Whirlwind few weeks

I am sorry for not blogging much over the past few weeks. It's been crazy busy here with my brother over and then Christmas. I will try to keep it fairly brief, so much has been happening that I think I may begin to waffle somewhat!

My brother Daniel coming over to visit was so fantastic. It was great getting to spend time with him and to go off and sightsee all over again. We made it to Red Rocks amphitheater, Buffalo Bills Grave and Museum and Lookout Mountain. We hiked in the Evergreen Snow and best of all we hit Winter Park Mountains on Snowmobiles along with Nics cousin Neil. The snowmobiling was incredible and the view up there like nothing I could have dreamed of. Shooting along up a mountain pass on a snowmobile really is indescribable. My vocabulary isn't big enough so you'll have to put up with these words: exciting, beautiful, scary and fun! My brother had a ball too and despite not being able to drive a car he kept up with us easily. At the top of Corona Pass is a natural bowl where we got to have a play with the snowmobiles. They are relatively easy to drive but turning is much harder but super fun as you have to lean into the turns, much like you would on a motorbike. The snow had come down heavily the night before and as the first group out that day we hit a fresh trail and a fresh bowl which was the icing on the cake. Heres a short Vid of Daniel (I am just in front of Dan with Ethan on the back). It was just a blast and I want to go again!

When Daniel left for the UK I shed more than a few tears. We all missed him and miss our folks over there. However I had Christmas to gear up for and had more work than usual to do! I am all for shortcuts at Christmas dinner time. I stock up on ready made cranberry sauce, Christmas Cake, Brandy Butter and Mince pies. The US don't do most of those items here so I had to get my lazy butt in gear and make it all from scratch. The cake was made back in October and had been being fed since then. All I needed to do is start decorating during Christmas week. I began with Marzipan a week before and that went just great. All that was left was to ice the cake. I went to about five different shops to find Glycerine for the icing, eventually the beauty isle in Sprouts Farmers Market came up trumps so I could finally ice my cake. Ok, so icing a cake proved harder than it looks and we had to plump for a slightly rough, snowy style finish- all planned of course! The turkey was sourced (Organic, Free Range) and was brined alla Nigella Spicy, Superjuicy recipe two days prior. Christmas day dawned and with snow still on the ground from a few days ago it was set to be a pretty, white one. Stockings ripped open and presents done, the clean up began and the cooking orgy began! Neil and Mel were due for Christmas lunch which was brilliant as Christmas isn't right without cooking for guests. I skyped my folks in the UK and just managed to not bulb, had my first Bucks Fizz and nibbled on a few mini mince pies in puff pastry with brandy butter (turned out yum)! The dinner was pretty fabulous (no problem with self esteem here)! Juicy turkey with stuffing and homemade mulled wine Cranberry Sauce, roast pots, roast beef and yorkshires, veg and gravy followed by Xmas pud and custard and homemade Christmas Cake. We ate and drank way too much. During the prep, the snow started falling heavily- A REAL white Christmas for us!

Since then Nic has been off work and we have been mostly doing sweet nothing so decided to head off for the day. We went to Alderfer in Evergreen to hike in the snow with the dogs followed by a scrummy lunch at Keys on the Green which is the golf clubs restaurant by the lake. Evergreen lake is a stunning view of greenery and water in the summer, the restaurant sits by the first tee and the veranda is open and warm, elk wander to cool off and drink at the waters edge. In the winter it turns into a real winter wonderland. The lake opens for ice skating and kids slide down the sledding hill screaming and squealing with laughter. The restaurant is like a cozy log cabin with a roaring fire and has views of the sledding hill and snow covered mountains. After scoffing our faces today we headed off to the sledding hill for Ethans first proper sledding experience. He was so brave and had a brilliant time, going farther and faster each time, going backwards (nutter) and just being a crazy boy. Of course myself and Nic got in on the action too and Nic, as always tried to go father and faster than anyone! We had so much fun and came home tired and happy, ready for a slice of Christmas Cake and a cup of PG Tips (we are still brits after all)!

Tomorrow we head off to Neil and Mels house for homemade fish and chips and a good natter as we always have with them!

Television

Television has been an issue for me here.

The TV scheduling and services in the UK are FAR superior to the US versions. We have direct TV here, which is similar to Virgin in the UK but rubbish. The guide view, usability and on demand are pretty terrible and to be honest just frustrate me.

On top of which, the series here are pretty terrible. There is very little worth watching and I find myself just watching news and weather mostly. That in itself isn't a problem but finding news that DOESNT just report US news is a challenge. You can hear all about a theft in Denver, shootings just about everywhere and the local weather again and again. But, finding news on the UK agreeing to bomb Syria or updates on the Pistorius case is more of a challenge. I have finally found the BBC news channel which at least has a more balanced viewpoint.

The BBC and ITV channels in the UK, constantly are filming new and pretty great, dramas and series, they put time and effort into intelligent and varied programming, none of which you get here.

The US could learn a huge amount from the UK broadcasters, thats if the US audience would appreciate it?

Moab

Wow, what an amazing place Moab is. We spent Thanksgiving weekend there and I simply didn't want to leave.


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We began our road trip on the Tuesday before thanksgiving, bags loaded, child and husband plus all four dogs; all loaded. Luckily we have a big truck to fit it all in. Three and a half hours drive, saw our first stay over. We spent our first night at 'Hotel Colorado' in Glenwood Springs. The hotel itself was pretty nice, the formal areas were lovely and the room was fine but nothing special. The dogs were a total pain! All too excited to toilet on lead before bed, they had us up at 2am, down 4 floors to get to the gardens. Shattered the next day, it was lucky we didn't have much planned bar chilling and traveling. Glenwood Springs has a natural hot springs pool, so this was where we spent the morning (after a scrummy local breakfast of course). The pools were lovely, from a super hot one, down to a cooler pool (still hot though). Sitting there- in the hot water with the snowy mountains all around was just wonderful and all the family had a great time.

Glenwood (stock photo)

Back on the road, and about three hours later we arrived at the Utah Border. We stopped to get some photos in extremely windy conditions- it was super blowy out and we hoped that the wind would drop for the next few days. We started to get low on fuel at this point and begun to worry as there was NOTHING close by! Luckily we made it to do next fuel station where we topped up the beast. The next stretch of road was starting to look like we expected Moab to, red rocks and towering mountains. Soon we arrived at Dianes house. Diane is an agility person and a friend of a friend, she has never met us but loaned us her home for the few days which was amazing and dog friendly and made the world of difference to our stay. Not only that but she had gone out of her way to pick us up tickets for the Fiery Furnace hike that next day, plus baked us a homemade pumpkin bread and left treats for the dogs. We popped out to get Pizza and then settled down for a quiet evening in as were pretty tired. 

Utah Border

The next morning was Thanksgiving. We woke early and got ready for our morning hike. We were headed to Arches National Park for the well known Fiery Furnace guided hike. The dogs stayed at the house for this one as dogs aren't allowed on the trails at the park. As we arrived at the park we were hit by the sheer size of it all. The park alone is over 76,359 acres and contains over 2000 natural 
arches. We stopped quickly at the visitors centre before taking the 30 minute drive to the meeting point for the hike. Guided tours are strongly recommended here due to the high level of people who get lost here plus the very tricky terrain. We were all warned first of all that it wasn't a strolling hike and there were some tough bits but it should be fun and would last just over three hours. The guide was really knowledgeable and we had lots of stops to chat about the landscape and how it was formed etc along the way. The hike itself was stunning and really fun, we had ledges to clim onto, cracks to jump and crevices that we had to shimmy along and through with cracks beneath us. We all had an absolute blast and got a ton of amazing photos.

That evening we had booked a traditional thanksgiving dinner at The Sunset Grill in Moab. It was a stunning restaurant overlooking Moab and we were all very excited to have our first thanksgiving dinner! The food was wonderful and plentiful, Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Squash and green beans. They restocked your plate with all you could want and we were way to full to eat our pumpkin pie afterwards so we took this to go! We had a wonderful evening and loved our first Thanksgiving.

Arches National Park

We woke early the next day again and headed off to Corona Arch. We chose this hike as we wanted to take the dogs with us. When we arrived it was freezing cold but very quiet there. We set off in ski jackets and gloves, Nic had charge of Linx and Detour and I got to hold Boo and Miss Hoaxey. The hike was just stunning, the trails were easy to follow as previous hikers had put rock markers all along the route. There were a few tricky bits where you had to rock scramble and even one spot where a ladder had been installed to get up the face of the rock, as we had the dogs, we skirted around the edge of the rock instead which worked just fine. After a while we reached the arch, it was simply huge and we spent some time here just chilling, eating snacks and getting some photos. By this time it was starting to get busier so we started back along the trail back to the car. We met a LOT more people heading out on the hike by now and were really pleased we had got out so early. Back at the car and we had very tired woofs after our 2 hour hike.On the way back to Moab we stopped to see the Indian Writing along the Potash road, the road runs along next to the Colorado River and in itself is quite something special, we got some good photos of the Petroglyphs and Pictographs and then headed back to Moab. By this time we were starving so stopped for lunch at Moab Brewery. I treated myself to a few of their own ales, it was absolutely delicious and went perfectly with a scrum my burger and fries! After we needed an afternoon rest so headed back to the house to chill with the woofs.

Corona Arch

The next day was homeday and we woke in the morning to SNOW! I didn't expect snow in Moab but it was very pretty. As we now knew that Nic had to fly to London for work the next day, we decided to head off early. We stopped for breakfast in Moab before we left and Ethan started saying he felt unwell. Just before we left the restaurant he popped to the loo and came back having been sick. Poor lad then spent the whole 7 hour journey throwing up in bags in the back of the car. When we left Moab we took Highway 128 through to Cisco Ghost town, passing snow covered red mountains, cows strolling along the highway, then two cowboys riding out with their four herding dogs, the journey itself was quite an experience. We reached Cisco just before we hit the I70. Cisco was a On the way back to Moab we stopped to see the Indian Writing along the Potash road, the road runs along next to the Colorado River and in itself is quite something special, we got some good photos of the Petroglyphs and Pictographs and then headed back to Moab. By this time we were starving so stopped for lunch at Moab Brewery. I treated myself to a few of their own ales, it was absolutely delicious and went perfectly with a scrum my burger and fries! After we needed an afternoon rest so headed back to the house to chill with the woofs.
 saloon and water refiling station for the railroad in the 1880s, then in the 1920s it served as a fuel stop and drinking town and was doing pretty great. Then the I70 was built which just bypassed the town, by the 80s and 90s the town became deserted. The town was used in films such as 'Thelma and Louise' and 'Don't Come Knocking'. The houses and huts are empty of life and are falling down, trucks and cars sit rusting outside the deserted homes. Its a spooky place with a lot of rumors surrounding it but was pretty cool to see!
The drive back into Colorado is always incredible, the mountains and snow covered Rockies are inspiring and its cool to drive through the ski villages of places like Vail. Ethan coped really well and snoozed a lot and didn't complain at all. We got home in pretty good time and were pleased to be back, eve if we had inches of snow waiting to be dug on our driveway.
All in all, our Moab trip was just amazing and we can't wait to go back

Cisco House