Part 3: Camping in the Rockies!

So here's the last part of our Mega Vacation! GOB drove up to Gunnison, CO and joined us for the week with our camper and quads. (I think I may have forgotten to mention that GOB only spent the week in MN with us and he had to fly home to work.) Anyhow, back to the vacation details. We also met up with our friends C & G who live near Grand Junction, CO. They spend a week in the same area of the Rockies every year with several other families. So altogether I think there were about 12-15 other families with their campers. We had a great time riding the quads all over the countryside. I discovered that my quad isn't exactly comfortable to ride in that neck of the woods. I could really use a 4x4 for the next time we go up there! Thankfully, there is always an abundance of quads parked around and people just kinda share them. The boys didn't ride theirs much because "they wouldn't go fast enough"! The elevation we were at combined with the cheap Chinese carburetors in their quads, made for slow riding according to the boys. LOB did mange to flip his quad however so therefore it really could go fast enough! He did not get hurt but it scared the crap out of himself and Grandpa . So below are a few of the pictures I snapped...

The boys are chomping at the bit to leave the campground in Gunnison and head out to the wilderness!

We saw this old gold or silver mine on our first quading trip. There were several in the area. It's amazing to see how good they still look after 100 years.

This was a house near the mine.

The boys are standing in front of the ice box where they must have stored their food.

Here's a pretty picture. I'm pretty sure we were on top of that mountain way up there too at some point.

This one kinda looks like a postcard. Not too bad for a cell phone pic if I do say so myself.

I can't remember what exactly this is but what amazed me was how they could have possibly got it up there! On this quad ride, I made myself sick! I swear we were climbing over boulders and could have flipped a couple times-me and my zero bit of experience! Thankfully our friend G let me ride his 4x4 beast back down the mountain and he rode my made-for-flat-terrain-and-dirt-quad!

DVB didn't get to go on this ride. He stayed at camp and flirted with all the teenage girls!

Im not too sure what Grandpa is thinking about in the picture...maybe that he thinks he needs a 4x4 quad too?

This was the sign that greeted you in a nearby town to our camp. It was a cute, old, little town in the middle of nowhere.

This was another quad adventure. Each day we went on one long ride. This one was to St.Elmo, CO. It was about a 2 hour trip in the rain! Next time, we are bringing proper rain attire with us! I was soaked and cold! But these cute little chipmunks made up for it. It's the main attraction of the town, also in the middle of nowhere. There were about 20-30 of these little guys and they would come right up and eat sunflower seeds right out of our hands.

See that brown creature? It's called a Whistle pig. It kinda looks like a beaver/ground hog/wood chuck.

This was the only deer we saw. I'm surprised we didn't see more wildlife.

This was the last trip we took and this time we took the truck. And thank goodness we did because that would have been a very very long quad ride! And thank goodness Grandpa drove cause it was scary enough to be the passenger on this steep and very twisty road. This was a train station back in the early 1900's. It was a passenger train that wound it's way up the same path we took and then cut through a mountain and ended up in Denver on the other side.

They were checking out the turntable. Mr. DVB is heavily addicted to Thomas the Train so he was in heaven seeing the actual train stuff!

This is what the terrain looked like way up there above the trees!

And this is the last picture I took as we had to go back to reality!

We sure had a great time on this leg of the trip too! The boys had a blast digging, cutting down trees, and being in the great outdoors! I forgot to mention the nice cool weather! I could have done without some of the rain but we didn't let it ruin anything! Thanks to C & G for the hospitality and we hope you'll let us join you again sometime!

Masive Vacation Part 2: Iowa!

Here is part 2 of our very long vacation. We spent a week+ at Great Gram and Gramps house. It was a very eventful stay. From a nasty flu bug that knocked several people down, to an ER visit for unknown bumps on DVB's head, and to Gram needing a little heart tune-up, our week in Iowa went way too fast and we didn't get to visit much as we would have liked to with all our family. It was a memorable stay to say the least!

This was the first night we arrived! We always enjoy the family picnics with all the cousins and aunts and uncles. Almost everyone was there, just missing a few cousins. (boo)

We even got to meet up with Aunt J in Galena, IL. She happened to be visiting her family in IL so we met in the middle for just a couple hours. We had lunch at Culvers and then went shopping in a bunch of cute little shops. We wished we could have spent more time with her.


This picture was taken at my Great Aunt and Uncle's country house. I hadn't been there in many years so it was fun to see it again.

These are the mysterious bumps that showed up all over DVB's head! Every morning he would wake up with more. Finally I kind of got worried and took him to the ER for the lack of an Urgent care. Then come to find out we took him to the ER for mosquito bites/black fly bites! WTH! I haven't gotten the bill yet but I bet it will be a pretty hefty co-pay for bug bites!

And the next day, the extremely contagious flu bug took over our vacation fun! It started with DVB. Then it knocked down, LOB, DJB, Me, Gram, Grandpa, BoBo, and Aunt M. Somehow, 82 year old Great Gramps was spared! I'm still not quite sure how he got so lucky! But after everyone had their day with it, we were almost back to normal. Although, our vacation was coming to end shortly there after.

This was a day DVB felt himself, while I didn't, so I sat with him outside while he played. This is a little potty training lesson. See how hard I work on it, with a book in hand?

These are some funky caterpillars that Great Aunt J captured for the boys. They were supposed to make it back to AZ so we could see them transform into butterflies but......they were forgotten in the back of the truck until about, um, say somewhere in Kansas I believe! Ooops!

Here are the boys are strapped in for the trek to Colorado via Buzz The Bus. Also on this day, we found out that Great Gram needed to have a triple bypass surgery on her heart. We were only 5 hours into our trip so BoBo turned around and went back and stayed a few weeks to help Gram recover. She did amazingly well, her Doctor's say. 20 days post-op, she was back at work! We know your tune-up, Gram, will bring us many more years with you!

So that was our Iowa vacation. Thanks to all our family for your hospitality and we hope next time we can see EVERYONE and spend a lot more fun time with you all!

Next up: Part 3: Camping in the Rockies!

Our Long Awaited Return To The Blog World! Part 1: MN

So now that I think I am totally caught up from being on vacation the whole month of July, I can finally justify updating the blog. Boy, have I caught a bunch of heck for taking so long! Sheesh!

So here we go! These are some of our pictures from our week spent with Grandpa and Grandma B! We all had a great time. The boys have lots of fun memories from the week on the farm! And Grandma B kept us busy busy busy with all kinds of things!


DVB found a relaxing chair right off the bat!


We like to bring Teddy, the Dog, a new toy or treat when we visit. But this time we picked one out that he could have cared less about. DVB couldn't understand why he didn't want to play with it, Toni (our dog) would have loved it!


The boys found the black cap bush right away too! But they were a little on the sour side!


Of course the big tractor had to come out right away too!

This is a fort that Grandma B made for the boys! Fort Grandma, we called it!

And after only 2 hours of being on the farm, LOB crashed on a stump in the fort and scraped himself up pretty good! Bummer!

This is Flippy the Frog that I found in the garage and the boys, especially DJB, played with for the next 4-5 days! Poor frog!

I thought it was so strange to see milk in a bag!

Papa tried to teach the boys how to trap gophers. This was their first catch! Just the tail of a streaky gopher!

Here are all the cousins together! They had lots of fun playing!

We always go down to the neighbor's dairy farm to visit too. DVB loved the little kitty who knew where to get a yummy drink!

We usually get to see baby calves too! This one is sucking on LOB's finger!

Cousin L posed so nicely with the boys!

And yet ANOTHER tractor ride! The boys would do this all day long if you let him!

We visited the new National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN.

This was almost a perfect picture!

And after a few day's practice, Papa got his gopher trapping touch back! Look at these big, fat, pocket gophers!

These are gopher feet! In MN there is a bounty of $1.75 per set of feet! Gross! But the boys thought it was FUN!

And Teddy the Dog got to have a nasty snack after the feet were removed! gag!

We also visited 96 year old Great Grandma! She's doing pretty darn good for 96!

We got to visit a neighbor's goat farm too. Here a goat is trying to get into the chicken coop!

The boys picked eggs and it even inspired at least DJB to try to eat scrambled eggs! yay!

The neighbor had so many nice flower beds and this beautiful pond with fish and frogs in it.

Of course there's nothing like taking a tour of the next door cemetery and finding your family plot while drinking a beer!

Grandma B taught the boys how to make butter~it was pretty tasty!

We took in a nearby town's parade.

And the boys took home just a tad bit of candy from that parade!

Papa got a few handy man jobs done around the farm too! See him up in that tree?

Another highlight of DVB's trip was about 4 sippy cups of fresh cow milk straight from the bulk tank!

Needless to say he didn't eat supper that evening! His belly was just a tad bit full of milk!

Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma B for the great vacation!

Up next----Part 2: Our week in Iowa