as I said, so much for plans. So, we found a trail that was open, it was not nearly as interesting as a Ghost or Mining town though. The trail we took took us past a lake and then back out to the main road.
So, we decided to go up toward Crested Butte. There was another 4WD trail I wanted to take that was the senic way to Crested Butte instead of the highway. So, we drove toward that trail. It decided to start hailing and pouring on the way there. So much for sunny and 85. It stopped raining but was still lightning/thundering.

We got to an old mining town called Baldwin.


It was really cool. It was on private property so we had to climb over a barb wire fence to explore the houses. The fence did not like Jason's pants.

We wandered around the town, looking in the old houses. It was pretty cool, interesting to see how people used to live.


Then, we kept going toward the trail. And, guess what...we get to the start of the trail and...closed...till May 30th. Seems to be a trend going here...
So, we turned around, got back on the highway (yuck) and went up to Crested Butte. It was really pretty up there. All the snow is melting so there is a ton of water everywhere. Of course, there was another trail up there I wanted to take, but was sure it would be closed. This trail goes to Marble, where Opa took us to the marble mine one time. I have always remembered that trip and really wanted to go there again...but yes, the trail was closed. Ugh, we were pretty frustrated by this point. So, we headed back toward Gunnison. We went up to Taylor Resevoir on the way back. We found lots of gorgeous camping spots for later in the summer. On the way back to the springs, we saw a heard of Elk. Jason had never seen Elk before so that was pretty exciting. We tried to get a picture, but...it was too dark. Oh well, at least we were overly prepared...for lots of highway driving.
Stay tuned for our next trip up there...when the trails are open!!

I forgot...Night on Pike's Peak

Sorry all my faithful readers, there will be no pics in this post.
This entry happened between the trip to South Dakota and the trip to St. Louis. I forgot to include it when I wrote the last blog.
So, it was Jason and I's 1 year anniversary. We decided we would go for a drive in the mountains. Since we work so much, we wanted to be outside as much as possible...be careful what you wish for. We headed up to the mountains about 2 p.m. It was a gorgeous day, a little chilly, but not snowing...so that was good. We headed up to the Crags Campground. It is on the backside of Pike's Peak. We had been camping there last summer and it is gorgeous up there. You have to take a very windy dirt road up to the campground. At the bottom of the road, everything was fine. Big puddles in the road so we were have fun splashing mud all over the Jeep. We get about half way up the road and there is a Menonite Camp with cabins and picnic areas. There was a bit of snow on the road here, but it had been mostly plowed and smashed flat by other vehicles. So, we kept going. Just a little aside here, we have driven on many snow covered roads in the Jeep and she handles like a champs...so we had no worries. About half a mile farther up the road, the snow started to get a bit deeper, but you could still tell lots of vehicles had been up here. So...we kept going. Another half a mile farther and we got stuck. Snow covered roads can be very tricky. If your vehicle slides even an inch to the side of the road, the snow is not packed enough and you sink. So, thats what happened. Jason pushed us out and we decided that we should probably turn around before we get really stuck. But, the snow was only packed in one small area so there was not enough room to turn around. We decided the only thing to do was go a bit further to the campground and turn around there. We got about 20 more feet and almost got stuck again so we decided we might be better off just backing all the way back down. So, we back about 25 feet and get stuck. And I mean STUCK!! It is about 4 p.m. by this time and really cold at this elevation. We are surrounded by snow and pine trees. There is a partially frozen stream running in a gully. The gully is about 6 feet deep and runs next to the road. So, we try everything to get the Jeep out. We tried to stick pine boughes under the tires to get some traction. Then we try rocking the Jeep...nothing. We jacked up the Jeep with the little tiny tire jack and put more pine boughes under it, lower the jack...nothing. So, we dig some sand out of the freezing cold creek and haul it back out of the gully and try to put the sand under the tires...nothing! By this time it is starting to get dark and our tires are in such deep holes that we have no hope but to get some help. Of course, our phones don't work so there is no calling anyone. Since we were only coming up for a drive around, we have a bottle of water, thin sweaters and thank god, a blanket was still in the car from our trip to S. Dakota. So, we decided that it would be too dangerous to walk in the dark, just to see if anyone was at the Menonite camp. We also knew that there were lots of car tracks on the road so we figured that the next day being Sunday, other people would be up the next day. So, we spent a very long, very cold night in the Jeep. Jeep are not made for sleeping comfortably. It snowed a bit during the night but not enought to cause any more trouble. We slept maybe an hour and a half, the rest of the time was spent shivering. In the morning, we decided that we would walk to the Menonite camp. Even if no one was there, we hoped we could at least find a shovel or something. We are so cold by this time that everything is numb, which makes it hard to walk. We are almost to the camp when another Jeep comes driving up the road. Our Saviour!!! I have never been so happy to see another Jeep. It is two guys who were coming up to do a little cross country skiing and camping. They were prepared! They gave us a ride back to the jeep, assessed the situation and got out their supplies. They hooked a chain to the back of our Jeep and tried to pull us out with their Jeep. That didn't work cuz they couldn't get enough traction either. So, they attached the chain to a "come-along" which is basically a hand held wench. They attached the wench to a tree that was behind and to the side of the jeep. Then they just wenched it back and sideways until we were out of the holes. By that time, another Jeep had pulled up behind them with a guy and his dogs. All in all, it took about half an hour to get out. After thanking the guys profusely, we all backed down a ways and then Jason and I turned around and went down while the other two Jeeps kept on going up. Lesson learned: do not go to the mountains unprepared. The guy in the second Jeep said that he had spent a night stuck in that same area before he bought his first wench. So, we will be buying a wench asap...definately before our next mountain adventure. We made it back safe with no injuries and slept the whole rest of the day. Stay tuned for more Adventures in Colorado!

Trip to St. Louis

Jason, Toby and I just got back from 2 weeks in St. Louis. Jason went to learn a new division for work. I got to hang out with Isa and Johnny while Jason worked. I got to spend a lot of time with Johnny and we had a blast. Such a great kid and so well mannered! We got there the night before Easter so we got to spend Easter day with Isa and her family. We got to join in the Cascarones festivities. (In case you are unaware of what that is...It is a Puerto Rican tradition where they fill emptied out eggs with confetti and then smash them over eachothers heads.) Tons of fun! Jason had never seen it before so he had a lot of fun. Johnny made Jason his "new best friend" and spent most of his time smashing eggs on Jason. In the end we were all covered in confetti and pretty tired from chasing eachother. We went back to Isa's and had a delicious Easter Dinner. Toby had a lot of fun while we were there. Isa has 3 cats so Toby did not get a minute of rest while we were there. Between chasing cats and playing with Johnny, Toby was exhaused by the time we left. He slept all the way home.

We are back in town now though, time to get back to work.

Road Trip to South Dakota

Jason and I went to South Dakota at the end of March, 2007. We went for work, but had a little time for some play. In all honesty, I didn't know Mt. Rushmore was in South Dakota. I don't know where I thought it was, but I never thought it was in South Dakota. If you have never been to South Dakota...or Wyoming for that matter, there is nothing in either one of those states. Nothing but fields and lots of wind. Driving there, we thought we were going to get blown off the road about a dozen times.
We took a day and drove to Mt. Rushmore. It was a nice day to go. The weather was real nice and it was before the busy season so there were not many people there. It was impressive, but not somewhere you can spend too long at. We were there for about 45 minutes, took Toby for a nice walk and then left.
Next we drove to Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. It was not all that impressive either. A huge gambling town.
We spent the rest of the week working and then drove back through and awful snow storm. We were driving south on I-25 and for some reason they had not closed the roads. They ended up closing it right after we made it through. Thank god for the Jeep. There was at least 6 inches of snow on the road. No plows or other cars, it felt like we were driving a snow mobile. The only way we knew we were on the road was by watching the little posts that mark the edges of the highway. It took us a while to get home going about 35 mph for half the day.
I don't think I will ever find a need to visit South Dakota again.

Trip to Mexico - March, 2007

Jason and I just got back from Playa Azul, Mexico. It was amazing. We had a friend come to the apartment to take care of Toby while we were gone. We missed him alot (I think he missed us more though), but he was fine. We flew out of Denver Sunday (3/4) morning and got in to Ixtapa/Zihuatenajo Sunday afternoon. Mom and Dad met us at the airport and we had about 2 hours to kill till Bryce got in. So, we ate and drank at a little airport restaurant. Bryce finally got there and we were off. We drove 2 hours to Playa Azul. It is a very small beach town way away from all the tourist towns. White people were very uncommon there. It was a very cute town. It had a lot of beach restaurants and bars because it is a Mexican Vacation destination.

Jason laying in a hammock on the beach while we waited for our breakfast.


We stayed at Hotel Playa Azul, which was beautiful. Jason and I got a room and Mom, Dad and Bryce stayed in the RV park connected to the hotel. It was a very nice place. Clean rooms, hot water, no AC, but a nice strong fan. They had 2 swimming pools with beautiful landscaping and it was a block from the beach. We spent a lot of time in the water.

Chillin by the pool (Dad in the background on the internet)

The beach was beautiful, clean and very uncrowded. The waves were pretty big, so I stayed in the shallows most of the time with Mom. The boys were more risky though and spent a lot of time getting rolled by the big waves. Jason had a blast. Bryce rented a boogie board and they all took turns riding waves. Mom and I even caught a few waves. Jason and I were "shark-belly-white" when we got there from spending so much time in Cold Colorado. Jason got pretty sunburned, but it has turned to a nice tan. We both look pretty out of place back in Colorado around all the pale people!


While we were on the beach, we noticed something far down the beach that looked kinda like a ship wrecked near the shore...or maybe just a big rock. But, we couldn't just speculate about what it was so we walked to it. It was a pretty far walk, by the time we got back, my feet were pretty sore from walking that far in sand. But, it was well worth it. Once we got down there, we could see that it was a very large cargo ship. It was wrecked not far off shore and it was pretty shallow so almost all of the ship was visible. Of course, no one brought a camera. It was completely rusted and extremely cool. I wanted to walk out to it and go inside, but it was way too dangerous. The waves had knocked a big jagged hole in the middle and the waves were crashing through it. Wish we could have gone into it, but oh well. When we got back to the hotel, we found out it had wrecked there about ten years ago in a storm. I wonder what happened to the cargo.
We made a friend in Mexico. Some of the other RVers had adopted a mexican pup before we got there. They had named her Lupita. She was adorable! Huge ears and very loving. She was also very loyal which was pretty surprising. We fed her everytime we ate. She would come everywhere with us. She would escort Jason and I to our room and then wait outside for us to come back out. When we went to the beach, she would come with us and guard our stuff while we played in the water. She kept all the other dogs out of the RV park too so she probably got fed by everyone. It was very sad to leave her though. If it weren't so difficult to bring dogs back into the US, I would have brought her home.

Me and the Mexi-Pup on the beach


Jason lovin on Lupita

I also had a brawl with a blender in Mexico. Sounds interesting, huh? I think the blender won. We wanted to make frozen drinks, like penacoladas, margaritas, etc. So, Bryce and Dad wandered around the whole town looking for the "phantom" large store (that they never found). They ended up driving to the larger town about 30 minutes away where they had a bodega. They bought a blender (a cheap plastic one), frozen strawberries, ice, rum, and coconut milk. Bryce made us some excellent drinks while we swam in the pool. It was great...and then it all went bad. The next day, I took the blender in the camper (we had been using it outside, but it was dark outside and we had another RV right next to us) because I did not want to disturb the neighbors. I put all the yummy ingredients in the blender...including the rest of the rum. I turned on the blender and it ran fine for a second. Then I noticed it was leaking out the bottom. So, I turned it off. Jason came over and I said we needed to move it to the sink cuz I thought it was leaking. Jason picked up only the blender part (not the motor) and the whole bottom fell out of the blender. Everything in the blender streamed out everywhere. Somehow in the confusion, the motor fell in the sink and turned on, flinging strawberries everywhere. Yeah, not good. Jason and I spent quite a while cleaning up the huge mess. I would not be surprised if Mom and Dad are still finding bits of strawberries in the camper years from now. The blender and I are not on friendly terms.
Other than that, we had a ton of fun. We really enjoyed getting to spend time with Mom, Dad and Bryce. Hope we get to do it again next year. We missed you Miranda!!!
We had a lovely homecoming back in Colorado. We got the Jeep from the parking lot and I started the long drive back to the Springs. It was raining a little bit. Then it got dark and started blizzarding. I was so stressed out by the time I got home. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up on the beach in Mexico. Oh well, back to work so we can take another vacation sometime!

Isa Came to town!

I just took Isa back to the airport this morning. =( She was in town from Thursday through Monday morning. We had a ton of fun. We went to Miranda's house on Thursday and spent the day with her and the kids. Miranda made us breakfast (amazing pancakes and bacon) and we ate with her and Shane and the kids. Then it was bath time for the kids.

Queen Anabelle with her soap crown!


Clean Kai

Then, we all piled in the Jeep and went to see the Cryogenically frozen dead guy in the middle of Nederland. Interesting...he is in a Tuff shed. (Call Miranda for the full story, quite interesting!

Next, we were going to go sledding up at El Dora, but all the snow had melted...so we watched some skiers crash. Isa had never seen ski slopes before so it was a great time.

Posing at the slopes.

After that, we went to get lunch at a restaurant down the street. The food was good, the company was great, and the view was amazing.

Then, we all went to the Denver Aquarium. It was a blast! That is one of the coolest Aquariums I have ever been to.


The kids had a great time. We went around 5 p.m. on a Thursday so it was almost empty. No waiting in lines to see exhibits which was really nice with the kids. They had a 200 lbs fish, lots of sharks with amazing viewing tanks, a big playful octopus, 3 huge green eels, and the kids favorite...a petting tank for the stingrays. Anabelle wanted to go swimming with them. There were people feeding the stingrays so they would come to the surface a splash around. Kai sat there with his arms in the water calling, "Here stingy, stingy, stingy." So cute! It came out sounding more like "Here stinky, stinky, stinky." Very comical. Needless to say, we all had a blast!


Isa and I went shopping and hung around Colo Spgs Friday.
We ate at Jose Muldoon's downtown. It had the best mexican food I have had in a long time. Mexican food in Colo Spgs is not like Texas. Jose Muldoon's also holds the World Record for largest Margarita ever made. It was 4756.5 gallons of margarita. Yummy!


On Sunday, we went to Garden of the Gods with Jason. That park is so beautiful!

Isa with the balanced rock


We were chillin on a rock. Actually, chillin is not the exact word I would use. We were up pretty high to get that pic and Isa is afraid of heights. I am really proud of her for being able to make it!


Group Picture!!!

We had a ton of fun, but I am exhausted now. We had to get up at 4:30 this morning to make it to the airport in time. Ugh!

But, Jason and I leave for Mexico This Sunday so we are very excited!!! See you soon Mom, Dad and Bryce!