Kolaches for Sale

Just saying the name of the pastry makes my mouth water.

Have you heard of kolaches? If you're a Texan, chances are that you know these wonderful baked goods. I remember I used to stop by West, Texas on my way up to Dallas or down to San Antonio just for some great sweet or meat-filled kolaches. Mmmmm. I guess you can say that Chris and I miss being in Texas sometimes as he has started making kolaches. The fillings he's made so far are cream cheese, fruit jelly, sausage and cheese, sausage and jalapenos and ham and cheese.

This is a picture of all the fillings/flavors.

Wow! They have come out so delicious!

He actually makes them and sells them at work. He's really enjoying it. He loves to see what people think and is still trying to perfect the recipes and fillings based on feedback.

I sometimes think it's kind of crazy to put so much effort (4 hours) into these little delicious treats. I'm not complaining though - I enjoy these reminders of good ole Texas.

Texas Texas Yeeehaw!

PS. We are now accepting internet orders. All major credit cards accepted.

Chris's Little Helper

Yup, it's that time of year again when the trees have already turned their beautiful colors and have fallen...all over our yard. Chris was busy this past Sunday picking up the leaves and trimming the trees. He wasn't alone though. He had Chancho right at his side the entire time.

Chancho wanted to help by chewing on all of the branches, even if they were way to big for him.

Chris and I have noticed very early on that Chancho just loves being with his "dad." For example, if I'm cuddling with him, Chancho will turn his whole body so that he's facing Chris and can stare at him. If Chris is ever out of the house, Chancho whines and whines to be with Chris. So, this Sunday was no exception. He just stared at Chris and wanted to be right with him...helping him out. That stinker!

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park Highlights

Nights without a shower: 4 (we showered on Wednesday evening)

Bathroom Quality: Better than Zion.

On Tuesday morning, we got to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. YAY!! We were so excited to be there. The area was heavily wooded and very nice. We got to our campsite and started to set up camp. We decided to take it easy that day, chill, explore a little and rest. We played dominos, visited the little grocery store at the campsite, went to the lodge to visit the ranger station and see what all the events were during our stay and made some kabobs that evening. We also attended the ranger-led program that night that talked about the history of the North Rim. We also went to the ranger-led program at the lodge - I fell asleep, but Chris really wanted to learn about the pre-historic creatures that lived at the Grand Canyon. Some of the differences between the North and South Rims are that the North Rim is forested, the trails are more difficult and it's much more secluded and the crazy black/white squirrel lives only in the North Rim.

The South Rim is the more popular place to go as you can see more of the intricasies of the rocks.

Also, on this great day, we found out there was a recycling machine that would give you 15 cents for every can or bottle you recycled. VERY NEAT! This became Chris' hobby of the day. He even went into the trash cans from around our campsite to get more bottles to recycle. Yes, my friends, this gives you a little insight into Chris. He gets into these interesting little projects. You could see the joy in his face once we recycled enough cans to buy himself a liter of water for hiking the next day. He was so proud of himself. HAHA!

Wednesday, oh , Wednesday!

The day came when we would do our grand hike. We would hike down into the Canyon in a decent of 3,000 feet and up the canyong 3,000 feet. It was regarded as an exremely streneous hike. But we were going to do it! We got our waters, lunch and clothes ready the night before. We got up at 5:30am and off we went. For me, the hike down wasn't too bad. The sights were wonderful! You can see the trail were were going on in this picture if you look closely:

We were one of the only ones on the trail that morning. Chris didn't have hiking shoes, so his feet were suffering a bit going down. I was getting hot and since most of the trail had no shade... the sun was really hard on you. Also, the deeper you got into the canyon the hotter it got. The air was very very dry and hot. There were areas where water was running down the canyon though and I would stick my hands in it to cool down and even took my shirt off and wet it and my cap. It was a nice relief. After 3 hours of climbing down the canyon, we got to our destination - Roaring Springs - which was a really nice waterfall. We had a nice relaxing lunch. We had about a 20-minute break and were headed back. About a minute into our hike back, Chris stopped in front of me and was very still. He later told me that it was a snake passing us by. I, of course, started to freak out and wanted to run my way out of the highly vegetataed area. We soaked our hats in the water one last time and off we went onto our up-hill climb. This is the view we had in front of us - the view of what was in store for us to climb. You see the top of the tree line in the center - that's where we were climbing to. Only 30 minutes into the climb, I was getting very tired... and only 1/4 into it, I was ready to stop hiking. The heat was getting to me. I was only taking baby steps and was stopping every ten minutes for a rest and sometimes for a drink of water. Chris was understanding and patient. This is a picture of our narrow trail (yes, I look exhausted because quite frankly, I was).

For me, the half-way point, the point where I would feel that I didn't have that long to go was the bridge we crossed. Again, I look exhausted and terrible - because that's exactly how I felt. See how Chris looked nice and refreshed... hehe

Well, what I didn't know was that the worst was ahead of me. The steepest, most difficult part of the trail was left. We don't have picture of this, but the trail was pretty much sand (fine, like you would find on a beach), very steep, full of pieces of wood that would simulate stairs and MANY switchbacks. It was hard on a mental standpoint because you would get to a point where you think you're making progress and then you could have to almost turn around and go the opposite way. Like a big S. I was so tired that I wanted to cry... but I just didn't have the energy to cry. Chris would tell me frequently, "This is the last leg" or "We're on the home stretch," but we weren't. We still had a long way to go. LONG way to go.

When we finally got to the top I found myself not being able to walk faster than a baby would. I was taking every moment very slowly. We actually didn't do so badly. It took us 4 hours to climb out of the canyon... with a total of 7 hours total to hike that day.

Our prize was a nice hot shower and a nice meal. We were supposed to eat at the Lodge that evening, but because they were booked, we ate a nice steak dinner at the campsite. Needless to say, we went to bed early that night.

On Thursday, we got up later, made a nice breakfast and took a mule ride along the top of the canyon and went on a short hike to get a grand view of the canyon.

We got to eat a SUPER romantic dinner at the lodge at the time the sun was setting (we got a window seat facing the sunset). It was our first meal at a restaurant in several days.

On Friday, we woke up very early and heading East to Mesa Verde National Park. This was our last park before heading home.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park Highlights
Nights without a shower: 3
Bathroom Quality: Not as good as Arches, were a little older and the sink area gross, but still okay. We got spoiled at Arches.
Something new: We saw wild turkeys that were roosting (flying to the top of trees to sleep for the night). At a certain time, they all go to their trees and go to sleep. We also found out that we have more room inside our sleeping bags if we zip them together (we have those adjoining sleeping bags). I thought having a sleeping bag to yourself would give you more room.

Zion is located in the southwest corner or Utah (pretty much bordering Arizona). We got to the park and started to drive to the trail that Chris had read about. I was the navigator and felt pretty confident we were driving on the right road until we got to all these tunnels. Chris questioned were we were and I found out we had gone the wrong way. Figures. We turned around and were trying to get on the road to that trail and noticed that it wasn't open to the public - you had to take a shuttle up to all the trails. Okay - now we know that going to the visitors center is very helpful to find out all about the quirkly rules at each park. We put on our hiking clothes and off we went. We had the funniest and most helpful driver... cute older man who convinced us that The Narrows was THE trail to go to at the park. I didn't know what I was in for. We hiked to the river and found people were actually hiking on the river... as if the river water was the trail. Wow - we got hiking sticks (left by some rocks by previous hikers) that were actually broken tree limbs and we went "hiking" along a canyon. The trail that you followed was the river with water that went up to your knees at some points. By the way, the water was very cold. Chris found a deeper area of water and since we hadn't taken a shower in days, he took his shirt off and inside the "pool" he went. After letting out a yell (because the water was so cold), he had a huge satisfying smile on his face. Of course, I followed and got in to take my "bath" and it was super nice...yet so cold.

I was starting to get a little worried about half an hour into it as we were one of the only hikers going "inside" the canyon. It was around 3:30pm when we started our hike. Well, we kept on going and got to some really fun areas where the canyon was very narrow and the sun hit the rocks in a really cool way.

The actual hike was a little hard because even though you aren't climbing very steep mountains, you are hiking over rock and water current, which can be slippery and tricky. After about 2 miles, we found a couple trekking back and they said that they had gone for a while and the river didn't stop... so we decided to head back since we were getting cold and tired. We later found out that the trail doesn't really end, it's a river system that would take us north into Utah. Yikes! Glad we got out in time. That night, we had some delicious hot dogs, smores and went to bed pretty early as we would have to get up and head to the Grand Canyon the next morning.

This part was my favorite as the trail and experience was very unique.

Arches National Park

Phew - Sorry it took way too long to write again. Okay, so where were we? Ohh... Arches National Park.

Arches National Park Highlights

Nights without a shower: 2

Bathroom Quality: Wonderful, updated, nice and private bathrooms that were environmentally friendly (powered by solar panels)

The second day started with a nice, dry and hot morning walk around more arches. After about an hour or so, we decided to come back for lunch and continue to explore in the afternoon. You wouldn't think it would be so hot in the morning, but we were getting tired faster than expected. After lunch we went to visit a beautiful arch - on which we climbed up to it easily and I had a TERRIBLE experience getting down from it. Imagine trying to climb down 15 feet of rock that is so steep that you can barely see the rock beneath you.. you can see the ground (rock as well) that you are trying to climb down to. What didn't help was that my head was playing tricks on me... I felt like I was going to fall and crack my head open or break something. I was paralyzed. I even had an older man trying to help me by giving me tips on how to climb down. I was terrified, breathless and ready to lose it. Chris had to give me pointers on where to put my feet and one step at a time I reached the bottom. All of that fear was expressed through many many tears that fell once I felt safe on the ground. Phew! This is the view of the arch from far away.

Off we wen to another trail that lead to a mountain with very narrow passageway. It was awesome. The view of that arch was unbelievable... That night we had a nice dinner and went to check out that evenings ranger-lead program about the animals at Arches. We star gazed for a while that night too - we saw so many shooting stars, the international space station and what we thought was Saturn. The sky at Arches was by far the best for star gazing.

PS. The reason I put "nights" without a shower and not days is because even though we showered on Saturday morning, we hiked and got pretty sweaty - so that mornings shower was cancelled out by how gross we felt that night after hiking that day.

PSS. I put down shower quality because when you aren't taking showers, if you get stuck with gross bathrooms as well, it makes you feel even dirtier. This was something I can to appreciate quickly.

7 Days Without Chancho

Chris and I decided to go on a 7-day tour of the west camping trip. This was a different type of vacation for me since I had no idea what was in store. I typically like planning in advance, checking out all the places have to offer and almost having an intinerary. Yup... that's how I do it so that I feel like I'm making the most out of a trip. Well, not this time. This time, I let Chris have total control of where we would go, what we would do, etc.

Our trip started early in the morning... so that we could drop off Chancho at a daycare/nightcare place. During our drive out to Utah, Chris kept on stating that THIS was the furthest we had gone in Colorado. He finally decided that Glenwood Springs was the last place he had gone west in Colorado. Ayyy.

About 6 hours later we arrived at Arches National Park! Wow - I thought Denver was dry. But Arches National Park truly had an arid climate. On our 45-minute drive to the campgrounds, we stopped and took pictures of this awesome rock formation.

Then, we stopped at The Windows arch and got to hike around a little. The pictures really don't do it justice. We finally got to our campground and found that Chris had reserved an awesome site! Probably the most private of them all. We were right in front of kind of hidden bathrooms (that no one really knew about), the campground's amphitheatre, some awesome rock formations and we truly were away from everyone else... The way I describe it seems like it's in the middle of everything, but it's really not. So, we set up our campsite and Chris found an even cozier spot to cool off...

Those are the rock formations that were a few feet away from our tent...so cool! We got our water cans filled and off we went to go hiking. The trailhead was close to our campground and as we are on the trail, we bumped into Chris's co-worker from Switzerland who just happened to be on vacation and who just happened to be on the same trail at the same time in the same park... what a coincidence!

It was very neat to see them! Well, off we went on one of my favorite hikes of the entire 7-days. We found ourselves on top of a canyon on which you can see your shadow on the canyon a few miles away. I felt like I was on top of the world. We were exploring and it was all so fantastic. I wasn't very fearful or exhausted at this point in the trip, so I was enjoying it all. We got to one of Chris's favorite arches a few hours later called Double O Arch. You can see Chris posing on the top arch and I am on the lower arch (you have to look very closely).

I'm telling you, it was awesome! I think Chris felt so great as he was challenged in his hiking skills and always met the challenge. He's like my monkey! Ha!

We thought it was a good idea to head back to our campground since the sun was setting. As we headed back, we took pictures of other arches and findings (see them at the end of this blog). We found out the amphitheatre was holding nightly programs (talks and presentations given by different park rangers). As we returned from our hike, we went to the program, ate Frito Pie as an easy dinner and went to sleep in our comfy tent and our new adjoining sleeping bags. Awww... what a event filled day! It was the start of a great camping trip.

On the following blogs, we'll have you join us through our adventures, frusterations and lots of pictures of our 7-day vacation to the West.

Other pictures...

Neither from here nor there

I've decided to write about something that I've experienced my whole life but never really talked about much. It's something that perhaps most of you haven't experienced - or maybe you have. If you have, I'd like to know your thoughts about it.

When you are asked, "Where are you from?" What do you say? Does your answer relate to where you were born or where you lived the longest? Or does your answer relate to where your parents live... or where you'd like to be from?

In my case it's a little complicated. I've been known to answer differently depending on who asks. Why? I'm not sure. I was born in Mexico, the city I've lived the longest is Miami, the state I've lived the longest is Texas. I consider myself Mexican, but I've lived in the US much much longer than I ever lived in Mexico.
Again, I consider myself Mexican... as I was born in Mexico, listen to Spanish music (not all the time though), cook Mexican food, am fluent in Spanish and practice Mexican traditions. But you see, when I come in contact with co-workers who lived in Mexico most of their life, they consider me to be American. I am not "Mexican" enough to them to really and truly be Mexican. When I go to Mexico, my family considers me American. But when I'm in the U.S., I am considered Mexican. I have gotten descriminated against and stereotyped as what a Mexican is supposed to be like to them.

If I determine my identity by how others classify me, I would be a floater. Neither from here nor there.

How do I classify myself? Not Mexican-American. But purely Mexican. It bothers me greatly when I come into contact with other Mexicans who classify me as American. Am I not Mexican enough for them? I guess so. That's a shame. What would I have to do to be Mexican enough? Have an accent? I actually do have an accent in both languages. Maybe I should have only one fluency... in Spanish... that way I can be "Mexican" enough for Mexicans. I think I'm rather blessed to have fluency in both languages. I won't take that away.

So I close in asking you... where are you from?

Birthday Balloons

Remember when you were a little kid and when it came time for your birthday party, the decor would always include balloons?

Well, this birthday for me included many many balloons. Chris, the thoughtful engineer, decided to give me my birthday presents via a balloon hunt. First, he left my birthday card on our couch - an easy place for me to see it as I returned from walking Chancho in the morning. In the card he talked about memories that I have had each year since I was born. He told me that he hid balloons, which signified each year of my life, around the house, and each balloon had money inside that represented the memories I had to remember each year by.

I started in the basement - where balloons 1-10 were. My favorite was in our chameleon room (yes, we own a chameleon) and I had the biggest trouble finding any balloons there. Then, I looked in our cooler and there was a big poofy balloon! It was great because as I popped the balloons, money would explode out like a pinata. This one was found in our downstairs shower. I later went upstairs to find balloons 11-20. My favorite one there was the one hidden in Chancho's crate. It was funny because when I popped the first balloon, Chancho went crazy - so scared. I noticed Chancho was avoiding his crate that morning, so he pretty much was giving away the secret that a balloon was in his crate. ha! We found out another quirky thing about our dog - he is terrified of balloons. Outside in our front and back yard was 21-28. Yes, I'm now 28. It was such a fun morning!

Well, this wasn't my actual birthday. On my actual birthday, I had to travel for work, arrive late to Chicago, drive around and get lost with my co-workers, arrived at the hotel after 10pm (before I had to teach a 6-hour class the next day) and pretty much just go to bed. But I'd like to consider my actual birthday the morning of my balloon hunt. My birthday truly started about 4 days before my birthday when I got to see my brother and sister in law in Austin!! What a great way to begin my birthday and a wonderful 28th year!

Garden Update: The last picture are our tomato plants and green pepper plants. We have many many growing tomatoes and bell peppers, but none are mature enough to pick. It's September and starting to get pretty cool, so we are crossing our fingers that we'll have little tomatoes to enjoy soon. Our wonderful neighbors have been kind enough to bring over their tomatoes. Sigh. They tell us that they've had the best luck with their tomatoes this year and they bring over what they can no longer eat....because they have so many. Well, we hope to share our tomatoes with them in a few weeks when ours are just too many to for us. hehe.

Burritos, Salads, Bowls and Tacos

I can definitely say that I have a new outlook on people who work in the service industry as I've been working at a restaurant for 4 days now. I recently started a new job a Chipotle! I'm extremely excited as I get to work at a great company that was founded on really great values... and they still hold on to those values today. As a part of my training, I was assigned to work at an actual restaurant for a week and a half.

Phew.

I cannot remember being that tired after work. The tiredness I felt from working for 8 hours at a restaurant was equivalent to working about 13 hours at the office. I crashed on the couch and was in deep sleep immediately. What I get to do is make fresh guacamole, fresh tortilla chips (with fresh lime), shred beef and mostly take care of the dining room and the customer service in the dining room. I haven't had many crazy adventures yet - but I'm sure to have some funny stories by the end of this week. I can say though that I've become attached to some of the people I work with. They are like a family and really have treated me like their family member. And yes, they even tease me and give my silly nicknames - just like a family member would. I even have a sister at work - well, they say we look like sisters.
I'm really going to miss the crew once I go back to the office. I am so happy and blessed to work for such an amazing company though. Until now, there aren't many national companies who care so much for their people, their food and for maintaining their core beliefs intact for years on end. There's much more to it than what you think.

Oh and for those who work at restaurants day in and day out...hats off to you!

Daycation

Once in a while you need a little escape on the weekends... sort of a daycation. HA! I thought the word was silly, but what the day entailed was amazing. Some good friends of ours and their cousin went with us on our little day vacation to Colorado Springs.

What a great day!

We started off with what I thought would be the most boring part of the day - a mining museum in the outskirts of town. Well, it was the part where I learned the most. Did you know that "grease monkey," "the real McCoy," and "balls to the wall" started off as mining terms? Anyway, once our 2 hour tour was over, we went to Garden of the Gods. These red rock formations are just amazing. We got to walk on a trail that lead us to these rocks:

We visited the oldest trading post in Colorado and got to cool down for a little bit. From there, we wen to visit some old indian cliff dwellings. What amazed me the most is the precision of their walls. They were so creative with their living spaces. Chris, of course, was crawling around everywhere like a monkey. hehehe.

Then, we headed to Cave of the Winds where we got a 45 minute tour of this awesome cave. We got to see all sorts of crazy cave formations and heard some great stories about how the cave was discovered. This is the view from the side of the cave (next to the gift store):

Just breathtaking. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of that day. So, that was our little daycation we took a few weeks ago. Care to join us on our next daycation? :-)

Adventures in Camping

Hi again. It's been way too long, I know. Let's go back to the July 4th weekend. What were you up to?

Chris and I decided it was a great idea to go camping in the Colorado Rockies. So beautiful, peaceful and full of things to do. What we didn't realize was that you have to reserve your camping spot in around February - not June. I was amazed at how many campsites there were out there- and how many of them were booked. I quickly put a list together of all the first come first serve sites that were close in proximity. Chris and I wanted to go camping so badly that we were willing to drive out to the mountains and just start looking for an open spot. If there weren't any, we were ready to camp completely primitive in random designated areas. Lo and behold we found an AWESOME spot in the first place we looked. It was perfect - had a river 15 feet behind the site, had restrooms close by and were in the middle of a pine forest. Completely great!

If you are from Texas, you may think that it's going to be miserable and hot. Well - not in the Rockies. It was in the 70's in the daytime, quite cool in the evenings, and in the brisk 40's at night. I even had to wear my ski jacket to keep warm since the fire just didn't quite do it. :-)

We were thrilled. The next day, we went fishing in Lake Grandby (next to Rocky Mountain National Park) and came back to our site to wait for our good friends Trey and Emily to arrive. Chris and I were sitting in our chairs contemplating the views and our dog, Chancho, was running around exploring all the great smells. As we were lounging, we started to look at the trees and found that every tree had deep bear claw marks in them. Chris and I stood up to inspect the gashes and Chancho started to go crazy - hopping up and down and just acting nervous while looking at our neighbors site. Well, we turned around to our neighbor's site and found that they had a hairy friend visiting them. A BLACK BEAR!!!

This is how we found him - eating our neighbors food they left out (rookies!)This is the bear going back to their site to get more food. What he would do was go to their coolers/bags and get what it wanted and would go by the river to eat and would do this process several times.

So, what did we do when we first saw the bear? RUN to our car! Well, that's not what you are supposed to do, but it caught us off guard. We put Chancho in the car, and when we felt it was safe, we got out and would stare at it eat from afar. Chris did get closer to take some pictures (typical tourists!). It was actually really cute. All it cared about was eating, not attacking, so we felt safe after a while. Once it finally left, we found it had selected a tub of butter, hamburger patties, bacon, half a bag of tortillas, and two apples to eat. He left all the other fruit and veggies. Typical. hehe

Oh, and I totally forgot to tell you how close it was. It was in the next site - about 30 feet away. Way too close for comfort.

From there, we struggled to decide whether or not we'd tell our friends since we didn't know if they'd get too scared to camp, but we ended up telling them. It was so great to finally see a bear close up though. I always wanted that experience.

We also saw a female moose the next day - she was in the river that ran right next to our campsite. We didn't get a picture of her though. We got to see some great fireworks in Grand Lake that night which was awesome because they were right in front of some mountains and reflected off the lake, which made it magical. The next day, we went hiking and fishing.

On the last day, we went fishing and left our tent and canopy up so they can dry up - it rained the evening and night before. But when we came back from our fishing trip, we saw hail all over the ground and it was still raining pretty hard.
That was our great camping trip. Full of adventures, unexpected twists, and great company. We do plan to go camping again - perhaps in September. The Grand Canyon and Arches - here we come!

One last thought - we love Colorado.

Married to an Engineer

I find it humorous when my married friends tell me about how their husbands try to fix things around the house... and ultimately they have to call a professional. You know what I'm talking about.

Well, on that note, our home was built in the 1930s and up until now no one has put an air conditioner in it. You may think that one wouldn't need A/C in Colorado... but that's not so true. It gets very very hot here because the sun is so intense that it really heats up the house. It gets up to the 80s in the daytime. Okay, I may have gotten a little pampered living in this great weather (and yes, I love the dryness of this state) - but the 80s is just too hot to be comfortable in when you're trying to relax at home. I've had friends in the same situation and they actually go to the movies or shopping just to be in a cool place for a few hours. Too funny... and kind of sad actually.

Thankfully we have an attic fan which pretty much sucks the cool air from outside (can only be done in the evenings and early mornings) and takes out all the hot air. Great invention - very cheap - but we needed something to really cool down our home and not just blow semi-cold air inside.

Well, here comes my wonderful husband with a funky blue spongy square and he completely wets it, sows it to our window screen and turns on the attic fan and wha-la - we have nice cold air coming in our home. But oh no, he was not done then. He nails wooden supports to our home, gets a random bucket and buys a pump at a garage sale.

The water that is pumped through the spongy square makes the air cool and it gets sucked into our home for a nice pleasant temperature. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's really all you need to know. Ahhhhh - cool air at last! All for only $9 instead of $250 for the official kind - Chris wanted me to mention that. HA!! :-)

See it for yourself - not so pretty, but it does the job.

Kinda quirky, huh? Despite the embarrassment of this device hanging from our window, I can say I married quite the inventive man. And for this I can say that I am proud of having married an engineer. My hero.

Our little graduate

That's right. Our little Chancho recently graduated from his obedience school with flying colors. We are so proud! :-) The best part is that he got to be around other dog owners and their dogs. At first he would show his teeth to anyone or anything that got close to him. By the end of the classes he was wagging his tail at almost everyone who wanted to say hello. The funniest thing about the whole class was that we learned very quickly that Chancho is a teacher's pet. Ohhhhh he loved it when it was time to learn. He would sit very still and stare at the teacher as she instructed the other dogs. He would stare and stare very still until she finally came to him (which seemed like an eternity to him). She loved Chancho because he would do anything to please her. He was probably the best behaved dog in his class (except at first when is was scared of everyone). We also learned that he's a teenager with very little patience. There was a little puppy in the class that would always hop around him in excitement. What did Chancho do? Show his teeth. Of course. He never did warm up to the pup. We also learned that Chancho is very stubborn (yes, mom and dad, just like me). He obeys when he wants to. We go for a walk every morning and before we go out, he choses if he's going to be good or not. He has surprised me many times how in that he doesn't pull the leash at all...and then there are some days when all he wants to do is chase the squirrels and birds and pull away he goes. Sigh. Yes, those are the days that are not so fun for me. That little stinker!
We are almost to the point where we can take Chancho to the park and let him roam around and come back when called. I dreamed of that day! It's going to be so fun to take him out and play fetch. We are also looking forward to the day he gets excited about water. Supposedly Viszla's love to play in the water. Not ours. Well, not yet at least. He's finally starting to gain confidence, so we'll see how long it take to make him the water loving dog he's meant to be.

Garden Update: Bad news: our peaches that were growing (yet still green) have been stolen!!! Yes, stolen by either those crazy birds or squirrels. Only two itsy bitsy ones are left. We also got our blueberries eaten by crazy wild animals. We are crossing our fingers that our strawberries, peppers and tomatoes will be left alone when they're ready for harvesting. Our apples are doing okay - we don't care if those get eaten as we have PLENTY and would prefer they get eaten rather than have to rake every day to pick them up off the sidewalk, street and from the top of my car.

Spring Blooms

Seasons...that's something I didn't truly get to experience in Texas or Florida. What a different story it is here in Colorado where things are very much marked by its season. Ski season is from around December - April. Rafting is generally from April - June. Mountain biking and hiking is around May - August. And the cycle continues. Chris has had to get accustomed to this as he was used to being able to mountain bike whenever he desired...not so much here.

I've also noticed how the seasons have almost orchestrated how our flowers bloom. Our beautiful red tulips emerged in late April and quickly disappeared. Then, suddenly, we had amazing lite purple irises dancing right next to our home. So fragrant and a joy to watch. The sun had their way with them, BUT low and behold our abundant roses in red, white and pink came into center stage.

All of our trees have bloomed in the same way.

All these things have really reminded me of God's plan and how every season happens for a reason. Things come and go in our life and we can choose to take something positive from each experience. I love the imagery of a symphony and how the director tells a story with the variety of instruments at his disposal. It's comforting to know that God is our director and we get to trust and lean on Him. Who knows what next season will bring... perhaps a few strawberries, tomatoes and bell peppers (our very first baby bell pepper is shown below).