our house

the front

the backyard with the former owners' furniture

The closing went smoothly yesterday, and after an hour of signing such papers as 'We promise that if some piece of paper was missed today, we will return and sign it', we left owning a new home. The former owners planned to leave in their rental moving truck at 03:30 this morning, so Timothy and I will be on our way over there shortly. Paul loaded the car with things last night that I can unpack from the car like plates and clothes. Dad's coming over to dump a load of dirt he picked up for his yard but didn't need. We have a large hole (the former koi pond) to fill before Tim can run free in the back yard. These photos were posted by the real estate company that sold the house. We'll get our own up, but by posting these, I buy myself some time.

buying a house today

At 12:30 today, we go to the Land and Title Company and write a very big check for our new home. It isn’t brand new, but it’s new to us, and we love it. We don’t actually write a check as those are no longer accepted. Paul wired the money to their bank on Monday, so all we’ll be doing is signing lots of papers. Officially, we take possession of the house tomorrow, but if they have it vacated as we’ve been told they have, then we might get to go over there this evening and play. I’m so excited!

Tim and I have been living with Mom and Dad for 11 months and two days, Paul a month less because of his visa delays. If I’d known it was going to be this long at the start I would have done something differently, but it’s been a great experience. The best part has been watching the relationship that has developed between Tim and Mom and Dad. Our main reason for moving to the US and the only reason we moved to Fort Collins was so that Tim could get to know them. Mission accomplished.

We've been slowly packing over the last few weeks, so you can imagine the state of things down here in the basement.

tim's got as much to move as either one of us

It burst over into the garage last night as we started to move things in preparation to move out.

the garage

When I say ‘we’ moved things, I really mean Paul and Dad moved things. I get scolded if I so much as look at a box. One of the nice things about living here is that we don’t have to have everything out in one go, but we’re going to try to get as much as we can.
Neither of us have slept much in the last few nights; we are so impatient to be home owners again.

We’ve got a considerably bigger job of getting this place sorted than we did the flat, but we’re doubly ready for the challenge. I want to post pictures this weekend, but we may not have internet and I may not have time. Trust that I will get it done, eventually.

national parks

While my in-laws, Jenny and Neville were here, we took a nine day camping trip and saw some great national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The last was my favorite, but that may be because it's the only one I hadn't seen before. We had almost perfect weather. It could have been a little cooler in the afternoons, but the nights were cool enough for sleeping comfortably in a tent, and the mornings and evenings were nice.

Our first day was the longest driving day of the trip. Tim and I got to avoid the seven hour drive to Moab, Utah because Dad agreed to fly us to Grand Junction where we met Paul, Jenny and Neville. We felt that seven hours was unfair to poor Tim, and I was the natural candidate for going with him, being the mother and all. Dad gets another award for great guy. A hose in the engine came off when he started it to return home and it took the weekend for them to find it and get it hooked up again. He spent two nights in Grand Junction, which we didn't learn until after the fact. Thanks Dad!

Paul chose Moab because it was close to both Arches and Canyonlands. We stayed at the very end of the town next to the Colorado river. The lush grass and tall trees helped us battle 90F plus afternoons.


our campsite in moab

We spent the mornings, driving through the parks. Neville and Paul returned for some sunset photos and one morning Jenny joined them for sunrise pictures. Tim and I slept in.

called park avenue, this is the first site on the road into arches national park

one of the many arches for which the park is named. jenny, neville, and i are the tiny people beneath the arch

another impressive formation in the park

Canyonlands is a testament to wide open spaces and the power of wind and water.

jenny and neville at canyonlands

Next to the park is Dead Horse State Park where the final scene of Thelma and Louise takes place.

dead horse state park

From Moab, we drove south into Arizona and onto the Navajo reservation; Monument Valley isn't actually a national park, but I've lumped it under that title for my own convenience.

iconic monument valley photo

Our campsite was primitive: no water, no store, no trees. There was only one other tent there when we arrived, so we commandeered one of the three picnic shelters and set up camp on red dirt. It was only one night and the views were fantastic. A half mile away was a new hotel with a gift shop and cafe. We made use of their facilities.


west mitten as seen from our campsite

merrick butte

tim only slept half the night in his own bed on the first few nights, so we gave up and put him with us for the whole night. we all slept better for it.

From Monument Valley, we drove across northern New Mexico to Four Corners and back into Colorado to our next stop at Mesa Verde.

jenny and neville standing on four states at once: arizona, new mexico, colorado and utah.


Paul's grandmother had some illustrated Time/Life books when he was child, and that's where he was first introduced to the cliff dwellers and their beautiful homes. Growing up in Colorado, I was taught about them in school and visited the site with my parents when I was about eight. We had not prepared Jenny and Neville for what they were going to see, and their amazement at the ruins made it seem like a first time experience for me. The cliff dwellings were discovered by cowboys in the early 20th century when they were out looking for stray cows.

cliff palace: the first tour of the day

cliff palace late in the afternoon. i've included this because the people give it some scale

visiting balcony house meant a steep climb up this ladder and a crawl through a tunnel. neither were baby-friendly, so tim and i played in the parking lot

jenny and neville at balcony house

From Mesa Verde, we drove north to our last camping destination: the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. We stopped in Durango for brunch and took Colorado's most scenic road through the tiny mining town of Ouray.

durango's downtown

ouray

san juan mouuntains

The Black Canyon is small compared to the Grand Canyon, but for me it was more impresive, I think because it is more intimate. Whereas the Grand Canyon is immense, the north and south rims separated by vast distances, the walls of the Black Canyon are narrow, seeming to nearly touch in some places. The river can be seen and heard from above, and there aren't any crowds. I consider it a Colorado must-see.

the gunnison river

the river is on the left side of the picture

named because so much of it is in darkness due to how narrow the canyon is

We spent our last night in a motel on the main strip of Leadville, home of some of the richest silver mines in Colorado history. It's a quirky little town full of eccentric people and a great place to finish a fantastic camping trip. The motel was true Americana and the bed and shower perfect.

downtown

typical leadville housing

the matchless mine of baby doe fame

We thought that camping with Tim in Europe came at the perfect age for him, but this trip proved to be equally great. I think camping and traveling kids works at any age. It's just a matter of perspective.

A BOY!

We had our second ultrasound in Denver on Tuesday and discovered very quickly that the baby is a boy. The scan was very thorough and we got to see him tossing and turning in all his glory. We are thrilled.



I think the picture is pretty clear, but just in case you're having trouble I'll give you a brief description. His head is on the right side and he's facing the camera with his face turned towards the top of the picture. His hands are in front of his face as if he's telling us that he's had enough photos for one day. His left leg is bent at a 90% angle with his shin crossing his body. Below, his gender is unquestionable.

rocky mountain national park

the view from our campsite

Paul's parents arrived on Saturday. We're going on a nine night camping trip with them to the Four Corners area, so we've been busy buying some gear and two weekends ago spent a night in the Rocky Mountain National Park to check it all out. We took our summer sleeping bags and spent a cold night. Tim started out in his own 'room' in the tent but woke and joined us. The body heat was welcome even if he did keep us up tossing and turning. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to our campsite, the last one available. The pine beetles have killed thousands of trees. They've cut them all down in this campsite and it looks like a moonscape. The trees become prime forest fire material after the beetles are through with them, so they cut them when they can. Environmentalists would like them to be left to burn.


our campsite sans trees - the stumps are evidence that this was thickly forested


our new family tent

After setting up camp, we took a short walk to nearby Sprague Lake. There's a well maintained path all the way around it. We walked through the forest from our campsite to get there and encountered no one until we arrived at the shore. There's a parking lot on the opposite shore from where we arrived, and there were loads of people taking advantage of the warm weather. It was windy, but Paul did some fishing whenever we found a sheltered area. I had to keep a close eye on Tim who has no concept of the end of the land and the beginning of the water and will happily march into the lake. He loves to throw rocks and sticks into the water but has to get very close to actually hit water.


sprague lake

Paul used our new camp stove to grill lovely steaks. We ate rather late and went to bed soon after the sun set.

The next morning Paul and Tim went for another walk to the lake and I buried myself in both our sleeping bags and got some sleep. Paul cooked up a yummy breakfast and then it was time to break camp. It was windy again and dark storm clouds were moving in quickly.


cooking breakfast on the new camp stove

We drove uphill to Bear Lake and planned to walk around it. We walked from the car to the shore, got a quick look, and watched the snow move across to where we were standing. It was more like small snow balls then snowflakes, but they were soft. We took that a sign to go home and saw a small heard of elk on the way out of the park. When we got out of the mountains and into Loveland, the first city on the plains, the clouds dumped about 15 minutes of hail on us. We pulled off under some trees and watched it come down.


hail storm

It was nice to camp out again and we're both impatient now for the trip with Jenny and Neville. They are here for three weeks and we're making the trip in the second week.

santa fe

25 May was Memorial Day in America, a public holiday, so for Paul's first day off of work, we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico with Dad, who was nice enough to fly us down and back. Mom was planning to come but came down with a wicked cold the day before departure and decided to stay home. The Spanish were the first European settlers to Santa Fe, and their influence is obvious in the architecture. There are building codes that force the adobe structure on most new buildings. Native American pottery and blankets seem to be the key ingredients for decorating and everyone wears turquoise. It's a happening art scene (the healthiest in the US), but on a scale way beyond our budget. We enjoyed the main plaza and surrounding streets with art and souvenirs to sell, but we also went further afield to Kasha Katuwe, a small National Monument about 40 miles from the city.


the cathedral just off the main plaza


a colorful shop near the plaza


iconic dried chilis hanging on a porch


art for sale


one of the many art galleries


the kasha katuwe walk begins with a roomy canyon


that quickly narrows


and narrows


ending with a steep climb and views of the 'tent rocks'


beautiful geology

Before flying home on the last day of the long weekend, we drove the Turquoise Trail south to the small village of Cerrillos, called a 'photographers heaven' by our guide book. It was a bit of a disappointment.


main street cerrillos


a restored cerrillos home

buddha and hockey

Sunday morning, we took a drive up the Poudre Canyon to see The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, a Buddhist temple near Red Feather Lakes. It was a pretty, hour drive to Echo Glen and then a short drive on a dirt road to the Buddhist Mountain Center. Paul’s been to Nepal, so this is not a new thing to him, but it was my first visit to a Buddhist temple. I learned that it’s actually a stupa, a place for the remains of a great teacher. This one houses a man who helped spread Tibetan Buddhism in North America.



The temple is a tall and colorful structure in a pretty valley. It’s a peaceful spot for meditation. While inside, (surprisingly small) a man told us that Timothy could have a small red marble that was among others in a spot cut into the marble floor. We don’t know what it signifies but will save it for him as a memento. If we gave it to him now, he’d swallow it, and I don’t believe that was the man’s intention.



One of the Buddhists practices is to write prayers on a strip of cloth and hang it so that the wind blows it. Every time the material is moved by the wind, the prayer is sent. The first time that Paul told me this I thought it was a rather lazy and passive way to pray.



In the early evening, Bob and Sue, who live next door and treat Timothy like a second grandson, called and offered us two tickets to the local hockey game. They have season tickets but didn’t feel like going out last night. Mom and Dad offered to babysit, and Paul and I went to our first live ice hockey game: the Colorado Eagles vs the Mississippi Riverkings.




It was loud and action packed. We didn’t see a big fight, but there was plenty of slamming against the glass to make it exciting.

The puck is much easier to follow live than on TV. The Eagles won, but only in the last period. The area is a testament to capitalism with advertisements on every flat surface. The big screen TV’s (two of them plus the four on the scoreboard hanging from the ceiling in the center) blasted commercials with every break. Almost all of the players for both teams had beards. I wonder if this is hockey fashion.