Look who came for a visit!

I have been a bit behind in blogging lately...time to play some catch up!  

A few week ago mom and dad Barry came to  beautiful Colorado for a vacation and to visit Jesse and I.  We had a great time and it went by far too quickly!  We wish they could still be here enjoying the nice weather and mountain scenery.

The time spent was full of eating good food, fishing, and some hiking.  Of course mom had to get in her share of shopping in downtown Estes.  For me, one of my favorite parts was going to the other side of the park and seeing a mama moose with two babies right next to the road and eating a picnic lunch at Holzwarth historic ranch in the middle of a brief hail storm. 



Picnic Dinner where Dad "made fire!"

Fishing for trout at Dream Lake

Cat nap

A walk around Sprague Lake before bratwurst, beans, chips and Capri suns

Picnic during/after the hail storm.  What a great spot!

Mom roping cattle "I am a cowgirl...yee-haw!"
The video is pretty great too :)  You are
pretty entertaining mom!  Thanks for visiting us!!

 



 

Retired Ranger

Can you tell we both worked for the park service?

My time as a park ranger has been short lived...(never even got a chance to post pictures of me in my awesome uniform!)  It didn't take long for Jesse and I to realize that 1.  We really like Estes Park   and 2.  We are finally ready to settle down!    ...For a little while at least :)

We came across a job opening for a full-time and permanent activities assistant at Prospect Living Center in Estes park and lo and behold they offered it to me!  Now I get to spend my days hanging out with the elderly playing games, watching the mountains, singing songs, taking them on tours of the park (along with a wide variety of other things) and working with what seems to me to be a really incredible and dedicated staff. 

Jesse is still Ranger Williams and we are excited to see where that path continues to take him.  It is a good fit for him and boy does he look handsome in his uniform...AND now I have a job that is a good fit for me as well.  Yay!  Life is good!  Thanks God!

Welcome to the Rockies

Bandelier National Monument

So long New Mexico…HELLO Rocky Mountains!

Surfing the Dunes

We are finally done with our time in New Mexico.  Not that there was anything wrong with 1,000 year old inscriptions and petroglyphs on a really cool questa out in the middle of the dessert,  but we had hiked the 2 mile trail more times than we could count and were ready for a place with a little more going on.    

We said farewell to New Mexico by visiting Bandelier National Monument.  If you are ever in the Santa Fe area this little monument is a must.  It was like a giant playground filled with cliff dwellings, wooden ladders, and lots of rocks …a kid’s paradise.

Had to leave Teresa behind...

With a continuing passion to visit more of our country’s national wonders, our first stop in Colorado was Great Sand Dune National Park.    No longer do we have a need to visit the Sahara Desert…who knew we could pretend to get lost and caught in a sand storm in the middle of Colorado?  The only thing that was missing was a camel ride.  We climbed to the top of a 700 foot sand dune and rolled down the other side…it was marvelous. 

After our venture in the dessert, we drove right into a snow storm and 18 inches of snow welcomed us to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Just like The Grand Tetons we are falling in love with this park’s wonderful mountains, winding trails, aspens, and elk around every corner :)

“The mountains are calling, and I must go.”  -John Muir 

Auntie in Alabama

For me (Teresa) by far the highlight of this spring in New Mexico was leaving New Mexico J and getting to see my sister, Andrew, and Miss Emma.   Alabama was beautiful, wonderful, and full of green goodness.  Even better than all the grass was getting to spend some good quality time with my adorable new niece. 

We went on walks together, planted flowers, cooked up some yummy meals that are going into my recipe book, watched Disney’s Frozen, went to church, had a photo shoot, fed Emma rice cereal, shopped while trying not to make too much of a scene, had drinks at Barnes and Noble, and enjoyed each other’s company thoroughly. 

I hate being so far from my sister and her growing family and it tears me apart having to leave them each time, but for an entire week we got to make the most of it.  I am happy that my schedule allowed me the freedom to go and visit them.  I will be looking forward to the next time we can be together!

Caves and Red Rocks

It has been awhile since our last blog, but for those who are interested in what there is to do around New Mexico, here is what we have been up to over the last month:

Red Rock State Park:

This is an awesome park just outside of Gallup, with some of the best hiking we have found in the area.  The whole time it felt like we were walking through the Desert Dome at the Omaha zoo.  It was also a good spot

for an exciting cliff picnic!

Zuni Pueblo:

Just a half hour away from us is the old town of Zuni.  This marks the point of first contact between the Spaniards and Pueblo people.  It also has a strong connection to El Morro National Monument because the ancestors of the Zuni people that lived on top of the monument hundreds of years ago. 

 

Caving Madness!

This year is destined to be another year of epic caving! Four months into the year and we’ve hit four caves... so far-all of them lava tubes.  The last three have been in El Malpais Nat. Monument just 30 minutes down the road from us.  The Big Tubes were fairly remote, requiring a long drive down a rutted dirt-road, a hike across the lava fields to get to the entrance, and then down climb of about 50 feet to get into the cave itself.  Junction cave was much tamer (which Teresa appreciated).  We were able to see a few bats along the way and celebrate the end with some Easter beef jerky J

El Morro's Newest Ranger

Being a ranger requires many skills and unique qualities…

For one, you have to be able to pull off the whole ranger outfit.  Personally, I think my husband looks pretty darn good in his uniform and big brimmed hat.

Being a ranger requires bravery and the ability to look at your surroundings and think… “Hey, that big rock looks pretty amazing.  I appreciate it.” 

 

And perhaps most importantly is a ranger’s skill of being able to identify the local animal and plant life.  They have a keen awareness of what lies around them and being able to take a moment out of their day to stop and smell the cactus. 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we finally got pictures up of Jesse in his new ranger uniform and if you are lucky come May you can check out new pictures of me sporting the ranger look.  Jesse and I both got offered jobs and happily accepted positions in Rocky Mountain National Park this summer.  Jesse thinks I will look cute in my uniform…I am pretty sure I am going to look ridiculous in the over-sized hat and hiked up pants… but time will tell.

 

Memoirs from Kyoto

If you have ever watched Memoirs
of a Geisha, this is where
part of it was filmed

Jesse and I are back in the good ol’ USA, but before leaving Asia we found the perfect way to end our Asian vacation.  We went to the old capital city of Japan, Kyoto. 

In front of our Ryoken

There have more than once been moments in our travels where things just seem too good to be true (like your just waiting for something bad to happen, but it doesn’t…because God is just that good).  Like when we stayed at a mountain resort in the middle of China for the price of a super 8 …our pizza picnic sitting under the Eiffel Tower…the moment we flew into Cambodia and looked below us to see a floating village… when we got to feed and bath Thai elephants in the middle of the jungle!   Well, our Ryoken (traditional Japanese lodging) was one of those moments. 

Our Japanese garden

We found a good Ryoken off of trip advisor with good reviews and a VERY fair price for the area.  We booked a traditional Japanese room with a shared kitchen and bath area (the way a typical hostel is set up). When we arrived and checked in the kind staff showed us to not only our private room, but private kitchen, dining, and bamboo bath!  The mini house was decorated both on the inside and outside with an authentic Japanese feel…including the garden.  After she left us the key, our mouths dropped open and asked each other “Is this for real?  There must be a mistake?”  We looked around our wonderful Japanese home and discovered another room in our quarters that could have lodged 6 more people.  “Well, that explains it!  We will just have to wait for the others to check in.”  BUT, they never did.  The touristy city of Kyoto, where you need to book months in advance to get a room, happened to have an empty room two nights in a row right next to us.  Thanks God!  We appreciated it!

So this blog is suppose to be about Kyoto, but our highlight was the Ryoken.  We dressed up in our yukatas (robes), brought dinner home each night from 7 eleven instead of eating out, and took lots of hot baths. 

The day before our flights left, we loaded the baskets on our rented bikes full of food, and rode around the city and river visiting temples and shrines.  We even saw a Geisha and Sumo wrestler on Gion Street!  Kyoto was wonderful and relaxing… a perfect way to end our stay.   We couldn’t have had a better time.

We have been so blessed by the amount of traveling we have been

able to do both as singles and now married.  The more places we travel, the desire to see more continues to grow.  We will be excited for our next adventure overseas, but for now it seems like we have more adventures awaiting us in the States.  Jesse is now a seasonal park ranger in New Mexico for the spring and it looks like we will be heading to Yellowstone this summer!  Maybe someday soon God can continue our adventure in a more permanent setting so we can have a place to call home, but for know I can choose to be thankful for all we have gotten to see and do and continue to see and do!