Catching up

We have been home from Portugal for 3 full days now, and I am finally feeling myself again.

Traveling overseas is very tiring! It took us 19 hours to get there and 24 hours to get back- that is real hours, not time change stuff. That time zone thing is very strange. No matter how I look at it, it mixes me up. I understand it in principle, just not beyond that.

We did as suggested and tried to assimilate our schedules to where we were/are as quickly as possible and I think that was good. We were able to fully enjoy our two weeks in Portugal- and we had the weekend at home to get back into the swing of things slowly before Rich had to go to work.

Yesterday I spent almost all day outside, weeding my vegetable garden, cleaning the patio, trimming hedges, and preparing another bed for planting- I am hoping this will work as a perennial herb garden... we shall see.

I will have to take some photos of my little garden today. I know that the soil has not been amended enough to yield anything beyond a few dinners here and there, but I will work on that this fall now that I have figured a few things out.

For today, here are a few vacation photos. The top photo is me at the highest point of a Moorish Castle in Sintra, with the Palacio Nacional da Pena in the background (we went there next); the middle photo is Rich and me at the Roman ruins in Conimbriga; the third photo is a view from the top of the castle we stayed in our first night, in Obidos. It was a fantastic trip!

I have started a new blog about our trip if you would like to see a few more pictures, the link is: http://happytravelergurl.blogspot.com/

It was hard to choose just ten photos of each day- we did and saw so much- and I took more than 2300 photos. I am currently trying to figure out what to do with them all... lol

Small update from Portugal!

Look where we are tonight!!!

Can't seem to upload much, our Internet connections are not like at home- but I will do a blog about this wonderful trip when we get home!

Now I understand what John Denver meant...

I have honestly felt like my life has turned into a John Denver song; I could quote you so many things from his songs that describe my new reality... but I digress.

After leaving the Pawnee Buttes, resolving to return properly equipped for a great hike, we stopped and had dinner in Fort Morgan.

We opted to take the scenic drive west home instead of highway the whole time. And boy, oh boy, what a drive it was.

In the song "Rocky Mountain High", John Denver says this: The Colorado Rocky Mountain high, I've seen it raining fire in the sky...

Well, if these sunset photos didn't show exactly that, I don't know what would. It had been a drizzly sort of day, so as we drove into the sunset, there were clouds in the sky with the light burning through. I have to tell you, it was an awe-inspiring sight. I know the photos at this size don't do it justice, but if you can view them larger, you might see what I mean. Especially the bottom photo. I am planning to enlarge this for our wall- it really looked like fire.

And now I know what John Denver meant. In more ways than one.

p.s. I will post the rest of the photos in an album on Webshots and my fb page

Pawnee National Grasslands

A couple of Sundays ago, Rich, Chloe, and I went for a drive; Rich wanted to see Pawnee National Grasslands. Well, it was miles and miles of flat, and no houses for as far as you could see (and that was pretty far) in any direction.

We finally saw a small sign for it and turned onto a dirt road, where we drove for miles and miles more of flat- though along this route we saw the weird sight of leaning power lines... the only explanation we could come up with was that they are being replaced by the straight up ones. Who knows? But it was very startling.

We also saw three missile stations- I guess that is a good place for them, way out in the middle of nowhere.

At some point we saw a sign that said: Pawnee Buttes. Rich told me buttes are small rock formations, kind of like mesas, but smaller. I don't even know how far we drove before we saw them... a LONG way, according to Chloe!

FINALLY we saw them, and it was well worth the drive. Turns out there are some nice hiking trails there, which we weren't prepared for, but we are planning to go back.

While Rich checked the grass for birds' nests, I took the opportunity to take some close up photos of little flowers, and of course a bunch of the buttes.

Colorado is a very beautiful state.

The kids have arrived!

Yesterday morning, Heidi and Chloe left for Ontario. As Heidi is 15, they are old enough to fly together without anyone else and so they did.

I heard tell of a minor fiasco in Chicago; the girls inadvertently passed their seats while boarding the plane and had to fight the "traffic" going back the other way... only to sit in the wrong seats still and have to move! LOL That was the worst of what happened to them, so that is pretty darn good!

They didn't get to Holly's till quite late in the evening but as Holly's and Heidi's birthdays just passed, they made time before bed to do birthday presents.

Our presents to Holly were a pair of hot pink Doc Martens and a psychology dictionary. The girls each got Holly a MLP tin lunch box- inside of one was a cupcake/muffin t-shirt and inside the other was a pair of cupcake tea towels which Holly says are too cute to use as tea towels!

Holly got Heidi an LA Ink book signed by Cat VonDee (no idea if I spelled that right and not being a fan... well, I don't much care). But Heidi is a huge fan and was quite thrilled by the gift. Sigh. I just don't get tattoos and I never will.

Anyway, here are a few photos that they took at Holly's last night. I told Heidi and Chloe that they need to post things on their blogs too, so I can follow along. We will see if they do...