Our June in 30 seconds

We pause for a break in the vacation blogging to share the One Second video from our month of June. I'll be back for more vacation fun tomorrow!

Vacation 2020: Durango Train Ride

Back in the days when Tyler was train crazy, I had heard about the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. When I started planning this trip and decided to spend a couple days in Durango, I knew that the train was the one thing we'd want to do. Given the situation with Covid, I wasn't sure it'd be running, but it ended up opening back up just a week before our visit. The usual ride is actually about 3.5 hours from Durango up to Silverton, you get a couple hours in Silverton to explore, and then you ride the train for another 3.5 hours home. That is a long day on a train. Fortunately, they also have a 2 hour ride to Cascade Canyon, and it's actually the only ride their running right now. We booked our tickets on the steam train to Cascade Canyon (there was also an option to ride on a diesel train). I booked the gondola car so we were on the outdoor car instead of the enclosed car to allow for more Covid safety. They filled the cars with only 20 people in each, which was less than half of what they'd normally seat. Most everyone was wearing masks on the train as well, which was reassuring. 

There's not much story to these pictures, just absolutely beautiful scenery. The train went out and back, so whatever was visible out the right side of the train on the way there would be on left side on the way back. Most of the ride followed the Animas river, and the narrow gauge part of this ride was clear very obvious! At some points in the ride, we could reach out and touch the rocks on the canyon walls.

These photos are a little out of order, as this was our view towards the end of the ride, but it's one of my favorite photos from the day. The edge of the cliff was right there next to the edge of the tracks, and it was a long way down to the water! 

If the train loving 4 year old that used to be this kid could see himself 10 years later, he'd be pretty excited for this adventure. I'm not sure he felt the same thrill that he would have back then, but I hope there was still some part of that former passion that was reignited.  

The train stopped a few times for various maintenance issues and to fill on water. We weren't quite sure what was happening, but there are worse places to be stuck for awhile. 

Every once in awhile, the horn would blow and the steam would shoot out of the engine. I don't know ho many steam trains are still running, but I am pretty happy we had the chance to ride on one--espeically in such a beautiful place. 

It sort of looks like we're going to rob this train, doesn't it? It's notable how much more comfortable it is to wear a mask when it's not 100+ degrees. I didn't mind wearing this at all on this trip, but if I had to wear it for two or more hours in Phoenix, I'd be so sweaty. You definitely get used to it. 

I had to take this picture of Tyler on the tracks, just like those old days when we got so many great pictures of this kid by his trains. 

Just for old times sake, let's take a look at that little train loving boy and one of my all time favorite pictures circa 2009...wow, time flies. 

After our awesome train ride, we actually ate at our first restaurant since March, but social distancing was certainly not a problem. Take a look! This place was called James Ranch, and it was between the train station and Durango. It's a "farm to table" restaurant where everything is grown on the farm or locally sourced. It was such a beautiful setting for our first restaurant experience in months. The food was good too!

This building is their restaurant with outdoor seating and a little store where you can buy fresh vegetables and other locally made items. 

Later that day, we explored a little more in downtown Durango and also walked around the train museum. For the longer train ride, it departs from the station in Durango, but we left from a station about 30 minutes outside of town. We didn't get a good picture of all of us together on the train ride today, but we managed to get one at the station instead. 

I wanted to get some coffee, but the kids were done walking around. Our hotel was close enough to downtown that we sent the kids back there and Dave and I wandered around for a little while longer. One thing that this area did is close off a late of traffic in each direction to allow for more outside seating by the restaurants. On the walk back after our coffee excursion, we found a Mexican restaurant with a huge open window and seating practically outside (and it was empty). It was happy hour so we stopped in and had a beer or two before ordering tacos to take home to the kids. Ah, the beauty of vacationing with older children! 

Our date night wasn't over after happy hour! We took the One Wheels out for a little ride just before sunset. The path was so nice, and the views by the river were beautiful. One of the things we bought when we were downtown was my own helmet! We figured I'd be buying one eventually, and decided it was better to support the local skate shop in downtown Durango rather than order on Amazon. 

Our first full day of vacation was a hit! Durango is a really cool town and the train ride was a good adventure. We're heading out for Aspen in the morning. 

Vacation 2020: Headed to Durango

We got on the road around 6:30 am, with the car loaded up. Before the trip, Dave put a luggage rack on top of the car so we could use the car topper to haul some of our stuff. We packed the One Wheels, Ava's skateboard and our roller blades, some snacks in the cooler and we were off for an adventure. The trip went pretty quickly. We made it all the way to Gallup, NM before we even stopped for a bathroom break. I guess that's one of the benefits of road tripping with older kids.  

I paid a little more than I normally would for a hotel room (when there are cheaper options), but I thought this Doubletree located right on the Animas River was worth it. There was a really nice paved trail that went for miles in each direction just outside of the hotel, and I just knew it'd be perfect for the One Wheels. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the river, and the hotel offered an option to check in and even get into our room using an app. 

Shortly after we got there, the guys went out for a "float" on their One Wheels and Ava and I went out on her skateboard. The path was so great for riding, and the scenery was just amazing. 

The weather was just about perfect too. We had brought some food with us from home so we had a little picnic outside of the hotel, next to the river before we headed out for our rides. There were quite a few people out and about, enjoying the day. 

After Dave and Tyler came back, I got to go out and ride a little bit with him. It's so fun!

Durango is a really cool city, and our hotel was walking distance from downtown. We walked into town a few times while we were there. We still want to try to avoid having dinner out in a restaurant, so we ordered a couple pizzas from a place downtown and brought them back to our hotel to eat. Walking around downtown it was great to see that more people were wearing masks than weren't--even outside on the sidewalk. It really make me feel more comfortable about being on vacation in a place where others took the responsibility to wear a mask--unlike in Phoenix where it doesn't seem to have caught on yet--hence the major Covid numbers. 

We enjoyed our pizzas on our balcony of the room (well, half in and half out because the balcony wasn't big enough), and then hung out in our room the rest of the night. We were even able to get a couple beers from the pizza place! What a great evening.

I think this is me trying to get my newly 14 year old son to take a nice picture with me. Check out that view behind us--Colorado is so beautiful. 

First day of vacation has been pretty great! We are loving Colorado and we love this birthday boy. Happy 14th birthday Tyler, let's have a great vacation. 

Tyler's last night of 13

Because of when Tyler's birthday falls on the calendar, we tend to be traveling over his birthday more years than not. Usually, we're in North Dakota, but this year we're heading to Colorado! When I was planning this trip, I asked him if he minded spending part of his day in the car again, but he didn't care. We're going to leave early tomorrow morning for Durango, which is about 7 hours away. 

We asked Tyler what he wanted for his birthday, but he was a little hesitant to give us a list. Every time I asked he said "you guys just bought me a One Wheel." So instead, he got light bulbs! What 14 year old kid would want light bulbs? This one--especially because they're "smart" bulbs. He can say "ok google, turn my lights red." He bought a set for himself and these are from Ava, and he plans to use them for his movies. 

It's hard to believe our first born is 14 years old tomorrow. He's such a cool kid, and we're super proud of all of the things he has learned. He's determined and passionate, and he does when he needs to do to get better at his craft. He is always learning! We are confident that he will do some amazing things in his life. I hope you enjoy your birthday vacation in Colorado! We love you Tyler D!

Ava's new trick

We might have our own little circus act here! I can fly and catch, Ava can balance on a giant ball. I'm not sure what the boys can do, but we have some time to figure it out. *To be clear, there were a few pillows around the ball to make sure she didn't crash, but she did a great job balancing! We're heading out on vacation on Monday, so this weekend is full of laundry, packing, and planning for our big trip! I'm excited to get out of this crazy hot, Covid hotspot for a week. Colorado, here we come!

Huge trapeze first--Cut Half catch!

Today is our last day with Coach Brian, who has been in town for the last 3 weeks. Last night, one of our friends who doesn't fly with us too often was there, and she had me "hang for" her cutaway half. This means that I do the calls and go through the motions like I'm going to catch it, but we don't actually plan to make the catch. We lined up really nicely, and we realized that we could actually catch it! We decided we'd try again tonight, and actually go for it this time. It's kind of surprising because Ashley has never really thrown me anything. Usually when she's there, she's working on her own things with Brian and isn't really there to do any catching. She threw me some tricks in lines when I first started catching, but it's been a long time. The first one tonight was a timer, the second one I grabbed but dropped her, the third I was chickened out from dropping her so I didn't take it even though it lined up perfectly. We decided to try for it one last time and I caught her! I am seriously in SHOCK that I caught a cutaway half out of lines. She even said that she never gets this high in the apron with any of the guys, and she was kicking herself that she didn't turn to grab the return bar. It was right there, and she could have totally returned this trick. I am beyond excited, and still kind of can't believe it happened. Take a look, and on the second time you watch it, keep an eye on Brian after the catch. He was jumping around with excitement, but also frustration that she didn't turn for the return bar. 

There were a few other great catches too. I just started catching Jan's seats off, and Ashley has been working hard to get her returns back in shape. Not to brag or anything, but most of the team tell me that I'm their favorite catcher. They feel comfortable with my catches, plus they get good returns off of me. That is definitely a boost for my confidence, and catching tricks like this cutaway half really make me feel good about my catching skills. I've had a great couple weeks of catching and feel so fortunate to get good coaching from Brian. I know I wouldn't be where I am without him. 

We were treated to some beautiful sunsets this week, but tonights was probably the best. It was a great end to 3 productive weeks of training with our coach.

My trapeze besties!

Celebrating our exciting catch with our Coach Brian. I'm so excited that Ashley trusted me to grab her cut half tonight. I really do have a feeling of shock that it happened. I hope I can snag it again sometime soon, and next time, we'll get that return too. Remember, low swing and call it just past poles--keep the swing up and go up for her. That doesn't mean anything to any of my readers, but that's my reminder on how to catch that again next time. 

We're heading out on vacation in a few days, so this will probably be my last night of flying for a little while. I would have to say that this is a pretty great night to end on. I'm heading into vacation on a serious trapeze high!

Back to MCC RM!

I mentioned last week that I got to go to MCC to help hand out graduation yard signs. We decided to schedule a time to hand out signs at the Red Mountain campus too, so I actually got to GO to my work place today. I have not been to my office since March 17, over three months ago! It's crazy to think that so much time has passed. I honestly didn't even care if anyone came to pick up a sign today--I just wanted an excuse to go there, and to hopefully see a few of my friends. I knew Cara was planning to join me, but I was thrilled to see a few other faces too. One of my student workers stopped by to bring her sister (who works for Campus Safety) Starbucks and to visit us. Here is a picture of me, Cara, and Shaina with our graduation signs and masks. I can't even begin to tell you how great it was to be back here with these people!

It was crazy to see how everything is frozen in time, just the way we let it when we all left so suddenly back in March. This is the bulletin board that is outside of our Saguaro building, filled with flyers and the campus newsletter from March. There's a flyer advertising the dates of the food distributions and other events that never happened. It's so sad to think of all the things we missed out on this year, and that we have no idea when we'll go back to some version of the new future at this place. 

I really was all smiles being back, even though it was only for a couple hours. When you go to a place 5 days a week for over 12 years, and then you suddenly don't get to go anymore, it's quite a treat to go back. I was so excited to simply be here, and seeing at least a few faces made it even better. 

There are a few people still working on campus, so we got to catch up with a few folks. We have quite a collection of animals on campus, so the staff that care for them get to go to work everyday. We visited with two of them for awhile (Paula and Blitzen), and they told us how strange it is to be some of the only people on campus. We also saw a few Public Safety people and two of the maintenance guys, and they also talked about how odd it has been and how much they miss having people around. They seemed pretty surprised when they saw us there! Ariana is a former student work of mine who is just got hired in a different department right before we all left in March. I told her we'd be there today, so she stopped to visit. She's also helping to take care of our campus/community garden, so she's been spending a little time there. It was so fun to see her too! 

We only had a handful of cars stop by to pickup their signs, but like I said, it wasn't a big concern of mine. 

Here is Syd from Campus Safety and her sister Shaina (who works in my office). Syd graduates in May so she got her sign and we did a makeshift graduation for her using her sign. It was pretty funny! This is what graduation has turned into for 2020. Congrats Syd!

We kept our distance, but enjoyed the time we had together. Working from home has a few advantages, but I sure wish it would be safe to go back to work sometime soon. I miss the routine of getting up and leaving my house every morning, spending my day with colleagues and friends, and returning home at the end of the day to see my family. I am grateful to work for an organization that has provided stability and looked out for our safety during these unprecedented times, and I'm also grateful to work for a place that I can miss so much when I'm not there. The day will eventually come that I get to go back and see these people every day, and I look forward to that time. Right now, we don't know when that will be, but I sure am grateful for today. 

Once we were done with the advertised sign distribution time, we headed up to our office to see how it looked. The last time I was in my office was March 17, and I wasn't sure what sort of condition it would be in after 3 months away. I was glad to see that it looked exactly like it did when I left. When we left, we cleaned out the fridge, tossed some of the plants (Cara's were a little dead), and made sure we didn't leave a mess. It looked so lonely in there!

My office missed me, I can tell. 

One of the things I was regretting was that I didn't bring this calendar home! I made one of these for George and Jan for Christmas, and bought a second copy for myself. I've missed out on 3 months of photos while it's been hanging all alone in my office. You better believe I took it home with me so I don't miss all of 2020. Here it is, sitting on March just like everything else on campus. 

Our friend Charles from Public Safety usually works on Wednesdays, but he had worked a shift for someone else and had today off. When he found out we were going to be there, he and his daughter Rowyn came to visit us. Cara is her "best friend," so she always likes to come visit us in our office. Charles and I have worked together for something like 10 years, and he hangs out and chats in my office for a little while most days that he works. It's little things like that that I miss so much! I had a meeting that I needed to get home for, but I was so tempted to just do it from my office. I definitely could have, but decided to head home. I saw that we had some containers of ice cream and cookies in our freezer that were left over from events in February and March, so I decided to bring those home with me. No reason for them to go bad during all these months away! I was so glad for these 3 hours that I got to spend at work. It's really crazy to imagine how long we've all been gone. I wonder what it'll be like to look back on this crazy time in our life many years from now. We are definitely living through a crazy time in our history. Let's hope we can get back to some version of normal sometime soon.