Old lady knees

orange foot from the iodine

On Trek this summer my right knee ended up hurting so badly I could barely walk.  It swelled up and no amount of ibuprofen could keep me mobile without limping.  So, off to the doctor, X-ray, MRI, physical therapy, finally an orthopedics appointment and the determination that surgery was needed.  Once the kids were back in school on a schedule I got my knee surgeried.  The kids found my coming down the stairs on my butt rather hilarious, but luckily that only lasted 3 or so days.  Post surgery the surgeon told me I had the tightest knees he has ever seen, which meant they couldn't clean up all the frayed edges of my meniscus.  Oh well.   Sadly, he also told me my knees look older than they should since the stuff covering the edges of my bones is nearly all worn away.  Lets hope someone comes up with a really cool bionic knee really soonish.  Or at least before I need a new knee.  

Travelin' home

Ouray.  My future vacation home

pointing out fossils at Dinosaur National Monument

Dying of the heat on a fossil hunt

Hey look!  educational stuff!

Flaming gorge.  We did not stop here.  No hot springs.  

On our way home both Jerran and Deanna drove quite a bit and my blood pressure suffered as a result. We also learned that our GPS is completely rubbish at locating national parks/monuments.  Seriously bad.  We stopped at the tourist center place in Vernal and they didn't even have a map of how to get to Dinosaur National.  So we navigated on hope.  It mostly worked.   The visitors center has changed since I was last here due to seismic something-or-other so you have to park down below, catch a smelly diesel tram up to the wall where the bones are and then either hike back down or ride back down.  We forced the children (cruelly, naturally) to hike down the trail and look for more fossils on the way down.  Isaac was the only enthusiastic fossil hunter.

Our voyage home finished that night in Grand Junction, where we had some of the yummiest bruschetta ever.  (yes, I live to eat)  The roads between Vernal and Grand Junction were quite pretty, windy and a little worrisome at times.   That is, I thought they were worrisome until we departed from Ouray, CO homewards.  That road was a fun one!  Still, we are glad we got to stop at the hot springs in Ouray and hope to go back soon.  If I had my druthers (and a billion euros) we'd live somewhere like Ouray.  

Some more reunion photo

Slade Family Reunion 2013

at Carter Creek Camp.  We drove up the canyon, stopping at the Provo waterfall?  (provo river?)  In any case, I didn't take  too many photos since I was busy stuffing my face and gabbing with family.

swimming in butterfly lake.  Probably blind because her glasses are off

Can't let me out in public

Mesa Verde

Spruce Tree House hike, I stopped at the top

The last time we went to Mesa Verde I think I was 12.  This time around, I was merely crippled and unable to do any of the very steep hikes due to my busted knee but Ben took the kids on the tour of the Spruce house, Cliff Palace and the Long House out on the Weatherell Mesa.  I sat in the car and read my book or toured the museum.  When we went to the Weatherell Mesa I rode the tram around the top of the Mesa and looked at the archeological sites.   

Long house from the top.  My kids are in that picture somewhere

Kiva

On one of the tours

Long house

The view from our motel room

There have been many fires at Mesa Verde

More fire damage

We stayed one night in the park in order to get a tour of the Long house first thing in the morning.  The view from our porch was incredible (probably not worth the $$$, but still cool).  Most of the kids seemed to feel that climbing the ladders up and down was their favorite part.  The park gates off the road to the other mesa, so we were first in line in the morning to drive out.  Saw lots of birds and lots and lots of fire damage.  The Southwest is dry, and prone to fires, and the 7 or 8 signs on the way out marking the various fires which have come through really brought that home.

Redmesa

We stopped on our way to Mesa Verde and the kids were extremely disappointed that we didn't adopt the friendly black dog who hopped right into our car.  None of the kids really remember Redmesa, even though it's only been a few years since we went to a reunion there.  

Lightning and camp

The view from my balcony

Zak takes aim at scout camp

Outside my bedroom is the balcony.  It is a favorite place to sit at sunset, enjoying the beauty of the New Mexico sky.  When there are thunderstorms over the valley we can sit on our balcony and watch the lightning until the rain finally makes it up to us and we escape indoors.  I love my porch, especially in the summer, when the heat of the day is finally dissipating and I can watch the stars.

I can't find the rest of Zak's camp pictures.  I know I had some somewhere. . . In any case, he had an overnight camp at Gorham, so we postponed leaving for our summer vacay until after he and Ben returned.