School Mural Painting; making progress

I've only been able to work on the school mural once last week and once this week for a few hours. Slowly but surely though it's coming along. 

January 7

January 11

January 22

I worked for about an hour and a half on just the mountain. I'm starting to feel a bit anxious about it. It's such a big painting that anything odd, or out of place isn't going to be something easy to hide. Also I haven't found a good reference photo to use for the foreground mountain so I'm pretty much making it up. After last night I'm pretty sure I'm doing a lousy job of it too. Considering there will be black letters over most of the painting I'm also struggling with how much detail I need to put into that foreground mountain. Too much and then I'm afraid it will visually take away from the words. I think every artist struggles with problems in the midst of their work that they may not have anticipated, unless of course they did a whole butt load of research and planning ahead of time. I'm too ADD for that. 

There you go, there's the progress so far. Spring Break begins March 8th which is my self imposed deadline. I'm still optimistic that I'll be done by then. Cross your fingers. 

P.S. - Do you find it as ironic as I do that I'm painting a mountain range for a school in the Kansas plains? 

Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Colorado Springs.

After we left Pike's Peak Saturday morning we skipped down the road a bit to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. I have always wanted to see Mesa Verde but right now that's just a little too far away but these were a good alternative. 

If you are ever looking for a good place to go to on vacation I would highly recommend Colorado Springs. There are so many things to do in this area that are so close together. We were able to hit four different locations in one day and we still took an afternoon break at the hotel. 

We were able to walk through most of the structures and see some of the artifacts and get explanations about how the "apartments" were set up. These cliff dwellings were built by the ancient Anasazi people. Yap's checking out some grain grinding stones above and a grain bin is below. 

This is part of the kiva, an underground ceremonial area. 

This is a wall of a three family apartment. The holes are where logs would have been that created the floors and ceilings. The rooms themselves were extremely small; I'd guess roughly 6x6 in some cases with the ceilings being less than 5 feet tall. Either the Anasazi Indians 

Here we are patiently waiting to climb a ladder to check out a second story room. 

These are some petroglyphs that were roughly 12 feet above the ground. The meanings aren't clear but are believed to be symbols for rain. 

Not only are there ancient cliff dwellings at the Manitou site but there is also a pueblo that has been renovated into a museum/gift shop. 

I have ALWAYS wanted to try and bake bread in one of these! Anyone willing to build one in my back yard? LOL 

Bowls 1300 A.D. 

Aren't. These. Gorgeous?!

While some women drool over Fiesta ware, THIS is what I wish I had in my cabinets! I am such a sucker for a beautiful artifact. 

By now it's about lunchtime on our Saturday Colorado excursion and we still had two places left to go that day! We squeezed a lot into one day but there are so many things to do in this town that we could go back for another weekend and visit totally different places! 

Big thumbs up for Colorado Springs! 

Pike's Peak!! (and a very embarrassing moment)

Did you know that Zebulon Pike never reached the top of Pike's Peak? True.  In 1806 he tried only to be caught in a snowstorm on the mountainside. He turned back declaring the mountain unclimbable. Yet, 14 years later Pike's Peak was reached by young Edwin James. So why is Pike's Peak named after Pike rather than James? Well, there was already a James Peak so the mountain was named after the "discoverer" of the peak, Pike. 

We spent last weekend in Colorado Springs, CO with our main goal of reaching Pike's Peak. Thank goodness it's easier to do than 200 years ago! We were able to ride the Cog railway up to the top in about an hour. There was no way I was hiking to the top with a 3 year old and two 8 (almost) year olds! Yip was kind of disappointed that we were riding a train rather than hiking but I promised him if he still wanted to try it in about 10 years or so, then I would be game! Our tour guide later explained that the railway runs 12 months a year and sometimes the drifts at the top of the mountain get packed down like cement which they clear with dynamite. Then Yip was grumpy that we weren't there to see that!! (so was I!) 

There are only three cog railways in the US. Cog railways are more popular in Switzerland where you need to climb many more steep inclines. The cogs on the middle rail are similar to watch gears and they catch to prevent the train sliding back down the mountain. You have to reserve tickets ahead of time and we had planned to catch the 9:20 train. Luckily we were running early that morning (Mountain time helped there) and was able to just catch the first train of the day at 8:10. I didn't even get a chance to pack toys or anything for the ride up to keep Yahoo busy. 

This was the boy's position on most of the ride up, looking right out the window. They didn't want to miss a thing and we even saw three deer.  Yahoo wasn't content to look out the window though, after twenty minutes or so she was Miss Wiggles. It was tough getting her to stay in her seat and be patient without anything to play with. Overall though she did stellar! 

Along the way are plenty of signs to let us know just how high we'd gone. 10,000 feet seems huge compared to the fact I grew up in a place with an elevation just under 800 feet. 

There are reservoirs up the mountain that are just gorgeous! In fact there is a couple that lives on the mountain during the summer who's job is to watch over the reservoirs. What a place to live! Sixty miles from anywhere and their driveway is 17 miles long. I could do that! 

Finally we get above the trees for a gorgeous view. 

Once above timber line the climate is like that of the Arctic tundra. No trees grow here and the Arctic grass, if I remember correctly, only grows an inch or so every 100 years. We could still see wagon tracks made over 100 years ago! 

Snow!! 

Pike's Peak isn't the tallest mountain in Colorado, not even close. What makes it famous is that's pretty much the first tall mountain you reach when you hit the mountains and at the top it is a wonderfully unobstructed 360 degree view! See the horizon above? See the fuzziness just above the horizon? That's Kansas! 

The top of Pike's Peak is COLD!! It was only in the 30's and it was windy and freezing!!! We had on lots of layers but what I totally forgot to pack were hats and mittens. Needless to say we spent a lot of time inside. 

I totally forgot to take pictures of this but at the top of Pike's Peak is a gift shop (of course) that sells the best doughnuts! They are made at the top of the mountain with a special high altitude recipe. In fact the recipe has been tried at lower elevations but doesn't work. They were wonderful! 

Now, for the most embarrassing moment of my life as a mother. 

A little backstory; My kids enjoy watching a PBS series called Inside Nature's Giants. I've never watched all the episodes, just bits and pieces. When they watch these shows I usually sneak away to run on my treadmill. My sister passed on the link so I figured there wasn't anything horrible in the shows. Anything educational is great in my book.  

Anyway, on our way down the mountain we ended up sitting next to this guy here. 

He's from Long Island, New York and he and DR talked a bit about their jobs. It was really interesting to hear DR explain just what a grain elevator is for to someone who had absolutely no agriculture background or experience! After a while, this guy and Yap were talking, I was busy keeping Yahoo in one spot so I wasn't really paying attention to what they were talking about until Mr. Long Island breaks out in hysterical laughter!! 

Come to find out Yap had been quoting nature facts to him from Inside Nature's Giants. 

And Yap said, "Did you know that a sperm whale's penis is very flexible so they can mate in practically any position?" 

Oh. My. Goodness.

I was soooooo utterly embarrassed. 

I guess we need to talk about a few topics that are NOT okay in public! 

Tune in tomorrow for more Colorado pics! 

Bullet Holes and Mountain Slopes

To begin our trip to New Mexico we left on a Thursday right after the boys got home from school and drove about half the distance and found a hotel. Then on Friday morning we got up early and headed off. Around lunchtime we rolled into the little town of Cimarron, New Mexico. A little town with a big history. Cimarron is the home of the St. James Hotel a stopping place for some of the most legendary figures of the Wild West.

 Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Jesse James, Bat Masterson, Bill Cody, Governor (and author) Lew Wallace were just some of the famous customers of the hotel.

The hotel featured about three rooms furnished the way they would have been in the 1800's when these men would have stayed. I just love that bed. Fancy! 

 I like the idea of a fireplace in your hotel room. Why can't the Best Western do that?

 But the real story of the St. James Hotel is the bar where you can still see the bullet holes left by numerous gunfights in the tin ceiling. There were probably a dozen all together. My boys just thought that was amazing!  By the looks of the bullet holes I'm betting that pretty stained glass window probably isn't original!

The hotel is still a hotel and you can still rent a room for the night but be warned! The St. James is supposedly haunted by the men murdered there. A list of the gunfights were listed on the back of the hotel's restaurant's menu. Yep, the Wild West was really wild as the St. James history proves.

As much as we would have liked to stick around the St. James looking for ghosts, our goal was Taos so we hit the road again for a couple more hours and after checking into our hotel and asking some of the locals we found the perfect spot to go sledding in the Carson National Forest. Oh, I think these pics speak for themselves and explain just how much fun we had, no ski tickets, no crowds just lots of fast and bumpy fun.

 Yap

Yip

This is only half the hill we slid down!

Oh, and we adults didn't hold back either! My sister Officer.

Yahoo and I...of course she had enough when she realized she couldn't walk by herself in all that snow and I wouldn't let her go down on the sled by herself. She's a bit stubborn.

My brother in law Marvel Man..

...and DR. You know, I think there are times, like these, when this vacation was a lot more fun for the adults than for the kids! Who says you have to go to ski resort to have fun in the snow?

Colorado!! Part 1

Over the weekend we decided to make a whirlwind trip to see the mountains. Harvest and school will be starting soon and DR wanted to get to Colorado before life got too busy. We started out at 5am on Saturday morning.

The Colorado border is less than two hours away and once we passed the state line, I admit, I was a bit disappointed. So far, Colorado looked a lot like Kansas. This was our first glimpse of the mountains; a flat plain then all the sudden there they were.

Before we drove into the San Luis National Forest, slightly south of Pueblo,we stopped for lunch with the mountains behind us.

Yip and Yap were excited and could hardly wait to get on a the mountain trail!

We found a family friendly trail, not too hard but really rustic by Indiana standards, and the trees were everywhere! Aspens and pines towering above us with a mountain stream bubbling along the trail. The smell of the air was sweet and clean. I felt as though I was in a Louis L'Amour book!

The boys couldn't be stopped once they got on the mountain. They found some walking sticks and blazed ahead leaving Mom and Dad in the dust!

Of course, Yahoo wouldn't be outdone and she did her fair share of climbing, walking and running the trail too.

It was a very relaxing couple of hours on the trail. I was at the end most of the time just because I really enjoyed taking pictures like these of my family!

I didn't take all the pictures though, DR did snap a few of me too! Not often that moms are in pictures is it?

We spent a few hours here then drove on into the National Forest a bit and stumbled upon one of the most interesting sights I've ever come across; Bishop Castle, official website here. It deserves a post all its own!

Colorado Part 2 coming soon!