Brrrrrrr!

It's 17 degrees below zero this morning. Crazy! But there's no wind, so it really only feels like 17 below. See - it could be worse.

Starting Home

We start home this morning. We had even more snow last night and the temperatures have been way below freezing for days so there is lots of snow and ice packed on the roads. If any of you read this this morning, pray for safe passage down through the mountains. It shouldn't be bad once we get out of the mountains, but it will take us awhile because we'll have to drive so slow.

Day 4

Our second day of skiing dawned with a heavy snow and the ducks. Evan was trying to get one particular duck to come to him. We fed these guys too. They were quite serious about their food.

The view out the front door. The doors were frozen shut on the cars.

Here's what we were skiing in. Very windy, very snowy all blowing in our faces.

Michele and Evan braving the elements. I was braving them too. Not fun! This picture doesn't do the wind or the snow justice.

Aaron's sledding adventure. Fun but also very cold, especially since they kept sinking into the massive drifts they were sledding down. He was definitely the champion sledder. He went further, faster, higher and longer than anyone else.

ITS TOO COLD!!

and too windy. And a tree took out one of the lifts. That's all.

some day 3 pics

Our first day of skiing - I took this picture about half-way up the mountain with Michele. That's the town down there.

Michele and Logan (my nephew) on the mountain

Aaron and Michele on the lift

Evan and Michele. Michele was very sweet to ski with Evan and Aaron on the bunny slope.

Evan falling. (He got lots of practice getting up.)

Today was nasty with snow and strong winds. It's not as much fun with the snow blasting in your face. It looked really pretty, but there was so much snow that it made skiing very difficult. The snow was so deep in spots it would stop you in your tracks and throw you down.

We took the boys sledding and they kept get getting stuck in drifts. Aaron went in up to his waist once. We had to pull him out. We haven't downloaded pics from today yet since it was my turn to cook supper. Tomorrow's going to be 10 degrees but it's going to feel like 10 below.
Sounds like fun, right?

last of day2 pics

Feeding the deer on our back porch. Our back door is right at the base of the ski mountain and the deer just walk right down out of the mountains across the ski trails and come down to eat. They keep food out for them so they are not afraid of people, but they spook pretty easily.

I haven't checked out the "Jesus stuff" yet. Will try to do that soon.

Michele's attempt at the torchlight parade (since my batteries died). I must say this is the first time I can say that digital photography didn't way outshine our old 35mm photos. I know that I've gotten some good ones in the past. But digital was way better on everything else.

still more pictures

The winding road and the mountains

The mountains in Taos

There is an ordinance in Taos that all buildings have to look like adobe. That includes the MacDonalds, Burger King, the banks, and even the churches.

Lots of snow.

more pictures

Sunset - day 1

Day 2 - Frozen lake and first snow mountains. The kids wanted to stop and ice skate. I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite that frozen.

The icy climb into the mountains.

ya think!

Crazy truck driver passing us all on icy roads in no passing zones. Thankfully there aren't too many like that.

hopefully pictures

cotton bales

cotton bowls

cotton picker

The kids wanted to finish the cotton picking in some unfinished fields. I got some really cool cotton bowls and plan to make some more cotton bowl angel Christmas ornaments - love them.

gas wells and tanks painted in bright, clean, matching colors, I guess in the hopes that it would somehow improve on the disagreeable aspects of the acquisition and storage of said gas - they were much prettier than the plain ugly black ones, but it didn't improve on the smell at all

This internet connection and blogger are not playing nice, so I'll try to send these and try some more in a separate post.

more day 1...

But not! -because it's not working. I'll try again tomorrow. Here's the summary. Even more windmills, lots of gas wells, lots of cotton, cotton picking, lot of old water towers, lots of feed lots (not a pretty sight - quite odiferous), lots of Wal=Marts, and a pretty sunset, etc.

And then there was day 2 with lots of mountains and snow and stuff and lots more Wal-mart stops. Finally arriving, feeding deer on our back porch, eating my dad's barbecue (nobody makes it better), and the aforemention torchlights and fireworks.

Day three will be lots of skiing and shopping after that. My favorite kind of day. And if this silly computer will talk to blogger, I'll try again to post pics. Going to bed now, so I can get up early.

I tried sending just this last night and it wouldn't even work - I'm trying again.

Red River Adventure - Day 1

We have arrived in Red River and are ready to ski in the morning. It's so cold! Watched the torchlight parade down the face of the mountain complete with fireworks tonight, but my camera batteries died right before it started. And it only happens on Saturday night. Very annoyed about that one. Michele got a couple but I don't know if they came out very good. I've taken tons of pictures.

West Texas was covered with windmills. They put way more up since the last time I was out this way. One stretch of road side had over 100, and that was just the ones I could see. We saw 3 18-wheelers in Fort Worth one day carrying a blade each for one windmill. You realize they are big, but not quite that big. Another stretch had way more that that. They went on for miles.

Okay - computer's doing strange things, so I'm going to send this and try to post some more pictures and I can't figure out why it's underlining this either. Very strange!

I'm not ready!

We leave in the morning for skiing in Red River and I'm still packing. I'll probably be up all night. Trying to think of everything that everyone will need is making my head hurt.

If we have internet access, I'll try to post some pictures. If I get everything packed and get us all out of town, that is.

Wow! Who new?

For some completely unknown reason, I clicked on my own profile and found out that I'm apparently an accountant in Afghanistan. Go figure. Anyone know how that might have happened?