Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Epic Birthday Trip Part II

Day #4 was a pretty lazy day. we walked all around the tiny town of and did a little hike outside the edge of the town. We rented "the Iron Lady" and did a whole lot of nothing.



Then Day #5 was my birthday. Wow. What a super day. We hiked up a trail right at the edge of town. with the most amazing view of the Crested Butte valley and Mount Crested Butte! It was chilly and sunny with some really beautiful clouds. The photos say it all.

After the amazing hike, we headed into town and picked up some gluten free crusts from a local pizza place called the Brick Oven. We went back to the house to make some pizza. As I started prepping for lunch, it started to snow. I would not have believed it was the same day, if I hadn't been there to witness it myself. The pizza I made had some smoked mozzarella, fresh basil and tomato sauce. I made a spinach salad with red peppers and olives stuffed sun dried tomatoes with olive oil and olive juice dressing. I figure having salad meant I could have all the pizza I wanted, right? After our late lunch we watched a movie. Then after the movie it started to clear up and we took a little snowy walk. Yes, this is the same day. It was unbelievable to watch the storm move in and then move back out. It's one of the prettiest things I have ever seen.

The house photo at the bottom is where we stayed for the week. Can you say amazing? The lady who loaned us the house is very generous. We are so grateful, as this trip was one of the top five vacations I have had. Year 38 is really off to an amazing start & I couldn't be happier. My next post is about our time in LEADVILLE, CO. Can you say Victorian goodness overload? Stay Tuned!




Monday, April 23, 2012

Epic Birthday Trip Part I

Usually, I take notes for later reference for my blog posts... or I write the post right away. This past week I didn't do either. I hardly logged on to the computer at all. I unplugged for almost a week. No facebook, no e-mail, no phone. I didn't write anything down. I didn't think about anything do with work or home projects. Unless it was an address of the taco place that had gluten free cheese and green chili tamales or gluten free pizza crusts in Crested Butte, CO.

Well, where to start? The last ten days have been super. I worked on a flagstone patio Saturday before last most of the day. It was super fun. It's about half way done.


Sunday we spent most of the morning at a walk in clinic as Meg stabbed her finger with piece of wood she called a splinter. I call it one big ass piece of wood. It's the splinter all other splinters aspire to become. The mother load if you will. The doctors at the clinic did an x-ray and sent her home with some antibiotics. I am glad we got it checked out, as her pinky looked like it was about to give birth to triplets. Mother and babies are all doing just fine! Ha!

Day #1 of the birthday trip....We drove from Denver, CO to Crested Butte, CO southwest on 285 to Buena Vista, CO. Then we drove over Monarch Pass to Gunnison, CO, then north to Crested Butte. Wow! Colorado blows my mind. The landscape changes from minute to minute. It's like driving though five states in one hour. Meg did not photograph the trip. She just experienced it right along with me. We listened to a lot of XM radio and laughed even more.

We arrived in Crested Butte in the early afternoon. Crested Butte is a town of 1487 (as of 2010) and it at 8,885 feet above sea level.We got settled into our friends house where we stayed for the week. We made a late lunch and sat around looking out at the view from the house. WOW!! Then we took a walk, and made dinner. It is amazing to have nothing to do but be together.

Day #2 in Crested Butte we walked around the cemetery right outside of town. I read the most beautiful poem about death on one of the graves.

Here it is : Why weep for loved one deceased? Our loss is his infinite gain, A soul out of prison released, and freed from it's bodily pain. With songs let us follow his flight and ascend with his spirit above. Escaped to the mansions of light and lodged in the eden of love. This beauty was on the graves of two children, a boy, Joseph, who was 6 and his sister, Florence who died at the age of two.

Day #3 was filled with hiking down to the slate river though mountain lion country. Meg and I sang our favorite vintage LSU cheer to ward off the big cats! The cheer goes...."Hot boudin, cold cous-cous, come on tigers, poosh, poosh, poosh." Clearly it worked because I lived to tell the tale of our walk!




The walk was amazing. There is still a ton of snow on the ground in Crested Butte. Really, things have just started to thaw out up there. We sat by the river for a long time and listened to the water and made mustaches with rocks. As you can see it's about the prettiest place on earth, and this winter. Can you imagine what a summer day must be like?

I will continue the post tomorrow. Next up, my birthday hike and a snowy afternoon. Then it's off to Leadville, CO! Stay tuned!





Thursday, April 5, 2012

Wow, has it been busy around here. I am working on four websites, 2 logos, a catalog, a number of print projects and a few other random projects. I can't believe how busy I am right now! I am so grateful for all the fun projects. I have been working on a new website for Dunleith Historic Inn. It's looking pretty super. Check it out!

We also are almost finished with the new bathroom. So close to photo time! Meg planted ten trees last week, and we are in the process of putting down weed barrier cloth on the whole back yard. Then plan is to build a new flagstone patio in the middle of the back yard, and mulch the rest. We will be planting all sorts of new plants, mostly drought tolerant pine shrubs, and native grasses.

We are also almost ready to paint the kitchen floor. It's the original hardwoods of the house, we had hoped to refinish them, but it wasn't possible. Both of us are stoked to paint them. It's going to look very cottagey. Too bad that's not a word, maybe it should be. We plan on painting them a cool light green color.

Then next up, is to re-do the other bathroom and put down tile and paint the hard woods in the 3rd bedroom.

Yeah, we are super lazy fools! Don't worry we are having fun too. Last weekend the Women's final four was in Denver. We had a BLAST.

Well, hopefully, it won't be 6 weeks before I blog again.

My birthday is in about two weeks and we have a killer week long Crested Butte trip planned. I promise not to be too busy to blog that week.

I hope you all have a super day!