More funny poses-January 27, 2019

Yesterday just added to our collection of funny poses. Zoey and Daisy are having so much fun having their pictures taken. We'll play the game. We all end up laughing. As soon as I have taken the picture I have to show it to them so they can approve. One day they won't want to do this anymore so we play along now.

 

 

 

Both girls still really enjoy getting out the Princess clothing box. It

has been worth every penny spent. Daisy is fond of putting on two

skirts at one time. Whatever it takes is fine with us. We just want

them to have fun they will remember.

 

Today would have been a good day to accept the offer to stay at the Tin Lizzie Hampton Inn in Deadwood for a song and a dance. We thought it would be nasty weather so we declined. Too bad.

 

Thank you for indulging me posting all these personal photos on a travel blog!

 

Crazy girls-January 25, 2019

Daisy and Zoey both have become very interested in us taking their pictures. Daisy, at her young age will pose and say "Take my picture!". Consequently we are getting some very funny pictures.

Daisy lined her dolls up first and then gave the command

for the photographer to step in.

Then we tried to get her to pose and smile but we

weren't very successful.

 

Then Zoey did the same thing.
"Take my picture!". The magnetic doll she is

posing beside is one of the neatest things we have ever

bought for them. The outfits that can be created are wonderful

or they can be regular Disney princesses.

 

These girls are so much fun it's hard to explain. We are playing Go Fish and Memory cards with both of them now. Zoey can beat us every time but she is a very poor loser. We are working on that. We are also using ABCmouse with Zoey so she is learning while playing fun games. Most of all we are trying to make good memories with them. We don't see Hannah as much because of school. And next year it will be that way with Zoey. It's sad but it's also part of life, of little girls growing up.

 

 

Trip to Deadwood-January 19, 2019

We were very fortunate to make another trip to Deadwood, South Dakota this past week. Since it is near our home we can always take care of business while we are there. The weather was good. It was cold as it should be but no fresh snow.

We chose not to go through the mountains into Lead and Deadwood because we were uneasy about road conditions. Instead we went from Four Corners, Wyoming to I-90 at Sundance. The beauty of that area under fresh untouched snow was just fabulous. We want to go back on that route in the summer to see if it gets lush and green.

Still in Wyoming this is the very beginning of the Black Hills,

so named because they do appear black. Those are really evergreen

trees that are so dark they look black.

 

Midway between Four Corners and Sundance I saw this. Nobody

else sees this the way I do. I think it is relaxing and inviting, a quiet

place to stay for a while. The snow was pristine, full of ice crystals

that sparkled like glitter. The trees were a nice dark green.

I just love this scene. Thank you for indulging me.

 

We took part of a day to explore Spearfish. It is really growing and we enjoyed our time there very much. We stuck with our way to chose a place to eat. Watch the people coming out and if they are local, go in and eat. Local people carry food out in Styrofoam boxes. Tourists generally, though not every time, do not do that. Plus the way they dress says a lot. Boots are for warmth and not for style. This game plan has never failed us.

 

We had an excellent lunch at REDwater Kitchen. It is locally owned and

everything cooked and served is from local sources. In fact they had the

names of their suppliers listed on a huge chalk board. What a great

idea. The service was top notch. The food was fabulous. Another good pick.

 

 

When we left on Wednesday morning we got off to a later start than usual. It was a blessing in disguise. We did go through the mountains this time.



 

This is the highest point we hit on our return trip. To the residents of

this area this is a high peak. We live at 5000+ now so this is not high to us.

But still it can cause icy roads. The roads were passable this time.

 

We did get to an area on Highway 85 in Wyoming where there was so much water on the road it looked like it had rained but it was too cold for rain. It was just massive amounts of water. Then we saw the big flashing sign "Black Ice. Slow Down". Strikes fear in the heart of every driver. And then there was a big commercial van off the road totally wrecked with no windows left in tact and it was fresh wreckage. Nobody ever wants to see that kind of black ice. It is so dangerous. But apparently the black ice had been sprayed with Mag Chloride so it looked like it had rained. We are so thankful for this blessing. If we had not gotten off to a slow start that morning by choice things would have been different.

 

I'll spare you more snow pictures. But I will say that Wyoming has some really unusual sights. They are a step back in time.

 

Near Newcastle, Wyoming they were burning tons of pine trees

killed by pine beetles. Snow cover provides good safety while burning.

Colorado says they do not have the money or the personnel because of the

government shut down to burn the beetle killed trees. But Wyoming has the

money. I find that interesting. Tens of thousands of trees have been killed by

pine beetles. They cut them and put them in huge piles to burn when the snow

flies. I salute Wyoming for doing such a good job.

 

In the middle of nowhere in Wyoming is this sign. This is so

clever and also very funny. The horse was "lopen" when we went by.

 

This trip provided some incredible animal sightings. We had to stop twice, once for turkeys to cross the highway and once for pronghorns to cross. We saw buffalo including some adorable babies. And we saw deer which are very common. But the most beautiful sights of all were bald eagles. We saw FOUR of them at various places. One eagle we have seen sitting in the same spot on previous trips so we are going to try to slow down next time a get a good picture. This particular bald eagle appears to be a female and she sits on the same fence post every time. There are no trees for miles so that makes the eagle sit on a post very close to the ground. It is a truly beautiful creature, very proud and very majestic.

 

We had a fabulous trip. We are excited to make another trip very soon. We have chosen a wonderful place to call home.

 



 

Deadwood-January 16, 2019

This afternoon we returned from a fabulous trip to Deadwood, South Dakota. I still have a few pictures left to move from my phone so I will just post a couple right now. And I will tell all about our trip in a few days.

Right on the main street in Deadwood is a very nice man who does wood carvings all year round, no matter what the weather. He is a hearty soul. I know a lot of people around the country do these carvings but there is one I have never seen before.

This little guy is not unique, but he surely is cute.

He didn't have prices on anything but instead posted

a sign that said "Prices negotiable".

 

From a distance I thought this was a dragon, a gigantic dragon.

It is actually a motorcycle. I should have asked the dimensions on

this unique statue. There are handle bars, huge wheels and a nice

seat which was black like leather. I should have asked how many

hours he had in that piece of work. And he ships for only $2 a pound!

 

It was not too terribly cold this trip but that didn't mean we did not see lots of snow. I'll get those pictures posted as soon as I can.

 

 

Finally finished-January 10, 2019

Remember the painting project I said was ahead of us? Well, now it is finished and behind us. I think neither of us will ever paint another room again.

Santa brought a loft bed to Zoey and Daisy for Christmas. So, once it was moved into the bedroom for both of them it became evident that the walls had to have a different color. Previously two walls were Harley Davidson orange. No, I'm not kidding. They needed to be pink. To do that it took two coats of primer that blocks out bright colors. Then Whisper Pink followed. We spent nearly 8 hours in that room on Tuesday. We could not move yesterday. Today we went back to do the touch up painting.

Painting is normally not a big deal. However we faced a room full of furniture, toys everywhere, two girls and a cat who loved the smell of the paint. It was like painting in the midst of a hurricane. And that's not saying how heavy the bed was to move.

It is not possible to get a good picture of the bed because it's so big and there's no room to stand to take the picture. I did the best I could.

Santa did not iron the fabric part of the bed. So guess

who gets to do that tomorrow? The bed is a loft bed because

normally there would not be a bed on the bottom. We gave them

a trundle, I mean Santa did it, so it is now like a short bunk bed.

Note the pink walls. You have no idea how hard we worked to get

that color done.

Now for the blue curtains. First, I made those. Why blue? Zoey wanted penguins. Daisy wanted bears. No where in the US was there pink material with penguins and bears. However, I did find blue fabric with the required animals. So we just threw another color in the midst. In person they do not look that out of place.  

 

The bed has a ladder on one side and a slide on the other. It's cute

but we think if they get to clowning around there could be some serious

bruises. Zoey has given her seal of approval to the entire project.

 

I cannot tell you how happy we are that this is done. I do not see us volunteering to paint anything else anytime soon. Too much work. Or we are too old. You can chose which. All in all we are proud of our work and happy the girls have a room that suits them.

 

We are going to celebrate the completion of this project by heading to Deadwood this weekend. We will stay 3 or 4 days.

 



Play Day-January 4, 2019

Zoey has been sick for a couple of days with a bug of some sort so today is the first day we have seen the girls since last weekend. We had a really good day. There were only minor disagreements between them which was a breath of fresh air.

We played card games with Hannah and she loved every minute. We played Old Maid, an insane memory game where you had to match scenes and Crazy Eights. It was my first time to play Crazy Eights. Hannah caught on faster than I did. It takes very little instruction for her to understand. It's a bit amazing to watch. Maybe she will be a professional poker player!! They make BIG money you know.

Zoey and Daisy are playing together better than they ever have. We are so glad. It's been tough at times. They now share a bedroom and the most unusual bed we have ever seen. I'll take a picture of it when we go over to paint their room on Tuesday. I made new curtains for their room yesterday.


                                                     Today we just played and had fun.

Zoey and Daisy riding the wonderful horse that has had all

three girls ride on his back. Zoey is holding Pongo the baby

penguin we gave her for Christmas. She is on a penguin kick right now.

Daisy is crazy about bears which she calls beers. And Hannah is

into anything emoji. No, I don't know why.

 

 

They all got these things from Santa. They are LOL

dolls. I think they are just plain stupid but they love them.

These dolls come with a little bit of kinetic sand. We are

still finding it in our carpet. Oh well, they are only young once.

 

School starts back next week. It's going to be hard on them to get back in the habit of getting up early. But we've all been there and we all survived.

 

I will share pictures of our painting project next week.