I LOVE Weekends

I just wish they were so much longer. Today is a hard Monday.. with my parents being here last week it feels as if I had an extra long weekend. Had such a wonderful time visiting with them last week and I am excited that they will be back the end of September :) Thursday night we went to dinner with them at Gerry Andal's, which happens to be one of my favorite restaurants and then my oldest son came over for a drink with us all after his shift at work, it just amazes me that I have a son old enough to sit in a restaurant and order a beer... I do not feel old enough for this. Then again my next youngest is married and in the marines..in less than a year my "baby" will be 18 and done with high school. Time really happens in the blink of an eye.

Patrick is 21

After we left the restaurant we decided we were not ready to go home so we headed to the casino for a bit... played a few dollars in the slots and then just sat in the bar for a bit and listened to some music did some people watching and had a couple of drinks. It was a nice night.. just relaxing and enjoying our time together.
English Boom

This weekend we spent time caching and hiking and playing in the woods and on the beach. We sat in restaurants and visited. We drove around shopping and talking and even went and visited some friends from years ago. It was a great weekend filled with time together. We did some hiking on Saturday on some trails near Stanwood, there are a bunch of trails in these woods and the trail we picked had four caches on it. After the last cache and a mile into the woods... I sort of decided I knew the way back to the jeep... which I did.. but the trail I picked ended up being not a really good one.. as in... it turned out to be an animal trail that did not go very far and we had to bushwhack for some of it...right through the berry bushes... which was not so horrible... the laughing while trying to avoid stickers was a bit harder.
Hidden Cache... or not so hidden :)

Sunday we ended up a bit closer to home even... we went after a couple of caches on the English Boom here on the island, this place is amazing and so beautiful. There is a nice trail to start out on... and then you come to a big ditch... well the tide was coming in and we knew from reading about them that we might not be able to get to these... yet looking around we were not sure low tide would help much. We decided to take a jump over the ditch... well there was a big stump in it so it worked out well, we stepped on to it and walked across then jumped over to the other side and carried on our way. The first cache was not so hard at all.. only so many places to hide it.. and then... even though we knew the next one would be impossible.. we had to go and check out the area... and yes it is impossible (without getting soaking wet) at high tide.. but low tide it should be easy enough.

There is a cache on that boat... but need low tide and boots to get it!

Heading back was a bit of an adventure.. well only in one spot.. the ditch... see the tide had been coming in the whole time we were out walking.. so by the time we got back to the ditch.. there was less of the stump... now I know in photos it does not look like much.. but... for me.. it was scary... the water was moving around this stump and it was yucky brown color and the stump was sort of floating a bit more now.. and I had to do some big jumping to get across.. basically I aimed to where I wanted to go.. told Dave he better catch me.. and closed my eyes and jumped.. with lots of praying (that sort of sounded like cussing out) I did it and it was not nearly as bas once I was done... this geo caching is bringing out the adventure side of me.. sort of... lol I tend to be so focused on getting to the cache that I get some tunnel vision and then when it is time to head back I have some different views on things.

This is the stump... lol not so scary looking now!

Weight Loss Wednesday

Well I have been home a week... and no weight loss... but... I did not expect any really. I was so happy this morning when I climbed on the scale and looked down to see I had not gained any weight. My parents have been here this week and my dad loves to take us out to eat.. and I love to eat. Had pizza for lunch the other day at Jimmys, It is really good pizza and then yesterday mom and I shared a piece of homemade apple pie and ice cream for lunch. Thank you so much Dad :)

When they came over on Sunday I did a lunch of cheese and meat and crackers... a big fruit platter and a some veggies.... I love the little snack lunch type stuff... enough of a selection that anyone can find something to enjoy. They are also so easy to get all put together.. then you can have them in the fridge and be ready to go anytime. I enjoyed sitting around the table snacking and visiting and knowing things were not too horribly unhealthy :)

I have gotten back on the treadmill and I will be back to walking on the beach. Also have some hiking plans (with caching) planned for this weekend. I am doing situps/crunches (or whatever they are called.... pretty much I lay on my back and hate the world while trying to keep my core (yeah it is in there somewhere) tight and scrunch my knees to my chin as much as possible) I have been told this will get better and if it doesn't I am going to owe someone (yes I know you read this) some pain.

Today I weighed in still at 236

~Michelle

Crazy Wonderful Weekend

This last weekend was crazy wonderful and very busy. I love our three day weekends.. I just wish we had even more time... would be nice to work 2 days a week and have a 5 day weekend... but even then I am sure I would not get enough time.

Friday we slept in and then headed out to run some errands and do some shopping. When we were on vacation we bought some cowboy hats and well... I wanted some boots to go with mine. Dave has wanted boots for a long time... but since his accident a few years ago...(busted up his ankle really bad) he was not sure he would ever be able to do cowboy boots again. We did find one pair in Mt. Vernon that he was able to get one and walk in.... but... they were not awesome. We had looked online and new there was a place south of us with a lot more selection in the bigger sizes.. so decided to head there on Saturday.

We also have started shopping for a new kitchen stove. Which has not been a wonderful experience. We built our kitchen around a beautiful stove we had bought.. it is a slide in... dual fuel... so stove is gas (and works even when the power is out ) and the oven is electric ( bakes very evenly) I loved my stove.. until July 4th when it decided to turn it self on and keep heating up until it started smoking and we had to flip the main breaker to get it to stop getting hotter. I am so thankful that we were home and caught it before it melted and burned our house down. Doing some research we learn there was a recall because of this issue... but we had not know thing because we had bought it used when someone else redid their kitchen to stainless.

We head out to do some stove shopping.. since the stove part still works and it is just the oven that we can't use... well I have not been in a huge hurry... too hot to be doing too much baking. I am thinking we will find a new stove for $600 or so. Yeah well.. I am so wrong.. a normal stove.. sure there are some to pick from at that price... but a slide in.. well we only get about 3 options that are under $2,500 and there is nothing fancy about these stoves... the same damn stoves as the $600 free standing ones.. just the one we need does not have finished sides or a back... but it cost that much more :( At this time I do not want a stove... I am trying to to figure out how else I can do baking... I can think of a lot of other things to spend that much money on. Plus we have to figure out what color we want... right now everything we have is black.. but we will also be updating the dishwasher soon.. and someday the fridge... we are thinking of going to stainless.. but.. with a lot of black in it.. so that we do not look totally unmatched until everything has been replaced.. it has become a bit more stressful than I was looking forward to... might not have a new stove until Thanksgiving I am thinking.

So back to boots... we did end up going on Saturday to Renton Western Wear and we did find some boots... Both Dave and I found ones we liked and Missy found the ones she had fallen in love with in Colorado. Not only did we find ones we liked.. they were on sale.. they were on sale enough to cover the sales tax so that was sort of nice. they did not have the ones Missy loved in stock so we had to order those for her. Means we get to go back in a couple of weeks and pick them up. When we got home Saturday we decided to put on the boots and hats and get dressed up a bit and head out. We ended up casino hopping and had a great time. We started off at one casino... the machines were paying ok.. but.. the people were sort of skanky there.. had a meth freak playing at machine.. and then a guy sat down and started pounding on his machine... just not the feeling we were looking for. Headed to the next casino and even though the machines were not paying.. the people were having fun. Figured we would try another one on our way home.. and the machines were so and so and the people were fun... we ended up spending the most time there.. ordered some drinks and some food and enjoyed sitting at the bar people watching :)

Sunday was a relaxing day.. parents came over for lunch (they are staying at a camp ground not too far away for a few days ) and we sat and visited. After they left we decided to head out and check out a few of the new caches that had posted while we were on vacation. It was nice to be caching again... we did not do as much as we would have liked on vacation.. and the weeks before had been sooooo busy with other stuff..so it felt really nice. We found a new area to explore... found one of the caches in the area, Annie which was in a very Beautiful area... when there we saw that there were two more caches on an island there... but.. you have to go all the way back to the starting point and take the other trail... as there are big waters to go over otherwise. So we are planning on packing a picnic next Friday and heading out there after my Doctors appointment. Looks like one cache is at the top of the island so we will bring hiking boots :) We did tackle one cache.. it did mention that "part of the trail was a bit rough" and it was only 200 feet from the jeep... we figured no problem... turns out.. it was 200 feet straight up a rock mountain... it was straight up... which was hard enough.. coming down I had a sit and basically slid down, while praying. Oh yeah and watch out for the barbwire fence. The view from the top is well worth it though.

This week I am looking forward to spending time with my parents.. some caching... some working on art projects.. and just visiting a lot. I am also looking forward to going blueberry picking with a friend.. and now the picnic on Friday with my honey. I also plan on getting some beach time in.. and doing lots of sit ups. Will explain that one on Wednesday :) My life is so good and I am so much more than spoiled rotten :)

Pictures

Just some photos I took while on vacation... been posting a few on my flickr account.. (click here to view ) and will be posting more as we go through them :)

Bridge that they are building in Denver

Georgetown loop runs to here, where the train depot and museum are. I took this while Dave was checking the GPS to see where the cache was... it was not on this sign.

Once again taking pictures while caching.. we were on a foot bridge and this was marked as a 1 for easy.. and we spent a good 30 minutes looking.. and have no clue where it might be :(

At a rest stop and Dave was around the back of the tree grabbing the cache while I am again providing some cover and taking some photos :)

I do just love tree photos :)

Weight Loss Wednesday

First weigh in after vacation... and I am happy to report I am down.. just one pound. I had hoped to be a bit more as I know I walked a LOT and it was hot and I sweated a lot (thought for sure I had sweated off a few pounds) and I did drink a LOT of water. We also only ate out a few times and we kept it real ( pretty much ) when we ate out... example is that when we had pizza we did get bread sticks... but we also did get a small pizza thin crust to share. We also did have dessert... but we split it. You can read/see about the places we ate out at on my kitchen blog. In the old days we would have had the bread sticks.. and a large thick crust pizza and each our own dessert.

With that being said.. I *am* happy I am at least down a pound... with the walking and the watching what we ate... we also spent a lot of time sitting on our backsides while travelling around and we did tend to eat a lot later than is good for us.

See all those stairs and the tiny ants on them... those are people.. Dave and John also climbed 118 more to be able to visit the look out and take this picture.

Even though this weight loss is not going nearly as fast as I would like.. I am happy that it is moving along and keeping on track.. it may take me a year longer than I had hoped.. but.. I know I can reach my goals. As for the getting healthy part.. that seems to be going really well.. no way last year I would have been able to do most of the stuff that I did this year. The hike up 224 stairs at Seven Falls not only would not happened last year.. I would not even thought to attempt it. I not only made it up the stairs this year... I also went on a 30 minute hike while at the top to see some other falls.

One day at a time... by this time next year I can not wait to see what I will be able to do :)

weighing in at 236

~Michelle

Road Trip 2010 Restaurants We Loved

We went on a 2+ week vacation in the motor home with the two youngest teenagers and travelled through 8 states. One goal we had was not to eat out very often... and when we did we tried to make it something really good or cheap and easy. I believe we ate out 4 times which is a lot less than we would have eaten out if we had been at home.

Once was Denny's because it was easy to find and cheap and we knew what we wanted... as a special treat we decided we would get a piece of pie afterwards. There were four of us and per piece was $3.75 and a whole pie was $9 needless to say we got the whole pie and to go. We went and did some sightseeing and then came back to the motorhome for the night.. settled in and cut some pie.. well tried... it was frozen solid.... I had not thought about that... and then even though it was good... Denny's pie is NOT special... it is just a frozen pie that you can buy at walmart for half the price... Lesson learned. We did cut it into 8 pieces and had dessert for two different nights :)

The second place we will be visiting again is MacKenzie River Pizza Company (which has a great website. This is in Montana... and they have one in Idaho too. We had the lodgepoles to start with. "Fresh baked natural grain or sourdough sticks brushed with olive oil, garlic and melted cheese. Served with marinara." OMG so good... and the marinara is Really good. Then the pizza came... We ordered 2 small thin crust of the StockMans, "Steak strips, pepperoni, bacon, Italian sausage, jack & cheddar."

I will have no problem getting in my jeep and heading to Montana just for the pizza... but they also have a lot of other wonderful things on their menu that I want to try... oh and there was another item on that menu that we did try... and I would go just for this item too. Mack Lovin' "Chocolate chip cookies served piping hot with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. A must share delight" They are right..this works really well as a shared item.

My only regret is that I only had my cell phone camera and these photos are not near good enough to show how wonderful the food was. The service was incrediable too... friendly and fun. The place has the feeling of a huge mountain lodge... your pretty sure there is a river right outside. It is the kind of place that is very nice.. but very relaxed and comfortable... you can go in while traveling with the kids ... or for a nice dinner with friends. The price was good too... I had expected it to be a lot more from the looks of the place. I am thinking I might need to spend a week in Montana just so I can eat here every night and try some different things :)

We did end up stopping at one more place....in Cle Elum, Washington. We had been here before for icecream and had planned on stopping in town for milk shakes but traffic on the interstate was so stopped up that we decided to have dinner. We stopped at the Homestead which is right off the freeway.. does not seem to have a website but linked you up with a review page.. seems people LOVE it or hate it. It is known for it's bbq sauce... and we did not order anything that had to do with BBQ but we did try the sauce on some fries and it was good.. great taste.. a bit thinner than I like. We did have some great shakes... and the fish and chips were wonderful. Cost a bit more than we like to spend.. but all in all it was a good place. No special trips for it.. but if going through and wanting a bite to eat.. would stop again :)

Once we ate at burger king... just quick burgers because it was so easy to find. Neither of those were bad experiances... they were what we expected.. cheap and easy and food we know and love :) Some comfort type food is always nice on vacation and I did enjoy the breaks.

Two of the meals we had were above and beyond and they are places we WILL be going back to... helps we want to go back to the areas for other things.. but... even if we did not... I would go back for the food.

The first was the BBQ in Silverton, Thee Pitts Again I do want to say that their website sort of stinks. It does not appear to have been updated in a long time.. since we ate the store that the site says is "coming soon" I would suggest they get the site updated.. and that they ad some photos of the food. If you scroll down ( on the right hand side ) to "featured on tv" you will be able to watch a video from when they were featured on Diners, Drive'ins and Dives, on the food network. This place has won many awards and I can understand why. They have awesome food and a fun place and they are friendly with good service and a clean restraunt. The fried twinkie with icecream was as good as the BBQ sandwhichs and the beans and the potatoe salad too. If you like your sauce a little spicy... be sure to ask at the counter as they keep the spicy sauce back there so no one accidently ads it :)

Vacation Wrap Up

Learned a lot on vacation this year... the most important being that I love vacations...I always get stressed out ahead of time about going new places and doing new things.. and then by the second day I am getting into it and can't wait to explore more places. I need to just relax and just have fun and not worry about it so much. LOL good thing about the motor home is if we end up somewhere we dont like.. we just keep driving :)

I also figured out that the kids hate road trips. They love the new places... the National Parks were all big hits but the getting from one place to another was not the part of the trip they liked... I am sure they could not tell you anything about any part of the trip that was in the motor home... all they did was sleep or play games while we drove. The best parts where when the phones had no service and the ipods were not charged...then they would interact. It was hard figuring out a balance of letting them have their "stuff" and making them interact. Wanted it to be a good vacation for them... but.. also had not planned on bringing all their friends. Since it was the last big road trip with them.. we did not stress it too much... they seemed to be enjoying the important parts.. the parks and the family games and sitting around the fires and hot dogs and swimming.. so we let them have the phones the rest of the time. Any more trips with the kids will just be local, the ocean or dirt biking.. where we go someplace and do something for a week and then come home. In no time they will all be grown and moved on and then we will have plenty of time for road trips.

This trip did confirm that Dave and I will have a great time in a custon built motor home and that we will use the heck out of it. Now we are really starting to focus on and make plans to be able to start working on that as soon as possible... we need to get some things paid off.. then buy a truck.. and decide where to have the box built.. then we can start working on the inside.

here are some links to some motor homes with the same sort of idea we want.. when you see us coming down the road we want it to be all semi truck... and then motor home in the back :)

Kingsley Coach the truck is nice the motor home is a bit bus like for me

Cobra Motor homes Sort of gives you an idea of what we will be driving around in... will have a built in garage in the back under the bedroom so we can haul the harley around and then can pull a trailer with the jeep in it if we want too.

After this vacation I am so ready to get this all started as soon as possible... not tomorrow but you know what I mean... it has gone from something cool we want to do.. to something we REALLY want to do. Time to really focus on getting more and more self suffient so that there is no working 9 to 5 at the office... luckily Dave has the kind of job he can do from anywhere anytime.. so as his business grows this is becoming less of a dream and more of a reality.

For now I am trying to figure out how we can get away again as soon as possible.. lol... I love being home but I am sure now that if we had a motor home that was built for us and it had a comfortable bed and what not... that it could be home too. Pretty sure we would keep this place on the island... it will always be a good place to come home to and to meet up with family for get togethers and to play on the beach. Would also love to have a place more in the mountains.. like in Durango Colorado. I could see spending chunks of time there too and can see family and friends coming to visit there for snow sports and for camping and jeeping. Durango and Camano could balance each other very well and with lots of traveling between and around.. life could be better than anything I have ever dreamed.

:)
~Michelle

Home

We made it.. and it feels good!

We started off Sunday morning geocaching along I-90 on our way home. We did not find hundreds but it was still fun... a lot of places we can not take the motor home... hmmm guess we will have to come back with the jeep :) Since we love road trips...and caching..... this seems like an awesome plan.

The ride home was long... and hot... everything went pretty smoothly... some caching... some sight seeing.. Love the town of Wallace Idaho..hoping to go back and spend some time there. That is where Interstate 90 used to go right through the middle of town.. and it is the home of the last stop light on 90. They have routed the interstate around town but the stop light is still up.. it is an old town and has a lot of character. There are also a lot of jeep trails near there and caches out in the woods. I am hoping to find some time to spend at least a long weekend there.

We got close to Ellensburg and started feeling like we were almost home.. decided we would stop in Cle Elum for a milk shake at this place we love.. and stretch our legs... well before we made it through Ellensburg we figured out that was going to be a great plan ( or so we thought ) Traffic was totally clogged up.. we were moving about 5 miles an hour.. on an interstate.. and this was no holiday weekend. Listening to the CB it sounded like it went on for at least 50 miles.. so we decided to get some dinner with the milkshake and kill an hour or so, along with everyone else that pulled off.. dinner took about 2 hours. Sun had gone down... it was 9 pm.. we should have been home by now.. but oh well... traffic would be so much better... and no sun in our eyes... well half right.. traffic was even worse... we got on the interstate and did not move.. traffic was totally stopped. Then we would go for a short distance.. and then we would all stop again... we talked about the rubber band effect... Arghhhh. This was just the traffic going back over the mountains.. no accidents.. and no construction. Heck of a welcome home... even in Salt Lake City downtown rush hour traffic we moved faster. Finally made it home about 1 am.. house was 900 degrees... lol all the sun/heat we thought we would have on vacation was here while the rain/storms followed us for the last 2 weeks. Opened all the windows and turned on the fans... house finally cooled down and we were asleep by 2... alarm went off at 6:30 and back to the real world :(

Montana

We do Love it here... now that I have been to Colorado it would be a tough choice if I had to pick one place to move to... I am hoping to visit both a lot more and then possibly decide.. Durango was pretty awesome... but parts of Montana are wonderful too.

This morning we left Bozeman and headed towards Idaho... headed down I-90 the rest of the way home home. Headed towards St Regis, which is not too far from the Idaho border and a place we know we can make it home from on Sunday. Had done some searching online for camp grounds and they had one there that looked nice, Nugget RV Park. Thought it would be nice to get in a little early tonight and have a good night on the last night. A swim and a fire and some games. This was a nice camp ground... and cheap.

They had a smaller pool and it was outside so it was abit chilly.. but once you got swimming it was fun.. and again we had the place to ourselves... the showers were nice because they were their own little rooms. We had a small fire and got out the games... we played a few.. but the problem we have with camp grounds.. we are night people.. and everyone there had gone in their trailers and shut off all their lights by 9:30 hard to have too much fun when you have to be so quiet. Kids were tired anyway.. they were so tired of vacation by this time and just wanted to be home... so they went off to bed and Dave and I layed out and looked at the stars for a bit.. until I was asleep and cold.. then off to bed.

In the morning we packed up and headed out... homeward bound :) We decided that the kids were pretty much just going to be grumpy anyway.. so we were going to get some caching in. We had noticed the night before that there was a cache in a cemetery that was pretty close, Dearly Beloved .. had thought about walking to it in the dark.. but.. not knowing the area and of the 4 gps's we had going we could not get all of them to line up together... thought we would wait until the am. Good thing we did.. it was a bit further and across a river.. than we would have been able to walk to... and it was one of those caches that you look and look until you swear it must have been muggled.. then go back and there it is in plain site...lol

Grand Tetons and Yellow Stone

We woke up slow this morning... thinking this will be our last day of camping and sad to leave the campsite and the town. We are planning on just driving through the Tetons and Yellow Stone and not spending too much time. Hoping to see some animals but we have been here before and can come back again easily enough.

That is not how it happened... we did just drive through the Tetons.. and we will be back again... we only hit the top part of it and really would like to spend a bit more time there. We then started through Yellow Stone.. every intention when we started of just doing a quick drive through on the corner of it... and .. we ended up driving all the way around the outside circle.. and leaving in the complete dark. We were able to take some roads that we had not been on before and saw some places we look forward to going back to explore :)

We saw so many animals and it was a nice drive.. it was cool and a little damp... rained on us a bit.. thing is... that was awesome... so many people melt in the rain.. that it was like having the park to ourselves. The only place we really saw a bunch of people was at one spot.. where there also happened to be a few bears. Would have loved to have been able to pull over somewhere and spend some time getting some really good photos.. but.. with the motor home there was no way that was happening.

When we came out of Yellow Stone at the west enterance it was 10 pm and we were way past hungry and tired... thought we would stop at the MacDonalds and grab some quick, cheap and easy food...so was not happening... first off.. it took three of them to take our orders.. possibly one of them spoke some english... and then...when they got the order all correct.. they asked for 3 times what we have ever payed for the same order. I thought at first it was a language issue... nope! If you know us.. you know from looking at us that we are not strangers to MacDonalds...and with five kids the things I love about it is that it is ALWAYS the same.. and it is always cheap.. this is a kid friendly place.. not a five star restraunt. I looked at the lady like she had spouted a few extra heads... then my jaw dropped... I was not even sure what to say... I asked how much for the mcchicken ( it is like a dollar here) and she said $3.78 .... I ripped my debt card out of her hand so quick I thought for sure part of her hand was coming with me... no way was I supporting that. We headed back to the motor home.. after using the bathrooms and looking at the other people in there like they were nuts... and had some soup and crackers. Last time we went to the west enterance we were there for the most awesome doughnuts we had ever had... and we were so disspointed then too.. the shop had been taken over by someone who served up doughnuts or egg rolls.. both having been cooked in the same grease :( * yes I know some of this post is not very nice .. but... my problem is people who can speak english just fine when they want something.. and then can not speak it at all when something is expected of them...and as for egg rolls and doughnuts.. I love them both... but do not think they should be cooked in the same grease at the same time just to save a buck*

Anyway... sort of was a sour night... but we drove on to Bozeman and slept in a Walmart parking lot again. We love Walmarts.. you can just pull in and park and sleep... in the morning there is a bathroom and a MacDonalds with fair prices.. and anything else you could possibly need. I do have to mention.. this Walmart had more Rv's and people in cars sleeping... than any other I have ever seen. Very clean and friendly and gas right there on our way out :)

Wyoming

Woke up in Rawlins and had a look at the map.. called some places near the Tetons and YellowStone and decided to head towards Dubois and a KOA campground there. It was one of the only places that did not charge an arm and a leg to camp that had showers and laundry services... so we reserved a night and started on our way.

We made a geocache route and I used the lap top and new gps program ( gsak and street atlas) to find out what was coming up and get the information about them. It worked really well... we were able to get a few caches along the way that day. Most of them not that big of a deal but there was one called High on Rocks that was pretty awesome. Driving along all day and there is really nothing to see... just brown everywhere... mountains far off.. and then you see these huge piles of rocks. We pulled off to grab an easy cache and while we were there decided to check out the earthcache... it was not that difficult.. would have been easier if we had gone the right way the first time... we started off walking around the rock pile... we needed to climb up the rock pile... and I am so glad we did.. it was easy climbing.. and when we got the top the view was amazing... it just felt like we were on top of the world and the only people for thousands of miles. I really want to go back some day and spend a whole day exploring the rocks.

This is a pool we found while looking for the cache... it is on top of the rocks.. and I noticed when looking through photos today.. it is in the shape of a foot print... hmmmm

When we arrived at the camp ground it was only about 5pm... well some where in the last few hours my cell phone had deicided to jump into centeral time zone.. so I was an hour ahead of everyone for a couple of days.. but I think it was about 5 pm at the camp ground... driving into town ( Dubois ) we knew we would want an extra night there so when we were checking in we asked about another night and there was one open so we grabbed it. The camp ground was awesome... lots of space for each site... we were right on the river again.. and had lots of green soft grass in our spot. There is a game room with pool table and ping pong and some other stuff.. and a HUGE indoor swimming pool. As soon as camp was set up we headed for the pool... and we had it to ourselves... it was so much fun.

( would insert photo here but it turns out we had so much fun that we forgot to take any photos, please click *here* to learn about the great town and *here* to check out the campground)

The next morning the kids took off for town... camping right in town was really nice.... it is one of those towns that shut down early... no pizza after 8 pm... and... it is was quiet the whole time we were there. Dave and I headed out too... we had a couple of caches in town we wanted to look for.. and we had noticed a doughnut place on our way into town. First we stopped at Weltys general store... and we loved it.. wonderful selection of moose things for the house... and hats... we both tried on some hats... big mistake... we both love hats... but we did not buy any... decided to think about it for a bit. We then walked to one end of town and peeked in a few more windows. Went after a cache... in a park... but had no luck.. another cacher showed up... not a very friendly one... and he had no luck either.... reading through the logs this cache has not been maintained and keeps ending up missing. The other cache in town was by the same person so we decicided to skip it. We did find the doughnuts... a bit past where we thought so we ended up walking about 2 miles for them..including the walking around for the cache and checking out the town.... makes them guilt free.. which is good because they were not all that special.. good but not Awesome!

On our way out of town we did stop back in at Weltys and we did each buy a hat :) Mine is a straw cowgirl hat.. and I love it... Daves is a black felt, both are Stetsons. Next purchace will be boots to go with them.. I could wear the boots I have... but... any excuse for new boots is good.

Denver, Thrill Rides and Trains

Today we headed to Denver... Missy had found a thrill park she wanted to visit.. with lots of scary rides and a water park attached too. Elitch Gardens, right in the middle of down town Denver... we exited off of one freeway and did a big round the block thing where the kids jumped out and headed on their adventure (it is so nice they are big enough for that) and we got back on another freeway and headed out on our adventure.

picture from the ferris wheel

While they were doing thier thing we headed up into the hills to check out some more trains... it is a good thing we both love the same things :) The Georgetown Loop historic railway train. We drove up to Silver Plume and walked around the depot and the museum and took pictures of the train... the steam was not running that day and since the kids were not with us I did not feel comfortable getting on a 2 hour train ride in case something happened we would not be able to get to them. They may be big enough for some things.. but somethings they may never be big enough for :)


We then wanted to go just a little further... a few miles was all.. to go through the Eisenhower tunnel ... which is totally cool... but I should mention.. that once you make it through the tunnel... it is a bit of a drive straight down hill until you get to an exit... and then you have to turn around and go straight back up hill to get back. Going through the tunnel just to go through the tunnel is not a quick thing. It is cool that we went under the conitental divide... on this trip we have gone over it several times.

We then drove through Georgetown and stopped and got a burger down the road... headed to pick up the kids but the traffic was horrible... rush hour weekday traffic.. easy to forget about when on vacation... so we found a cool lookout and spent some time sitting in the motor home visiting and just enjoying having some time alone together. We did not even take advantage of the lookout to take photos... but it was a great view of all of Denver.

We picked up the kids and were on our way... I have to say that Denver was really pretty... the part of town we were in was very clean.. and the train tracks ran through it.. lots of train stuff.. and the sunset was like purple fire in the sky... very pretty. We drove to Rawlins Wy and spent the night in the flying J truck stop.

Huge Sand Dunes and Colorado Springs

If you look really hard you can see the people (no they are not ants) climbing the dunes.

Todays aventure is the Great Sand Dunes ... they are pretty amazing.. and huge... there was no way Missy and I were even going to try to tackle them.. it was already hot.. before we got to the sand.. and anyone who has been around sand knows.. it just sucks in the heat and cooks you with it. Now the guys... they could care less... they see those other people at the top who look like ants from here.. and off they go.. to tackle the pile of sand... did I mention you have to cross a few miles ( so it seems ) of desert to get to the hill... oh yes you do.. and the little creek that runs through it has dried up by this time of year... so off the guys go.. I am thinking they will not even make it across the miles and miles of desert to the bottom of the hill but I am armed with camera and ready to take pictures of their adventure... it is nice watching them have one together.. Missy is in the motor home painting her toe and finger nails..and I am running back and forth between the edge of the sand and the motor home for different lenses.. because.. I am sure just to prove me wrong.. the guys have made it across the desert and have started up the hill.. and they just keep going.. they made it at least 3/4 of the way up... then started back down... when they got back I could see why they headed back... the sand had melted their shoes... you could smell the rubber.. on Daves it clear melted the top and bottom layer apart and the strap fell out. I am proud of them.. and I took a million pictures so they can never forget the adventure. Dave and John are out there.. crossing the desert and starting up the hill.

Now we are back on the road to Colorado Springs... hoping if we make it in time we will be able to go to the Seven Falls and see the night show.. which is all lite up at night. The flyers about it look amazing... 224 stairs that you can climb right next to the falls... and/or an elevator... thinking I can ride up and then walk the stairs down... I can't wait.. sounds so great... and we get there in time... it is open until 10:30 and we get there at 8.... the drive up to it is through a canyon and it is all lite up... it is so cool.. hard to see in the motor home though.. we pay... get a dollor off each ticket because the elevator is closed... we park.. almost at the bottom... since we have the motor home.. and then we hike up to the base of the falls... there is crazy lightning and thunder.. so far no rain... so we are good to go. By the time we get to the bottom of the stairs... they have closed them... and won't be opening again tonight... and now the rain starts... and yes it POURS in this part of Colorado too. We did bitch about it and one lady gave us four comp passes to come back again.. and the people at the gate gave us a rain check.. had to be used within 14 days... as if we would be able to hop up here to see it next weekend.... we were NOT happy... and we had never been so soaking wet before in our lives... not even when going swimming. We did end up getting to watch another huge lightning storm.

Looking up the falls and the stairs.. sure I do not want to do this.

We got up early in the morning so we could go take the cogway train to Pikes Peak. We had coupons for the 8 am train... $5 off per person.. wooooohooo... drove through a small little town called Manito Springs, very artsy crafty and fun looking. We parked the motor home and got in line to buy tickets... well... it was full.. next one was at 2:45 so we bought tickets for that.. and headed out ... decided to use our rain check and go check out the falls..... all I can say is that those waterfalls were not impressive... and I can not believe we paid $10 a person to climb the 224 stairs.. oh and the elevator was still down.. which was ok with me because it did not even go to where the falls are... it just went to a place that you could see the falls from... we even went on a half mile hike at the top of the falls to see another falls.. it was blah too.... so I would not suggest this to anyone... unless you like to climb stairs.. that part was pretty amazing :)

We made it all the way up.. this is the landing half way up.. looking down on our way down.

Back to Manitou Springs .. going to walk around here a bit and then head back to Pikes Peak to catch the train. Every thing was going great.... and then... lightning... thunder.. and omg.. yes POURing rain...it was flooding the streets... bouncing off cars like super balls...and we were stuck in the stores ( thankfully they have awesome stores... we found ourselves stuck in a chocolate one.. oh so sad ) A break in the rain and we run for the motor home.. make it without getting too wet... find out we left the vent open and the center console was a bit wet.. including my phone.. but all is well... head up the street to park for the train and have some lunch... we got parked.. in the pouring rain... and I am making lunch and notice that across from is a jeep commander and the sun roof is open... the rain is pouring into the jeep....We feel so bad for them.. trying to think of something we can do but we have nothing to cover it with that would not make the problem worse :(

Headed up the mountain... that is the car in front of us.

We got on the cogway in the pouring down rain... once it started up the hill it started getting really nice... we rode all the way up with our windows down just getting as many photos as we could. At the top we were with limited time and in a cloud bank.. so no real views from the top... kids headed out to get some of the high altitude doughnuts and we headed out to grab a couple of caches :) Trying to do things in a hurry on our limited time and being at an altitude of 14,110 feet... lol the hurry part did not work so well... I was out of breath with just three steps. We did manage to get two caches and a bunch of photos. The doughnuts were ok but as far as I could tell.. nothing special. It was very cold up there... The only part of me that was having problems though was my fingers.. I had worn jeans and boots and my rain coat so I was good to go.. all but my fingers.. they were so cold I thought they would snap off.

John and Missy at the top of Pikes Peak.. getting a shot for a virtual cache.

When we got back to town it was nice out again.. so we headed to the walmart and camped there.. made some nachos for dinner and played games... Missy was not feeling so good so she hit the sack early.

Durango and Thunder Storms

Well.. I am a few days behind when it comes to blogging.. have spent some time without computers or internet even on my phone.. and well.. have just been so super busy. Last time I wrote we had visited Mesa Verde and Silverton.. and for this post it will be about our trip to Colorado Springs.

We got up early at camp and went over to have breakfast... all you can eat pancakes :) then we wrapped up camp and headed into Durango to return the rental car on our way out of town. We ended up spending a couple of hours just hanging out in Durango.. visiting the train depot and the muesum...walking around town and doing some window shopping.. Dave and I can not wait to go back to that area.. can see us moving there at some point

We then headed towads Colorado Springs... our plan was to spend as much time on the road as possible and get as far as we could. We had one kid with a crappy attitude... seems there is always one.. I think they plan it between themselves that at least one of them has to be giving attitude .. for the most part they have been wonderful... and I know that the adults on this trip have also had plenty of attitude.. lol I always do... It is my job! Being all stuck together in a motorhome for over 2 weeks does have some challanges... for the most part it has all been great. .

One of the best things about this day was Wold Creek Pass it was a long hot pass... but.. driving up there was a turnout for a waterfall.. and it was so pretty... said there was a look out up 200 feet on a trail.. so up we went.. funny how 200 feet does not seem like a lot until it is straight up. It was the most worth while thing though.. it was a beautiful waterfall.. and we were standing right at the base of it.. could play in the pool it made... took lots of photos... and stood in the spray and laughed... so much fun... and then by the time we were back down we were all dry and hot again.. but it had been so pretty. When we got to the top of the pass we pulled over to have some lunch... made some cheese and crackers and stuff up and we ate and looked out over the field where the continental divide is.
By the time lunch was over everyone had a better attitude... I think it helped that we had fallen off the grid... phones no longer worked.... so no texting messaging with friends... funny how that works... ( yes mom I hear you laughing at me ) at the bottom of the pass we pulled over to do a cache... it was on a dirt road with a big parking spot... right on a small river.. so we pulled in and Dave and I set off to find the cache while the kids threw rocks in the river. It was so pretty there... found out the little side roads off the parking area all had camping spots on them... then we headed back down the road to Colorado Springs... we got a few miles down the road and pulled over at little store for a few supplies... Dave and I decided to head back to the dirt roads and camping spots and have a phone free fun night with the kids. We drove up the dirt road for a bit.. finally found a spot that would work with the motor home.... got it all set up... a little fire going.. and the lightening and thunder started... hot dogs on sticks... sitting around the fire..and the rain starts dumping.. and it does not rain in Colorado like it does in Washington.. I know I have said it before..and I will say it again... it POURS in Colorado. We went inside to eat our hot dogs and ended up pulling down to the turn out to park for the night.. just to be sure we did not get flooded out and end up in a boat that looked like a motor home :) It was a great night.. played games with the kids... laughed... checked out lots of bugs... ask one of the kids about the million of bugs..... and had a good time.

Mesa Verde and Silverton

The last two days have been filled with running around and seeing as much as we can. Thursday we headed to Mesa Verde amazing!

The Long House ...... took a guided tour through it

When we woke up there was a huge thunder storm... lightning and thunder and lots of rain.... I took a video... not sure how it turned out yet...if it is any good I will be posting it on youtube.....as we took off for Mesa verde the rain kept coming.. and the thunder and lighting.. thought for sure we would be seeing the sights in the pouring rain... oh well.. we are from Washington and use to that... but.. the closer we got to the park the more it cleared up.... the day was warm... but not too hot.. well it stayed below 90. I did get a bit of a sun burn.. which mostly pissed me off.. since I was the one being so careful ( I thought ) to put on sun block.. and lecturing the kids... turns out I missed a spot :(

Cliff Palace .............. another guided tour.

I was really suprised at how green everything was... in a lot of the photos I had looked at everything was brown.. even with snow on it... so I was so happy to see so much green. We did two of the three guided tours... both were amazing... you go straight down 100+ feet... walk through the ruins and then straight back up... most of the up is on wooden ladders. I had spent some time in the weeks before vacation.. walking straight up hill on the treadmill... trying to get ready for this sort of thing... but.. I had not practiced with the heat and the altitude and had not practiced stairs... this about killed me.. but I did it :)

The short ( 8 feet high ) ladders.

Yesterday we drove up to Silverton... and fell in love... with everything between Durango and Silverton and beyond. It is only 40 miles from our campsite to Silverton but it took us almost 2 hours. We ended up taking some side road.. totally 4x4ing along a river and into the woods and some beautiful meadows.. for a cache.

There is a cache down there.. had to drive around and 4x4 to get it:)

Oh and by the way.. we were in a rental 4x4 and not in the motor home for this part :) While we were there we saw a beautiful wolf... yes we took photos...will have some up later on flickr. I noticed so many camp sites...the kind where you just pull out into the field or under a tree along the river.... little rock circle fireplaces... but the coolest thing I noticed... was NO garbage.. any where... these camp sites were so clean... You never see this anywhere in Washington... Everywhere we have gone in Colorado you can feel and see a respect for the area. ( I also learned there is a highly enforced 1,ooo dollar fine for littering in the state....Yay! )

The Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Steam Train

We hung out in town for a bit... so much to see and so little time... we have already decided we are coming back and spending at least a week just in Silverton.. so much to do there... lots of mines to explore... and so many trails.. and the wildlife... it is all amazing... the town itself could take three days to explore... it is an old mining town with a train station.. and it has not been built up for tourist.. it has.. but the bones of it are all there because it is what it was.. and what it still is... it was not built to look like a town out of an old west movie... it is an old west movie.. and the people are so polite and calm and nice... it was relaxing and exciting all at the same time.


We had lunch at a wonderful BBQ place... called Thee pits again great food and wonderful service... the link is for their other restraunt... they just opened the one in Silverton not too long ago.. they were even featured on Diners Drive ins and Dives.. on the food network. Then we walked around town.. checked out the train depot and found a couple of caches.

There was a cache in this little park area.. was a bit hard to find without being muggled

A guy sitting outside the reastraunt ( who worked there ) had told us about a ghost town just outside of town a few miles... so off we headed.. down a dirt road for about 12 miles... it was one of the coolest things.. an old mining town.. the buildings still there... there is a self guided map you can get and you can walk through the buildings and read about each one... it was fun.

Animas Forks.... founded 1880 ...elevation 11,160

There was also a cache out behind town near an opening to a mine shaft... it was a lot of fun. On the way back to town we saw a family of moose playing in a field where the river had made a marshy area. we stopped and spent about 30 minutes just taking photos of the moose. If you know us you know we LOVE moose... our whole home has the log cabin feel based on a lot of moose things. We can't wait to download the photos and see what we got.

Moose family

Now we are back at camp and it is Saturday morning.. we are packing up and getting ready to take off for Colorado Springs...then after that we start the trek home.

Arches National Park

Yesterday was amazing.. we went to Arches National Park and the kids Loved it... I was really suprised how much they got into it... they were taking off on all the hikes into the rocks that they could find.. and reading about what things were and how they came to be.. and it was great. We took maybe millions of photos... we have been taking photos with 2 different cameras and 4 different phones.. so there are a LOT of photos to go through... until I get home and can really take some time to look through and sort I am only posting a few photos onto my flickr account... once I get home I will be posting a lot more of them.

Last night we ended up finding a great camp ground.. it is right on the river.. and has a pool and a big game room.... has great showers and a big laundry room. The spots are pretty squished together.. but the people who are all here seem to be really great.. very friendly and nice. Last night everyone got showered up and this morning we did laundry.. it has been years since I have done kids laundry.... the kids have spent the day off running around and now we are getting ready to go into town and pick up a rental car for the next two days of adventures. We will also stop at the grocery store and pick up a few things.. and.. I think maybe we will do steak on the bbq for dinner tonight :)

We are here until Saturday morning... then we will head towards Colorado Springs... another mountain we want to see.. a train we want to ride... and the kids found a thrill ride park they want to visit.

Salt Lake City

Is not my favorite place to hang out.... but it could be worse... yesterday we went out to the salt flats and over to Nevada for lunch and to grab a cache... we headed back to Salt Lake City and were on our way up to the copper mine... in fact.. we were at the gate... shut off the motor home to pay the guy... and then it would not run.. it started.. but did not even want to move out of the way of the gate.. Dave was able to move it just barley out of the way... and that was it... it just had to sit for an hour to cool down... totally frustrated the guys at the gate... they did not like us just sitting there... brought back our money and took our ticket.. no way they were letting us up the hill... it was another 4 miles straight up.... which we knew better than to even try.... when we changed the fuel filter the other day in Buhl.. in the parking lot of the auto parts store...we had hoped that was the problem and that it was all fixed... but... today we are sitting at the ford dealership ( will be getting a rental car soon) and the motor home is getting a new fuel pump... which is inside the gas tank.. which is a lot of work and a lot of money... will hopefully be back on the road tonight and only out $1,500 we did not plan on spending.

I do have to give credit to the ford dealership, Larry H Miller, for being totally awesome... they were about 3 days out on service schedule but were able to make some calls and move things around and get us in today... and they even had the pump we need... so this whole thing could have been a lot worse, knock on wood since it is not done yet. Dave is off picking up the rental car...and then I am hoping we are able to head up to the mine and then get some lunch and hopefully be back on the road by dinner time.

We know that owning a motor home.. and an older one.. that each year we have to put some money into fixing it up... every year we pick something big and something to prettifiy it... this year we did new tires for it.. and made cool arm rests and a console station for the chargers and drink holders and stuff (still hoping to do a blog post about all that since it turned out awesome and is working great) last year was brakes and we redid the benches at the table... next year we were thinking about redoing one whole wall of the motor home.. taking it off like we did the roof a few years ago and redoing the whole thing... but now that we have had this nice little suprise that might just wait another year and we can get away with calling the fuel pump next years project.

Off in the rental car to check out the copper mine and hopefully find a few caches for Utah... because as soon as we get this fixed... we are out of here and headed to Colorada and hopefully some trees and a bit cooler weather. Thinking since the four corners is under construction and we are tired of hot.. that we will skip the lower part and stay to the mountains a bit more.. we can do mesa verde and the four corners some other time.

~Michelle

We have been taking photos.. there are some on the flickr site... since being on the computer while we are driving is limited ny my tummy I am putting pictures there when I get a few minutes and some on facebook and twitpic.... once we make camp somewhere for a few days I will be able to do a few more.