Ready for the Holidays

We finally got our tree up in the living room. Only found one box of decorations and it wasn't the "best" ornaments. Nor was the treetop in it or our stockings. So Rick got a new topper on his way home from Grand Junction and we did our best.

But it came out beautiful anyway. Can't wait for the garage to be finished so we can unload the storage units and find all the "missing" things.

This is a small ceramic tree that belonged to Eileen's parents. We never saw it at their place but were lucky enough to receive it after they were gone. It really adds to our holiday to have this small rememberance of them. We know Mom Tenney really treasured it as she took it with her after Dad died. The small pots were also Mom and Dad Tenney's. They had been a gift to them from Scott and Cara. They were then given to us from Scott and Cara has a house warming gift when they came to see us. We doubly treasure them.

This is a pot Rick bought Eileen for her birthday (Dec 22). It proudly sits on top of the linen closet in the hallway.

This is our newest and most prized possession. Reid and Melissa sent Eileen a gift certificate for her birthday/Christmas gift to her favorite store here in Moab. We have been admiring this piece of art ever since we moved here but felt we just couldn't afford it. But with the gift from Reid and Melissa and a gift card from Rick's work, we treated ourselves to this for our Christmas (plus it was 20% off). It now hangs in our family room where we spend most of our time. We can not thank Reid and Melissa enough for starting the process of our getting this!

More Snow in Castle Valley This Morning

This morning (Friday) Rocky and I woke up to a couple more inches of snow here in lovely Castle Valley. Rick had to fly to New Orleans yesterday for work, but at least he got to fly out of Grand Junction, Co. this time. He'll be back Sunday evening. The valley looks like a winter wonderland right now. Not a lot of sun coming through, but a little and it is just beautiful.
Castle Rock has the most snow on it so far this year! It is so picturesque.
As you can see, the garage is still not finished, but Porcupine Rim behind us looks wonderful anyway.
At the end of the valley, the clouds are still hanging around. That's why not much sun. Don't know if we will see much of it today or not. We are suppose to get to about 34 degrees today. (Or at least Moab is.)
And yes Ashley, as you can see, Rocky does like to eat the snow!

I was sweeping the steps and porch and he stood there and tried to catch the snow I swept. So he just got covered with it. Of course, he also likes to chase the broom.

Pictures From Our Front Porch

Here are some pictures I took today from our front porch. It snowed yesterday and today there were some nice clouds hanging around.

This is a picture of the La Sal Mountains with Round Mountain in the foreground.
These are the cliffs just to the right of Castle Rock bathed in the late afternoon sun light.
From left to right the Priest and Nuns and the Rectory and Castle Rock. I liked the clouds hanging around to rocks.

Snow in Castle Valley

Sunday morning we woke up to our second skiff of snow here in Castle Valley. But this time, we got in the FJ and drove up the LaSal Loop Road to an overlook and took some more pictures. As we drove, we saw more and more snow. Soon the the road was covered and we made fresh tracks in it. It was really beautiful.
Here is the FJ parked at the overlook we stopped at. This was as far as we went.
Looking down into Castle Valley from the overlook.

As you can see, there was a lot more snow there (2-3 inches) compared to our skiff at home.

However, it started snowing Tues. morning and we ended up with a couple of inches at our home. Wed. we had a neighbor show up with a little plow and he plowed our driveway and a path to the front door. He was driving out before we knew he was there so don't even know who it was. But what a pleasant surprise!

Canyonlands - Island In The Sky

Sunday, we decided to take a drive to Canyonlands. This was just a scenic drive not 4-wheeling trip so took the car. The weather was pleasant. In the sun you could actually be in your shirt sleeves but in the shade you really needed your jacket. Before you get into the park, you come to these rock formations called the Monitor and the Merrimac named after the Civil War ships. We spent some time here as there are several great and different rock formations as you can see in the photo.
This was also taken at the site of the Monitor and the Merrimac. We were really facinated by the swirls in the rock.
Once in the Park, you can see we found more snow again. This is looking out from a viewpoint. Thankfully, the roads were clear and dry. But the views were really impressive.
This is known as Candlestick Tower. It reminds us a lot of our own Castle Rock.
On our way out, we came upon this local panhandler walking down the middle of the road begging. We stopped, took his picture, but didn't give him anything.

Gemini Bridges

Since we don't do the Friday after Thanksgiving shopping thing we had decided to go 4-wheeling. But, we woke up to a skiff of snow on the ground with more falling so decided not to go. The snow was gone by noon but put our trip off until Sat. It was cold but beautiful. We drove to Gemini Bridges. The had more snow than we did (but then so did Moab, they had 2-3 inches). The drive wasn't too bad, one of the easier 4-wheel drives and the a short walk to the bridges.
We are above, looking down. You can go to the lower portion which at some time I'm sure we will do. It was fun trying to take pictures in shadows with bright sun and snow.
Here you can see Rick between the two bridges.

And this is what he was shooting. We really had a fun time. And to top it off, we found a tripod in the parking lot when we left!

Rick's Trip to Florida

On Thurs. Nov. 8, Rick had to fly to Florida for a Users Group meeting for his work. It lasted thru Sunday. He decided to take Monday and go to the Kennedy Space Center. Rick, Reid and Eileen had been there in Oct. 2000. We had been in Florida for the AKA National Convention and had taken a day to go and had really enjoyed it. One of Rick's loves is the space program so he was thrilled with the opportunity to go again. He said later it would have been more fun if Eileen had been able to be with him but with work still being done on the house and garage, no one to take care of Rocky, and a furniture delivery, she just wasn't able to. But he had a great time anyway. He was one of the last to leave at closing that day.

Rick took the expanded tour thru the Center back to some of the closed off areas. The launch pad where the astronauts of Apollo 1 died is such a somber place. You can walk around the launch pad and it is really an awesome feeling.

Trip to Zion National Park

This past weekend we drove down to Zion National Park. It was absolutely spectactular. And yes, we took Rocky with us. He is only allowed in parking lots and on the Pa'rus Trail, but even he seemed to have a good time. There were no reds or oranges but the yellows were outstanding. Especially against the red walls. But all of it was great. We took close to 800 photos. So it took most of yesterday just to download them onto the computer. And then to narrow it down to 5 for this blog was another job unto itself. We took the shuttle back on Sat. to the Temple of Sinawava and walked the one mile River Walk. We didn't go into the river and continue on as it was getting late, we weren't dressed for it and the water was really cold.


On Sunday we drove ourselves so we could stop at places the shuttle didn't. This lone red rock is one of Rick's favorites in the whole Park. It sits right next to the road. Again you can see the yellows were brilliant.

To the left is Checkerboard Mesa. You get to this by going on the Zion-Mt Carmel Hwy. This is the one with the tunnel. The tunnel is about 1.1 miles in length and is really something. There are so many different colors and types of rock in Zion it is really amazing.
Sunday afternoon we drove to Kolob Canyon. This is another part of Zion. The road is only about 5 miles long into it but well worth the side visit. Driving home we saw a spectacular sunset but by the time we could find a pull off from the freeway it had faded too much. We both commented on how great this weekend had been and how we had missed doing this. Can't wait for our next trip.

Our Place Then & Now

This is what our property looked like when we bought it July 2006. We were really excited about it.
This is what it looks like today. Nov. 2, 2007. As you can see, the garage is framed now. They are hoping to have the shell completed by the middle of next week. Of course, we all know how that goes.
This is the view from the end of the driveway. As you see, we park out of the way of the construction. Can't wait to be able to pull the cars into the garage. The shingle packages still on the roof are for the front porch that still has to be done.
This is Rocky, our famous watch dog. He does bark when people come and then wants to play with them. He still LOVES attention. He is 9 months old today.

Onion Creek Road

Sunday, Oct 28th, we took a short trip up Onion Creek Road. This is an easy drive near Fisher Towers. It is called Onion Creek (which you cross 20+ times) because of the chemicals in the water. Besides salt there are sulphur and arsenic so of course they recommend you wash your vehicle, especially the undercarriage, when you are through. The drive was pleasant with a lot of twists and turns. Narrow in most places and of course dirt. But the FJ Cruiser took it well. We really enjoyed the canyons and scenery.
These are known as The Chessmen. Also in this area are The Candlestick, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. We found the Candlestick but didn't notice the others. But with so much to look at we'll have to go back and find them.

Castle Valley Style Traffic Jam
This was an unexpected surprise. A cattle drive coming down the road. The cows were spred out for quite a ways and we slowly made our way through. At the end were the two drivers with their dogs. We also passed them again as we were coming back out. This road dead ends at bike trails and a ranch.


This is the Candlestick. We had a better shot on the way out as the sun was in a better position. We have also discovered at the beginning of this road are some great places to take shots of Fisher Towers for sunsets. We will certainly be going back for evening shots.

We then went and washed the FJ as they suggested. Not only to get the chemicals for the stream crossings off but to get the cow poop off as well. But it was certainly worth the trip.

Fisher Towers & Arches

Thurs, Oct. 25th, the moon was almost full so Rick grabbed his camera and stepped outside and shot the moonrise over the cliffs from our front yard. The moon was so bright, you could hardly see the stars that are normally brilliant.

He then got in the car and drove to Fisher Towers and took more pictures of the sunset. This is only about a 20 minute drive from our home so will probably do this frequently when we think it might be worth the shot. There are a couple of really nice places along the road to pull off for taking pictures. Some day we will actually go up to the Towers and take pictures.
Friday, Oct. 26th, it looked like we might have another great sunset, so we both grabbed camers and drove into Arches National Park. Again, this is only about a 30 minute drive from our home. The is a shot of Turret Arch taken from a pullout near the Cove of Caves.
These are the Cove of Caves. This was the first time we had ever really stopped here and taken pictures. We usually go onto the Windows area, but were glad we shot here for a change. For one thing, we were the only ones here!
Sat. afternoon, Oct 27th, after we had spent the morning cleaning the house, we decided to do some 4-wheeling. We drove back into Arches and took the road to Tower Arch. The books said it was a moderate drive for a high clearance 4-wheel drive. Since this was our first time, it was a bit of a challange (in other words Eileen scared-RW), but we enjoyed it and Tower Arch (shown left here) was worth it. We had never seen it before. The road usually can go on to Balanced Rock, but since the floods in August, the road is closed so we had to turn around and come back the way we came. Luckily, we never met anyone going either way as there were few places you could have passed another vehicle.

Pictures from Our New Home

This is our new bedroom furniture. We bought this for the new house. Our new king size air bed is really nice and we enjoy sleeping in it.
This is the TV armoir in our bedroom. We have a 32" HD LCD flat screen inside. We enjoy watching it. We also have a 52" HD LCD flat screen in the family room which we REALLY enjoy watching
View of the kitchen and eating area with the new furniture in it. We love it. Have decided to order a 3rd barstool for the counter.

Close up of the kitchen table and chairs. We have eaten at this many times now and really like it. The views are great out the windows or we can watch the 52" TV from here also.