First Week: The Dock

We managed to replace one arm of the dock the first week we were in camp.  This was a lot of work, but the new dock looks great, and feels solid.  Dad didn't slow down during the day, unlike me.

The trip out

Kristen and I departed Boulder around 3:00 pm on Friday.  At the last minute we decided to drive through Nebraska, up through South & North Dakota, and cross the border near Pembina.

We spent the first night in Grand Island, Nebraska.  The trip was uneventful up through the Dakotas, and the border crossing went well.

We ran into issues in Kenora, where not a single hotel had vacancy.  We ate dinner, then headed to Dryden, pulling in around midnight.  The next morning we did our grocery shopping and headed to Vermilion Bay.

Unfortunately the wind was gusty enough to keep the planes grounded.  We had to stay at a lovely hotel in Vermilion Bay Sunday night.  The next morning we got to Wilderness Air bright and early, loaded up, and took off.

Visibility improved once we got out of the Eagle Lake area, we had a smooth landing, and were greeted by Ma & Pa.

Back safe & sound!

Kristen and I made it back from the Canada trip safe & sound.  We both had a great trip, it was a lot of fun being up there with a larger group than normal.

We'll be updating the blog soon with pictures and a summary of the trip.

Canada Bound

Kristen and I are about to head out the door toward the camp in Canada. I'm really debating which route to take, I-80 to I-35, or up through the middle of no-where in either South Dakota or Nebraska. Getting off the interstates sounds appealing, but I imagine the reality of that choice may not be that exciting.

We'll be back in two weeks!

Sweet, sweet internet.

After almost two and a half months, we have internet access at home again.  It's amazing that we survived.  Hopefully this translates into more blog posts.

Kristen and I (mostly Kristen) managed to get all our stuff out of the Mapleton house, and most of our stuff out of storage into the new place.  It's amazing how much, uh, stuff we had in storage.  We have a lot of boxes to go through, and a lot of hard decisions to be made yet.  Maybe by Christmas we'll have an organized house.

Becky, Jack, and Chelsea made it out to visit for five days last week.  They witnessed us at our most stressed-out moments, hopefully they managed to have some fun after everything was said and done.  Jacoby sure is cute when he's in the right mood.

The cats were curious, but not that curious.

We did spend Sunday driving up through Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a lot of driving, but the scenery was great.  Everyone enjoyed posing with Jack.

It also gave me an excuse to take some panoramic photos.

Closed & Moving in!

Kristen and I closed yesterday on the new house, and are in the process of moving in.  We worked pretty late last night trying to get the essentials moved over.  The movers show up on Sunday to move the big things from the Mapleton house.  In the meantime we've started emptying the storage units, and gotten the cats into their new territory. 

Initial impressions are that the kitchen seems smaller than we remembered, and that master shower is tiny.  No other surprises so far, knock on wood.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have the majority of the work done.

A Hot Summer

We're roasting here.  We've had a few weeks of 90+ days, it's getting a little old.  The current rental house does not have an attic fan, a swamp cooler, or AC.  The cats often look like puddles of fur, plopped out on the floor in random spots.

Two weekends ago Kristen headed to Grand Junction to enjoy the "Cast And Blast" program from the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  It's a free program for women, and covers the basics of fly fishing, shotgun shooting, and archery.  They had fun, although Kristen didn't manage to catch a fish.

I have some new video/photo software, so I threw the following animation together:





I spent the weekend working mostly, although I had a few guy friends over for a movie and beer on Saturday night.

This weekend involved a trip to Colorado Springs to root Katie on in her half-marathon.  It started and ended at the Broadmoor, which is a pretty swanky looking place. 

My new photo software will automatically stitch together panoramic shots from multiple pictures.  Can you see the seams in the photo below?  I love technology...

Katie ran a strong race.  The course ended up hillier than she expected, which is never a good surprise.
 

Kristen and I hung out in down-town Colorado Springs for several hours afterward.  The parts we saw were interesting, it seems like a nice city.

We're only a few weeks away closing on our house.  Everything continues to be in place, so we're expecting smooth sailing from here on out.  The Canada trip is only a few weeks after that, so things will probably get a little crazy here for a while.