Cedaredge, Colorado

Bobby and I spent this weekend in Cedaredge, Colorado. We all piled into the trailblazer at 5 am, and then picked up Kristi and her two little girls. We had to make a couple of stops to stretch, pick up Dramamine - the road was rather windy, get gas, etc. The purpose of our little expedition was to visit the Jordan's Great-Grandma.

Bobby's great-grandmother, "Grandma Kimball", is living in Colorado with her son Chuck and his wife Diane (wonderful people by the way). She is 93 years old but she is still so sharp!! And incredibly sweet. She has pictures being on the fourwheelers at 91 with the label "leader of the pack" underneath. How cute is that? Unfortunately she went into the hospital in July and now has to use oxygen constantly. So we all went to say hello and visit together and had a great time.

Some of the highlights of the trip included sleeping out in tents. (Beware the grasshoppers - they are EVERYWHERE!) Bobby and I got the little two man tent and squeezed in a blow up mattress to sleep on. There was hardly any room left for us to squeeze in. (Now, I don't know how they come up with the measurement of how much room the average American man takes up, but I'm quite certain their averaging is off. By a lot. ) Uncle Chuck got quite a good laugh at us.

We also discovered their hummingbird traffic center. Chuck and Diane put out a hummingbird feeder outside the front porch where we could just sit and watch zip back and forth, sometimes so close you felt you could reach out and grab them. Funny little birds to watch. There were green ones, black and white ones, and one with a brillant red throat. Apparently the red throated one is very territorial; Chuck calls him the "bully bird". It was an appropriate nickname too - he hovered constantly and would chase anyone else away, zooming and diving at any approaching intruder.

My favorite part was coming back through the mountain passes. Having grown up in Utah, it seemed like mountains were just a natural thing to have in the background. But Farmington, New Mexico, has things call Buttes and Plateaus. (I laughed when Bobby pointed out a "canyon" nearby his house - please! that thing was nothing.) I'm learning to like them, but I'm essentially a moutain girl at heart. Driving back through the tall trees, seeing all the different kinds of flowers, watching a little rainfall, peering at sheer rock faces and brilliant waterfalls and smelling clean air was pure heaven. And so I dream of facing the mountains once more.