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 Movie still from Pride and Prejudice. When I was about three quarters finished reading Pride and Prejudice, I happened to come across this movie being shown on TV when I was channel-surfing. I found the movie even more enjoyable than the book, which is a rare occurrence. |
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September 27, 2008 -- Fall Colors Pete, Casey and I took a Saturday drive to see the aspens. This year, we took the "Tennessee Pass" route through Minturn (near Vail). Although this picture is a little smudgey because I took it through our windshield, it was a beautiful drive. |
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September 13-18, 2008 -- Minnesota Trip My mom and I decided to take a quick trip to Minnesota to do some genealogy research. My brother decided to join us, since he had a lot of vacation time built-up and hadn't been back to see the relatives in ages. We scoured the birth, death and marriage records of McLeod and Sibley Counties, and found a few new bits of information here and there. We visited a cemetery in the middle of a cornfield where my great-great-grandfather is buried. We visited Herb and Vida, and looked at old family pictures. Vida is a double relation to me -- her mom was my Grandpa Pete's sister, and her father was my Grandma Edna's uncle. My aunt, Linell, also threw me a very nice baby shower while we were there. I received many nice gifts to get the baby off to a good start, and had a good time visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins! |
 For more pictures, click here. |
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September 9, 2008 -- The Six Month Mark Six months along, and still huge! It's hard to believe I am going to get even bigger. |
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September 3-9, 2008 -- Trip to Southern Colorado's "San Juan Skyway" Here are some of the photographic highlights from Pete's and my one-week vacation in southern Colorado. | ||
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Day 1 -- We had a pleasant drive to Ouray, a small former mining town. They have kept the old main street looking similar to it did in its mining heyday, about 100 years ago, with about five blocks of tourist shops and restaurants, and hotels. | |
 Day 2 -- We toured a train museum in Ridgway, then proceeded to Telluride. Telluride is much like Ouray, except much bigger (and more expensive). Telluride has become a ski destination for the rich and famous. Our hotel was up on the mountain in the ski resort area, and we were able to take a free gondola back and forth between the town and our hotel. We saw tons of gorgeous Victorian homes on the Historic Walking Tour we found in the Telluride Visitors Guide, and we attended an ice cream social fund raiser at the Telluride Historical Museum. |
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Day 3 -- We stopped to tour the Rio Grande Southern Museum and Depot in the town of Dolores. This museum featured a renovated Galloping Goose, which is a one-car train that used to be the principal means of conveyance between the hard-to-get-to mountain towns between the early 1900s and the 1950s, before the roads got better and rail transportation became unprofitable. Afterwards, we toured the Anasazi Heritage Center museum, then proceeded to the Four Corners. This is where the Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah borders all meet up at one point; in my opinion, it really wasn't that interesting, but as long as we were nearby, we went to see it. We then checked in to our hotel in nearby Cortez. | |
| Day 4 -- We had an interesting day at Mesa Verde National Park, immersing ourselves in the archaeology of the Cliff Dwellings and anthropology of the Old Puebloan culture. We did a lot of hiking (well, a lot for a pregnant lady!) and plaque-reading, and Pete took about a million pictures, trying out our new camera's different settings. We then drove to our next destination, the town of Durango. I liked the town better than I thought; the homes were well-kempt (not run-down like Cortez), and there were lots of shops and restaurants. |
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| Day 5 -- Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This is one of the last running of the old-time trains that used to connect the mountain mining towns in the old days. It was a scenic two-hour ride from Durango to Silverton, with a two-hour stop in Silverton, but coming home took five hours because they were hauling twice as many cars, and in retrospect was a little too much jostling for a pregnant lady. |
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Day 6 -- We toured the Old Hundred Gold Mine near Silverton. This was very educational! We learned that the average miner started working at age 15, and was dead by age 35, due to scarring of the lungs. But the pay was really good, which is why so many men did it. Different inventions over the years decreased the danger, but eventually mining ceased in Colorado because it became less and less profitable. We then drove back to Ouray, where we spent another night, and had some great ice cream at one of the shops on main street. | |
| Day 7 -- We drove home, stopping in Grand Junction for lunch with Ryan. | 
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August 24, 2008 -- Late Summer Barbeque Over the weekend, we hosted what has now become an annual tradition, a back-yard barbeque featuring Pete's meat smoking skills, seeing friends, eating good foods, playing bean-bag toss, and enjoying the last warm days of summer. Pete barbequed pork shoulder and beef brisket for about eight hours over charcoal and hickory chips. He also drove to a brewery in Idaho Springs to get a "pig" (a miniature keg) of beer he considered worthy of the occasion. We were honored to have 19 guests join us! The only unfortunate part of the day was realizing that our camera battery was drained, so we couldn't take pictures. Luckily, however, I found this little BBQ cartoon... |
 August 15, 2008 -- Tomato HarvestMy tomato plants have been producing lots of tomatoes. We've used some of them in salads, but mostly I've just been snacking on them. Sometimes the phrase "popping them like candy" comes to mind when I eat a bunch of the little ones. They are delicious! I'm glad they didn't all turn red at once -- it's nice to spread the bounty over a few months (or however long they will last). I wanted to include the third photo of the grape tomatoes, as I think it's interesting that not only are they oval-shaped like grapes, they grow in clusters reminiscent of grapes. |
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August 9, 2008 -- The Five Month Mark I am more than halfway there! I will admit that there have been some minor inconveniences, but it's been a pretty good pregnancy compared to most of the others I've heard and read about. Darn, I'm getting big! I am as big at five months as I would've thought I would be at eight months. But my weight gain is within the healthy-and-normal range, and besides, what did I previously know about pregnancy? p.s. Doesn't Casey have a beautiful profile? |
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July 18, 2008 -- Tomato Update My tomato plants are absolutely thriving! I am delighted that one tomato is even starting to turn red already. |
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July 9, 2008 -- The 4-Month Mark I am now four months along, and definitely showing! |
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| July 1, 2008 -- What Kind of a Man Desecrates a Defenseless Textbook? This headline probably doesn't mean anything to you unless, like me, you were fortunate enough to be a teenager in the eighties. I have had a terrific time recently, watching music videos from my teenage years on You-Tube! I am posting links to the top three videos that either typify what I used to watch on MTV every day after school, or that I found especially fun. I don't know if everyone will enjoy them as much as I do, but I sure had a blast finding and re-watching these! I hope you will check them out.
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