Snow Days in Colorado

Sledding Day
Above Ouray

This was the week after Christmas, before Dominic had to go back to the seminary and Dan had to go back to work...  I stayed home for this field trip and let them bond, while I took the chance to clean the  Christmas-traumatized house (with noone there to immediately destroy it behind me)...

Here's a shot of the "amphitheater" above the tiny town of Ouray, Colorado.  The sledding gang actually headed to the hills behind the camera person, west of this shot...

Up near these craggy peaks.

So, it seems the gang (Dominic, Michelle, Theresa, Cathy, Anna,
Gabe,  William, and their Dad)  found an unused, uncleared road, near Box Canyon Falls....

"It was so much fun, Mommy!"  "It was perfectly safe, Mom!"  "It was a good spot, dear. Nothing to worry about."
Uhuh.

But, the facts of the field trip came out later, when they admitted it was probably a good thing I didn't go or they'd have ended up sledding on a lump at the playground.  As the details (and the pictures) downloaded, I learned that, for one thing,  there was a street with some traffic on it at the bottom of the hill.  See Dan waaaaay down there?  It was his job to stop the sled as it came flying down toward the road.  Brave man.  Nut.

And there was a steep drop off on one side with a frozen creek down at the bottom of it.  

But, it was all good, Mom!  See?  We made it out alive!
(See the snow-encrusted eyelashes?!  Crazy people!)

And now for your consideration, a wintery poem:

Snowball

by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head.
Then, last night it ran away.
But first -- it wet the bed.

(Heehee!)  Happy snow days, friends!
(This poem was 'specially for you, William and Gabe...)

Christmas Joys: The Family Creche, 2012

Kinda Korny.  And I hate the way my voice sounds....  Doesn't everybody? (Hate the way I sound,I mean.  gglggl)  But, anyway, here you find it, the Davis family nativity scene, recorded for posterity, and so we have something to go by next year -- not like we'll ever beat Dominic's amazing work this year, though!  The whole amazing thing: it was all him, concept, design, and direction of helper elves.

Dominic, you rock.

Yes, you do.

You do.

You really do!

(Love you!  Gonna miss you when you go back to the Seminary in the new year!)

The Easter Diet

"Pretty good.  For a pink doughnut."

                                                    

(I'm going to gain so much weight.)

Now for something Completely Different

Here's a little something we've been working on to add to our Easter sidetable:



Minion Eggs!

Here's How To Make Them



1.  Dye some eggs a good deep yellow. (Head egg-dying bunny, Theresa, shown here)  Some of our Minion eggs were "blown out," the rest, boiled.  Note: we found it works better to dye the blown out eggs before emptying them, as the dye just fills the "blow holes," otherwise.

 

2.  Take a bit of blue foam or doubled-up construction paper, cut out as shown above -- approximately 5 1/2 inches long by about 1" tall -- with little suspenders notched in. (Or the "bib" on overalls) Then  add details with a  black sharpie and hot glue into a circle for little overall egg stands, as shown below.





3.  Cut a piece of 1/4" black elastic (though black paper would work, too, I'm sure) to fit around your egg. 

4.  Glue 1/4" googly eyes (or eye) to the elastic inside 1/4" silver eyelette (smashed flat)

--Alternatively, silver sparkle paper (got ours at W-mart) can be cut into "goggles" very nicely

 

(Should look something like this)



5.  Draw the mouth on with a black sharpie if it's an empty-headed Minion, but you might want to use food-writer markers for the hard-boiled Minions to be safe.  (You can get Wilton fine tip food writing markers at Joann's)
6.  Hot glue all the pieces to the egg for the non-edible Minions, but leave their accessories removable for the boiled eggs. 

We love Minions!

(Fair Warning: the following clip is perfectly full of bad imitative behaviour...)

We're working on making some props for our little Minions next...  We're going to make little guy a diver and use a bent straw for the snorkel (We saw this idea in Family Fun magazine).  And we thought it'd be fun to figure out how to make a butterfly net for another one...  The possibilities are endless!  Except...  We haven't figured out a graceful way to give them arms...Or hair.  Poor little armless, bald  Minions.  Any ideas?

No Batteries Required

Or joystick, or remote, or monitor...

It's called:  Don't Let Grandpa Catch Your Hands.

Fun for all ages.

Corn Husk Angels Tutorial

(Reposted from August 30, 2007)


You will find there are two main sources of corn husks. You can buy and husk your own fresh corn, saving the silks for hair for your angel. This gives you the added bonus of having the wonderful corn to eat. Or you can buy pre-dried husks, used for making tamales. If you use fresh husks, you will need to dry it for several days (weeks, months, whatever) until it is stiff and completely dry. Be careful to keep husks separated and air circulating around them to avoid mildew. After your husks have completely dried, (or after taking them straight out of the tamale wrapper bag), you must soak the now-dry husks for ten to fifteen minutes. Yes, it seems counter-intuitive after drying it, just to wet it again, but this is necessary in order to make the husks pliable. After soaking them, wring them dry. We then lay them out on a cookie sheet at this point for ease of transporting to our crafting area.
Next, we pre-cut several pieces of string, about 3-4 inches long, for binding husks together. Then we make the arms, by separating outcorn husk strips (app.1" wide each), and tie them at the tops.
Next, we braid them. You'll need two braided arms per angel. Pictured here is enough for two angels.
Then we prepare the angel's hair, either by gathering up a big fluff of cornsilk, or winding string or yarn around our hand several times, as so:
Next, take the "hair" and lay it on top of three pieces of corn silk, two side by side on the bottom, then the third piece overlapping the two on top, just under the string or silk.

Layer some more husks on top of the string "hair," following in reverse, with one piece of husk immediately over the string, and two more side by side on top of it. Doing it this way allows for a smooth "face," as you'll soon see.
Get a sturdy piece of string or yarn and tie the whole bunch securely at the very top.
Then, reach under the husks, take the end of the hair and turn the whole thing "inside-out."
Like so:
Smooth the husks down and around to form the head below the hair and make a tight knot, forming the neck.
Now, take the two arms and set them side by side, tying them together in the middle and trimming where there may be too much braid there overlapping.

Take a rolled up piece of husk about an inch thick to tuck in over the arms to give some shape to the angel's bodice.
With the angel lying face up, lift the front three sections of her skirt and place spread at a right angle  two peices of husk cut and formed into wings, then, on top of the wings and under the "bodice" piece, add the arms.
With another piece of sturdy string, cinch in the angel's waist under her bodice and tie tightly.

Take a narrow piece of husk, and lay it behind the angel's neck; pull each end forward over her bodice, criss-crossing it in front; then tie this piece in place behind the waist with another piece of narrow husk.
Pull her arms into the position you like and tie with a piece of small string or thread, then trim the ends to make neat hands. You can make a halo out of very thin strips of husk braided and tied in a circle. To make her stand, trim the bottoms of her skirts and spread outward.
And, here she is, a little harvest angel!

Does The Couch Look Like A Trampoline To You?

Stupid question.

(Cathy is only allowed to do this when nobody else is around -- and nobody in this house under the age of twelve is allowed to look at this blog post today.  I would have a three-ring circus of tumbling monkeys all over my furniture otherwise, as you might imagine... )

(Oh, and I guess you can chalk up the leniency to the weakness of a former gymnast who would have given her eye teeth to flip off the family hassock herself when she was a child...  If I had better health insurance, I might be tempted to try it even now.)

Early August Adventures

Or:  How Much Can One Middle Aged Woman Cram Into Five Days Without Killing Herself?

Part I

So, last Wednesday was Dominic's day to be spoiled by Mom.  He's up at Knights of the Altar Boys' Camp this week, and heads off to school in Omaha this coming weekend, so we had to hurry to get a day in together.  He knew he was in for a hike and was alright (better than just alright) with that, but, being a practical kind of kid, he suggested we also find some time to go get some socks and underwear for school.  I was happy to oblige. We went to good ole Wmart in the late afternoon and finished up our day together at the movie theater, catching Nicholas Cage (Do you like Nick?  I can't decide about him...) in the Sorceror's Apprentice (which, we thought was lots of fun if you don't mind all the exercise suspending your disbelief...). But before the shopping and the movie, we had some things to take care of.

We had to go to my favorite place (whether Dominic liked it or not) -- Ouray, Colorado.  We had lunch at Bien Tiempo, a great little Mexican restaurant.  This is the view from the patio:

And here are the clouds we watched rolling in just in time to rain  -- not on our lunch -- but definitely on  our hiking plans:

We were undaunted,  though, and decided to pursue the hike, just bring our umbrella and hope it didn't start to thunder and lightning.   Dominic and I have a history of exciting adventures together so a little rain didn't faze us a bit, so long as we weren't setting ourselves up to be lightning rods ...

 But before we left -- and before I left my keys on the corner of the bar and had to walk all the way back from the car in the rain to get them -- we had to find out how all the dollar bills came to be stuck on the ceiling of the restaurant.

Dominic asked the bartender and -- for a dollar -- the nice young man was happy to show us. 

He put a tack through the dollar bill, stuck it, pointy side sticking out, to a stack of taped up quarters with a little piece of rolled up tape...

... and threw it expertly up to the ceiling (like he'd done it before a few times maybe)...

 

...and, of course, our dollar joined all the others tacked up on the ceiling.   (You see that one? Right.  There.)   I wonder who gets all these when they decide to clean it all up?  And I wonder if this would work for decorating with crepe paper at birthday parties? (hmmmm...)

Then, after we'd eaten, we headed up into the mountains.  I had Dan's little Toyota Rev IV, which has good clearance but absolutely.  no.  power.  Still, it turned out to be the Little Car That Could. Almost. 

  We did make it up the mountain -- in a litle town car not intended for a jeep trail -- in the rain -- and mud -- on paths only big enough for one car  mountain goat at a time -- over rock outcroppings and under hanging ledges dripping with rain -- all the way....  Well.  Almost. All the way to Yankee Boy Basin and the famous Twin Waterfalls (as seen on beer cans all over the world where Coors is imbibed).

We really did make it all the way up.  But not in the car...

 Actually, what really happened was we got about a mile from the summit (as seen in the pictures below), before I lost my nerve on a sticky little spot...   This is how it looked: Thousand foot drop out my driver's side window to the river bed far below, a narrow track ahead, the left side of which was a mud puddle, the right side of which was a large slippery rock.  I would have had to navigate cockeyed (slanting downward toward my left arm), one side of the car in the slippery mud, one side on the slippery rock, with that thousand foot drop out the side of my left eye. 

 I decided against it. 

But, then.  Whatever else happened, we still had to get back down to a place where we could turn the car around.  Remember, we were on a trail that was only one jeep wide. Headed straight up.   Can you hear me praying?  Can you imagine the saints I called upon?  Silently so as not to alarm my stalwart and steadfastly confident son at my side? 

He wasn't worried.  But I was worried.  Are you worried?

Don't worry.  We did make it.  You can tell because here I am living to tell the tale, right?  In short, though, I had to back the Rev IV down the (did I mention it was steep) trail (remember: thousand foot drop off my left elbow, rocky cliff on Dominic's right elbow)...

Backing down.  Backing down.  Slooooowly backing down..  Ooooooh..... dear.....  going over a rock.... Bumps me to the left.   Catch a glimpse of the riverbed waaaay down at the bottom of the cliff I'm hovering next toowoowoo...... "Am I alright, Dominic?  Can I veer over to your side?" 

"Yeah, you better do that."

Ba-a-a-cking up.  Ba-a-a-a-cking up.  Carefully turning the wheels to head closer to the cliff on Dominic's side ... (Heart thumping.  Hands sweaty.)  Brush against some shrubbery growing against the side of the cliff.  Straighten it out.  Straighten it out. 

(Angel of God, my Guardian Dear...)  Looking out the rearview.  Glimpsing through the drivers' side mirror.  Looking over my shoulder.  Backing down.  Sloooooowly.  "Anybody coming, Dominic?"

"No.  You're good." 

(Calm as a cucumber, this kid.  Has perfect faith in me.)

(Serioulsy misguided child.)

Backing up.  Sloooooowly.....  "How'm I doin', Dominic?"

"You might want to get over a little."

(Oh,thanks for telling me!  Were you not going to say anything until I asked? -- Calm down, Lisa....  We're doing fine....)

"St. Raphael guide us...  St. Michael protect us....  St. Christoper be with us..."

(Or is that St. Michael guide, St. Christoper protect, St. Raphael be with us???  Anyway....  Our Lady of the Highway get us down off this mountain -- the slow way!)

Still backing down.  See a widening in the road.  "Can we turn around there, Dominic?"

"Yep."

And so we did. 

We guessed it was a quarter of a mile we backed down before we got to a (barely) wide-enough turn around in the trail.  Then we drove down a little ways to where we could park the car safely and walked up the last mile in the rain.  It was worth the trouble, too.  It looked like this:

(See that rock in the crevice up there on the left?  It's taller than a man.  We were thinking this looked like an Indiana Jones near miss...)

Beautiful.  Beautiful.  It was beautiful even in the rain.  And did we feel like we'd accomplished something?

 You bet we did!

*  Stay tuned for the next installment of Lisa's Squeezing-It-All-In  Summer Adventures (and misadventures), the 2010 Edition...