Western Water

While Barb has been busy hosting all the visitors featured earlier on the blog, I have been printing, matting and framing photographs for my show. The show is at the Mesquite Arts Center for the month of September. The artist's reception will be on Friday September 5 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. All are invited. The show is titled "Western Water" and attempts to show the beauty of water here in the arid west but I also hope it causes people to think about the issue of water resources. Here is the official invitation:

I hope you can attend!

Better Late Than Never

In 2005 a group of girlfriends came to visit but Valerie was "down under" and unable to join us so it was a treat to finally get her out here. We didn't stress ourselves but spent the time enjoying the beautiful late August weather with time in Ouray (Mouse's milkshakes are a given), Telluride, Ridgway and the Orvis Hot Springs (no celebrity sightings this time). We are hoping she will make a repeat visit next year. On a side note, we celebrated our 13th anniversary the day she flew back to Dallas from Grand Junction with a trip to Colorado National Park, the Grand Mesa, a peach buying expedition in Palisades and dinner at 626 on Rood, our new favorite Colorado dining experience!

Superb Outdoorsmen and Woodworkers Too!

Paige, Will and Reed arrived last week for the 2nd annual Elphingstone visit (with Scott joining us five days later). We started off with the annual golfball hunt before unpacking and unveiling the new Wii (which was a big hit). Mike took the boys fishing where they both caught a big rainbow trout on Friday and on Monday they both made bird houses for their backyard in Dallas (notice Reed's goggles; safety before fashion!). The boys disscected owl pellets and discovered lots of rodent and bird bones and skulls at Rigdway State Park. We did hikes in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (2mi) and at Bear Creek Falls (4.5mi with 1000' gain in elevation) in Telluride. They ran into a number of families from the Park Cities...guess it turns out that Telluride is a big destination for those from Dallas looking to escape 100+ August days - can't say I blame them. Between the Olympics, Wii and our own outings, sports and nature were a big part of the last week. We were sad to see them drive off but we will be in Dallas in a few weeks which made it easier. They will be enjoying more Colorado Rockies in Crested Butte and we are getting ready for Valerie's visit on Friday!

Visitor From Across The Pond

We just spent a delightful week with Karen and Kaivon Mortazavi and Kaivon's nephew, Timothy, from the UK. They had planned on visiting northern CA but with the ongoing threat of wildfires, they decided to visit SW CO and show Timothy all the sights. They were with us for a day in Telluride before they headed to Moab/Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park and the train from Durango to Silverton. Back with us they rafted the San Miguel River (usually the rafting ends by early July but with the snowfall at 140% of normal snowpack, the river was still running!) We visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on their last day (see a theme here???) and more stargazing at night (everyone was able to spot multiple shooting stars over the course of the week and Mike got the telescope out for a bit more detail). Unfortunately reality returned and they flew home to Dallas but Paige and the boys arrive tomorrow so more fun times ahead!