Crystalline Magic

This morning was breath-taking.

We awoke to a foggy, cold morning here in Trinidad, Colorado.  I let Les sleep in a little longer as  he didn't sleep well the night before.  And as we were preparing for our usual walk with the dogs, I told him that I'd rather go up to the property to walk.  When we go up there, we don't have to worry about one of the dogs choosing to poop right in the middle of the street as we cross.  (Don't laugh... it happens quite often!)  There's nothing worse than holding on to a young dog who hates the leash while trying to open a little plastic bag to pick up poop.  And doing that while you're watching for cars, or.. worse still, having a car wait for you as you scrape poop from the middle of the street is just awful.

That, and Mindy gets to run to her heart's content.  She loves to run!  Schultz has a blast up there, too.  They play and play.

But back to our gorgeous morning... while it was foggy here in town this morning, it was really foggy up the mountain.  And an amazing thing was happening up there.  On the east side of everything was a blanket of crystal.  It wasn't exactly snow and it wasn't exactly ice.  It was just crystal and it was exquisite!  It was on the trees, on the scrub oak, on every blade of grass and every dried flower.

 This is what they call here a "freezing fog."  And it was beautiful.

Just a Blur

Mindy girl is about 8 months old now.  We knew that a blue heeler/border collie mix would be a very active pup.  I just don't think we were aware of how much.

 She and Schultz get along really well together now.  He even allows her to step over him as he sprawls out in the hallway.  Until she got the nerve, she would whine and bark imploring him to move so that she could get by.  Sometimes he'd oblige -- usually he wouldn't.

 Now she playfully hops over him and sometimes even gives him a little nip on her way by.

Taking pictures of her is a real challenge.  I try to have my camera with me whenever we go up to the mountain.  But try as I might, I have yet to get a really good picture of her because she's moving all the time.  I either get her head as a big blur or just the back end of her as she's leaving the frame.

 Schultz is easy to photograph.  He stands there... he does what he's told... he's nice and mellow now.

Mindy... that's another story entirely.

The Boys

We were blessed to have our boys here for Thanksgiving.  Les came home from California by way of Boise Idaho in order to drop Andrew's drums off and to bring him here for Thanksgiving.  We hadn't seen Andy since our official move date of June 10th.  He's been keeping himself busy in Boise... looking for a job... playing with a band.

DJ took a week of leave from the Army and headed down here to Trinidad from Fort Carson near Colorado Springs.  It was so good to have our family together again.

I cooked a near-perfect Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all of the trimmings.  Our friend, Jim, joined us for a meal.  It turned out that he was making his rounds on Thanksgiving Day as Joelle was out of town.  I know Jim attended at least 3 meals that day -- the boy must have been hungry.  Probably didn't eat for a week afterwards!

 The day after Thanksgiving was the tree and train lighting ceremony near City Hall.  Trinidad has a steam engine and a few old rail cars sitting near the river.  They light it up for Christmas along with a very large fir tree.  Many of the people from town gathered to watch as carols were sung and the tree and train were lit with sparkling white lights.

Andy fresh off the truck from Boise.

 Mindy and Schultz were happy to have the boys here as company.  I took many pictures of them, but then I realized that nearly every single picture I took of Mindy was blurry.  This creature does not stand for pictures.  Pretty much, the only time she's still is when she's sleeping, or if food is just about to hit her bowl.  What a character!

Les after being gone a month.

There's my Schultzie Boy!

What a Goof!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Parade

It seems like this lovely little town will use any excuse to have a parade!  Labor Day -- have a parade!  Homecoming -- have a parade!  I love it!

We went to see the "Parade of Lights" for the Christmas Season.  Main street was closed off and many, many people braved 25 degree weather to see the lights as they made their way down the street.  This was our first Christmas parade here.  It did not disappoint.

I was thrilled to have our whole family together for Thanksgiving.  After a month in California, Les drove home by way of Boise to pick up Andrew and to drop off his drums.  They hit heavy weather on the trek home from Idaho, but arrived safe & sound.

 DJ took a week of leave from the Army.  He and Andy spent quite a lot of time together.  It was so good to have my family around.  Our house is very little, so we could not offer them a bed, but they made the best of it in our recliners and on the floor.  No one complained

This little trailer drove up and down the street offering cookies and cocoa.

Only in Trinidad would you see a porta-potty in a parade and dressed up in Christmas lights! 

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