just a quick cuddle before you go

I am not a cuddler…nor have I ever been a cuddler. Then I met Husband, and I became a cuddler, kinda. Husband is a human furnace. A human furnace that will sleep under all the covers, including a goose down comforter, when it is 95 degrees outside. If you were to walk into our bedroom on any given night you would find husband on his side of the bed burrito-ed in the covers, while on my side of the bed I have kicked off all of the covers and am going into heat stroke from the heat the man laying next to me is producing. Husband is also a member of the blanket police. It is like he has an internal alarm that goes off every time I kick my way out of the oppressive heat that is our shared bed. He senses that I am trying to drop my body temperature to that of a normal person and wakes up and pulls the blankets back up around my ears so he can continue cooking me like a Sunday roast. While I love falling asleep next to husband, I don’t like the fact that if I get too close to him that I will end up sweating as if I had just run 3 miles. So we came up with a compromise. Instead of falling asleep in each others arms, we fall asleep holding hands. I know…we’re cute right? Husband left for his deployment at 1 am this morning. We didn’t get a whole night together so after dinner we came home and climbed into bed and we cuddled. We only had a few hours and we spent those few hours wrapped around one another sleeping. I had never been more comfortable in my life.

home again, home again...

…Jiggity Jig! After 15 days, 9 states, and 4328 miles, we are finally home. Although we spent 5 days in El Paso and another 5 days in Denver, it felt as if we spent the entire 15 days in a vehicle. We were always on the go, doing this and that, meeting up with people. The driving to and fro was never ending. We had a very low key time in Denver. It was a week that was all about Husband. We made sure that he got to see the people that mean the most to him. We had dinner one night with his doubles volleyball partner and her fiancé, and another night he got to play with his sand volleyball team. He had a lot of fun that night. It also made his realize just how much he missed his life in Colorado. We got to experience typical spring time Colorado weather. March is typically Colorado’s snowiest month…and it did not disappoint. The last day we had some business to take care of in the morning and some happy hour action planned for the evening. We set out that morning in heavy snow fall with a nice side of fog. We were on our way home from our morning meeting when while going about 60 on the highway my engine quits. QUITS! I get pulled over to the side of the road and Husband and I sit there looking at each other. Never have I been more thankful for a cell phone with 3G service. I get started on finding a tow truck to pick us up is a snow storm and Husband starts calling nearby repair shops. Now while breaking down is not lucky, we were able to get a tow in under 45 minutes, which in a snow storm is lucky. He happened to be close by, otherwise it would have been a 6 hour wait. The bad news was that my fuel pump had gone out and it was looking like we were not going to be on the road at 6 am the next morning. The repair shop wanted to get us the truck back that night, but as the day progressed it became clear that just wasn't going to happen. Good news is that my winter driving skills are still intact and with the use of my mom's car I got us to happy hour on time. Also...I did some name dropping and was able to get a discount on the repairs. We got on the road 6 hours late, but managed to make good time and got home exactly when we thought we would. Don’t get me wrong, I love being on vacation, but I love coming home more. Man it is going to feel so good to sleep in our own bed tonight.

Carlsbad Caverns

I’m not gonna lie, when it was first suggested that we go to Carlsbad I was not all “WOOHOO let’s go to a cave”. I guess going into caves can be added to my list of irrational fears. Caves are dark, dank, and down right creepy. There are things in caves that could jump out of the darkness and onto to you. Really, what it is to keep a stalactite from dropping from the roof of the cave and impaling you…WHAT I ask you? But we went to the big cave anyway. When I say big cave I mean super giant, humongous, gargantuan cave. I knew it was big, I just didn’t know it was that BIG. And thank goodness it was so big…because this is one gal you are not going to find spelunking. As we enter this HUGE cave, I cannot help but to wonder aloud about the odds of the ceiling falling down on us. Husband looked at me (I am guessing he looked at me as it was very dark) and said that maybe I should not be thinking like that…and while I was at it maybe I should keep my irrational fears to myself…and hows about I busy myself with snapping photos instead of trying to freak myself out. So I snapped some photos. Well what I actually did was point my camera into the darkness and hoped I would get something worth looking at. After playing with settings and shutter speed I got a lot of dark blurry images. I also got a few really cool ones too. I loved all textures and how alive the cave felt. I have never been someplace that felt so other worldly. It was truly amazing. All in all I was very happy with our cave excursion. I want to thank my in-laws for taking us up there. If I ever get the chance to go back I need to remember to bring a tripod, a shoe-mount flash, and maybe a macro lens. That’s not too much extra to carry a mile down into the ground is it? If the mood strikes, you can look at some of the other images I took here.

Bucket

This handsome devil is named Bucket. He is a very sweet boy.

four corners

I lived in Colorado for roughly 30 years. I took for granted the fact that I lived in a state that had so many beautiful places to go and things to do. Take for instance Mesa Verde, The Great Sand Dunes, and Four Corners. I had always wanted to go but never managed to make it to any of those places. Well on our third and final day of driving Husband and I figured we could tick Four Corners off our list as it was sorta on our way south. Now if you are not familiar with what the Four Corners area is then I am betting you failed basic US geography. Anyway…Four Corners is a geographic survey point where the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico come together. It is a popular stop for tourist because it is the only place in the United States that you can stand in four states at the same time. I am a little excited because I love cheesy tourist traps. So I drive up the hill, make the right turn, and this is what we see… Ummmmm…Yeah…Maybe next time. So we weren't able to stand in four states at one time. As a consolation prize the road we were in took us into and out of each of those four states in less than 20 minutes.

Arches

Whenever I think about Arches National Park I think of fiery orange rocks against blue-er than blue skies…and those where the type of images I wanted capture. Needless to say I was bummed when I woke up to gray skies and rain on day two of our road trip. But you never know…the sun could come out. We took our time and got on the road at around 8:30 am. The drive to Moab is only about 180 miles. After the marathon day of driving we had the day before it was nice to not be pressed for time. We headed south on Highway 6 and straight into a snow storm. Grumble. Living in Washington I have gotten used to shooting the grayness of rain clouds. Snow is a whole nother animal. But like I said the sun could come out…maybe. And you know what? It did! WOOHOO!!! I was going to get the fiery orange rocks and the blue-er than blue skies. But you know how clouds can be…they are sneaky sons of bitches and creep in when you least expect them. As in Colorado the saying “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes” also holds true in Utah. The further we went into the park the more the weather changed. You turn to the north you get one thing, and the south another. After 4 hours of hiking around through deep mud and snow we decided to call it a day. I was happy with the images I had shot and was in need of a beer. On our way out of the park good ol’ Mother Nature gave us one last photo op… If interested you can take a look at some of my favorite images here

Sneak Peak...Moab

We went to Moab on our way to Texas. I have some editing to do on the images I shot but thought I would give you a quick preview. I call it "Moab gives you the finger". Enjoy!

drive, drive, and drive some more

We left the house at 4:50 this morning for the first leg of our road trip south. We had a reservation at a hotel in Orem, Utah…a mere 900 miles from our starting point. We drove though parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah that I had never been to before. There were so many things that I saw in the quick glimpse I got as we sped by at 80 mph that I wanted to stop and take pictures of. Mostly old barns…I really have a thing for old barns. While Husband supports me getting back into photography, he really does not have the patience for me getting back into photography while we are trying to drive 900 miles in a reasonable amount of time. So only one photo was taken today and it was taken by Husband as he does not like me snapping photos while driving…go figure. This image was captured just west of the Cascades at about 6:45 this morning. Not too shabby for being taken through a cracked windshield of a vehicle traveling a tad over the posted speed limit. We did end up getting to the hotel in a reasonable amount of time, 15 hours. That includes stopping for gas, food, and at 6 different rest stops (we drink way too much water for people on a road trip). Tomorrow is an easy drive day. We are going to Moab and Arches National Park. The weather is supposed to be crappy but I am still very excited! Side note: After a year of driving in Washington, I cannot tell you how nice it was to be driving in the Rocky Mountains again…you know where driving at or above the speed limit and tailgating is not only the norm but is practically expected. Ahhhh…it is good to be heading home.

early signs of spring

I am loving the trees up here right now. It seems with the mild weather that spring has come early. Everywhere you look you see the soft pinks and whites of cherry and plum blossoms. I went for a walk this afternoon and it was like walking in a fairytale with all the petals delicately floating down around me. There are so many things that flower up here this time of year. I hope that with our upcoming trip that everything will still be in bloom when we get back.