On January 17th, we packed up the family in the Excursion dropped the dogs off with Grammy and Grampy and headed for Arizona. About six hundred and thirty miles and 12 hours later we were in Colorado Springs for the night. Oddly enough this was a rather routine drive, nothing broke down, no events that were notable. The girls took turns with the Leapster, watched DVDs, played with their stuffed animals and sang songs. Not one instance of "Are we there yet", I'm sure that I'll hear plenty of that in years to come... We got to our hotel and hit the swimming pool, went back to our room, cleaned up and passed out. Day two, we logged about 800 miles in the neighborhood of 14 hours to get to Benson, AZ. Only thing to note on this leg of the journey is that Santa Fe, NM is the home to the worst drivers in North America and although the city has a stereotypical desert southwest look, the streets are laid out like a web that was spun by an ADD arachnid on a diet of Red Bull and crack.
 |
| WE'RE READY FOR BED... WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! |
 |
| 1 Minute later... |
 |
| Hopefully there is a child under there or we're headed back to Colorado Springs. |
 |
| Santa Fe... seriously |
Then January 19th, Grandpa Dean's Funeral. We met up with most of the family at his old house in Saint David then off to the Church to send him off. The service was really nice with a mix of humor, sorrow and reverence. Before, I was glad that I got to know Grandpa Dean but in the presence of so many people that knew Dean Goodman throughout his life, I felt honored that I got to know a man that meant so much to so many.
The girls had a good time as they had plenty of cousins around their age to play with. Adjacent to Grandpa Dean's house is a pasture with cows and goats, so the kids had a blast feeding the kids.. er, baby goats... trimmings off the shrubs. The girls brought their ponies, so there was a ponyfest inside the house along with the (mostly) cheerful shrieks of children playing. I would imagine that is how Dean and Bonnie would like to remember their house; as one filled with love and laughter. That is how a good book should end.
We took a quick trip through Tombstone, which is home to one of the most memorable tales from the old west, but is now mostly a tourist trap. It was fun to walk through and see the old buildings and soak up some of the history, then it was time to head back and hang out with family and rest up for our marathon trip back to Montana. We had a good time catching up with everyone and seeing faces that we haven't seen in a while (we need to make time to visit more often).
 |
| Playing in front of the church... probably just glad not to be strapped into their carseats for another long haul. |
 |
| doing what kids do best |
 |
| Back at the house, Luke was playing his own brand of My Little Pony.. not sure what it's called but I like it! |
 |
| The 3 Amigas! |
 |
| Eating tacos, talking about ponies. |
 |
| Audrey and Nevaeh playing |
We took an extra day to get home as we left the hotel a bit
late and really didn't feel like pushing it. (Although, due to cerebral flatulence
I did manage to get pulled over for doing 84 in a 75... mind you I had the
cruise control set for about 77, oversized tires will do that to ya. I received
a warning, yay) Again, it was a very non-Weston sort of trip. Nothing broke
down, nothing blew up... weird. We stopped off in Denver on day 2 of our trip
back and went to the Denver Aquarium. Along with being a good getaway from the
car seats, it was pretty awesome. We got to see all sorts of aquatic life, a
tiger and even fed some stingrays. Audrey and Madison were standoffish but Zoie
was all about feeding the stingrays. We bought some feeding fish and I helped her
feed a few, then Madison decided she wanted to give it a try. I put my hand
around hers with a fish and plunged them into the water. One of the larger Rays
headed right for us and as it came up to get some lunch, Madison let out a
screech and yanked her hand out of the water. The poor stingray had just fallen
victim to the old Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown trick. The
stingray was half out of the water and slapping its fins on the side of the
pool, and I was probably still laughing a little bit... Madison might be
scarred for life, we'll see.
 |
| Aquanauts, ASSEMBLE! |
 |
| Buttons? Yes, I will push them. |
 |
| Tony the Tiger was close enough to touch... if it wasn't for the 3" polyglass. |
 |
| Zoie feeding the stingrays |
 |
| Daddy would like to feed this Stingray! |
 |
| Not too bad outside for a January day in Denver |
