Thankful Thursday

Slacking on my blogging. :P Just feels like there's less to record with sons off doing their own thing. In any case, here's my list of things I'm thankful for today...

1. Micah's social life. So happy that Micah's thriving down in Boulder and enjoying his roommates, teammates, classmates, and friends. Here's a picture he sent me of him and his roommates earlier this month when it snowed...

They named the snowman Dexter apparently. :) He was made down the street from their house, at a nearby park. (Incidentally, we decided to let Micah take a car to have in Boulder shortly after this. He didn't have a car in his first year at CU Boulder; parking on campus just didn't make sense. Now that he has a place to park at his rental house, though, having the option to drive occasionally and stay warmer seems good. We're hoping he stays healthier as a result. When he picked up the car, he also remembered to take his winter coat and gear, lol.)

2. Asher's social life. Similarly, I'm so happy that Asher has found friends at UNC. He's been spending time with his taekwondo clubmates, fellow PE students (both in classes and through the PE Club), the lightsaber group that occasionally has organized battles, and even his roommates. Last weekend, he and four of his clubmates competed at a local tournament...

Overall, they did better than last year at the same tournament and had a great time together. Asher chose not to compete in all the events, just focusing on the board breaking. 

3. Nathan's new job. I don't know that I've actually mentioned it here, but Nathan started a new job back in October. He's now working at August Health, still doing software engineering/programming. His day to day life is fairly similar (still working from home) but he likes this new company's leadership and team better. He's been both appreciating and battling the challenge of learning new systems. Overall, it's been a good move, resulting in a better work/life balance and a happier Nathan. Thankful.  

(I'm very thankful, too, that we continue to have good medical insurance. I'm less thrilled at the hours I've already spent transitioning things over...still working on getting Micah's monthly prescription filled and learning the new procedures and figuring out what's in network, specifically in the two boys' college towns. Bleh.)

4. Fall clean up. With our gloriously longer and beautiful fall, we had to wait a bit before we could tackle fall clean up in our yard this year. Last weekend, we were finally able to clear the gutters (using the leaf blower), trim back foliage, mulch, mow, etc. 

By the time we'd finished the front yard, our yard waste container was full so we opted to wait on the back yard. Plus, our neighbor's tree along our back yard fence hadn't gotten the message that it was fall yet so was still full of leaves. I'm thankful that our big winds on Tuesday took care of that for us, so now our back yard clean up will be able to proceed this coming weekend. It'll be nice to have that done. (Also, that will be the last opportunity to use the yard waste container for the season anyhow.)

So. That's my list for now. Incredibly thankful for a great many more things but turning my attention, for the time being, to figuring out next week, lol. Safe travels to any of you who will be traveling for Thanksgiving and warm thoughts to all!

Twenty Four

Yesterday, my Noah turned 24. Yup. That happened.

We didn't do much to celebrate...just managed some photos and filling out our ballots and enjoying a birthday lunch before Micah had to head back to Boulder for work. Noah, Asher and I then also got some birthday ice cream and dropped off all our ballots, and Noah went out for drinks in the evening with friends. 

Here's my birthday guy...

For his birthday, Micah got Noah a new sweater (that matched his own), lol...

And they proceeded to make an Asher sandwich...

...but did finally cooperate for at least one decent photo of the three of them...

Not much else to report. Since last year's birthday, Noah bought himself a car and got a promotion at work and has been doing more stargazing and photography. All good things. :)

Happy birthday to Noah!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Halloween, y'all! No big goings-on here. The guy across the street has gone crazy with inflatables again. Asher and Micah are busy with college. Noah wore a costume to work today. That's pretty much it. :)

Today's Thankful Thursday is just one main thing. Today, I'm just very appreciative for fall...and fall leaves. I love fall. And every year, I try to take fall leaves pictures with the boys. (I started gathering them all in one place but haven't finished yet.) This year, though, we haven't all been in the same place while the leaves have been fall-y. So. I tasked everyone with taking his own photo, and this is what I got...

Asher climbed a very tall tree here in town while OneWheeling with a friend. Noah took his shot while hiking to a lake on Longs Peak. Micah finally got some fall color down in Boulder last week. (His photo is taken just across the street from one of his jobs.) And Nathan and I found fall colors in Wind Cave National Park at the start of the month and in our neighborhood park recently. 

So thankful for the beauty of fall...and for the fact that this year's season has lasted as long as it has here. (It's been gorgeous all of October! Some years the fall colors have only lasted days or a week, so this is fabulously appreciated.) 

Okay, that's it. Super thankful. Giving out full sized candy tonight so that I'm not as tempted by little snack size candies. Happy day, everyone!

Thankful Thursday

A quick and random list today...

1. Friends. Last month, I got together with Melissa & Molly to celebrate a milestone birthday for Melissa. We caught up and shopped and ate and just enjoyed being together.

I've known these women for more than 30 years and am so very blessed to have them in my life and so tremendously thankful that they both also live in Colorado so we can see each other at least some. 

2. Checking things off the list. After Nathan and I returned from South Dakota, we got to scratch two more national parks off our list:

Making progress but still have a good ways to go. :) (To be honest, we realize it's unlikely we'll finish this particular list but like having the goal regardless.)

3. My office. In case you're wondering, I'm really enjoying my reorganized office. :) The standing desk is working out well and I'm so appreciative of the decreased clutter. It's like a breath of fresh air.

4. Dragon & squirrel friendships. In cleaning out my office, Nathan decided this metal dragon deserved relocation and has been using it to play with the squirrels. Initially, it freaked them out a bit (which was hilarious). But, they've adopted him into their community and are even willing to "kiss" him when Nathan sticks a walnut in his mouth, lol.

It's the little things. ;) 

5. Furnace motor. You may remember that our AC went out back in July. We were slated to be able to finish the fix properly with the new motor that was back-ordered until the end of August. But. When I called about that, it turned out that the date had been pushed to November. So the fabulous tech (Jason Lynn at FC Heating & Air) came out again and wired it to make sure we'd be able to also temporarily have heat while we waited. But. It turns out that didn't work...and when we called about that, the motor date had been pushed to January or February. So, Jason was a rock star and called around until he found a fellow tech who happened to have the actual motor we needed (still new in box) in his basement at home. And on Tuesday he brought it out and installed it and now our AC/heat is working properly again and it's lovely. So thankful for Jason and for a system that works!

And that's my list for today. :) 

Badlands & more

Last night, Nathan and I got home from a quick trip to South Dakota. It was a fun and quick little road trip to add more national parks to our list.

We started out on Wednesday morning and drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Devil's Tower was the country's first National Monument and was pretty impressive. We did the short trail around the tower...enjoying the massive boulder field, the prayer flags/fabric strips, and the amazing geologic formations. We saw climbers in the distance and wondered about what must have been a massive wind storm that had snapped many trees recently. (We'd have asked a ranger but couldn't find one while we were there.)

From there, we drove into Rapid City, SD, found our AirBNB, and walked a couple blocks to a great brew pub where we ate way too much. Seriously. It was delicious but just too much.

Thursday morning, we enjoyed the wonderful coffee shop literally on the other side of the building from our AirBNB then set out for the South Dakota Air & Space Museum, which was an unexpected surprise that we discovered on a billboard while driving into Rapid City. We didn't take many photos but enjoyed their extensive collection...

From there, we continued on to Badlands National Park. We were sad to discover that the Notch Trail was closed (for our protection?) but went ahead and hiked a portion of the Castle Trail before continuing on to lunch at the Cedar Pass Lodge Restaurant (we recommend the Famous Indian Tacos on fry bread), some time learning at the visitors center and then some more wandering in the park.

Mid-afternoon, we ventured out of the park to Wall Drug, where Nathan tried their famous 5 cent coffee (it was not to his standards, lol). We browsed a bit before heading back into the park. (We'd actually been to Wall Drug when we moved from Washington to North Carolina back in 1998. It hadn't changed much, lol, but we appreciated all of their many roadside signs for miles and miles.) 

Throughout the day, I joked that I needed to get pictures of all three boys' college mascots...ram (for Noah and CSU), bear (for Asher and UNC) and buffalo (for Micah and CU Boulder). We saw actual buffalo and rams but had to settle for a stuffed bear at Wall Drug. :) We did see plenty of prairie dogs (which we decided to dub the "bears of the rodent kingdom" or "dirt bears"), lol. Does that count? And. On Wednesday, at one of our stops for gas, Nathan found a toy T-Rex that I adopted and brought along on our travels. 

After sunset, we got dinner in Wall, SD (at the Salty Steer) then drove back to our AirBNB in Rapid City.

Friday morning we checked out of our fabulous AirBNB (top three photos below) and hit our favored coffee shop, Harriet & Oak (bottom photo below). 

We took a scenic drive through Custer State Park and stopped in Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, the cave tours aren't going right now (which I knew in advance--they're replacing the elevators) so we hit the visitors center exhibits, saw a natural entrance to the caves and did the Cold Brook Canyon hike.

The hike was lovely. We appreciated the utter quiet and having the trail entirely to ourselves...aside from the plentiful prairie dogs and the bison waiting for us at our car when we got back. (The antelope photo was from inside Custer State Park.) We were also quite impressed by the information we read at the visitors center and may have to make a repeat visit to actually do a cave tour in the future.

(Side note to say that we've been to Mt Rushmore years ago with the boys and years before that while we were moving cross-country, so we didn't bother stopping there on this trip. We'd also opted to tour Jewel Cave with the boys on that trip but hadn't been to Wind Cave (my guess is that we chose Jewel Cave due to maybe a shorter tour, more appropriate for the boys' ages at the time).)

We then drove into Hot Springs, SD and had a late lunch at Two Cows Creamery before getting on the road for home. Along the way, we stopped for Nathan's afternoon coffee (at a coffee shop in Chadron, NE that was apparently "out" of coffee, lol) and made an attempt to see Scotts Bluff National Monument. We knew the visitors center would be closed by the time we got there but thought maybe we'd still be able to drive the loop. Nope. We settled for this photo...

From there, we stopped for dinner in Kimball, NE and made it home finally around 9pm. Whew. 

So, that was our quick trip. It was lovely.