The Box, revisited

Box Canyon, New Mexico

March 28,  2012

Another stop on our 2002 trip that had to be revisited was Box Canyon.  Box Canyon has good bouldering, fun cacti, and lots of rock formations to explore. Here is a token photo of me bouldering followed by a gorgeous lichen photo. 

I lichen you.  Ha! Want to remember the relationship between algae, fungus, and lichen? To bad here we go.  "Freddy Fungus took a lichen to Alice Algae and now their marriage is on the rocks.

James and E are contemplating the best route up a rock. I love this photo.  It shows how grown up E is, how he has the ability to problem solve, and how James and he share this passion for climbing.

The meeting of the minds worked.  James is at the top.

If you look closely in the photo above, you can see T's yellow shirt. The rock face is huge and beautiful.

Fabulous Feet

just for my sister liz....feet

Southern Michigan

When adult children with families try to plan a get together it can be frustrating. Everyone has busy schedules. So when we called both SILs and it worked out that we could all get together on the same weekend followed by meeting up with one of my sister and her family, we were amazed!
We spent a few days near Grand Rapids, Michigan with James' younger sister, Amanda. We trailered our motorcycle up just to go on a ride with them. We spent the time riding, eating yummy healthy food, and listening to James complain about the cat. Darn those cat allergies.





Friday we headed to Big Rapids (neither of these towns have grand or big rapids), for a dance recital. James' nieces performed ballet, tap, and modern dances. Each dance was set to a famous artist. My favorites included a lovely ballet based on The Rehersal by Degas, and 3 modern dances based on Poe, JK Rowlings, and Steinbeck. I maybe biased but the girls were 2 of the most graceful dancers on the stage that night.
All the cousins played happily for hours. Pool, video games, matchbox cars, pool, Legos, and back to video games. The adults sat in the yard soaking up the gorgeous day!
James was able to take all the kids and his non riding sister on motorcycle rides. Afterward, he gave his professional opinion that the oldest niece, L, has the motorcycle bug. Maybe someday James, Amanda, and L Will go out riding:)

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Let's jump states...

By now everyone knows I am WAY behind on blogging. According to the blog we are still in the southwest but actually we have been home and gone again.
I will blog the western half of our trip. But in the meantime I will stay current with our summer.


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Moments of Missing Home

We traveled almost 16,000 miles in Love Dove over the course of 5 months.  She makes a lovely home. I spend post after post showing the fabulous places our home takes us.  However, all our moments aren't perfect or even fabulous.  We still occasionally have bickering brothers in the back seat, rotten fruit in the fruit hammock, and loud disagreements over how or where to park. Here are a few of those moments.

T, age 10,  missed home since day 1. He is a home body.  If it were up to him we would have never left home. At least every other day I heard the question "When are we going home?" to which I replied when we get there.  I know he wanted a solid answer but I didn't have one.  A different mom would have given him some closure, a different mom wouldn't have taken him out of school to go on the adventure. But he doesn't have a different mom.  He has me. And I say I don't know when we will be back to the house but you are home.  A home with people who love you and a world that is awaiting you.  James bought him a compass, good call Pappa! When he was sad he figured out which direction we needed to drive to get home.  His home sickness also taught him how to use the map more effectively.  See good things can come out of uncomfortable situations. And when he was sledding down the White Sands and surfing in Malibu, he wasn't asking about home.

 E, age 11, started missing home about a month and a half before we arrived home.  E knew we would be home before fall, so he was along for the ride.  He was definitely anxious to have a more reliable internet connection and computer access.  As much as he and I LOVE nature we also LOVE our technology.  Our most annoying conversations involved him asking to use electronic devices and wifi and me telling him no.  You can see why we were both annoyed.

I didn't really miss home.  I had moments of missing my friends.  I do have awesome friends but they don't all live near my house, so even when I am at the house, I miss my friends.  I had moments of missing fresh berries, eggs, and lettuce from the garden.  But, I love being on the road. I loved seeing all the new places, plants, and animals.  I loved the conversations James and I had about rock formations.  I love being on the road.


James had many days when he missed the Red and climbing with his friends.  Equally he had just as much fun hanging out with his crazy family that he loves dearly and contemplating never leaving Yosemite Valley.  James' worries centered around the car running well and landing a job when we get back.  He has a strong sense of needing to provide above and beyond the call of duty. 

In the top photo James is comforting T in one of the hard moments.  Our good moments outweighed the sad so know we are human and had frustrating moments but then open another post and read some good stuff!