A City Life For Me

This is a miracle!  I am publishing a Wordless Wednesday…on Wednesday! Elaine doing Reading with Grandma (& Henry) Nolan decided Henry needed to play Lone Ranger too… Carrots for snack…carrots for teething.  My three sons.  Life is never dull! Movie with Grandma.  Five on a couch! Nehemiah was getting into his Creation Magazine Snow family!  The bigs and Ben made our family out of snow…even down to Henry (he’s the one laying down…just to help you out…Elaine has the pink hat, Nolan has the blue coat, and the others are the twins and the parents). Henry was getting into Curious George!

This trip has been on Ben’s bucket list for a while.  We even had a meeting booked in Moab, UT where the park is located.  Even though the meeting canceled, we took a day and drove the two hours across the border to visit Arches National Park. It’s been unusally cold this year, and that means the snow is sticking around longer.  We had been told this is one of the best times to visit Arches, but the forecast was not looking good during the dates we would be on this side of the Rockies.  Thursday was a forecasted high of 43*, so we got up and headed for Moab.  It was beautiful when we pulled in…we even ate lunch outdoors without our coats.  However, the ranger told us that as soon as we got up a little further there was 8” of snow.  We discovered this to be true, and even trekked through the falling snow in order to see the Window Arches.  We also encountered a lot of fog, which we were told is very unusual. We did not get to see the Delicate Arc...

On Monday we took a “snow day” from school…to play in the snow!  We drove about 40 minutes away to a small ski resort called Powderhorn,  near Mesa, CO.  The ski resort used to be located about 3 miles further, and is now called “Old Powderhorn.”  They turned the ski slope into a sledding hill!  We were a little disorganized at the beginning.  In fact, Liberty got set on a saucer, and went flying down the hill.  She hit a giant jump, and went airborne, landing flat on her face.   Ben rushed down the hill and when he got to her she sobbed, “I hurt my face!” Eventually we got into a “groove”, the kids made a friend, and we all had a wet, freezing time! The view from midway up the hill Nehemiah viewing the slope.  After the first run down, he said “I want to go to the car!”  But he pressed on and had a good time! The view of the mesas. Libs, right before the traumatic flight. Henry spent the first half of the day like this…then...

Last Sunday we were at a church in Gunnison, CO.  I did not know that Gunnison is one of the coldest cities in the country!  Here’s why: “Gunnison is located at the bottom of several valleys. Due to its location in the Rocky Mountains , cold air in all the valleys settles into Gunnison at night, making it one of the coldest places in winter in the United States, especially when snowpack is present.” In fact, the record low is –60*, while the record high is only 98*.  (I could get used to that for a record high…but I’ll pass on the low temps!).  We drove from Grand Junction, CO to Gunnison and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery! A snowy homestead! I had to focus on taking pictures so I didn’t get sick on the curvy mountain roads! We drove alongside the Blue Mesa Reservoir.  At the beginning it was not frozen.  And though the water was freezing cold, it was warmer than the air temp, causing a layer of steam to sit on top of the reservoir. ...