Morning yoga

Bow wow pow yoga!

Happy Valentine's Day 2014

For eL

Mein Valentine Line

I wish I could write,

A better love letter.

Make music morning, noon, and night,

                      And

Always let loves light shine strong and bright.

Now wouldn’t that be quite the sight.

My heart skips a beat

                     And

I worship at your feet.

Your love is a treat.

That makes my life complete.

You are so sweet.

Sweet Valentine of mine,

Sweet as sweetest wine.

It is oh so divine when our hearts entwine,

With you I feel fine.

You are my inspiration,

My muse, my desperation,

My ruse, my dupe,

My soul's chicken soup,

My foible, my friend, and my foe,

Of unconditional love, now I know,

But where does it go, from where does it flow?

Where I never knew before,

From my heart it does pour.

It comes crashing in waves to flood the floor,

Swaying back and forth from peace to war.

Nay, I say no more.

Dear I do adore,

My darling,

My amore.

…and Thend

--The pedantic romantic

By G.

Summer/Fall 2013

We had a very busy and fun summer and fall. Here are some highlights.

Family reunion pic! Wish more people could have made it to the picture, but very nice job by Andrew.

One of many highlights of family reunion!

On way to family reunion traveling with Paul and Rebecca, I asked if they had ever stopped at Thompson Springs and suggested we take a few minutes to check it out as it is just about 5 minutes off I-70.

 Humanoids eerily peering over the bushes.

Fremont style petroglyphs.

Strange humanoids.

So good to see you!  Steve took us out to lunch!  Eleanor, Charles, Mary, and Matthew.

Family reunion tidbits, Rebecca, mom, Patrick and Janis (barely arrived on time).

Love my sis's!  I insisted we get at least a pic of the 4 of us!

Love being with my sis's.  We laugh a lot!

We had several episodes of backyard flooding with the heavy rains this year. This pool in our backyard happened in 30 minutes or less.

Miss Piggy was outside in the dog house when it happened .  Poor thing!

Went camping a few times with just me, the car, and a couple of dogs.  On this trip, Jasmine and I took King back to his "mom" in Vernal.  Here we are camping north of Vernal on the way to Flaming Gorge.

Fireside and moonlight.

A Kingly smile.  

On the way back home to Grand Junction, cooling off at the Green River.

 

There was a wildfire on the way home between Rangley and Douglas Pass.

Here Jasmine is looking back towards wildfire from Douglas Pass.

We didn't see a whole lot of columbines this year as the season was short for it, but here are some on Douglas Pass.

H

Early season hike with Jasmine, Chance at wild rose campground on Land's End Road.  One of 4 bubbling brooks we passed.

eeoE

Jasmine and Chance waiting in the shade; they are waiting for me to catch up.  Early season mountain irises.

Me with a particularly busy doggy day, Jasper, Jasmine, Buddy, Marley, Zorro, and Frank.

New hike on Pinyon Mesa.  Jasmine and Rango swim in an elk wallow.

Toxic mushrooms.

A man and his dog.

On our way to the Drive-Inn movies in Delta.  In celebration of the location of our first date, we went an unprecedented 6 times this summer.

In preparation for going to see the movie "The Wolverine," Gary gets into character.

The Crystal River as seen from Penny Hot Springs at mile marker 55.5.

Close to Penny Hot Springs.

The beautiful Redstone Inn.

Come on in, the water is nice! The hot springs enters the Crystal River at 140 degrees Fahrenheit!

Anniversary day trip to Telluride during Telluride Film Fest.

This is view from gondola.  We didn't attend any movies because they were asking $25 per ticket.  We can wait to see "12 years a slave."

These dogs are an example of the cool dog attitude in Telluride.  There are dog tie ups everywhere.  Why is it the really expensive places to live are also really cool places to have a dog?

Gorgeous flower display in Telluride.

A man and his dog in Telluride.

View from the free gondola ride from Telluride up over the mountain and then down again to Mountain Village on the other side.  Oh, and dogs can ride the gondola too.

The beautiful fall hedge.  It grew this tall from seed in 4 years!

Trip to AZ!

We had a very nice trip to AZ to visit Austin.

Gary and Bear smiling on the road.

Very nice old abandoned building in St. Johns.

Another view of St. John's main street.

It was fun to see the Little Colorado River coming from a spring in White Mountains, when we live by the "big" Colorado River.

Chance, Jasmine and Gary by Little Colorado.

The Little Colorado in Springerville, Arizona.

Storm in distance in White Mountains.

View from White Mountains.

Cactus person.

Rango in Columbine Creek above Safford.

Rango with big stick in Columbine Creek.

Columbine Creek above Safford, right up the mountain road. There was a town called Columbine, Arizona that I really wanted to see, but maybe next time.

Trail back to the parking lot from Columbine Creek.

View of the Gila Valley looking northeast. We had very nice weather while there, it was Mother's Day, so early May, temperature of 80s in the day.

The road down to Gila Valley. While in Safford, stayed at Days Inn, very nice, no extra cost for dogs and no questions asked about dogs, quite shocking! We brought 5 dogs along for the trip out of necessity, but worked out just fine. Traveling seemed to make them extra tired. Other than 2 days at Days Inn, we spent 3 nights car camping.

Old saloon attached to new gas station (not in this picture) just down the road from Austin.

On our way home. Entering Apache National Forest, went a different way home going into New Mexico and zigzagging between Arizona and New Mexico as we went.

View of Gila Valley looking southwest.

Bear in Apache National Forest in New Mexico after camping out just down the road.

Jasmine and Dawg Dude in Apache National Forest.

Rango in Apache National Forest.

Rango fetches sticks in Apache National Forest

Nelson Reservoir, north of St. John's.

Bear, Buddy, Dawg Dude Nelson Reservoir.

Bear is duck hunting at Nelson Reservoir.

Said duck.

Nelson Reservoir looking south.

Buddy patiently sitting at my feet.

Bear is a seasoned traveler, he goes to California and the beach quite often with his dad.

Near Shiprock, New Mexico.

Back in Colorado, camp spot north of Cortez.

Chance near Cortez.

Indian paintbrush near Cortez.

Cactus flowers near Cortez.

Rango near Cortez.

Dawg Dude at Dolores River.

Dolores River.

Lone Cone near Norwood off in distance.

Cute Cafe in Norwood.

Back to Colorado where the creeks are the same size as rivers in Arizona, Avalanche Creek is roaring! We had a very nice trip. I had a very nice visit with Austin visiting for 2 days in a row, just me and Austin. It is a very nice visiting area, just one big room with lots of families. I met a family from SLC while there, who were also staying at Days Inn, visiting their son, brother, and father. We talked about lots of stuff. He is doing very well, taking advantage of things, doing exercises, yoga, reading voraciously, and going to school. I am happy he is doing well.