Early January found us in Berthoud, Colorado visiting Mark's dad and step-mom, Joel and Deb. The morning we left Vermont it was -24 degrees outside, so flying into low 40's Colorado felt positively balmy. I forget that Colorado is pretty much always sunny and it's always a nice surprise. We were greeted by blue skies and "warm" weather which stayed with us for most of our trip.
Colorado was lots of fun. We saw some of Mark's high school buddies, went to a birthday dinner for Adam in Boulder, had two Wykoff family lunches, went hiking in the mountains twice, had dinner with the Karspecks and did some serious lounging. Mark and Joel went ice fishing and the four of us went and saw Lincoln and The Life of Pi. I also took in a matinee of Les Miserables. Decent flick, but it's too bad Russel Crowe can't sing. Mark's little sister Sam made us dinner one night and we also went bowling with her. It was nice to see everyone after such a long time (3 years!) away from the West. Deb also gave us some great kids books that she'd been stockpiling for the last few years and we also made out with some cute baby things from Deb and Mark's Aunt Bobby.
Here are some Colorado shots.
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| Mark, Me, Joel and Deb at Lily Pond |
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| Elk! |
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| Lily Pond |
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| Where are the fish? |
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| Devil's Backbone |
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| The Keyhole at Devil's Backbone |
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| Snow Cacti! |
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| Mark and Sam |
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The only hiccup on the Colorado portion of our vacation was a little trip I took to the ER. I had been having chest pains for about 5 days, but had been attributing them to the elevation change and different foods than normal, etc, but finally on day 5 I decided it was time to get them checked out. We tried to go to urgent care, but the only out of state place that would take my VT medicaid was the ER, so at age 30 I made my first trip to an Emergency Room (I think. There's a possibility I went to one when I slammed my finger in a car door at age 4. But if I don't remember it, does it count?). Anyway, I thought all they would do was put a stethoscope up to my heart and tell me that I was fine.
Not so.
They whisked me into the ER, gave me a gown to change into and immediately did an EKG. Then they took me to a room where they took my blood and hooked me up to an electronic blood pressure cuff and left the IV needle in my arm (gross). Then they wheeled me around in the bed to the ultrasound tech where they gave both my legs ultrasounds to check for blood clots and then it was off to x-ray to get a chest x-ray.
So, what was wrong? Blood clots? Heart attacks? Crazy unknown disease?
Nope. Heartburn.
I'd never had heartburn before. Turns out it can feel like a heart attack sometimes. Since returning to VT I haven't had any more heart attack heartburn, but I have had some pretty continual acid reflux. Thanks pregnancy! Good things this baby is going to be the best and all worth it! That's my hope at least.
We left Colorado on a Saturday after having Brunch with Deb and Joel and Deb's son Chris and his wife Megan. Even though Mark and I have been together 7 years, this trip was the first time I had met Chris. He and Megan are great and it was so nice to finally meet them!
From Denver, we flew to Phoenix and rented a car to drive to Prescott, AZ where Mark's Mom, Linda, has been for the past year and half taking care of her mother. His brother Nate also moved down there about a year ago, so we got to stay with them for two nights. Prescott was so pretty. The town is cute and the surrounding area is gorgeous. Nice mountains, lots of cacti. Nate made us some tasty Mexican food, too.
AZ shots:
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| Mark and Linda |
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| Desert scape |
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| Cacti and barbed wire. Very Western. |
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| Mountains! |
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While at Linda's, she brought out a bunch of old pictures that her Mom and Dad had. I haven't seen many pictures of Mark as a kid, so it was really fun to go through them. Here are a couple gems.
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| Nate, Mark and Eric, sometime in the 80's. |
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| Chubby baby Mark! |
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| All the siblings! Mark, Nate, Eric and Sam. |
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| Mark and the Saguaro. |
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| Watch out! |
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Monday was a long day. We left Prescott at 7:30am, drove to Phoenix, flew to Denver and then to Boston, arriving at 11:00pm. After a ride on the T (Boston's Subway system) and a quick taxi ride we arrived at Pearl's a little after midnight. After sleeping in until 10:45 the next morning (Yes! I love sleeping in!), we drove back to VT. Maggie and Hank were in fine form. Our friend Beth house sat and everyone looked well fed. She even left us some ice cream in the freezer. Bonus!
Since being home we've settled back into our usual routines. Work, crafting, skiing for Mark, reading for me. I've been snowshoeing when the weather is in the double digits. All our snow melted, but then came back again in the last few days. We didn't get hit like other parts of New England in this most recent snow storm, but we did get a good 6 inches. Our friends Alex and Gwenael had a birthday brunch, complete with a t-rex pinata. Mark was the designated pinata killer after everyone else had taken a shot.
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Alex in grave danger!
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Get it!
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This is where Hank and Maggie spend most of their time these days.
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Hank in particular.
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I spent a frigid morning bundled up on the couch and Maggie decided the best place to lay was right on top of me. Do you think she's jealous of the baby?
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Two weeks ago we went to Ice on Fire which is a similar celebration to All Species Day, just in Winter. At the end they made a huge bonfire out of x-mas trees. It was awesome.
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| Though I feel like I'm getting huge, our friend Amy is about to pop! What are those babies doing in there? |
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| Mark and Maggie hiked to Cheever Falls while I was at work last Sunday and got some really cool ice photos. |
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Aside from quilting and general life living, my main project for February is to send a letter or card to someone every day that the mail gets picked up. So far it's been really fun and I've managed to keep up. Plus, I've made some pretty sweet post cards out of old calendars that I've been saving for years. It's a great way to keep in touch and also get back in touch with people that I've been meaning to write to for ages. Plus, when you send people letters, you usually get one back and one of my very favorite things is getting real mail!
Happy February!
