A Star in the Family

Tiffany is getting to be known around here and in Houston. She was recently featured on KHOU-TV, Channel 11 with Sherry Williams. Here's a link to see the television clip. She was asked to create 11 gifts for under $11 each. Way to go, Tiffany! Tucker, Emma and Storie did so well, too!

http://www.khou.com/home/Saving-Cents-for-the-holidays--11-gifts-for-11-70584347.html

Mom Before Surgery

Anna put together a book of pictures to give Grandma Scott. She absolutely loved it!


Mom had been hearing a lot of stories about hospital mistakes. She decided she didn't want to be one of them. It's the OTHER leg that needs the surgery. The nurses had to clean it off, they said it would read ON and confuse the surgeons. (photo by Lilly)

Shopping With the Pros

If you're all girl, you know that shopping is second nature. Doesn't matter if you have money or not, you're out to look at all the new items, try on the latest styles and just enjoy the company. Sharing tips on wearing accessories adds to the fun of being out and about town.




Unfortunately, you won't catch all the conversation between the two little pros, and Rush did try to put in his two cents worth, but just watching them try on the hats, purses and gloves was so much fun! They would have stayed there all day if we'd let them.

No Pets

We used to have a lot of rules in our house. But over the years it has come down to only one: NO PETS. Craig's allergic to them. Especially if they have fur or stink. In the thirty-plus years that we've had children he has put up with gerbils, mice, pet rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, more rabbits, iguanas, turtles, hamsters, killer hamsters, hedge hogs, fish, snakes, frogs, frog eating snakes, a cat, cockatoos, budgies, hermit crabs and even flying squirrels to pacify whining kids that said things like, "but it followed me home, can't we keep him?" or "but he was going to be so lonely so we HAD to buy two and they're brother and sister so there won't be anymore."

Now that the kids are grown and mostly gone, Craig was happy to only deal with roaches, spiders and mosquitoes. Then Anna moved back. She brought with her a husband and four of the cutest, furriest and stinkiest little sugar gliders.

Below is a picture of another reason why Craig has a No Pets rule. It was taken about 2 a.m., in our bedroom. You may think it's really cute but now he has nightmares about sugar gliders in his bed. It's not funny. One night he tried to throw me out of bed thinking I was a sugar glider burrowing under his arm. So this is a warning to any sugar glider who may want to wander into our room at night: You are not safe!

Taylor

Dan took this of Taylor.


We grabbed a few people and drove down to see Dan and family, especially the new little one.


He sure is cute!


He took all his new visitors right in stride.


Anna's turn.


Dan


While I took this picture...


...Anna was taking this picture. Poor Guille, from all sides!!!


No family resemblance here! Unless I build up my muscles and quit shaving my beard.


Then it was time to play outside.


Avery on the tire swing.


Paola, Tucker, Sierra, Storie, Avery and Anna


Where's Paola?


Calling it a day.

July was so hot!

The only way to stay COOL was to stay inside and play with your grandma's makeup,


go outside and stay drenched,


OR put on awesome sunglasses.

My Warrior

When I dreamt of my knight in shining armour, this wasn't exactly how I had him pictured...but it will do !

You, too, can have a picture made of your warrior if you go to this link. Two of their current exhibits right now are Genghis Khan and the Terra Cotta Warriors. You'll not want to miss this one.

July was SO hot!

That's Tiffany's garden behind her, she and Paul and the kids did an awesome job with it.


Tucker "hiding" from the uncles.


Rush wouldn't be anywhere else.

Unless it's controlling the water.

Paige, Storie, Anna, Emma

The power boosters are Jeff and Anna, boosting Emma

Eliora

Emma walking on water

Jeff's turn, with Ben and Anna as boosters

Now it's Ben's turn


Avery


Eliora

Paige

Emma again. The kids could have done this ALL night!

Miller and Tiffany

Sierra and Sadie

Sadie, Ben, Abbie

The Grand Finale!

Philmont - Friday

Our last morning on Baldy.


Sometimes, strange things came in the mail to the staff.


Staff stays busy with projects. This became a castle, complete with a gate that raised and lowered and used at the Commissory.


We're thinking of using this for our Christmas cards this year. If I can just get them sent out!


I'll miss this scenic little walk to the Red Roof Inn.


The inside of the Red Roof Inn. So glad it wasn't a Pilot to Bombadier!

Miranda

It always amazes me how much room is inside a teepee. We stopped here to pick up a young scout that had damaged his knee and unable to continue on the hike. He rode back to base camp with us where there is an excellent medical facility on base. Volunteer doctors come here, mostly from the University of Kansas.


Staff lodge at Miranda. Crews make pack lines whenever they come into a camp.


The porch talk gives them important information about activities to do and camping procedures.




Crews are logged in, and logged out.


Inside is every mountain man's dream store.




No electricity, no gas lines. All meals prepared the same way as 100 years ago.

Head of Dean

Unexpected detour to Head of Dean. Another injured scout needed to be picked up but by the time we got there, he was already headed to base camp on a comp truck.




Gorgeous view from here as well as Baldy.


We're almost back to base camp. Looking towards Baldy Mountain whose top is in the clouds.


Outside the museum at base camp is this carved rock, carved by Kit Carson.


We've left Philmont and are on the way home. After living in a forest for 21 years, I love seeing the open sky.


So much to see all at once!


The colors are so different as well.


At first it looked like a sun doggie but it wasn't.


It was a real rainbow.

Philmont - Thursday

Mark orientating the crew for safe trail blazing. (a couple of pictures of the trail further down)


A new kiosk had been built, perfect for displaying geologic maps of the area.

How to eat chicken out of a can: take your pocket pliers and lid of can, bend lid to form sides, bend end of lid up to form scoop. Done, a perfect spoon.

Two crews came in, each with a burro. They're not tied up but free to eat/mow the grass.

The weather turned nasty for a few minutes, each animal carries its own raincoat.

Even the boys took shelter where they could.

It even hailed. See that little white spot in the middle? Hail.

These guys never tire of looking at rocks, who knew there's more than what meets the eye.

Looking at some of today's pictures.

It's been a long day for David.

This afternoon I made three pies for the staff. Ed is enjoying the blueberry pie.

Gene made sure he had some before he headed back to base camp. Did you know every night before Chuck Norris goes to bed he checks under his bed for Gene?

See the blue sky? See the dark heavy cloud sitting over us?

Craig and I headed down the new trail which cut through the old Baldy Town "dump." We found a few artifacts including an old tin can from the turn of the century or before. Some of the white pottery pieces had gold designs on the edge.

The new trail. This will go to the lower campsites.

Part of the trail goes along the creek and it is just beautiful, the trail and the scenery.

No, it's not the spider out of Harry Potter. They're bear bags. Baldy Town has to be very strict about smellables or bears become a big problem.

Hiking sticks...

tents...

and campers.

Wild turkeys and their young.

Each group we saw had 3 adults and a dozen young. At first I thought we were seeing one group all over the place but there's really a bunch of them out there.

I put the turkey in the middle of the picture so he would be easy to find.


Craig's video of one group of turkeys.

Craig in the meadow below Baldy Town.

Siberian iris, Craig took this one.

I took this one.

You'll see signs like this all over to make sure you're headed in the right direction.

Craig was at the main cabin, I had gone up to the tent. When I came out there were three deer in the meadow above the tents. Then a few more joined them.

The three smallest started chasing each other around one of the trees.

Craig's picture from earlier in the day, across the creek.

The buck had been watching the smaller ones run around then he took off into the woods. A minute later he came bounding back, he was playing, too. It was amazing to see how fast he could go through the woods.

The buck watching the other deer arrive.

The other buck was keeping an eye on me.

This was our last full day at Baldy Town. Despite the lack of oxygen we will really miss this place.

The scenery was awesome, the staff was wonderful and helped us feel right at home.

Philmont - We Did It (again)

12,441 feet above sea level. That's 12, 369 feet higher than what we've been living at the last 21 years. Since this was the third time to accomplish the feat, we celebrated and bought hat pins.

Philmont - Wednesday

Today's the day we climbed Mount Baldy. We left Baldy Town 15 minutes later than planned, 7:15 a.m. Most of the beginning hike is in the woods. To Craig's right is a wild turkey, the largest brown blob.


We're on the nice part of the trail. A large portion of the trail is more like boulder jumping than hiking.


We're getting closer to the top, out of the woods, to see our first good view of the valley.

Looking back, or rather down, you can see more hikers, a mountain meadow and the timberline.

Looking up you see the hardest part of the trail, almost straight up and NO air.

To the side you see the most beautiful field of alpine flowers.

Which deserves more than one photo.

A mini-bear flying across the rocks.

David teaching geology.

Ed teaching geology.

A grand view for all the scouts that made it to the top.

This scout was twirling his hiking stick like a samuri sword!

Craig, David, Ed - geologists. Ed works with the scout staff enabling the many geologists to come and volunteer to teach the scouts about some of the incredible geology on Philmont Ranch.

Panoramic view from Baldy.

The best looking geologist at camp.

Ed holding a stingerless bee.

Taking a break between groups of scouts.

Our third trip to Baldy and the first time we stayed longer than 15 minutes on top. Usually, the weather gets bad with winds and lightning.

Hikers in the meadow, used my 300mm lens.

If you're going to bring the big lens, you gotta use the big lens.

Group picture with David and Ed. The only picture of Craig and I together on Baldy.

A staff member and her sister made a "quick" hike to the top of Baldy and while resting were privilaged to have three top geologists to answer their questions.

Waiting for the last round of hikers to make it to the top.

Yes, it really is that steep.

Trying not to roll down over Craig.

An old cabin.

We love this part of the trail, we think of it as walking on carpet, and yes, it's that steep.

More steepness.

It's amazing how the roots of this tree are hanging on to the side of the mountain.

We met Mark, who was hiking up to get some cell phone connection. It was a good spot for geology. Click on the picture to better see the turquoise ground.

They are sitting on copper minerals, all over the ground.

Evidence of some mining.

It was the best day all week, weatherwise, and we were fortunate to have climbed Baldy. The other days did not offer such wonderful weather.