4-Wheeling Georgia Pass

Christmas 2010

The kiddos in their new PJs

My handsome sleep-deprived hubby

Meet Gabby, our new calico kitty

Ike's new Army helmet and holster via the Army Surplus Store

Izzy's new baby cow

Meet Pretty, our new horse

Christmas Eve 2010

Although our Christmas morning (Dec. 22) actually happened before the real Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), I'm posting both our Christmas Eve (Dec. 21) and the real Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) just to confuse you. How's that? You're welcome.

On the real Christmas Eve, we attended our church's Candlelight Service. We took some pictures before going. They were having three services. We got there early but it was still packed. The four of us sat in two seats and there were still people standing along the sides and back. This was our second such service at our church. We laughed. We cried. We sang. And then we ate prime rib (not at the church). It was awesome.

On our Christmas Eve, we went to a PJ party at Chick Fil A. They had some high school kids singing carols, a lady making balloon animals, crafts, games, Santa Cow, and free kids' meals.  The kids didn't know we were doing Christmas early so letting them open their PJs early so they could wear them to the PJ party was perfect timing and a brilliant plan. It was like Christmas Eve without all the excitement and anticipation and childhood insomnia. See? Brilliant! Right?

Did you notice the bare feet? Sort of reminded me of a ski bum. But they played and sang good!

So, I wanted to take a picture of my kiddos with Santa Cow. If you know them at all, you know they HATE anybody in a cartoon-like suit. Santa and Santa Cow included. They know they are just real people dressed in suits. Somehow, they have developed this irrational fear of them, similar to how some adults feel about clowns. How did I talk them into letting me take their picture not just sitting with Santa Cow; but smiling? Here's the thing. I told them if they did, they could open a present the next day. Remember me telling you that I failed to inform them that the next day was our Christmas? Yeah. They figured it all out the next day. Evidently, the evil grin I gave Mac didn't register until the next day. Somehow, though, they found it in their hearts to let me off the hook. Maybe the bribery worked after all! I have to admit; it is getting harder to pull one over on them. They are getting smart to my ways.

 



Horsin' Around

The kiddos save most of their pent up energy for Mac. Thank goodness. So when he gets home from his shift at the fire house, one of the first items on the agenda for the day is to wrestle with daddy. They get plenty of horsing around with mom; but it just isn't the same. Although the candid shots are funny, I thought I'd post some of the more "freeze and smile" shots. Poor daddy didn't get much sleep that night but was nice enough to play along anyway!

Tank wanting in on the action...

I always love to hear how the kiddos plan their secret attacks to try and take daddy down. No matter how tired, he still always wins. I wonder how long it will be until the tables are turned?

Little Miss proud of her attempt to tickle daddy.

It still unnerves me watching them get tossed around like rag dolls imagining their heads smacking the coffee table and calculating how long it will take to get to the hospital.



Christmas is a'coming

I got a late start this morning. MacGyver had today off and we didn't have to jump out of bed and attack the world. My morning coffee was about 9:30 in fact. But when I bundled up to go out to feed the horses, I was shocked to find that it was already 52 degrees outside and was instantly surprised and excited. We've been putting off getting our tree for several reasons. We've had a hard time lining up several things...time, lack of snow and freezing temperatures, Mac's days off, time (which seems to be short these days), and no agenda or kids' activities. Today seemed to be that day. I almost pushed Mac out of bed. He didn't seem to want to budge. So this is how much I packed into today from about 9:30-7:00. Got breakfast, cleaned house, did two loads of laundry, made 2 roasted chickens, spent 2 hours putting 5 rim joists about twenty feet into the air, wandered around the property and found 2 Christmas trees (will explain below), spent an hour locating and digging out our Christmas trunks from the storage shed, cut and stacked several trees, finished dinner, made dinner for the next night and spent an hour cleaning up that mess. I just sat down to listen to some Christmas music and eating some of my leftover gluten free pumpkin pie which happens to be delicious. The kiddos are playing with the Christmas train and setting up the track. MacGyver is trying to see which of our lights work so he can string the tree. Whew! What a day.

So, the 2 Christmas trees. Our goal was to cut one tree. Unfortunately, the first tree we cut was perfect except for one fatal flaw...the pine needles were just that...needles. Four of the fingers on my left hand were stabbed trying to hold it while Mac cut it. It wasn't until it was cut and loaded on the truck that I began to question the sanity of such a sharp tree when nobody would want to get within 2 feet of it and I wasn't sure it would ever get decorated. Therefore, we continued the hunt for the perfect tree. This time we set out for the touch test before deciding which one was "the one". True to history, we cut a 40' tree and had to cut it down to a size that would fit in our tiny cabin. We cut the rest of the trunk, and some other brush that was evidently bothering my hubby, and he decided to keep going and spent another hour cutting up some of the other wood in our pile. We're planning on cutting up the razor tree for firewood, as well. The second tree is truly beautiful.  I think it might just be might favorite one so far. Full, round and soft. Very soft. What more could a girl want?

Being so patient waiting to go cut our tree

Both trees and some extra greenery for the front porch

Cut down to size

Izzy all excited to put the tree up

Ike trying to play it cool

So, dinner. I'm trying to go completely gluten free. I'm pretty certain I've got gluten issues. Izzy, too. I picked up 2 whole chickens that were on sale and decided to roast them so I could cook them at the same time. Normally, I would throw them on the rotisserie in our dual function toaster oven. This is my favorite way to cook a whole chicken. But I knew I wouldn't be around to babysit it. I had places to go, things to do. Plus, I love my retro roaster I picked up for something like $13 at a local antique store, The Barn, in Castle Rock. Love that place! I just love the design on the bottom. Isn't it cool?

Anyway, I tried some new gluten free garlic risotto and made some parmesan green beans, cranberry apple jello and sweet tea. Have you ever made that jello? I stole it from my MIL and I crave it this time of the year. It's just lemon jello, cranberry sauce and diced apples. You can throw in pecans or walnuts if you feel crazy. This stuff rocks. I've seen it with strawberry jello, as well. Good, too.

Obviously, we had a bunch of chicken left over (my plan). I pulled the chicken off the bone and put some of it aside for another dinner and finished boiling the bones to make some more broth. And then I looked at all the leftovers I had, the report for snow tomorrow, and all that chicken I just made and that leftover ham from Thanksgiving. And I started thinking about Brunswick Stew. I start craving that, as well, in the fall and winter. Ever had it? I'm a Georgia girl. It was a staple growing up. It is a barbecue based stew that we used to throw in a crockpot with whatever leftovers you have. I'm sure at some point in my childhood squirrel or rabbit found its way into the pot. I personally have never chosen to eat or cook either of said wild game. This is basically what I put in it but can be substituted with whatever leftovers you have (even squirrel or rabbit if that is how you roll).

Chicken
Beef
Pork or Ham
Chicken broth
Potatoes
Okra
Lima beans (not my favorite)
Corn
Green beans
Onions
Celery
Garlic
Canned tomatoes
*Liquid smoke
*Brown sugar
*Worchestershire
*Tobasco
(*or bbq sauce instead of the previous four if this scares you or you don't have)
Salt and pepper to taste

I cook it all day and then blend it up sort of chunky with my submersible blender but that isn't necessary. I make a big pot of it and freeze it for another day. Like chili, it just gets better and better. Add some creamed-corn cornbread and you've got a meal made for a...Georgia Girl. Not many people in Colorado have ever had or even heard of such a dish. They just don't know what they are missing! Yum!

Kenosha Pass, Georgia Pass & Breckenridge Pt. 1

A few days ago, we took a break from everything remotely considered work and decided to go four-wheeling. A much needed and much deserved break. MacGyver's been working me pretty hard lately (can you hear the violin's playing in the background?). The kiddos were also starting their Thursday school the following day and we wanted to get one last fling in before school set in full-force! So, we decided to head towards Breckenridge via Georgia Pass. Georgia Pass is a four-wheel drive trail rated easy to moderate so it should be easy enough to do in the truck. We usually save the harder trails for the Jeep. We definitely needed the high clearance but only used the 4x4 in a few spots. We took almost 300 pictures in one day. Yikes! I've pulled out a small percentage of that to share but still decided to break it up into 2 blogs...Going over Kenosha Pass (which is a paved road) and Georgia Pass (four-wheeling), and then Breckenridge, where we ended a beautiful, fun-filled family day with more fun and yummy pizza! These are mostly flora and fauna pictures and not a lot of family pictures. We are definnitely nuts about God's beautiful creations!

Stopping for a picnic lunch

 Remants of the old Santa Fe railroad

Snow still visible in the valleys with temps in the mid 80's

First sign of leaves changing

MacGyver teaching the kiddos how to gold pan in one of the creeks we crossed

Chipmunks (aka minibears), cool rocks and flora

And when we got to the top of Georgia Pass, we saw these:

There were about a dozen mountain goats hanging out, eating the grass. (I'm not exactly sure why their tongues are sticking out but we thought it was funny)! Ike decided he would try to sneak up on them and see if he could pet them. After ensuring him they were wild, would run and may charge, he decided to listen to his own wisdom...I want to pet them! Needless to say, we were ready with the camera to capture him getting butted by the mountain goats (we are solid parents, huh?). An eleven year old is old enough to know better! Fortunately, they were indeed scared of him but did little more than move away slowly and continued to hang out and graze. He did get within a few feet of the big daddy! It was funny to watch him squatted down, walking like a duck one step at a time trying to "sneak" up on them.

At one point, MacGyver yelled out the window, "watch out for the one coming up behind you"! He shot up and started running for the truck before he realized his dad was teasing him. LOL!

We also saw a bunch of different kinds of huge, cool looking but very poisonous mushrooms.

An old outhouse just a few yards away from an old mining cabin

But the highlight of the trip, was seeing a mama and her two baby...

MOOSE!

They were grazing in one of the meandering creeks. We have never seen the wild moose in Colorado before. The only wild moose we've ever seen were in Yellowstone. We were so excited!

  

The babies went and hid behind the shrub while mama continued to nibble

A beautiful pond showing the signs of mining from over a hundred years ago!