Adventure: Larue Wedding in Beeville

There was a wedding uniting two wonderful people.
Everything was perfect.

I was blessed to get to spend time with two of my favorite people, Adam and Casey...whose marriage just celebrated 1 1/2 years.

I even ran into my old friend, Kimberly...who is still looking very young and beautiful!

Jeremy and I reflected on our own wedding...one of our favorite days ever.

Has it really been eight years?

And they lived happily ever after in the Lord.

I love marriage.

Sticks

Earlier this afternoon, I told Mallory to go and turn the backyard sprinkler off. She's only done this about 100 times since we've lived here, so I let her go unsupervised. About a minute later she walks calmly back inside. I could see the sprinkler still going, so I asked her what happened?

Mallory(in a perfectly composed voice): We have a snake

Me(thinking that Mal is messing with me): Oh really? Where?

Mallory: See that thing that looks like a big stick? (she points through the window)

Me: Yeah (it looked just like a big stick had fallen off one of our trees)

Mallory: It's not a stick

(my heart dropped and a wave a nausea passed over me as I saw the stick slither toward the water faucet...it was a HUGE snake, not one of those minor, skinny things...it's the kind of snake that nightmares are made of)

Me: KAARRREEENNNN!!!!!!! (my mother in law just happened to be over painting my bedroom) There's a snake in the backyard!!!! What do we do??!!!??!! What do we do???!!!!????

Karen (in a calm voice, which is clearly where Mal gets it from): Umm, do you have a shovel? (then she calmly starts to put her shoes on)

Me: I can't believe this is happening. This is one of my recurring nightmares come true. I hate snakes so much. I can't deal with this. (second wave of nausea hits me) I think I'm going to throw up. (I'm so ridiculously scared of snakes that my whole body started to feel weak.)

Karen: Is the shovel in the garage?

Me: Oh yeah...I'll go get it (I honestly thought I was going to throw up, but I was trying hard not to because I had to get the shovel and if we did chop up that big snake then we would have ENOUGH of a mess to clean up without having to clean up vomit as well.)

I returned and followed Karen outside with the shovel. I handed it to her since I was certain that I would not have any arm strength in me once I saw the snake again. When we got to the area where the snake was, the grass was empty. A new panic struck me as I realized that the snake could now be ANYWHERE! Karen suggested we start looking for it. I was more tempted to call 911. How thrilling would it be to be featured on the evening news for dialing 911 over a snake!

We hunted for that monster for half an hour, lifting up every toy and playstructure in the yard. We circled the house twice while I fought nausea and chills the whole time. No snake. I didn't know whether to feel relieved or not. On one hand, I didn't have to witness the butchering of a large, thick snake which was sure to force me to finally throw up. On the other hand, the snake is still out there, which means we have to move.

Jeremy is out of town, so I haven't told him about any of this yet. I'm sure he'll understand, though, that I just cannot share a home with a snake that large. One of us will have to go. It's all so sad since I really like our house.

Adventure:Whitewater Rafting 2008

Jeremy and I both love whitewater rafting. Living in Houston, however, means that we don't have many opportunities to go. So, when we found out we were going to get to vacation in Colorado, Jeremy immediately started researching places to raft. He booked a trip out of Idaho Springs, which was about an hour from where we were staying. When we first arrived in Colorado it was pretty hot. The temperature got up to about 80 degrees in the middle of the day, so we thought we would be fine to go rafting.
A cold front blew in, though, the morning of our trip and temperatures dropped to the low 40s. It was drizzling rain as well. The whole drive to the launch place I kept thinking that there was NO WAY I wanted to go rafting in this weather. I must have told Jeremy 7 times, "Babe, I think we might freeze to death. Seriously." He just smiled and said we'd be fine. By the time we arrived in Idaho Springs, though, he had changed his mind. He begged the manager for a refund of our money for the trip. Jeremy tried explaining to them that we were from Houston and not used to even being outside when it was 40 degrees, let alone getting wet in that kind of weather. No luck. No refund. The man assured us that we wouldn't freeze to death. He was from Ireland, not Houston.
So, we suited up and prepared to get soaking wet with water that had been snow just 10 hours prior to our ride. That means the water was about 40 degrees as well. My teeth were already chattering when we climbed into the boat. I kept thinking, "We must be crazy. Why are we doing this? Why did I think this would be fun?"
In the first picture our guide is telling us all the different ways to survive when we get thrown into the water. There's one way if you are the only one thrown out, another if everyone is thrown out, another if the boat flips and you get trapped underneath, etc...Then he told us we had 7 minutes to get out of the water before hypothermia set in. 7 minutes. I'm not sure my brain could even think fast enough to remember which rule to follow before my 7 minutes was up. Again, "I must be crazy. This is so stupid. This guy is talking about swimming in melted snow when it's 40 degrees outside and drizzling rain."
Reluctantly, we launched and I prayed. I think we were all a little nervous about going overboard, especially when we got to our first class 3 rapid. Maybe we should have signed up for the beginner's ride!
All of the other rafting trips I've been on have been pretty family oriented. So, the guide and maybe one or two other men did all the work. But this ride was for intermediate riders and we all had to work very hard the whole trip. Forward 1! Back 2! Lean left, lean right, all paddle! It was a workout.
After 30 minutes of class 3 rapids, our guide told us that the fun was just beginning. He wasn't kidding. See one of the class 4 rapids:
Where did we go? We all managed to stay in the boat, but emerged soaking wet. At this point of the trip my left foot began to lose all feeling. It was buried in the side under water so that I wouldn't fall out. It was taking it for "team body" :) More class 4 rapids:

Then, the "float" to the end. I call it a float because it was nothing compared to what we had just come through, but this is actually where the "beginner ride" takes place.

All in all, it was a blast! A freezing, exhausting, foot numbing blast :) I'm really proud that we rode so well and didn't fall out. I'm glad I did it. Next time we go rafting, though, it's going to have to be somewhere out east or in the dead heat of Colorado summer. Because this ride was just crazy!

Adventure: Sledding 2008

You'll have to forgive how far apart my Colorado posts are and will continue to be. I'm getting them up as fast as I can, but I took about 400 pictures, so that will take a while.

On our first full day in Colorado we decided to go hunting for snow. We were all raised in Houston, so we rarely even see snow, let alone get to play in it. The house we stayed in just happened to have a small sled parked in the garage. We loaded it in the car just in case we found a place to use it. It didn't take long:) Our first stop was Loveland Pass.

Here we are just after getting out of the car. Thankfully, we all threw our coats in the back of the car because at this elevation it's COLD! I was struck by how quiet it was up there. All I you could really hear was the wind blowing. At first, we just played around in the snow. Snow is such a novelty to us that just touching it and walking in it was fun! We had a little picnic in the most beautiful setting you can imagine with some of our most favorite people in the world (Adam & Casey). So far, the day was perfect.
Then, we got the idea to try out sledding here. The mountain was secluded and looked safe, so the guys went back to the car to get the sled. Adam went first to try and figure out how a sled works. (None of us had ever ridden one before:) Here he is falling off:


The first patch of snow we slid down was pretty small. This picture gives you some idea of the size. If you look just past the third patch of land you can see where the mountain we were standing on drops off. Since there was a clear stopping point (the bare ground) there was little chance of sliding off the mountain. After Adam and Jeremy tried it out we let the kids have a bunch of turns. They LOVED it, of course.

Each video only lasts about 30 seconds. They're not great quality, since they were taken with my camera and not our video camera, but priceless nonetheless.
Will's ride:

The trek back to the starting point was difficult for the kids. The snow was about 4 feet deep and we weren't exactly prepared with snow shoes. Mallory did her best to help Will, but he usually ended up falling.

Here he is yelling, "Help!"
The hill wasn't that steep. However, the sled worked up a pretty good speed for Mallory which made her a little nervous. Listen to her scream at the end.
Mallory's ride:


I think she liked it!
Next, Casey decides to give it a go. I'm not sure you could actually call this a ride, though ;)
Casey's...uh...ride:


After we all got our fill of sledding down the small hill Adam announced that he wanted to try out the neighboring slope. We all thought he was joking. I forgot to take a picture of the whole slope, although it was so big I'm not sure I could have anyway. This picture was taken with me looking down towards the bottom of the slope. You can see from the way Casey is climbing up just how steep it is. If the picture continued to the left you would see that the slope continues pretty much straight up.It was MASSIVE, very steep and didn't appear to have an easy stopping point. Falling off the side of the mountain was definitely an option. Or even death. Adam was determined, though, so we all just sat and prayed...oh, and videoed.

Adam's death defying Ride



Once Adam proved that it could be done without serious injury, Jeremy just HAD to do it himself. It should be noted that it took a good 20 minutes just to climb up to the starting point of this hill. There wasn't a clear path, so we had to climb over s bunch of big boulders..with the sled dragging behind. Since we were at 12,000 feet breathing also became a little difficult. This picture gives you some idea of how difficult the climb was. Jeremy's just getting started here as he has to walk up to the far right corner of the picture and beyond.
Jeremy's ride:


Not to be outdone by my brother and husband, I got the urge to try it myself. I can't explain how exciting those 30 seconds were. I kind of felt like I was flying, albeit out of control :) If it hadn't taken so much to get to the top, I would have done it all day. Note: I was the first person to make it down without falling off.
Megan's ride:

Casey can ride after all ;) She goes the furthest and doesn't fall off either.

Casey's ride:


Casey's well deserved victory pose

It was exhausting to make that hike to the top and then out of the bottom of the snow bowl. We also had a good size walk back to the car to face. So, after a couple of times sliding down, we were ready to go home. Everyone agreed that it had been an awesome experience, though, and that we would definitely have to do again one day.