Utah and Colorado

Note, I am trying a new blogging service, I hope you can easily follow along:-)

I’m now at the Steamboat Springs, CO house my sister owns; the reception for wifi and phones is lousy. I’ll compose this post and then try to upload it. I may have to go into town to upload.

Since last writing, we drove from Salt Lake City to Vernal, UT. Vernal is a small town, but they have to have more petunias per capita than any city I’ve seen. Here is a picture I captured of William and the flowers outside our room.

The morning we left Vernal, we drove to Dinosaur Monument Park where they offer a walking tour of fossilized remains from millions of years ago. It’s stunning to see these remains still encased in the rocks and to think about the life forms that preceded us. We too often only focus on our tiny lives and very small span of time we think we own. There is so much behind and beyond us to occasionally consider.

After the dinosaur park it was time to drive to Steamboat to rendezvous with my three sisters. Hubby and I got to the house first; my sister’s house is about 20 miles south of Steamboat in a sparsely populated area. In fact, my sister bought us bright orange vests to wear when we hike so that hunters won’t shoot us! It is elk season here and also the height of the aspen color.

The rest of my sisters arrived safely and we enjoyed just being together the first evening. Some of us took a bike ride around the area, here’s a picture of me, two of my three sisters (Lizzy on far left, and Jill in the middle)

My sister Jill had brought 2 dozen crème filled cupcakes from our favorite bakery in Muncie and 2 lbs of chocolate from Lowery’s Candy in Muncie. We junked out believe me!!

The next day we decided to drive into Steamboat and explore a bit. There was a wonderful display of David Taylor quilts at the museum. His work is very detailed and actually they are quilted wall hangings that look like photos. I was inspired and I plan to try my hand at this when I get home, only on a much smaller scale to start.

While in town, we bought some fishing licenses and got some great advice from the local fly fishing shop in downtown Steamboat. My sister’s house is near a reservoir that has been partially drained to do work on the shoreline. According to the guy at the shop, this was the place to fish because the fish in the reservoir are now concentrated in a smaller area, which makes sense.

So this morning we headed out to the reservoir; we took my new fly casting rod and a traditional reel and rod my sister has at the house. We fished for about an hour with no luck, but then we got word from folks walking by that there were some guys who were doing great not too far away. We picked up camp and hooked (excuse the pun) with the fisherman around the bend and sure enough the fish were practically jumping on shore. The guys were about to leave and they helped get us started by giving us some of their bait and two fish.

Sorry to say we didn’t catch any fish with the fly reel, but as soon as we cast the other pole we got a bite. We caught four fish; three were keeper trout and tonight we have a total of 5 beautiful trout to grill. It was a hoot and a great sisterly experience.

Sunday night we recorded a video for our mother; the four of us together at one time is a rare wonderful occurrence and we wanted to capture and share it with our mom. Mom lives in FL in an assisted living facility and will really enjoy the personal messages we send to her.

Lizzy my youngest sister and the owner of this house left early this morning; my other two sisters and Amy left around noon. So sad to see everyone disperse to their own worlds, but one must appreciate the precious time we were allowed to share together. I am very lucky to have my three wonderful sisters and of course my baby Amy and our wonderful dogs.