And We've Arrived!!

 What a good feeling it is to drive down that palm lined drive to our "home away from home" for the next 2 1/2 months!  But it's even more amazing to see the beautiful Sea of Cortez right in front of our eyes!  The clouds were abundant when we arrived and we got the car unpacked quickly - and then the work begins again......

We woke up the next morning to this:

And the following morning to this:

It was a beautiful start to our time down here!  Lots of unpacking got done the next 2 days plus lots of cleaning!  But it's all done now and it's time to relax and enjoy the fishing and reading and friends!

We headed over to the Spa Hotel for Asada night with several friends on Thursday night - Glenn enjoyed ribs and I had my "baked potato with barilla and shrimp" and it was just as good as I remembered!  

Since I didn't have a drink, I chose to have dessert - chocolate volacano cake - it was delicious!

What a great start to our time down here!

San Ignacio/Yurts

 It felt wonderful to get out of the car!!  I guess it seemed like a long day because it WAS a long day! We got our bags in our yurt and ordered a drink!  Their pina colada was excellent!

We had a lovely meal outside - met friends of Del and Linda's who had kind of caravanned with us and also spent the night at the yurts!  About 1/2 way through the meal the electricity went off!  By this time it was dark but they do have solar wrap around lights around the palm trees so we weren't completely in the dark - a candle was brought out to the table which helped!  We sat around and talked quite a while and then decided we all needed to head to our DARK yurts!  Glad we had flashlights on our phones!  About an hour later the electricity did come back on!

Glenn and I slept great and were up for the early morning breakfast which was great!  I took a couple of pictures of the river and then it was time to head out!

I could see that ahead of us there was either fog or a very low cloud - so pretty!'

And as we got closer and closer to the mountain, it was almost completely covered!

Today was a short drive which was great!  We arrived at Truipi Hotel outside of Loreto - the 4 of us walked to the marina to have a late lunch - quite the place there with lots of fancy boats!

The back view from the 2nd story!

This bush is always in bloom when we stay here - so pretty!

Their hotel breakfast isn't served till 8:00 which is rather late for us but it's always good!  Then we hit the road on our last driving day!  We stopped in Constitution to get oranges - they're always excellent!

Glenn decided he wanted to stop in LaPaz and get a rotissiere chicken to have for dinner when we got to our place so he found a chicken place!  Linda and Glenn went in to get the chicken and Del and I stayed with the vehicles!  45 minutes later they FINALLY came out - oh my gosh - here we thought it was going to be a quick stop!  And what they ended up getting was NO WHERE CLOSE to what they thought they had ordered - Glenn had thought he ordered 2 orders of chicken breasts (no whole chickens) with french fries!  I had never seen a chicken breast look like that!!  I took a bite and it was NOT a breast - some type of breading was around a piece of ham and cheese!!!  REALLY?   Good thing the french fries were OK because the "whatever" we got was NOT good at all to me!!  So much for dinner........

We FINALLY arrived at our place in Spa Buena Vista!  Much later than we thought but we arrived and that's all that matters!

Headed To Baja

 It's a lot of work to not only get all the packing done for Baja, but to also get the house ready for a 3 month absence and get all the little things done and ready!  But I'm extremely organized with lists for EVERYTHING and it all comes together in the end!

We left on Thursday the 23rd with the temp being 15 below!!  We always pack the car the day before but since it was going to be SO COLD, Glenn set up a little heater in the car so things wouldn't freeze and that worked out great! 

Winslow, AZ is always our first nights' stop - it's kind of a long day so we're more than ready to be out of the car by late afternoon!  But first on the agenda was to wash the car - it was absolutely filthy from all the snow and slush !  We checked into our hotel and then made our way down to the Relic Brewing Company for dinner - great burgers and fries!  Our favorite place to eat there!

And of course, the mandatory pictures for "Standin On The Corner" which I always send to the girls along with the video of the Eagles song "Take It Easy"!

 

We ate a nice breakfast at the hotel and then headed out!  I always enjoy looking at these tall sand dunes as we pass by!

We met friends Del and Linda at Yuma for lunch and then travelled together over the border - it all went fine and after getting our paperwork done, we headed towards San Felipe!

The cloud cover was nice that morning so had to snap a picture of the awesome clouds!

I've always wanted to snap a picture of this insurance company as you come into San Felipe but usually forget about it - this year I didn't and had my phone ready!   What a name!!

We stopped in San Felipe at our usual place to get pesos and gas!  And then our first glimpse of the Sea of Cortez!

We knew ahead of time that the roads were in poor condition from all the reports online - so we were prepared!!  Glenn led the way as Del was pulling a small boat!  Yes, they were not great at all - not only lots of potholes but also crumbling asphalt which made for a rough ride a lot of the time!

I love seeing the cactus with the mountains in the background!

We didn't make very good time due to all the slowdowns on the highway but we rolled into San Ignacio at the yurts just in time for dinner!!

North Bound One Last Time

 Kenzie had a tournament on Sunday with her competitive volleyball team so we decided to head up early Sunday morning to watch that and to get adjustments one last time before we headed out for Baja!  It was extremely cold on Sunday morning - I believe we had 18 below but as we got closer to Divide, this was the reading!!  Yup 28 below!!!  Let me tell you, the car did NOT appreciate running at that temp!

We were headed to Co. School of Mines where the tournament was at - but Jessi texted not long after we left and said Gary had taken Kenzie there (the roads were slick and icy!) and lots of people were waiting outside the gym door but college maintenance kept telling them there was NO tournament booked!!  Who knows where the screw up was but they finally got something figured out - Jessi said to just come to their house and we could ride with her to go there as it wasn't too far from the house!  So that's what we did!

It's always fun to watch Kenzie play - she is co-captain of the team and plays so well!

We got to watch her play 3 games and she played awesome!  Her boyfriend Camden was there so we met him - what a polite and talkative guy!! And funny enough, there was a soccer practice in the back of this huge place and we found out Aleahs' new boyfriend was there!  Kenzie knew what he looked like so when he came out (Kenzie's team was not playing at the time), Jessi went over to him and asked if he was Noah and he replied yes and she introduced herself as Aleah's aunt and pointed to us sitting nearby and said we were the grandparents!  I'm sure the poor guy was completely flabbergasted!!  And Aleah was back in Ft. Collins absolutely mortified - HA!  We all got a laugh out of that!

Back to the Keppys after the game where we had a great dinner and played some games! (and had some wine!!)

We had brought Evan's birthday card and money for his birthday since we're always gone at that time so we celebrated that!

It was a quick trip up as we left early the next morning to get home and start packing!

Lefsa

 Jaime and I really wanted to make lefsa before the holidays but it just didn't happen!  So we set up a date when she was off and her tech Kim from the pharmacy asked if she could join us!  ABSOLUTELY!

I went ahead and got the potatoes boiled up and riced - they have to cool for a couple of hours so it was best to get that out of the way so we weren't making lefsa the entire day!  Kim and Jaime both arrived and then the fun began!

Jaime had bought this tortilla maker and she was excited to try it for lefsa - for the record, it didn't work for lefsa!  But at least we know!

Kim had brought a double batch to roll out and cook - Jaime and I did a double batch too!

We had both of our skillets going and found it surprising that Kim's cooked so much faster than mine, even though we had the exact same ones AND at the same temperature!

It was a fun day talking while we worked and listening to music!  And it's much more fun to do it all together!

The lefsa turned out excellent!  Jaime took over 1/2 since we were leaving soon - I ended up freezing a couple bags of mine so will get to enjoy more later on!

Estes Park - Yes, All Things Come To An End!

 Sunday mornings are never as fun since it's the day we head home!  Gary and Kenzie headed out about 4:45am as Kenzie had club volleyball games in Co. Springs!!  It was fun to get up early and see a little sunrise!!

Some of the "craft" trees were still there so I lined them up and took a picture - they all turned out so cute!!

We ate some breakfast and then a few of the kids came over and admired the views from our cabin!!

It would be fun to come up in the summer and enjoy the warmth and the scenery!

It's always a bit of a chore to pack up BUT ours was easy as we didn't have to haul all the presents back!

The other 3 families had to stop at the craft store and some of their items weren't quite ready so they had to wait - but they sent pictures!!

Gosh their items turned out cute!!

And more of them!!  We have fantastic painters in this group!

And then it's over - a LOT of work to put together this great time with family but it's all so worth it!

Estes Park - Even MORE Fun!

 After we had done the games, everyone went their own way - and then I realized we were SUPPOSED to do the craft I had brought - darn - oh well, we would let the kids know when we had it set up and they could do it whenever they wanted to!!

Here was the first group to start!  Glenn had cut aspen tree rounds and I had picked up good sized pine cones - bought some little beads and toppers from Hobby Lobby and the kids (and some adults) glued on the beads and toppers!!  They turned out cute as can be!!  Glenn had sprayed some with snow and some with red spray paint!

Jaime and Jessi were in charge of dinner that night - crockpot enchilada chicken soup - we all love it!!

With lots of toppings and tortilla chips, it made for a perfect meal!

Then it was time for the "dice" money game!  We played this last year and it was a real hit!!  $50 was in the jackpot and after much laughter and ooh's and ahh's, Gwyn was the winner!

Then it was the adults turn - same thing - and I was the winner this year!!  Hooray!!

Since the "adults" didn't do the grab bag gifts this year, we played one more round with the adults and "adult kids" but everyone had to do a $5 buy-in!  Again, it was hilarious as we rolled the dice round and round through everyone but Jaime came out the winner!!

Since Reese was there, she took our annual family picture which turned out great!

Next set of people doing the craft!!

And then it was karaoke time!!  Hezekiah had gotten one for Christmas so he brought it along and oh my gosh, it was SO FUN listening and watching everyone get up front!!

Even Jill and Jaime sang a song together!!  EVERYONE took a turn that was there!

I think they sang a LONG time but Jill and I finally headed back to our cabin to get some sleep!!  It sure was a fantastic day!

Estes Park - Saturday Fun

 It felt great to have a good nights' sleep AND sleep in just a little bit - although the calm and quiet of the early morning is a VERY nice thing!  The kids all slept in and a few of them headed to the craft center after breakfast to work on their ceramic projects!

And then it was back up to the house to play the minute to win it games!!  These guys were all ready to play!

The "pick up marshmallows with red cups" game - we laughed a lot!

The candy cane game - probably everyone's favorite!!  It took a little bit of skill to drop the candy cane in the bottles but it was sure fun!

Stacking marshmallows with chopsticks - not as easy as it sounds!!

Scooping up bows while you're blindfolded - it was amazing how FEW you had on your plate when you were done!

But Robby did pretty darn good!!

Tossing marshmallows into the red cup!

At the very end, here were the winners!!  The Keppys ruled!!  And Robby was a winner too but just didn't get a scratch card!

Free time was next!!  Some of the boys went swimming - others crafted - I think maybe I just relaxed for a while after all the excitement!!  More to come on Saturday evening!