Sunday, August 29, 2010

Happy Birthday, Dad!

This morning I worked for awhile. Ty got some bread at the store and made French Toast for us while I was working.

After that, I took Addie and Travis to the waterpark. Pat was already there with Margie and kids.

Came home, showered, and ordered Pizza for dinner. After that, went to Mom's for cake/ice cream for Dad's birthday.

This is what 70 looks like!

Donna and Gary and Keith and Sandra came too.

Got home and got kids to bed for school tomorrow. Hard getting into the new routine...

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Got up this a.m. and was making breakfast. I threw out some stuff that had been in the crockpot from Thursday night...the juices and stuff from a pot roast. Long story short, the sink backed up, and the washing machine I had started flooded the laundry room and part of the kitchen. Huge mess. uuggghhh. I felt terrible...Ty ended up getting it all cleaned out and taken care of and cleaned up the floor for me...i just felt bad. He has told me a million times not to use the garbage disposal (this is not the first time I have done this ...but it was the worst result). I just knew that if I put those juices in the trash...it would get a hole in the bag or something would happen while Pat was emptying trash and end up all over the floor...so I did not throw it away. I just did not realize it would cause such a collossal mess. I guess I should have put it in a jar like I do with grease and then thrown it out, but did not think about that until later.

anyway, huge headache and mess.

I went to shower and when I got out, Ty was screaming at Pat about life and responsibility and doing something to contribute to the family...etc. Patrick never wants to do any chores or help out in anyway. He blantantly ignores all rules and has been getting away with it for far too long and Ty just snapped. He was supposed to to go Ryan Janke's birthday and I did not think Ty was going to let him go but he did...AFTER Pat did several chores and cried alot.

I went out later and got Travis' school supplies and a gift for Seth and then took Travis to the party, which he ended up leaving early so he could race. don't understand that, but...

Donna and Addie and I went to Kincaid's for dinner then I came home, put her to bed, and caught up on the blog. Now it's late and I think I will get to bed too.

I'll post some pictures from Missouri later....

Friday, August 27, 2010

Same schedule.

Travis did not have open gym...came home at regular time. Addison went to Mom's today, so I picked them both up after school.

Krista has been taking Patrick in the morning and bringing him home for the last couple of days.

Ty worked late tonight.

Pat made 100 on his geography test!! YEA Pat!!!! that was the 1 we did not study because it was naming the continents and oceans on a map and he already had them labeled so I could not show him the map and say "what is this one?" when it was labeled. I was worried about that one. But he got 100!! Does not know about the other 2...did not get them back yet.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Same schedule, different day.

Tonight we had the parent/teacher meeting for Pat's class and he had soccer practice. I dropped him off and went to the meeting, he walked over when the meeting was over. it was a good thing we had the meeting because I did not know any of what they had done thus far...he has 3 tests tomorrow and I did not know about them.

So, we went home and studied.

Lots of fun stuff planned for this year...and lots of hard work ahead.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Did you see my routine from yesterday? Ditto for today.

It's going well with Addison at home so far. Hope it continues.

I forget to mention on Monday morning, while getting the kids ready for school, Addison got really mad because she thought since they are going to school, she is going to Mom's house (Oma). She was really mad when I told her she is staying home with me. REALLY mad.

Anyway, so same as yesterday, only no soccer.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

ok, so my new schedule looks like this...
5:30, up and shower
6 a.m. start work.
7:30, stop working , go do my walking, and then come in and get Pat motivated and ready for school and make a lunch for him if necessary.
7:50 take Pat to school. Did I mention I don't have to take Addison because Travis is still home. Yea!! (HATE car seats!!!)
8:00, work until time to take Travis, about 8:30-8:40, he starts at 8:55
915 eat breakfast and go back to work
12 lunch
325 Get Pat (out at 3:15, but if I go on time to get him I wait in a line in the car waiting to get him for 10-15 minutes, or I can wait 10-15 to get him and drive right up...). Go back home and work until time to get Travis, which starting today is 5:30 because they have open gym after school this week.

After I get him I either finish working, or do whatever needs to be done in the evenings...soccer practice tonight, and then took the kids to Rosa's for dinner.

Monday, August 23, 2010

It's Monday. Got up today and had no internet, no TV, and no phone. Did I mention I HATE AT&T??????????????????????????????????????

Long story short, the wires outside had fallen into the street and something ran over them and shredded them. Knocked everything out.

They BETTER be glad it was not another billing issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, when I called they said I would have to pay for them to come out and that it was on my end (phone) and that it would be tomorrow before anyone came out. That did not set well with me since I can't work and told them if they got any opening today to put me in...the guy ended up getting there as I was leaving to take Travis to school. Anyway, he and another guy got it diagnosed and fixed all by noon so I guess their repair people are great. It's the billing dept that needs HELP.

:)



School today!

New schedule, Pat still starts at 8, gets out at 3:15, same as always, but Travis starts at 8:55 and gets out at 4:10. Great thing is the middle school starts at 8:30. Why is that great for me? Because the middle school is on my street and the traffic from that school makes it very hard for me to get around the corner to the next block where Pat's school is. But since school starts later for them now, there IS NO TRAFFIC!! It's WONDERFUL. I used to have to leave 20 minutes early to get them to the other end of the street and around the corner to the next block...now I don't have to! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't like that I have to make 2 trips in the a.m. and 2 trips in the p.m., but the trade off of not having that traffic, well, just makes me not care so much!!!

So, they both had great first days. Patrick actually did homework without being asked. WHAT? Wow!! (can't believe it had any today, but still...)

Just me and Addie at home now, and I have to work. Hope it works out so I don't have to get daycare. It actually went pretty well today. She knew I had to work and actually let me!

Margie and I took the kids to CiCi's for dinner.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Worked all day again today. Trying to make up some of the time I missed last week.

Saturday, August 21st

Worked again today, off and on all day. Donna and I went to eat tonight...guys all went to races. I think this was the night that Addison went to Nana's. I think I wrote it on last Saturday (I'm writing all of this on the 28th).

We went to Bosses Pizza. Great pizza place. One in Keller, one in Hurst, check them out if you have not been. They have a buffet M-F from 11-2. Includes salad and drink in the price. Tell 'em I sent you.

haha! they don't know me! LOL

Can't believe school starts Monday!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!

I told my boss in an email late last night that I would get on and work as soon as I got up in the morning. I turned off the alarm last night and slept in, then worked all day today. I did stop to go take Patrick up to the school, but when we got there, Mrs. Luppy was not around. We went into the room and got his paperwork and he saw where he was sitting and where his locker was.

Other than that, I worked all day.

It's still sorta surreal to me that one of my cousins has passed away.


someone else I saw at the funeral that I just remembered was Jan, Norma's friend. I really like her! She is coming in October again with Norma. I told her I would reserve a table at Joe T's!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Headed home today. Stopped at a place called Uncle Bill's for breakfast (after getting lost) and then headed out for home.

It was a LONG. RIDE. HOME. I will have to say, this was Addison's worst car trip ever. Most of the way she was fussy. Part of the way it was just flat out nonstop screaming. At one point even I yelled at her to shut up. It was annoying to everyone. She finally fell alseep, though.

oh, and on the way home we saw a UFO. LOL Long story. Basically there was a red light that stayed beside our car for a good hour. Disappeared for good when we hit the Texas border. Guess it was an Oklahoma UFO. :) At first I blew it off, but after awhile I really started to wonder what it was. just because we never passed it. Everything else on the horizon passed the car and was behind us. This stayed even with us for an hour. and it was NOT a plane.

Anyway...LONG trip home, but we made it, dropped off Nathan at a friend's apt., took Donna home, and went home.

Oh, left a pillow there....with the race car pillowcase that Mom made the boys. Hopefully someone will find it and it did not fall out of the back of the car unseen when we opened it. I'm guessing Pat took it in Tina's house on Tuesday night, but I really don't remember. oh well...

Patrick missed "meet the Teacher" night. Ms. Luppy said we could come by and see her tomorrow. He is really exciting about getting her for a teacher. I'm excited for him! It's going to be a good year!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Got up this a.m. and showered and Tina had made breakfast. I told her my kids were going to vote her mother of the year! I do make breakfast, but not everyday and truthfully, since we had to get up that early, not sure I would have had we been home. I glad she did, in retrospect, as it was a long time before we got to eat.


So, we headed out to the funeral. This would have been Sam's first day of school. Sam is Andrew's younger brother. I was explaining to Patrick how Sam and Andrew were related (he did not realize the night we got there where we were and who they were). Anyway, when I explained to him the relation and compared it to him losing Travis, it put it all in perspective for him and you could tell he really felt for Sam.

Anyway, we met at the funeral home, had a short service for him there, then made the procession to the church. The church was packed. and the thing that really touched me was that Sam's whole class (he goes to Catholic School) was at the funeral mass. It was a nice service. Anytime they started talking about Andrew and their memories of him, I started crying and again thinking as a mother and what Kevin and Cheryl must be going through. I just can't imagine. Kevin, Andrew, and Sam had just made a trip to Vegas 2 weeks earlier. Sam was in a Hip-Hop contest in Vegas and they went for that. Who would have thought that 2 weeks later they would be burying their son. I'm tearing up just typing this. I just can't imagine.

Yesterday, when we got to the funeral home, I was carrying Addison and we went up to the casket and Kevin and Cheryl were standing up there and Addison looked at Andrew and said "Why is he in there?" (I was mortified that K & C heard her say that) and Kevin looked and her and said "That's a very good question." Then she asked if he was dead. I was shocked that my 2-year-old understands the concept of dead.

So, when the funeral was over, I followed someone back to the school where Cheryl teaches and they had a luncheon...we ate and visited with Colleen, Eric, Linda, Ralph, and Mom and Dad.

I told Tina I was going to stay at Colleen's again tonight because we were leaving in the morning and I did not want to have to try to find my way back to Donna in the a.m. I thought it would be easier if we were all in the same location and could just get up and get going in the a.m. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to go back...I know the kids would have loved to play with the toys I saw on the way out of the garage this morning! Especially Addison. But my sense of direction is not the best and I was worried about trying to find my way back to Colleen's by myself to get Donna and Nathan, so we did not go back to Tina's.

When the luncheon was over, we headed back to Kevin's house and the boys hung out with Sam and we all just sat and visited. Cheryl at one point starting taking the flowers apart and making bouquets out of them and giving them to family and neighbors so we all helped with that. I did not keep one because I knew it would not make it home. I never end up keeping the flowers (to press, or whatever) I take from funerals. I decided after Grandma Moody's, I would not do that anymore.

Later that evening, Linda took us to Ted Drews. The boys stayed with Kevin and hung out with Sam and his friends. Their neighbor had invited the boys over to swim so they did that and later Kevin took them for frozen custard somewhere closer to their house. I left money for them to order pizza and get ice cream and took Addison and went with Linda. I got a chocolate sundae.

We went by Linda's on the way home, and Norma took me and Addie on to Kevin's house to get the boys and then Donna and I and the kids went back to Colleen's. I think Nathan had been with Eric all that time. Anyway, got back there and got stuff together so we could leave in the a.m. to get back home.

On the left, this is Dylan and his wife. Dylan is a guy that grew up with Colleen and Michael. Mike and Colleen are on the right, and they are my cousins, Norma and Bill's kids. They have an older brother, Doug, who is my age.

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Got up this a.m. and Linda, Becky, Mom, and Dad came and got me and the kids. Donna and Nathan stayed with Colleen. We met Krystal and then went to the arch, but on the way, stopped at Gus's Pretzel's. Apparently, Kevin's friend's father started this pretzel business and now he owns it (the friend, not Kevin! LOL). Anyway, I guess they are famous in the St. Louis area. So, we stopped there and got some amazing pretzels, still warm. Regular and cinnamon. The boys did not seem to care much but when they tasted them, they loved them, especially the cinnamon. I know I have gotten them pretzels before (Auntie Annies) but they don't remember them, it's been a LONG time.

so, then we went over to the arch. Linda had brought her camera for me to use, so I took some pictures with it. We were not able to go up in it because the line was too long. That was disappointing, but gives us one more reason to come back (like we need a reason). The boys and I walked around in the museum until it was time to go...we had all split up and it took awhile to find everyone, but we headed back to get ready for the wake.

All I can say about the wake is OH! MY! GOSH! I was AMAZED at the turnout. I think it is safe to say that the Montgomery's are loved! From 3:15 p.m. until 9 p.m. there was a solid line of people at the funeral home. The line was out of the very long room, down the hall, around the corner, and would have gone out of the building except that the staff opened up the chapel and had people wait in there just to stand in the line. I know it was a sad occasion but that HAD to give SOME comfort to them. There was not a lack of love in that room. If there is any comfort to be found....

I did get to see Uncle Tony and Aunt Eileen, Tommy Newman (saw last at Bill's funeral), Dylan that grew up with Mike and Colleen, had not seen him in decades, saw Chris - Becky and Krystal's mom, saw Mike's kids and their Mom (like I said yesterday). Tina and Drake and their kids. Recognized some of Kevin's college friends (could not tell you their names).

I introduced my kids to everyone I knew there...tried to let Travis know who people were and how related, but there was too much to keep straight.

After it was over, we followed Tina and Drake back to their house and sayed with them. Another very cute house. Draked picked up some fried chicken and we ate and went to bed shortly thereafter as we had to get up very early to get back to the funeral home in the a.m. Wish Tina and I had more time together.

Monday, August 16, 2010-

Got up early and we left for the trip. Picked up Donna and Nathan and headed out. 13 hours later, we got to Kevin's house. about 3 minutes from his house, we had to pull over for Patrick to throw up, but he did not. We drove on to his house and the second he got out the car, he started throwing up...in the neighbor's lawn. It is "tradition" for him to throw up on long car trips. If I did not mention it, he threw up on the way to Colorado, too.

It was my first time to see Kevin and Cheryl's house...love it. LOVE the backyard/deck(s). Doug, Colleen, and Mike were there. Mike had his 2 kids with him...first time to see them...his baby girl, Molly, is a newborn...just precious! Nicole and Kevin and Cheryl, of course, were there. Eric (Colleen's "new" husband) was there. Just love him...he's such a riot! Turns out he works for Glazer's too (Ty's sister works there). Small world. Linda was there, and Norma.

When we left there, we went to Colleen's house to stay the night. Very cute house too. Not too far from Kevin. 3-story. As soon as we got inside, Pat ran to the bathroom and threw up again. Poor guy.

Got to bed pretty late. Linda texted me and asked if we wanted to go do something fun with the kids tomorrow before all the sad stuff started, so we decided to take them to the arch. I'm glad they will get to do that. Linda is the best Aunt...always did stuff with us as kids, always made sure we had a good time, and now she is doing that for my kids. If you are reading this, Linda, I can't thank you enough!!

Sunday, August 15

Worked again today. Donna and I were going to leave today, but it just did not happen. I was going to drive to Grandpa's but as it turns out, Mom and Dad were there and there would not have been any place to sleep. It only left 1 twin bed and since I had to sleep with Addison, I knew Donna would get the bed and everyone else would be on the floor. I did end up getting Keith and Sandra's air mattress but by the time Ty got the oil changed in my car and got it cleaned out and I was packed and ready and kids were, it was after 4 p.m. and that would have put us there at midnight, and trying to find Grandpa's in the dark, and we just decided not to go. I already had everything in the car so just left it in there so we would be ready in the a.m.

plan is to leave at 7. Donna and Nathan riding with us.


Ty's truck would not start....I needed it to get Keith's air mattress, so he had to work on that and get it fixed before I could go there and before he could change my oil/wash the car.

Saturday, Aug 14, 2010

Told my boss yesterday what was going on, so I decided to work some tonight and tomorrow to make up time I would be gone.

Found out that it was probably an epileptic seizure. I knew Cheryl had mentioned he had been having seizures. I did not know he had epilepsy? Autopsy results are not in yet, that is just preliminary.


Did some laundry and packed some stuff. Told the boys what is going on and that I would like for them to go with me and meet my family. Their family. No body has met Addison. Well, Norma and Linda did at Grandma's funeral....when she was a BABY. Most have not met Travis and Patrick, too.

anyway, just really wanted them to come. Would have liked for Ty to come too, but I knew he had to work after just being off a week. I need to too, but I can't miss this.

They all went to the races tonight. Addison stayed with Ty's mom. I worked and did laundry.

Friday, August 13, 2010

This was not a good day. Early this morning I got a call from Mom, and I knew instantly it was bad news. I thought something happened to Grandpa (he just turned 93). But it was not Grandpa. She called to tell me that Andrew had died. I was just in shock. Andrew Montgomery is my 25 year old cousin, Kevin and Cheryl's son. Mom did not know what happened so later on that morning I texted my aunt Linda and asked what she knew. She was at Kevin's house and said the police and paramedics and coroner were all there and they had just taken the body. That was when the shock gave way to tears for me. I just can't imagine. I kept thinking about my kids and thought "what do you say to Kevin and Cheryl?" I'm sorry just does not seem to cut it in this case. I had to finish working all day...I called Ty and told him. I could tell he did not want me to make the trip (we had just gotten back from Colorado and really could not afford it) but I knew I had to. and I could not leave the kids here because he had to work. I toyed with the idea of letting the boys stay home, but when I mentioned it to Pat he said "Only if Krista will look in on us " (she is my neighbor) and I knew then that he could not stay home...when you get "have the neighbor look in on us " rather than "I think I will have a party while your are gone", you know they are too young to stay home alone!! :)

So, I decided I would go and the kids were coming with me. I knew it would be a hard drive since we had just make an equally long drive to Colorado, especially for Addie.

Nathan called and asked if he could ride with us. I had planned to call him...knew he would want to go because he and Andrew were the same age and he was probably closest to him out of all the relatives.

My heart is so heavy...I just can't believe he is gone. and no body seems to know what happened at this point.

I thought about the Email I got from Cheryl at Easter that said they were going to spend Easter together as a family, just the 5 of them, and I'm glad they did that.

I just can't imagine what she and Kevin are going through.

Monday-Thursday, 08/09/10 through 08/12/10

Worked, walked...don't remember what else....writing this on 28th.

I do remember that twice this week the Vulture was out while I walked. Also saw a rabbit once morning. Also remember that it was in the 100s everyday and miserable outside. Made me really miss the Colorado weather.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Got stuff unpacked, got groceries today, not much else. Writing this on 28th, so not sure...don't remember, so much has happened since then.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Got up early this morning and headed home...spent the whole day in the car. Left around 7 a.m., got home probably around 8ish...can't remember for sure. Loved the vacation, not so much the car ride with the 3 kids. It was tough on them. We stopped to eat in Amarillo and did not stop again until we got home. The last 30 minutes, Addie was crying and saying her bottom hurt, but we were so close we could not bring ourselves to stop.

Got home and left everything in the car, got the house opened up and just relaxed.

FRIDAY, 08/06/2010

Last day of vacation. Today we got up and around (at lunch time again) and Travis wanted to try Red Robin for lunch. Good french fries!


After that we made our way back to Garden of the Gods after I told Ty it would be over $100 for all of us to ride the cog railway up Pikes Peak. Since I did not have my camera, it did not bother me not to go back up, especially at that price. We'll do it next time. :)


So, off to Garden of the Gods we went....again. This time we started at the visitor's center...which had a lot of the history of the area , a restaurant, a gift shop, etc. Then we went over to the park area. Can I just say it was, in a word, Awesome! There was a movie about the park and the rock formations and how they got there that we did not watch but I had read online that you "can't see the park w/out seeing the movie" so now that I have seen the park, I wish we had watched the movie, because after leaving the area, I was wondering to myself how they DID get there. Anyone seen the movie?


Anyway, here are some photos...with my phone camera, of course...










to give you some perspective on this next photo...we were shorter than those trees at the bottom. Much shorter. I had a hard time fitting all of it in the viewfinder on the camera (phone).

This was taken from the car. IT is called "balancing rocks".

Love the expression on her face...this was from the visitor's center.

This is the best photo (in my opinion) that I got with the phone camera....shows the colors really well.

We did not ever get all the way through the park when, true to form, a storm blew in. This was a pretty heavy storm...and cold...and you can see how we are dressed. We had to run all the way back to the car, carrying Addie (Ty did..I would have had a heart attack if I had tried). and of course, true to form, we got to the car and it let up. We went back to the hotel anyway, as we were all soaked to the bone.

Tonight we just ordered dominos at the hotel. got out stuff packed up for the lonnnnnggg ride home tomorrow.

Thursday, Aug 5, 2010

We had lunch at Olive Garden today as it was lunch time before we were up and around for the day. If i said we had lunch there yesterday, I was mistaken. It was today. Good. I just had soup and breadsticks.

Afterwards, we headed out to Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods. http://gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm?flash=1

We had just gotten there and came to a fork in the road, chose a path, and it ended up taking us away from the actual park/tourist area. We drove for probably a couple of hours, though, on a very scenic route....stopped several times to get out and look around and "hike" around. It was pretty, but I knew we had completely missed the actual area that is Garden of the Gods because it was nothing like what was in the brochure. ironically, this ended up being Ty and Travis' favorite part of the trip.

After we got back, we went swimming and hot tubbing at the hotel pool.

Travis is at the top of this rock with his hands up in the air. Third tree from the left, just to the left of the tree. Maroon shirt.

Ty joined him....

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Day 2 of vacation. Got up and went to IHOP again...only this time went to the one closer to us. While we were there, this elderly couple said what a cutie Addison is and then asked me if she was my granddaughter. WHAT? I just laughed and said "No, she's my DAUGHTER. Jeesh, do I look THAT old? Oh well, I knew that day was coming!

I asked Patrick what his favorite part of the zoo was yesterday. He said the bears. Travis also liked the Bears. Ty liked the bald eagles. Addison liked the train ride and feeding the giraffes. She said she did not like the monkeys because they would not let her pet them. :)

so, since my camera broke yesterday at the zoo (did I mention that yesterday, I don't remember), we went to a camera shop to see if it could be fixed while we waited...but it was not meant to be. They said it would be $290. to fix that that was about what the camera was worth. I told him we were from out of town so if I fix it, I would do so in town. So now I have to decide...fix or replace? Anyway, guess it's the cell phone camera for the rest of the trip. I was bummed but determined not to let it ruin my vacation. I promised Ty if he took me to the shop and it could not be fixed, I would not mention it the rest of the trip.

So, off we went to Pike's Peak. We decided to drive up it again . We saw this funny sign on the way up...

It says "Due to sightings in the area of a creature resembling bigfoot, this sign has been posted for your security." I could not believe my eyes. Are they kidding?

Anyway, so up we start up the mountain. If you have ever been on this little journey, you might have an idea of what I'm about to say. The drive starts out really nice and scenic. Then you start to get higher and higher...and before you know it...you are on a slow-moving roller coaster like ride. If you look out your side window, all you see is straight down...no road. There are hairpin turns where you can't see the road in front of you. It's a little nerve wrecking but kinda fun and very beautiful views. However, today there was a storm coming in. And we did not know it. So when we got further up...we were driving in the clouds. Which meant you could not see the road. Had Ty not been the driver...I would have been really nervous. But I knew he is a good drive and he had done it before, so I did not worry.

This is driving in the clouds....

and this before the clouds, but above the timberline....

so, we continue on and get to the top. We get the kids out of the car, go into the gift shop...and notice a light snow falling on the way in. Cool! Snow in August. I noticed a little bit of a headache...which I experienced last time we were here in 2004...from the altitude. No big deal. I popped one of the kids Tylenol chewables.

We go in, the boys to go the bathroom...they come out and I ask them to watch Addie, and I go...as soon as I come out, Ty says in a panicky voice
Come on, we have to leave...NOW.

WHAT?

A hail storm has moved in and they made an announcement to leave now or risk being stuck.
I think "a hail storm is coming" I did not realize until we stepped outside that the hail storm was here...the ground was COVERED in it, and we got pelted with pea sized hail all the way to the car. And have you tried to run at 14,000 feet after being a transcriptionist for 22 years? Not an easy task. and the hail hurt! and I'm thinking to myself...It's HAILING. Driving down this mountain is intimidating enough when the ground is dry...and he wants to drive on ICE? Is he NUTS? If the car slides off the road...it's going straight down...about 14,000 feet straight down. NOW I'm scared. and I'm getting sick to my stomach. And my head is pounding. and I'm thinking....well, at least I won't think about the pictures I don't get to take because the visibility is zero. Glad I have been here before and got pictures that time. My only regret is not getting a picture on the bench that has the year on it...with Addison in the family now.

WARNING: TMI (too much information) APPROACHING. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

So...we go down and we got to the point where they check your brakes, and we are in a wait of about 6 or 7 cars and I hop out of the car and walk to the gift shop because I'm about to be sick. I asked them where the bathrooms are and they were around back...GREAT...hope I make it. So, I trot around back and the second I got in the stall (w/ the door still open), i projectile puke all over...and over...and over...and over. I did not throw up that much with all 3 pregnancies combined. Won't be having IHOP again anytime soon. I don't know how long I was in there...but even after I was done, I did not feel too much better. I still felt nauseous and dizzy and had a headache.

Went back to find the guys, asked for some bottled water, and went back to the car and put my head on the console and did not move until we got back to the hotel. Ty ended up going for some dinner and bringing it back and it was a good 2 hours before I could even sit up.

Can you say "Altitude/car sickness?" Wow...I feel like such a wimp.

and not 1 single picture on the top. sniff, sniff! oh well...have to make another trip. I will HAVE to go back someday. I can't let the mountain beat me.

and while the boys were in the bathroom at the gift shop, I decided I was going to splurge and buy everyone a T-shirt or even a hoodie for the boys, even though the prices are outrageous, just because we never buy them any souveniers on vacation...i was going to this time...and then did not get to because we had to leave...

We heard that someone said that was the most hail on Pikes Peak in decades. Someone said about 2 inches in about 10 minutes.

this is how much accumulated while we were in the bathroom....there was none when we parked. If you look at the car on the right side of the photo, you can see it coming down...hard and fast!

What a day!! :)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Got up and everyone got dressed and ready for today. We decided on IHOP for breakfast. Ty and Travis looked it up in the phone book and off we went....and we got lost. We did numerous U-turns, drove around...and finally found it clear on the other end of town. It was after lunch time when we finished breakfast. So, then we decide to go to Cheyenne Mountain zoo. And it is way back on the side of town we started out on. And guess what? We passed an IHOP out there! :)


Anyway, the zoo was really great. http://cmzoo.org/ You could feed the giraffes and stand on a platform level to their heads. They had a tram you could ride all around the park. They had a train for Addie to ride, and a merry-go-round (which she SCREAMED when Ty put her on, but he rode it with her anyway). We saw a moose and grizzly bears and all kinds of things...it was a really cool zoo. They had a ski lift like ride that you could get on and go up the mountain. We did not get to do that because it started raining and they closed it down. That was a bummer. And we found out that once you pay to ride it ($5), you can ride it as much as you want. Would have been great to get on and take pictures. Unfortunately, just before we left, my camera broke. My high dollar camera that I thought would be the last one I would ever have to buy...the shutter broke. I was devestated.


Addie said her favorite part of the zoo was the train ride. Which she talked about incessantly while we were there. like, every 5 minutes (i wanna ride the train...) I liked watching the grizzly bears....there were behind glass and there was a pond that they were actually playing in the water...there were 2 and they were "fighting." Got 1 good photo of a close-up of its head...but the rest not so good because they were through a dirty glass.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Well, finally booked a hotel yesterday for vacation and we are off to Colorado Springs today! Did not get on the road until 12:30 and then stopped up the road for lunch (Sonic) so it was really about 1:15 before we were on our way.



It was a long day....did not get to hotel until about 2 a.m.
Just over the New Mexico border...in keeping with tradition, we had to pull over and let Pat out to puke. I know...too much information. He always seems to get car sick on our trips. That and too much junk food, I guess. Anyway, got to the hotel and went right to bed.

We started counting how many states we saw (license plates) as we do on all trips to Colorado, since they seem to come from everywhere to visit Col. I'll give you the final talley at the end of the trip.

Tried to talk Ty into stopping at Palo Duro Canyon, but no dice. Never can talk him into it...they don't know what they are missing.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

August already...wow. I think I say that every month, don't I?

Today is my Father-in-Law's birthday. Ty's mom called and invited us over for dinner tonight...catfish. Yum! It was delish, as usual. And lemon pie for dessert. really good. Just like key lime pie, only lemon! Good time, good company.


think we are going on vacation tomorrow, if I can get a room booked at this late date.