pics from the trip

Here are a few photos from our trip. We first flew into Denver (after getting rerouted from our original destination of CO Springs) and then drove to Amarillo or more technically Canyon TX which is about 6 hours away, where we visited Palo Duro Canyon St Park. Then we drove back to CO Springs, visited some friends, and then went skiing for one day at Monarch Mountain near the artsy and historic town of Salida.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX. We spent a few days trapping mesocarnvores (foxes, ringtails and raccoons) with grad student Naima Montacer and her professor Ray Matlack.

Traipsing through fields of dried basketflower in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX.

Savie holding the raccoon we caught in the trap. We didn't catch any ringtails though - darn!!

Dr Ray Matlack, West Texas A&M University Professor and grad student Naima Montacer - out in the field trapping in Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.

This shot reminds me of that poem about how God is carrying us when we feel that we're walking alone but there are always two sets of footprints in the sand -- taken at Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.

The kids carrying a gigantic stick (uh, tree?) through the sand at Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.

Mule deer just outside of Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO.

Another shot of the mule deer near Great Sand Dunes National Park.

It was snowing all day when we visited Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, CO. It was awesome! Unfortunately that meant the sky was whited out, and you can't see the peaks in the distance, but it was really neat.

Snow on an evergreen in Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, CO.

Sam in a crevice at Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, CO.
The kids skiing at Monarch Mountain near Salida, CO.

Now as for me - all in a day's work: I unplugged a huge pile of cat hair and Christmas tree needles from my vacuum cleaner, filed for an extension on my income taxes, met with the Head of my kids' private school about next year, went out to dinner with my kids (why buy food if I'm leaving again in 2 days?!), did some miscellaneous work and phone chats with people, applied for a gig as a wildlife show host (that is my dream!!), started to pack, uploaded these pics, and now it's 2am and I still have oodles to do... but alas I must get some rest. Ciao for now!

travel woes...again

Well thanks to Continental once again...not only did they cancel our flight here and then proceed to lose our luggage for 3 days, NOW they have "cancelled" both Sam & my reservation saying that we "didn't show up" for our flight! Oddly the lost luggage lady noticed that very fact and fixed it - I THOUGHT. But apparently she only fixed it for Savannah's ticket! So now I'm on hold and hoping these people can fix it. They better or I'm going to be extremely peeved! OK good news, they got it fixed. So they say! We'll see what happens when I show up at the airport...

Skiing at Monarch Mountain was awesome yesterday. The kids had lessons all day and I had a half day one. Savie was a bit frustrated I think. She fell a few times but she did great. She was tired at the end of the day. Sam just loved it. They only got as far as the bunny slope but I got to take a couple runs down the whole green slope. It was only my 2nd time skiing but I feel like I'm pretty good with balance - not quite good enough to go really flying but I get to going pretty fast! Then Sam and I went climbing around in this snowy area, and tried to have a snowball fight but the snow was either chunks of ice or too powdery. But Sam managed to nail me in the arm with a huge ice-ball that STILL hurts!! We couldn't make a snowman because of the snow. But we did slide down a bank a few times and that was fun. Savie stayed in the car because she was tired. Then we went to eat dinner at this awesome pizza place in the town of Salida where we're staying- Amicas. We waited for like 45 minutes and the tired kids weren't pleased about thaht but I appeased them with a drink - hot apple cider for Sam and a homemade root beer for Savie. And I got a Winter's Ginger microbrew which was quite good.

Well it's time to get ready to go to the airport!

my next adventure

I leave in the morn with the kids on a mini-adventure before Australia. As mentioned a few days ago we're flying to Colorado Springs, then will be renting a car and driving to Palo Duro Canyon State Park outside of Amarillo, TX. Yes I'm flying from Texas to Colorado then driving back to Texas. Go figure! We'll trap ringtails with a graduate student, hike some trails, look for prairie dog towns and maybe a roving buffalo herd... and then will drive back to Colorado Springs for Easter weekend. Then we'll hightail it to Monarch Mountain and the artsy town of Salida on the Arkansas River. The weather's looking like it just MIGHT snow next Saturday - wow the kids would be soooo thrilled!! Oh we will take ski lessons at Monarch Mountain. Well the kids will. Do I need them? Not sure?!

I went skiing once before in my life, at Breckenridge a couple years ago and loved it! That was actually at the very beginning of this blog, at the tail end of a devastating relationship that I could not have been more wrong about. Well you live and you learn...That was the last time I saw Shane. But I treasure more that my best friend Daline drove out from where she was in CO to visit me and we hung out and had a great time! As the old saying go, men may come and go but girlfriends are the true soul mates.

I took the kids to see the Horton Dr. Seuss movie today and I loved it! Horton discovers that there's a whole Whoville world on this tiny speck on a clover flower but no one believes him. So the kids he teaches start pretending they have worlds on a clover also. So my favorite line was this little "kid" who said, "on my speck, the people are all ponies who eat rainbows and poop butterflies!"