Jeep Adventure

This will be my last Colorado post, I promise.  But it is probably the best story of the trip.  Mike and I had hoped to find the time to tell it together, but alas....... I can wait no more.

So you know how we miraculously ended up with a jeep for a rental car.  The man in Mike felt the need to capitalize upon it's capabilities at least once.  So he persuaded me to "take a really quick, short road, to do some 'off roading'."  I'll be honest the pictures do not do it justice, as far as the rough terrain goes............  So we took a road out that wasn't so bad, but Mike decided it would be fun to take another route back to town.  I'm not sure that this was included in the "really quick, short route" previously mentioned.  Don't get me wrong, i 'm a pretty adventurous woman, but 4 x 4 and early pregnancy are not friends.  To make this very long......... story short we ended up on this rocky road for about 4.5 hours, we found civilization well past dinner time and on the border of sunset.  There were many times that we both were uncertain of the outcome of certain terrain, I did lots of breath holding and eye closing and praying.  Once we were on the trail there was not really an opportunity to turn around, and it was mentioned by "the man" that if we found ourselves in an inescapable location we would in fact be calling the forest service to bail us out.  When we first started this adventure we would get out and hold branches trying not to damage the brand new jeep we were driving, by the end, we were more thinking about getting out alive and care of the jeep was a much lower priority. 

This was one of the early narrow passages ways in a valley.  We didn't capture any of the later ones as I insisted that Mike stop taking pictures. I was "all funned out". 

This was a tight turn on the side of a cliff, and to our surprise just around this corner was a large bolder that our left tire had to go over, very uncomfortable.  Hold breath, close eyes, and pray. Thank God for gravity. 

More Rocky Road

At one point I was certain we were lost, and stated that we appeared to be on more of a hiking trial and less of the road.  Then to my delight there was a sign, but it was for the people going the other direction.  So naturally grasping for some direction we pulled past it and looked back to see this. "open to hiking, horse, and bikes.  Closed to motorcycles, ATV's and motor-vehicles." My heart sank...... then I realized that we had probably just come through the worse of it.

This was early in the trip, Mike really enjoying himself.

We did see some nice views in our near death experience.  After this little adventure Mike and I both desired to stay at the cabin the rest of our time in Colorado.

The Cabin

The Cabin was an "off grid" home.  It originally served as an old miners cabin, but the couple who bought it renovated and added on.  They made it into a "straw-bale home" which is a very intersing concept.  Any way it was powered by solar panels and used gas for all the appliances.  It was like fancy camping.  The only modern convience we were with out was AC, but no need with the temperate weather.  There was a wood stove if we had needed, but we did not. 

This was my favorite reading spot, the view out this window was lovely of the mountains. 

This was the cozy kitchen.  One of our favorite rooms in the cabin.  The details built in to this home are beautiful.

An exterior shot.

A view of the cabin from the top of one of the peaks near by.  They also had a few barns on the property.  We didn't see any other civilization while we were there. 

My favorite exterior wall.

The bathroom was one of our other favorite rooms.

Thankfully there were no other people around..........they could have peeked on us in the shower.

No Roof- Day 2

This was the first amandment made to the trip in honor of the jeep.  Naturally Mike felt driving into the mountains with the roof off would be the best way to capatilze on the lovely view. 

 It was a little chilly.

 I think I'm yaning here.......... but you can see the layers of warmth.  I had on 2 pair of pants, 2 shirts, 2 jackets and hoods and my visor and shades for sun-protection. We also had the heater cranked up, and then we were quite comfortable. 

 And as a result we didn't miss out on any of the view. ;) HE he!

Denver-Day 1

Our Trip started in Denver. We flew in and got a rental vehicle. We reserved a Ford Escape, for just under $200 for the week.  Upon our arrival they told us we reserved a Kia Sportage and that we could upgrade for $6 a day for a brand new fully loaded....... some midsize SUV.  We decided to stick with what we had reserved, went out to the spot "B-2" and look what awaited us!  Mike was in car dreamland all week.  A brand new 4x4, 2012 Jeep Wrangler Sport.  To intentionally rent this vehilce it woudl have been $850 for the week.  This little suprise changed some details of the trip plan, but I'll say more about that later.

I requested a nice dinner at least one night while we were away and Mike thought it best that we knock that out from the get go.  He picked a yummy place!

 This was my meal.  Prim Rib, galic mashpotatoes, veggies with crab on top. So lovely!

After wards we went to "little man ice cream", which is the #2 rated restaurant in Denver on trip advisor. So naturally we had to see what all the hype was about.  It was pretty tasty.  We had 2 scoops of 2 recommended flavors...... honey....and  kaula chocolate.  The honey so satisifying that on our way back through town, just yesterday we were compelled to stop back by.  But they were out of honey was we tried two other flavors and they we also strangely staisfying.

Colorado

Enjoying our time in Colorado. We head back to the kids tomorrow. It's been such a refreshing time away. More details and pictures comming...... eventually.

Evaluation

Shiloh had her home-school evaluation Friday, per the state of Florida law.  It went well.  She is at grade level or a little above.  I'm very thankful for that!  It was much like a long show-n-tell for Shiloh.  After the evaluator left Shiloh said "Oh no.... I forgot to tell her some of my favorite things for lunch." She pretty much did show and tell her everything else about her life, to include a variety of favorite toys. :)

Ultrasound

I had an ultrasound today, it showed that I am about 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant with one baby.  They will do another one in 2 weeks to be sure.  This puts me due at then end of December.

Growth

Ground Breaking News! This just in........ Aggie is officially on the growth chart for the first time in her life!  She is coming in at .19% for weight and 1 whole % for height! The dietitian made me laugh today when she told me this with the most sincere and serious face.

Kindergarten

Today Shiloh and I finished her curriculum! So I guess that means we're on summer break? There were days I wasn't sure if this day would come. As the life we lead and a school schedule were not always the best of friends. But alas we made it!

I declared this the "last day of kindergarten challenge". She has been making these flash cards all year. She had to put them in alphabetic order, and then place all the cards that started with that letter underneath the appropriate letter.

Then to celebrate, after dinner Mike took the kids up the road to the gas station and let them pick out a treat of choice.  We got a treat too.

The goings on in Whoville

This week has been a full one. Starting it off with the news of a new Schloss on the way and heading full speed into a week full of appointments. On the new Schloss; I have all the symptoms of early pregnancy. That's what tipped me off to the matter. That has continued this week. Tiredness, hunger/fullness at the same time, with the pang of yuck in my gut. I think they are calling that nausea. Pressing on! We had an audiology and ENT appointment this week. Aggies hearing aid got sent to the shop for a good look over before the warranty is up. They replaced all the inner parts to make sure we had some good years with it. That was nice. The ENT said Aggies right eustachian tube is clogged. There isn't treatment for this, just wait for growth. We got the stopper taken out of Aggie's ankle braces. Which gives her a little more range of motion with them on. Sort of a weaning process I guess. She's been pulling up to her knees, which she couldn't do with the braces on b/c of the stopper. So the idea is she can pull up to knees with the stopper out, and we can work on pulling to standing from there. This will likely take much time. We saw the genetics doctor again in Birmingham. We have a new game plan. All the labs that were ordered last time didn't have any significant findings. So the plan is this.... We will see another general genetics Dr. soon. The one we've been seeing specializes in mitochondrial disease. She wants us to do this to make sure she's not missing something obvious. If noting turns up from that, then we will have the muscle biopsy repeated along with some more labs. As Aggie is still a candidate for a mitochondrial disease, her last muscle biopsy was not tested properly which we were told had ruled out the disease, but it in fact did not. On to other news. Our Haiti trip has been cancelled. It's not recommended for pregnant people to travel to underdeveloped countries. We do not know what the future holds for us in adoption, but it is still certainly on our hearts. Plan B..... since we had already bought tickets to Haiti, and had child care lined up (my parents), we paid a fee to get our destination changed and Mike and I are taking a vacation to Colorado for some much needed rest and relaxation. We are headed to a very remote cabin in the mountains. Then we can come back home and face the giants.

Crawling is on the horizon!

Telling the kids our news

Tag...... we're it!

We are excited to announce the Lord has entrusted us with yet another little being. Schloss baby number four is baking in the oven and is expected to be complete this November or December. We will have to wait for an ultrasound for more details.

Tear Duct Take Two

Aggie had her second tear duct surgery today. They put a stent in the left one because it became clogged again after the probing this past fall. The stent will stay in for a few months to allow it to heal open and will then be removed. Her eye is a little puffy and she is having some drainage from her nose, but other than that she is doing well. Getting lots of rest today.