Support Group

Write or Die group was tonight and I love these friends.

I've only worked on five pages in the last three days, but the support is so motivating.

And they make me laugh and think. 

Sitting outside on a summer night sharing writing ideas with three friends from 30ish to 50ish all over the country via zoom. Who would have seen this potential for gathering 18 months ago?

I didn't want to go inside after our call ended because the night was so nice.

Dan is out of town and both boys had friends over.

I rode the electric bike all over the neighborhood. It was perfect.

It's Mostly Junk

When all the mailboxes are dangling wide open, you know the locks have been jimmied and the mail's been stolen. Seriously, so annoying. 

Fortunately I got the mail after we got home from our trip, so only Monday's delivery was taken.

I was mostly worried about not getting my Benjamin Moore peel-and-stick paint samples... 

but fortunately those were delivered later to my porch by FedEx.

Kitchen cabinet colors for Pagosa. I'm leaning toward the one on the left.

 

Moving Day

We helped Marty and Lizzie move out of their first apartment today.

They'll be living at home for a month before moving into their Lehi apartment. 

Lehi will be closer to work for Lizzie when school starts and not too far for Marty to commute to BYU.

Lizzie, Mary Ellen (Lizzie's mom) and I all worked together to pass a very detailed cleaning check.

Dan, Marty and Mark (Lizzie's dad) got the furniture loaded into each of our trucks.

Lizzie had already moved their boxes when she travelled back and forth from school last week so a bulk of the work had already been done.

Isn't it great that work is actually fun when you're side-by-side with people you love!

First Day Jitters

 First day as Primary Chorister and by the end I was sweating buckets. Literally drenched.

The kids were darling and I'm excited to have this calling. Singing Primary songs is always a sure way to feel God's love. Primary is such a happy place!

I'm looking forward to getting to know the children in our neighborhood and ward by name and thinking of creative ways to teach new songs. I have a wonderful partner and it will be nice to share the responsibilities with someone. I already love her and admire her talent.

Saturday night I felt like I was preparing for my first day of work. I prepared my props all day and planned my outfit -- made more difficult by needing to wear a long skirt to hide the scabs on my knees and legs leftover from the Spartan! But for all my nerves, it actually went well and the time sped by (only one hour total!). Getting the first day behind me feels good because now I know what to expect for next time. 

I came home and made a playlist of the songs for the year. The whole family got to listen to them on repeat for several hours this afternoon. At one point the Soukup kids came over to play with Kershaw, and after I came inside, Dan complained, "I just listened to 'I Want to be a Missionary Now' at least five times in a row!" Ha! But I've got to work to learn the songs so I'm prepared to teach them! The whole Shaeffer family is going to get a Primary song review. 

Home

 We woke up early enough to walk up to and around our property and down to the river before we had to clean the trailers and say goodbye. Definitely felt like we could live here forever. I would love to stay all summer and each week hike Cimarrona watching how the flowers change. Would love to sow wildflower seeds across our hill and see if they grow. Also some wild raspberries along a fence. 

I would need another pile of novels, a field guide on wildflowers, an identification book for rocks & minerals, and an astronomy guide to learn all the constellations. And that's it. I'd be so content.

But our lives aren't yet in that season and I don't want to rush through the current one. We have Nick under our roof to enjoy for the next two years, Chris coming home and I suspect he'll be in and out frequently at least during his freshman year. It will be wonderful having his light back in our home. And we still get Marty and Lizzie close by for a while. So there is much to look forward to. 

In spite of hating to leave Colorado and feeling like we could live in the mountains forever, off the grid with minimal demands on our time (#church), when we walked through our front door back on Haven Lane, it felt so good to be home.

Cimarrona Peak

Thought we'd hike a couple miles up the Cimarrona Trail today.

As we got started Dan suggested we go three miles. 

But I was imagining Mt. Olympus three miles and didn't want to exert that much energy.

As it turned out, the trail is a gentle grade and made the climb more like a walk through the mountain covered in wildflowers. It was so beautiful, it was easy to keep going!

And before we knew it we were at the saddle and had hiked 6.5 miles.

 

3.6 miles was this cool arch!

4.5 miles the trail ran along a steep ledge (ugh!) but a great view of Williams Reservoir.

The mountainside was littered with dead trees fallen and standing. 

But new trees were growing.

Made it to where the trail divides. One way to the Continental Divide. 

Another path around Cimarrona to a lake. We stopped here and felt great about it. 

Ran a lot of the way down. I've discovered I kinda like trail running.

If its soft and not rocky or treacherous.

Our last night in Pagosa. We're sad to have to leave!

Pagosa for Two

Bike ride to the Middle Fork trailhead today.

This would be a GREAT camping spot! 

A beautiful meadow or shady soft woodsy spots to choose from, 

with a river just a few yards away. Or a great picnic spot.

(I think we might decide to always go on a picnic for lunch, just to explore new spots.)

 

After our ride we drove to Williams Reservoir for exploring and a picnic. 

I thought it would be fun to circumnavigate the lake... just in case there was a rope swing or something exciting on the other side we were missing. There wasn't.

And I wouldn't recommend circling it... splashing through the river wasn't bad, we'd just done the Spartan after all. But walking through two herds of cows in a swampy bog trying to stay as far from the bull as possible we decided in the future we'll picnic on the other side then turn back the way we came! 

Lots of kayakers, paddle boarders and fisher people out today. 

It cooled off, more like typical cooler Pagosa weather. 

We went up to the new ranch in the evening after the workmen had gone home and walked around measuring, thinking and planning. 

I finished reading a book Lizzie recommended as her favorite from childhood, 
Miracles on Maple Hill. It was the perfect book to read at Pagosa because it was all about moving to a small house in the hills where Marly's mom had spent summers and now their family was visiting hoping to heal her dad from his war PTSD. Marly and her brother spend their days exploring the woods and farms, learning about the country animals, flowers and life from their kind neighbors.

 I'm out of books, but luckily Dan just finished his, so we're swapping. He's going to read 

News of the World and I'll read The Bomber Mafia. 

Hot Springs and House

It's still hot hot hot but the boys wanted to go to the hot springs in town.

I needed to check out the paint store for additional cabinet color options, 

so it worked out perfectly. I dropped them off (Dan was happy to skip the paint store and go the hot springs!) and an hour later we met back up for lunch. The pizza place in town is really good! 

We dashed back to camp in time for the boys to clean up themselves and their trailer and then say goodbye to the mountain life. We had to take them to Durango for their flight back home since all four of them were working the next day. Dan and I are staying on our own until Saturday!

The trip back and forth to the Durango was a little bit tedious. Let's just say we need another playlist downloaded. But they landed in SLC about the time we made it back to Pagosa. Not bad.

Dan and I had dinner at an Italian Place on the west side of town that was delish. 

No photos of our activities today, so photos of the new ranch instead!

The Box, The Falls, and 31

This morning Dan and I hiked to the bridge through Box Canyon, then after breakfast went to the falls with the boys and one million other vacationers. I've never seen so many people up there.

Another hot day so the cold river was welcoming. I only got wet to my knees until we started hiking back and I was wishing I had gotten wet like the rest of the group. I ran down to the river and dunked in to cool off. So glad I did! Made the walk back much more comfortable. 

I've already read a lot on this trip! One of Lizzie's recommended children's books for her classroom (Wish) and two books that have been on my shelf for a while (News of the World and Midnight Library). 

It's not raining every afternoon like it often does here, but we still look forward to reading and napping each afternoon!

After dinner and a campfire, we played 31. Noah won and claimed the $20 offering from Dan.

They negotiated some WiFi time up at the new ranch even though it was after dark and they were gone for almost an hour last night and Dan went looking for them, concerned and then angry.

Once we discussed expectations, we sent them on their way tonight with the agreement they'd be back in 45 minutes. But 20 minutes later they were back. Someone mentioned skin walkers while they were sitting in the dark dark dark all by themselves in the middle of the woods so they freaked themselves out and came back early! 😂