New Hobby

At the end of summer 2010, Drew and I took up a new hobby. Some friends convinced us to try golf. Drew was instantly hooked, and I now enjoy it too. Even if I am not a great player, I still enjoy getting outside and spending some time with my hubby in beautiful places.
This year, for our 16th anniversary, we went to the mountains with another couple to go golfing. We went to Fox Hollow in Denver, then headed up to Eagle. We played at Aspen Golf Club, Roaring Fork, Eagle Vail, and Rifle Falls. We were able to leave our girls with some friends from church, and although we missed our girls, it was great to have a weekend away together as a couple.

Things Not to Do While Driving 75 mph on the Expressway...

1.  Don't fall asleep even though your husband has.

2.  Don't fall asleep even though the road is dead straight, and there is nothing along side the road, not even a solitary tree.

3.  Don't try to watch a movie, even though your little girls are watching one in the backseat.

4.  Don't talk on your cell phone.

5.  Don't hit a deer, even a small female mule deer, or your car might look like this!

Sadness!  By the way, I was not doing any of the other things listed above, and no person was injured.  I'm sure the deer was a different story.

We were on our way home from our visit to Yellowstone.  We had eaten dinner about one hour before this happened, but I was not sleepy.  It was nine o'clock and had just gotten dark.  Hubby was sleeping because he was sick, so I had the privilege of driving this boring stretch of Wyoming interstate.  I did see the deer perched along side of the road looking like she might just wait for me to pass.  Unfortunately, she decided to spring forward.  I did have enough time to hit my brakes and slow down, but it didn't really seem to help much.

After the collision, I wasn't really sure what to do.  I kept driving, but at a slower speed.  I asked Hubby what to do, and he said just to keep an eye on my gauges and drive to the next exit.  It was completely dark and we wouldn't be able to see much if we did stop, plus, what if we couldn't get the car running again?!  Thankfully the next exit was only a few miles away.  I think a piece or two of the car (or deer? uggh) may have fallen off on those few miles, and there was a lot of noise and whistling.

Once we got to the exit, we realized that the passenger side door would not open.  We got out to survey the damage and I was quite shocked.  The gas station attendant called state patrol and gave us some garbage bags and duct tape.  Since the nearest state trooper was about an hour's drive away, we asked if we could just meet him there rather than wait.  He agreed, so Hubby cut a few pieces off the car, taped up a few other bits, and we were back on the road.  We were not sure that the state trooper was going to allow us to drive the remaining four or five hours home considering the state of our vehicle, but we thought that we really might need the accident report for our insurance to cover the damage.  The trooper did let us go, and he assured me that I had done the right thing in just hitting my brakes, worse accidents happen when people try to swerve and avoid hitting a deer.

So, praise the Lord that we were all safe!  Thanks to our insurance, my car looks good again.  I still don't recommend hitting a deer though.  The insurance deductible took a good chunk of our summer budget, and going without a car while it is in the shop can be challenging too.

Wyoming

We are home from Wyoming and getting back into our routines. Granny and Grandpa came and stayed with us for two nights, and we enjoyed their company. We had a bit of a crazy trip since my husband's sister-in-law broke her arm just above her wrist on our second day. She had to have surgery so she was in the hospital for two days, and then had to return for half of the next day. Snowboarding can be dangerous. My husband's sister also had a visit to the doctor, thankfully, her injury is a bone bruise but not broken.

We, well most of us, still managed to have a nice visit together. We saw lots of moose, thousands of elk, hundreds of deer and antelope, a black fox, some falcons, and even a few eagles. I managed to get a picture of a bald eagle. Unfortunately, the eagle was obscured somewhat by some grass. What an incredible bird! We also did some skiing and snowboarding. Hubby was able to get Pixie to ski on her own. She was stopping and making turns by herself! Rosebud enjoyed skiing with her cousins and learned that she could ride the lift without her mom and dad! The cousins (five) had so much fun playing together. Hubby and I also had the opportunity to board by ourselves for a few hours high on the mountain.

Jackson is such a beautiful place to visit. We have visited five or six times now, and I would highly recommend it. Now, if I can just get my Hubby to take me in the summer!

Here are some photos.

Looks like this bald eagle is scavenging from a deer carcass. Look at his yellow eye!

I snapped this photo out the window while Hubbie was driving by. It is an amazing eagle's nest. I can't believe how large they are! It wasn't until I was sorting my photos on the computer that I noticed what looks like a bird carcass built into the nest. I guess eagles take "feathering" their nest seriously!

Just one more of my favorite...moose! Hubbie took this great photo.

Moose Country

We arrived in Jackson, Wyoming for a family vacation with my husband's family around four o'clock yesterday, and before we made it to our destination we had spotted two moose! I was so excited that I took some photos even though they were far away. This is what we saw:

I am pretty sure the one below is a male because he was very large, and the one above looks like a female, but it was hard to tell since they were quite a ways off the road.

We arrived in our condo before five, and while we were still getting settled, my sister-in-law spotted this:

It looked to me like this pair were very young. They were not very big as far as moose go, although they were still quite a bit taller than me! As you can see in the photo, there is a lot of snow here in Jackson! I'm pretty sure the moose on the left is male, and the other is a female. I followed these two down the street, slowly, for a while to snap some photographs. A car came along and split these two and I became trapped between them! Since both sides of the street were piled high with snow, I didn't really have anywhere to go. I decided to just freeze as the male sauntered by me on the other side of the street. Some other guests snapped a photo of me with the moose, and they promised to email it to me.

Here are a few other photos of the moose and the Grand Tetons. This is a beautiful part of the country!

 

 

Photo Favorites

I wanted to share a few more of my photos from Jonathan and Meg's wedding. I was a little busy and distracted, so I didn't get many, but I think I got a few shots that will be different than those of their photographer.

Oh, the many duties of the maid of honor!

Loved the boquet, there's just nothing more romantic than red roses
I love this shot of them listening to a toast by Meg's sister and father.

David presented a humorous slide show enjoyed by all, except maybe Jonathan who had to endure some ribbing over his most recent Christmas wish lists. I think the parents of the groom would agree that it was worthwhile entertainment!