weekends are for playing

We finally hit a weekend where the only plan was to roll with it. The weather's turned from full on summer to July Monsoon season where rain and or thunderstorms roll in most afternoons. Our rain jackets are constantly with us and usually on by 2pm. On Saturday we cruised to town to let the dogs swim in the raging San Miguel and surf a few rapids then Dave hit the golf course with a few friends while I had a quiet afternoon with the tired pups.  I managed to hem a few pairs of pants and make this snazzy holder for my knitting needle stash, a side for my double pointed needles (dpn's) and a side for my circular needles. 

From Knitting

From Knitting

 

From Knitting

Today we grabbed the dogs, rain jackets and climbing gear and met Dave and Sally by Society Turn for a bit of climbing while avoiding the storms. You can see all photo's from this weekend here...

rainy days

we're on a pattern of rain here that we haven't seen since the summer of 2007. This year we are actually getting full on rainy days. In the last two years we pretty much just got small afternoon showers that lasted less then a hour and this season we have woken up and gone to sleep in rain.

There really is a box canyon at the end of this road but today it was fully engulfed in the clouds. If you look really carefully you can also see a bit of Mayhem in the 4Runner.

I did manage to get these shots of the monsters on a reccent sunny day

Chaos loves to pose for the camera... I think it's all the treats he gets for it...

Mayhem requires a fast shot and you might getting him standing still...

or you can just get a nice view of puppy bums scampering down the trail.

rainy day adventures....

um.... guys... i think it's gonna rain again...

I'm not sure why chaos was so concerned about it raining since he spent much of his time Saturday in the lake. Meg and Sam came to town and we escaped our house and headed up to Alta Lakes. It was a rainy afternoon and we set up our sunshade(ok.... rainshade), had a small fire and enjoyed a day by the lake with the three goldens.

we had started the day out right with a good breakfast of gluten free pancakes and finished with a visit to Fat Alley BBQ. Oh yeah... there's a small festival going on but for once we skipped it all! All four of us just needed a chill day watching some cave man tv (aka the campfire) and letting the monsters swim... Chaos spent most of the day yesterday recovering on the couch from all the fun!

gondola cabin #38

we camped out thursday night at the woods lake campsite. I had a late afternoon meeting that ran into the evening so dave drove out and set up camp while chaos scouted the area. We drove out after the meeting in a rain storm that never really let up. Although it was a sweet site we hung in the tent and watched Into the Wild on the ipod touch. There's something about a rainy night that makes me love this movie.
We awoke the next morning to more rain. Mornings are usually sunny but it was pouring. Chaos and I ventured out of the tent for a short walk and were drenched. we left camp set up trying to be optimistic that we would be back for another drier evening with friends that night and headed in for breakfast at the Blue Jay.
We headed into town and met Jess at the Farmers Market to pick up some cheeses and other goodies for that evening. the plan had been to have our friends camp out with us on friday night to celebrate my birthday but the rain changed our plan and we invited them to the house for dinner instead.
We headed up the gondola with Jess and all ventured out at the top to enjoy the break in the sky. Jess headed down to Mountain Village while Dave and I caught cabin #38 back to Telluride and the 4runner. He asked if I wanted my birthday present then handed me a bubblegum machine ring. I took it out and asked what it meant. After I put on the black glass ring he pulled out the real ring. The Bigelow Range are the mountains that our camp bordered and that are best viewed from Sugarloaf. While we were back east this spring Dave had called Liz, the designer, about the ring. Liz has a great line of jewelry and was eager to make Dave a ring. They worked on the details and the ring arrived last monday in telluride. I love those mountains and it is a great symbol for us.
our friends came over for dinner and no one noticed the small detail... we had been pretty adamant that we were on the 10 year program that his older brothers had followed so he caught pretty much everyone off guard. I guess last birthday's kitchen aid mixer had to be topped somehow!

We spent the weekend having fun with friends, attending a wine tasting and a Citizen Cope concert and spreading news. Thank goodness for facebook and the blog or else we would have killed our cell minutes for the month! Tonight we had ice cream in the famous kitchen aid ice cream attachment and enjoyed a quiet night after a busy weekend.

No details have been decided but stay tuned. Any ideas for a fun event.... must include one fabulous golden retriever....

rainy camping and film festival

the labor day weekend has been home to the telluride film festival for the last 35 years. we hit one of the films at the festival and also camped out with a group of friends. Chaos even got to bring his friend Budo along for the fun. The afternoon sky was hard to read and we all decided to go despite the dark clouds above. We made our way to the same spot as the week before but with a bigger crowed.

This weekend we had 8 people and 2 monsters for a night in the woods. We had a great night and the rain held off until 2am at which point we (mostly) agreed that it was time for bed. Chaos was still ready for more action. He loves being around people and Alissa was on tail patrol to ensure chaos kept his long fur out of the fire and we were all on guard to ensure Chaos and Budo stayed away from our marshmallows. We did let them lick the plates to help keep scents down for the active bear population. Although I am sure chaos would warn us before a bear swiped through our tent wall to get to us and our smells of squeeze cheese, potatoes, hot dogs, chocolate and graham crackers.

Scott and Alissa even brought a glow in the dark frisbee for some entertainment. We found other fun too like chopping up the old downed trees for additional fuel for our campfire and making smores. The next morning I got up early and took the dogs for a walk in the rain. Chaos had slept with us and Budo had snuggled with Jared and Jess and Chaos definitely woke them when we grabbed Budo that morning! The monsters plodded along the road not noticing two elk 20 feet away from them. After the walk and some breakfast the soggy monsters help to wake up the seven other campers by pushing tents. Dave and Maggie even ended up with a small lake we dubbed "lake daggie" at one end of their tent. We all broke camp down quickly and made way to the blue jay for a warm breakfast.

Sunday we managed to get 10 of us all together for American Violet which premiered at the festival. It was stunning movie about drugs, corrupt politics and race in Texas. I wish I could tell you it will be in theaters soon but that's still unknown. The movie is based a true story and the family it was based on was in Telluride as were the director, producer and some of the actors including Will Patton who played the coach in Remember the Titans. It reminded me of that and also of a John Grisham flick with the suspense and legal drama.

a little bit of rain...

double rainbows from our deck...

new shoes from birthday monies... which didn't get used today

because of said rain

Telluride Film Festival

Labor Day weekend and one of the more famous festivals~ the Telluride Film Festival. The highlights of this festival include people watching and free movies in the park. Last night we found a spot with friends among hundreds of others in our crowded little park and sat under the rain filled sky to watch "Into the Wild". We'd both read the book by Jon Krakauer years ago. Sean Penn just directed the movie that is going to be released so the rest of you can see it on Sept 21.

At times the sky opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. We'd driven into town and had the tent in the truck so we grabbed our tent fly and ground cloth to help cover what our rain jackets couldn't. Props us lasting through the film go to our LL Bean rain fly. Also what better way to watch a movie (based on a true tale) of the wilderness then in the rain?

rainy days

we're on a long stretch of rainy days in Telluride. It started as days that began with sun then a shower at 2pm and we're now in full out rainy days. I had picked up a new rain jacket at Bean's while back East and am amazed at how much I've used it.

This is how we used to spend sunny summer afternoons~ enjoying Marg's at La CocinaLuz downtown. Now we go to town and get caught in the rain so enjoy a wet ride home on the gondola.

Other then giving our rain wear a workout we've been pretty mellow. I've done a bit of traveling for work and Dave's commanding the Jedi forces while his commander is out of town on his vacation. August should bring excitement with Gary coming to town and hopefully a visit from Team Frisco if all works out!