Let's get back to New Mexico.....Day 2 - Part 1

Is everyone else's life busy?  Ours just seems out of control right now.

It's been a busy week.  Have had electricians here.  Older son finally moved out.  Husband working 1000 hours.  Just all kinds of things.

I need a mental break right now......so we're going to get back to the New Mexico trip.

Day 2 began with us heading to the train station.  Lucky for us it was 2 minutes down the road.  Even luckier for us.....there was a coffee place right across the street.  The coffee place was our first stop.

With beverages in hand....we parked at the train station to get ready for our train journey.  The trip was to begin at 10am and the train would get back to the station at 5pm.  We were headed into Colorado and enjoy the scenery along the way.

We had some time to spend in the train yard before we boarded the train.......kept us busy taking LOTS of pictures!

First pictures had to be with Cinder Bear.  He was hosting a party for some kids in the front train car.

The engine was an old steam engine that ran on water and coal.  It was kind of neat to hear the chug, chug, chugging of the engine all day.  The top speed we ever went was about 20 mph.

In reading the reviews for this train adventure, most people were recommending getting tickets for the last car, which was the Parlor Car.  Some of the perks were it was an adult only car, it held only 20 passengers, the seating was nice and comfortable, we had free beverages the entire day, and they treated us with all kinds of goodies.  One of the best parts......you were able to stand on the very back deck of the train during the ride and get all kinds of amazing pictures!

The inside of this car was beautiful and we were greeted with fresh fruit, souvenir travel coffee mugs and an awesome embroidered bag.  We had an attendant who served us the entire journey and took good care of us.  Our reservations were for the last two seats on each side of the train (right by the back door) and to us.....they were the best seats in the house.

This was our view as the train pulled out of the station.

 

It was fun along the journey you would see cars parked along the side of the road to wave at the train as it went by.  Cinder Bear zoomed ahead of the train and we saw him parked alongside the road a long the way. 

The scenery was magnificent.  Being in the last car also gave you the advantage of taking amazing shots of the entire train as we went around the curves.  The weather was AWESOME!

Paul confided to me later that he was totally bored during this trip.  He already looked bored at this point.........although, he did take a lot of photos......just this adventure was not his cup of tea.

 

The view from my seat was amazing. 

After we rode about 30 minutes, Lorraine came around with these amazing HUGE GIAGANTIC muffins.  We were full from the fruit plate we had earlier, so Paul and I shared a Lemon Poppy Seed muffin.  Never had one before......but it sure was delicious.

You will see lots of pictures of the train while we were on it......you just couldn't help taking them with the glorious backdrop.

We took some fun pictures along the way:

And we took some family pictures along the way:

But mostly we tried to capture the fun we had along the way:

What an awesome beginning to this fun adventure.  Don't worry......there's LOTS more pictures to come!

Things look a little better

Hopefully, I'll get to see my husband more this week.

Hopefully, we will get a real day off (but I don't think that's happening this week).

We've finally got our management staff full and complete again.  Just some training to do. 

Cris finally started moving his things out today.  I believe he'll officially be out by Tuesday.  It will be nice to have our house back to ourselves again.  Not that I don't love my children......I just love living with my husband all by ourselves.  Although, I really am going to miss having my handyman so close by.

The bed has been removed from the living room and some of the other piles we had sitting around.  Now it's time to get our house in tip top shape.....because it's a disaster (all except for my new gorgeous bedroom).

I worked on veggie bags and fruit bowls again today to get ready for the week.  It really has been very handy (and healthier) for us to grab one of these when we want something to eat during the day.  A little bit of work to get them ready......but worth it to have them.

Last week's fruit bowls contained:  blueberries, nectarines, watermelon, cantaloupe, red grapes, kiwi.
This week's fruit bowls contain:  watermelon, strawberries, nectarine, peaches, green grapes, mango

 

Last week's veggie bags contained:  carrots, celery, green onions

This week's veggie bags contain:  carrots, celery, green onions, cauliflower, zucchini

 

If I change them up every week......it will give us something different each and every week.

 

Okay....it's been a busy weekend and now I need to get the laundry sorted and clean up the downstairs a little so that it doesn't look a tornado blew threw here.

Debbie's Decorating Den

It's been a busy busy busy day......but I've had a blast.  I've gotten to play decorator....and sometimes that's fun.  This is just the beginning of the major transformation this house is going to start undergoing.  I want to document the progress.

We got our new bed and our new TV stand delivered.  Paul helped me move everything out of the bedroom yesterday and last night I got the carpet shampooed.

This morning I got up and vacuumed it all up, washed the walls down, and washed the baseboards in anticipation of our furniture delivery.

Here's the before shots.......

I even swapped out the switch plates.  Of course I learned a lesson.......ALWAYS remove the switch plate when painting a room.  You never know when you want to switch them out and the new one isn't the same size........oops!

Before

 

After

 

Here's before with the new bed in the room:

And here's the after:

 

Here's another angle:

 

 

I just need to get the curtains hung back up and put away some stuff and then I am FINISHED. 

I actually really like the way it turned out.  We went to a bigger bed, but the room feels bigger.

 

This last picture shows the new TV stand.  I'm still not finished with topping off Paul's dresser and hanging up something on that side of the wall......so it's still a work in progress.

 

I love to change things.  It makes everything fresh.  It makes everything new again.

What have we been up to?

Been busy this week.

Have had to work in the store.  Had to go buy a new KING SIZE bed.  Had my yearly women's check-up.  Had other adventures which you get to see!

Not gonna enlarge this picture.  Had my check-up on Wednesday and the doctor found something that no woman wants to hear.  Had the orders written up to take a mammogram and find out what what going on.

Lucky for me.....the Breast Center got me an appointment the next day for my mammogram.  This is actually a really nice and friendly place to go for such a yucky thing.

The orders were written for a diagnostic exam.....so that meant they could do whatever testing they felt necessary after the mammogram.  After the mammogram, they sent the xrays to the doctor to review....and it was decided that I would have to have an ultrasound.

They shuffled me off into this little room to wait for the next test.

Okay.....I was bored and thought I would take a selfie of me in my cute little hospital shaw while I waited for them to come and get me.

Here I am contemplating my fate.  They took me in for an ultrasound and then had to take the pictures out to the doctor to review again.  This time they came back with the doctor and decided that the doctor would do the test to see if everything was okay.

Yay......the lump was only a cyst and nothing to worry about at this time.  So glad to be able to find out this news so quickly.

One of our other duties this week was to go and get a king size bed.  The older son is getting ready to move out again after temporarily spending a month with us.  We are giving him our Queen size bed and upgrading to a larger bed. 

When we first got married we found the queen bed cozy.....now we want the King size space!  So we decided that since we were going to get the bed out of our room......that we would move all the furniture out and shampoo the carpet in our room.

We will be spending tonight in our living room on our old queen bed.

We also have the TV stand that was in our room that we are going to let the older son take with him when he moves on Sunday (we upgraded to a nice newer model).  That means he is also going to take his cat with him....yay!

So right now our downstairs is a disarray of furniture that we needed to get out of the bedroom.  Our master bathroom currently is full with a dresser and some boxes of stuff.

Our landing outside our bedroom is currently occupied with another dresser and other stuff we needed to relocate to get our room clean.

So glad we are getting our new bed tomorrow.......can't wait for my life to normalize a little.

Lets get this New Mexico trip started........

WARNING:  I took lots and lots and lots of pictures in New Mexico.  I'll try not to bore you!

The New Mexico trip began bright and EARLY on Saturday, August 8th.  Once again we had one of those stupid flights that left before the sun came up and that meant getting up at 3:30am to get to the airport in time.

Lucky for us.....our boarding passes said TSA PRECHECK (that means you don't have to go through the regular screening and don't have to take shoes off or all that other crap and you get to go in a special shorter line). 

We boarded our plane and crossed our fingers.  We were once again flying American.....and we haven't had good luck getting anywhere on time with them without a bunch of delays.  And secondly, we were flying to Albuquerque.....where we also seem to have a problem getting there without delays (no matter what airline it is).

The tickets for this trip were purchased with accumulated airline miles.....so we paid a grand total of $12 for our two round trip tickets.  That my friends.....is the way to fly!

Plane took off on time and we had a short layover in Dallas.  Grabbed a bagel in the Dallas airport to hold us over until lunch time in Santa Fe.

The husband kept himself amused on the flight from Dallas to Albuquerque doing a book of puzzles that he bought in Dallas airport.....I amused myself with mindless TV with the free stuff on the screen in front of me.

We got to the Albuquerque airport and picked up our rental car.  We knew we needed an SUV because this trip was going to be LOTS of driving.  We picked out a KIA Sorrento (an awesome choice) and headed north to Santa Fe.

On the highway to Santa Fe.....we saw about 50 of these little Spyders on a road trip....I'll have to send my friend Greg these pictures since he's an avid rider of these.

Once we arrived in Santa Fe.....we loaded up the kids suitcases and it was off to lunch before we hit the highway.  Aaron had pre-selected a restaurant in the Santa Fe Plaza. 

Del Charro it was.....and we enjoyed a nice Mexican lunch on the patio in this gorgeous New Mexico weather.  We're glad we were here.....the forecast for Houston that day was 110 degrees.....yuck!

After eating our lunch.....it was time to hit the highway.  Our final destination was going to be Chama, New Mexico......but we were taking the long and scenic journey to get there.  This was our awesome view on the way to the Gorge.

We made it to the Gorge Bridge (even though Aaron was driving) and learned that this bridge is a place where the most people jump off to commit suicide (that's sad).  They have this little crisis hotline box on both sides of the bridge just in case you want to talk to someone before you make that bad decision.

The view was magnificient!

 

It was really breezy way up there.....but we had to have a picture!

And we had to have a picture of these two kids!

And of course we had to ask a passerby if he could take a picture of the 4 of us!

The next stop on this journey was Red River, New Mexico.  Reminded me a lot of Mount Lemmon in Tucson.  A nice little mountain town that Aaron and Shay had spent some time there last year on her birthday.

We spent some time in the gift shops, art shops, and just walking along the streets enjoying the beautiful scenery and enjoying that cool mountain air.

And of course, I always need to take a picture with my favorite guy!

 

What a beautiful place this was and the weather was fantastic!

 

 

Our final destination for the day was going to be Chama, New Mexico....where we would be taking the train the next day.  So we headed back on the road and continued on the journey. 

 

Along the way, we were all on the lookout for animals.  We got lucky and found a small group of Elk.  We pulled into Chama and was introduced to the world of Chama Days.  We had a hard time getting a room in this tiny town because of their once a year festival.  Lucky for us.....I had booked it early and so we pulled into our 5 star (well not quite) motel.....the Branding Iron Motel.

 

 

It was a perfect small town old-time motel that I remember from my childhood.

 

It was quiet, clean, and perfect for our overnight stay in Chama.  No.....we did not share a room with Aaron and Shay.....they were two doors down from us.

The owner of the motel told us all about what was going on in Chama that night for Chama Days....and lucky for us the Branding Iron seemed to be right where all the action was.

But......our first stop was dinner.  We drove about 3 minutes down the road and found this restaurant.

 

Aaron and Paul feasted on chicken fried steak and Shay and I feasted on something, but I can't even remember what it was.  The only thing I do remember is that Paul found a piece of glass in his salad.....so they ended up giving him his dinner for free.

 

After leaving the restaurant....we parked back at the motel and checked out some of the activities going on.  There was live music in the tent next to the motel and an all night softball game.  We went and hung out at the softball game for awhile and then decided we were just too tired and needed to get some sleep.

 

Tomorrow is the train ride!