Leafy Hike

Cassidy, Kylie, and I had been talking about loading up the families and driving over to Silverton this past weekend to see the leaves changing color.

But then Kylie had the much better idea of going up to Spud Lake for a hike and picnic. 

This turned out to be a perfect plan since there were plenty:

dogs to hug,

limbs to be used as walking sticks,

and Doritos to eat.

The hike was even family friendly enough for our smallest and laziest family member to tag along.

(Can you spot Hunter between Reed and Koen?)

We were even able to get a picture with the entire family looking at the camera.

Now that's a successful day!

Doin' DGO Like a TXN

It's very Durangoy to ride bikes down on the river trail.

And being good little Durangoans we did just that.

Here was my view (labeled for your convenience).

But since we're not true Durangoans and really just a pack o' Texans, we rode our bikes to go eat BBQ.

And like any true Texan, Kyle needed a mini siesta before the BBQ arrived.

 The BBQ wasn't really enough for us after all that physical activity.  We needed to make another stop.

Kyle and Reed have lived in Durango longer than Texas, so they took the healthy route and asked for 'Kiss Stars'. 

And if you're thinking, 'I've never heard of a DQ Kiss Star?'

 Don't worry. You haven't.

But the award for "Shortest Amount of Time in Durango, but most Durangoan of the Day" goes to Cassidy.

She rode the entire BMX track with Knox in the babyseat.

Guess I'll have to go back with Hunter in the babyseat to beat that!

"Look At Me! I'm a Doe and I'm a Buck. I'm a DUCK!"

We had this little guy come stick his face in our window the other day, which isn't particularly blog worthy since these guys are a pretty common occurrence around here.

But then another little guy showed up a few minutes later, looking a little "off balance".

Kyle and Reed love the movie Open Season, and though I haven't officially "seen" it, I've heard it countless times in the car.

So when I saw this deer I couldn't help but think of Elliot in Open Season loosing one of his horns and saying:

"Don't look at me! I'm hideous!"

"I'm a....Unicorn!"

You'd Think It'd Be a Good Idea

We had our Cub Scout ice cream social last night.

You'd think May 18th would be a nice time of year to celebrate with ice cream.

You'd think.

But here's what it looked like outside as we left for our ice cream party.

Of course, the boys had no problem eating ice cream while it snowed outside.

JR with his best buddy Steven.  Truly two peas in a pod.

It continued to snow last night, so here's what greeted us this morning on May 19th.

May 19th!

This is what 6 more days of school looks like in Durango.

And if JR's Cub Scout campout gets cancelled this weekend due to snow, the wailing and gnashing of teeth you'll hear will be coming from our house.

Dogrango 2

I've mentioned before that here in Dog-rango, dogs are more important than people.

And if you're a true Durangoan then you have a dog. 

A big dog.

A yellow lab is the typical Durangoan dog, and Labradoodles are acceptable.

Although, any big dog will put you in the cool kids club.

So, though Hunter is certainly looked at with smirks and snickers, I decided if everybody else is going to bring their giant dogs to soccer practice, why should Hunter have to stay home?

I actually called Jason from the soccer field and said, "I'm officially a Durangoan. I brought Hunter to soccer."

Look at that face.  I think the other dogs might have been laughing at him.

And don't think my kids haven't noticed how this dog-loving community treats their 4-legged friends.

Both Kyle and Reed like to bring stuffed dogs with them when we go out.

(And why wouldn't they? Everybody else has real dogs with them.)

The other day I put Kyle and Reed in the car, but didn't buckle their seat belts while I was loading groceries.

(Which means they had free-range use of the car for about 2 mintues.)

When I went to buckle them up, here's what I found.

Kyle and Reed-Dograngans indeed!

Reason 457 I Don't Fit in Here

I was eating my second PopTart as I read this.

Now That Could Make One Tasty Icee

I think I might have seen one or two icicles in all my Texas years.

So when I see craziness like this, I just have to take a picture.

I was going to drag the kids out there to model and be a height reference, but seems I remember something about icicles being dangerous, (Not that we Houstonians would know anything about that...we've got hurricanes and tornadoes covered. Icicles? Not so much.) so I figured it best not to press my luck.

It Was Just Like Times Square, Except Completely Different

Jason and I hit Main Street Durango last night for a BIG New Year's Eve night. 

After dinner we had some time to kill before The Snowflake Flake Drop.

What? You've never heard of The Snowflake Drop? 

Oh, well, we'll get to that.

My friend, Kylie, owns Joel's bar so we headed over there for awhile.

This picture just cracks me up.

Kylie is about 6 feet tall in heels, so she's bending over and I'm standing on my tiptoes. 

She's also wearing her sparkly "Thanksgiving dress", as she called it.  I said, "Jason would love it if I showed up to Thanksgiving in that!"

I, on the other hand, had on 2 shirts plus long-johns under my sweater since this was the temperature outside.

I know the picture is blurry, but yes, that says -14!

About 15 minutes until midnight we headed down to Durango's First Annual Snowflake Drop. 

It's exactly like the Times Square ball drop except:

There's no media coverage,

no ball (it's a snowflake!),

no Ryan Seacrest (or announcer of any kind),

and the crowd is slightly smaller.

Can you see me down there? 

That's me in front of the infamous snowflake that's about to be dropped from the tallest building in Durango! (the 3 story tall Alpine Bank building)

So Jason and I stood around with about 200 of our closest friends (who I'm guessing were all between the ages of 19-22) in -14 degrees. 

We found the whole thing seriously amusing and couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, and the ridiculousness of us being out there!

(You know it's cold when Jason breaks out his hooded parka.)

Here's the snowflake about to drop.

And just check out the high quality and thoroughness of this operation.

 You'll notice one side of the clock is reading almost midnight, while the other is reading 10 minutes til.

The big drop! 

Jason was thinking it was going to drop to the ground.

Um, no.

And then Durango pulled out its big gun.

The train showed up to whoosh and blow its whistle.

Yes, that's the legendary train (and throngs of people from the huge Snowflake crowd) behind me.

Yep, another New Year's Eve for our record books!

I Think They Call it a "Snow Shower"

If you're a Durango reader, you can skip today's edition...my pictures look just like yours.

If you're a Minnesota cousin, this is no where near as impressive as the snow pouring through the Metrodome roof...you're excused today, too.

If you're a Texan, feast your eyes on this ridiculousness...

We had no snow in our yard until yesterday!

 

Can You Believe Jason Let Me Do This?!

Because 9 large, fully-decorated Christmas trees just aren't enough, I talked Jason into letting us go get a real tree.

Now had I been wanting Jason to go to Walmart to get a real tree, it would have been a no-go.  But since we can go out in the National Forest and cut down our own, he was all for it. 

(Normally, we wouldn't be able to do this since you need 4-wheel drive during the winter, but since we haven't had much snow, we didn't have any problems getting there.)

Our $8 Christmas tree permit. 

We had two tree requirements: small and close to the road. 

This one fit the bill!

 Not sure what Kyle was "ang-a-ree" about.  I think he thought Reed picked out the tree.

The big guys bringing in the equipment.

We started out with the "traditional chop" with everybody taking a turn swinging.  Kyle perked up when he saw tools appear.

After it fell, Jason and JR cleaned it up with the chainsaw.

Reed was scared of the saw and wasn't letting go of Ayi's leg!

Our tree held up by JR.

The hike to the car.

Soooo, the tree wasn't quite as small as we thought.

 There wasn't a place it would fit in the house, (without blocking the TV) so I now have a back porch tree! 

I wanted it to look "natural", so I used white, sliver, and light blue ornaments to resemble snow and ice.

And BTW, real trees are much harder to decorate than fake ones!

Leaf It Up!

Sure every resident in the Four Corners decided to take the same drive we did at the exact same time, (we actually saw two families we know) but the crowds didn't get in the way of how gorgeous it is this time of year. I also learned there's a name for people who go out to look at the leaves changing. So here we are....

The Tree Peepers!