Show and Tell (and educational even!)

I was not so sure about this camping trip.

I haven’t been camping without dh since… hmmmm, well, since I was a kid and went camping with my family I guess. It’s sort of his gig. It isn’t something that I would’ve dreamed up, but you see, I have this friend. And she wanted to go camping, and her husband is gone too. She had a reservation, and she told me she was going with or without me, and did I want to come? I was very impressed that she would even attempt such a feat, and so somehow I agreed to go.

It. was. awesome.

We camped at the newest national park, Great Sand Dunes. It is one of the most unexpected sights, you are driving through this desolate valley until you suddenly can see the Sangre de Cristo mountains, with these sand mountains at their base.

Once upon a time, there was a great lake that covered this valley. It eventually disappeared, due to changing climate, leaving a huge sheet of sand behind. Due to the unique nature of this valley and the winds that blow in opposing directions, over time the sand formed incredible vertical structures.

Even more interesting, each year two streams created from the melting snows in the mountains run through the valley, bringing sand back to the dunes before disappearing in the summer heat.

It felt great to splash around in the stream (and that’s the dutchkid in the corner there in her swimsuit) after that long hot hike to the top of the dunes.

In the end I was only sorry that we couldn’t stay longer. I really owe my friend for getting me outside of my normal idea of, “things I can do” and introducing us to what really is the only beach in Colorado!

For more info on the Great Sand Dunes National Park, including a cool animated video on how they were formed, you can go here.

(and K, I bet you didn’t think you were going to make the blog did you Thank you.)

Fun at the fair

this post is a bit picture heavy, if that matters to any of you

I love the fair. I’m not sure why. I definitely don’t love the crowds, but if I get a chance to go, I usually try to. This year was fun because it’s the first one where the dutchkid was really aware and excited about it.

The 4H kids might be my very favorite part.  We just finished Charlotte’s Web too, how perfect was that? We kept on talking about how Mrs. Zuckerman washed Wilbur with buttermilk to make him pretty. We saw lots of pretty pigs.

You could even milk a cow, which cracked me up. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but my brothers and sister had jobs milking. What city slickers will find entertaining.

Then there was this bad boy, you should have heard the dutchkid plead to ride on it.

She wasn’t even scared!

Of course funnel cake was near the top of my list. Oh, come on now, I only eat one once a year. We ended up wearing our powdered sugar, though, it was so windy.

I’m pretty sure a good time was had by all (except maybe dh, who was not so enthused about being the responsible party on the ferris wheel. How was I supposed to know he hadn’t ever ridden one before?).

Goodbye fair, see you next year!

The long view

We are getting ready for our “vacation”…which it isn’t really, as much as it is a flurry of flying, driving and saying goodbyes. This is dh’s block leave, and while we still do have some time before the deployment begins I am feeling suddenly like I can see the summer slipping away before it’s even begun.

I think I will be able to blog while we are away, although it may be more of an issue of time than internet access, just so you know. But I am going to see my in-laws, which always gives me something to write about!

I hope to come back with lots of photos, and the Holga and film are travelling with me. After getting this last roll of film developed I think I need to get it out more. The picture above was taken in late May and the view is from the Shrine of Sun (which ABW and I ran to the top of not too long ago). The view is pretty spectacular, although slightly more enjoyable after you’ve ridden up there in a car as opposed to hoofing it.

Have a good rest of your week, and I’ll see you when I see you.

Making my heart sing

She managed to send an entire display of watermelons cascading onto the floor at the commissary today. That most definitely did not make my heart sing.

But this? Oh yeah. Watermelons forgiven.

It has taken her a long time to come around to the piano. She would probably prefer it to be called, “The dreadful loud thing that takes up a lot of my Mama’s time”. As a baby and toddler, she would cry when she heard it… at the time I was a church pianist and piano teacher and she equated the sound with being taken away from me. Now most of the time she’s sort of indifferent. It broke my heart, as I had always hoped that she would be comforted by the music, not tortured. My nephew by contrast has always loved the sound of my brother singing and playing… it always made me jealous.

It’s nice to know now that she is taking it in on some level. She loves to sing with the children’s choir and is a complete ham on stage. She has my love for cheesy 80′s music and I’ve been happy to introduce her to “Major Tom” and Men at Work. She also likes Beyonce and Black Eyed Peas (hey, we’re an equal opportunity household, here). Even better, she easily recognizes bits and pieces of music that are familiar. For example, she will often point out a classical song on a TV show/movie that I either play, or that we’ve listened to.

I’ve tried not to push her toward the piano at all. I know that I will be proud of her even if she decides that music doesn’t interest her in the least.

But I can hope, can’t I?

Promises, promises

Dh promised her a few weeks ago that if she picked 50 dandelions from our yard he would get her cotton candy the next time we visited the zoo (don’t ask me why the 50 dandelions, who can know how that man’s mind works). You have never seen such a determined dandelion picker in your life. We went to the zoo Saturday after the weather cleared up a bit.

Hope you had a great weekend, Monday came entirely too soon for my taste. Thankfully I have a brief reprieve from concerts this week, which gives me just enough time to write my music composition final project. It’s much the same as last semester, only this time I can’t just write it in 4 part choral style I have to write it for several different instruments. It’s only 16 measures, but you would think it were a symphony judging by how I slave over it. A composer I am not. The end is in sight though!

Hocus Pocus

I was just grousing the other day on someone else’s blog, ahem, how it was not fair that she had flowers in her yard. But then we had a burst of beautiful weather and mine finally decided to make an appearance! woo-hoo!

The dutchkid actually wore flip flops yesterday, and declared that it must be summer.

I am keeping all cynical thoughts to myself.

A beautiful reminder

Huh. Yeah, not really sure why I complain about winter here. Took a run around the lake yesterday, and oh was it a beautiful day. Just what I needed to get me through until spring.

30 days of beauty

One of the blogs I read, Bluebirdbaby, had the brilliant idea for a photo project. Since I was just complaining about how I need to get my camera out, this seems like the kick in the pants I need. The idea? Between now and spring (not necessarily consecutively) capture 30 days of something beautiful. Perfect. Just the shift in focus I needed, because I tend to always look to the outdoors when I think of beauty. And honestly? While I live in what must be one of the most beautiful places on the planet, I am getting a little weary of snow. I may not always share the photos here, but you can always find them on my Flickr stream. Here’s to finding beauty in other places.

I bought this fabric months ago, but I like it so much I can’t bring myself to cut it (and for me, it was expensive). Yesterday, though, I got an idea to make something out of it that would involve using it in its entirety. We’ll see if I’m brave enough to go through with it.

Working on those (non)resolutions

It’s been fun for me to watch the growing number of people doing 365 projects this year. It has motivated me to at least try to get out the camera more often (as per my own sort-of-non-resolution). That’s one nice thing about Flickr, there’s lots of different project type things you can participate in if you so choose. So much inspiration there. Since I have some time yet before my classes start up, I was working on something yesterday:

This is a project where your photo must include certain elements. I like these projects, it reminds me of putting together a puzzle. The ones that this one involves are: soap, stone and square format. I’m sure I must have amused passersby blowing my bubbles out there, but the dutchkid and I had a blast. And it was COLD, I think the high temps yesterday were in the single digits. I’m not a fan of the cold, although I can put up with it (growing up in Michigan will do that for you at least). Michigan winters are so gloomy, though, so our here it always makes me thankful when I see that beautiful sunshine.

Have yourself…

a merry little Christmas. Wishing you the best and brightest of this lovely season.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to put the finishing touches on a last minute angel costume (it just wouldn’t be Christmas without last minute sewing, would it?)