3:10 to Yuma & Abuelito (via Laughlin and the Hoover Dam)

1,200 Miles later and we're back from a very short but very fun trip to see abuelito (Grandpa in spanish) in Yuma, Arizona. A 4 day weekend for me made the trip possible and I'm so grateful to have had even that short amount of time off - we really crammed a lot of things into our trip and we came home happy and very tired. We left early Friday morning and were in Laughlin, Nevada just after lunch. The weather was gorgeous! 64f and very sunny... a huge contrast from what we left in Utah! Our good friends Bernie and Diana have a home down there where they stay in the Winter and it was so good to see them again that evening for dinner.. it's been several months since I last saw them and we had lots of catching up to do.. it was so nice. Overnight in Laughlin gave us chance to take in a Score Racing event they were holding - unfortunately it was far too expensive for us to afford to view the race itself but we watched the staging area and got to see all the cars and trucks, much to Alfredo's delight. Owen got to go down to the banks of the mighty Colorado River which was flowing fast and full, and throw some stones in which he loved; it was so nice sat on the sandy banks watching him run around chasing the pigeons. Saturday morning we were up early and on our way to the Davis Dam on the outskirts of Laughlin - a large dam holds back the Colorado River and a hydro-electric plant generates enough power to provide electricity to some 1 million homes in the tri-State area. Back on the road and the long trip south to Yuma which lies 24 miles just north of the Mexican border. There was absolutely NOTHING to see on the journey that didn't include desert brush/scrub and cactus.. we stopped in Parker for a picnic lunch, again on the Colorado River, looking rather small in comparison to what we saw a few hours north in Laughlin.. again Owen terrorised the pigeons and ran on the sand, he loves to have picnics and it was a nice break in the journey. 2 Hours of more desert and cactus later and we reach the most amazingly green, fertile fields full of all manner of fruits and vegetables on the north end of Yuma.. by this time, the weather is very hot and such a treat for us at this time of year! Alfredo's dad was waiting for us at the hotel and it was so good to see him again after nearly 3 years; for his 80-something years, he's doing amazing and it was so nice to see him in such good health. We spent the evening and Sunday catching up and talking; we visited the local park and visitor center which had the most awesome display of antiques and things from the area, Owen had so much fun with all the old machinery, cars and a train-car. The grounds were beautiful and we spent most of the morning wandering round. Next stop was the most awesome play park I think I have ever seen... Owen was in kid heaven and it was quite difficult trying to get him to leave! Alfredo's dad spent 2 nights with us and we parted company on Monday morning - him to cross the border back to Mexico and us to start the very long trip back North. Around 2.30pm we were in need of a stop to stretch our legs when we were approaching Las Vegas and saw a sign for the Hoover Dam so we made a quick detour and had a great time despite the rather chilly weather that had surrounded us. The Dam is really hard to describe unless you've been to it.. the size, the views.. just everything is insane how they managed to build that thing.. it's crazy! I'm so pleased we got to see it. 3 Hours later and we are home after driving through the most torrential rain and sleety snow.. we made it safe after the most wonderful weekend with abuelito.. the break did us all the world of good to spend time together and see new places.

Us at the Hoover Dam (Nevada & Arizona states border).. check out that insane bridge they're building in the background!

You'd be crazy to jump from the dam (where I was stood when taking this picture).. it is a vertigo sufferer's nightmare!

An adorable little side-street in Historic Downtown, Yuma

3 Generations of Montiano's!

More gorgeous views at the Hoover Dam - this is the back-side of the dam where the water piles up

Owen loved the old Quatermaster Depot Park & Visitor Center in Yuma

I fell in love with this adorable, tiny little church I spotted from car, set amid the thousands of acres of vegetables in the fields north of Yuma

Owen was in heaven at this amazing park in Yuma

Too cool to swim but perfect for splashing your feet in the hotel pool!

Throwing stones in the Colorado River in Laughlin

Me and one of the racing cars in Laughlin

Master Owen sunning himself by a fountain in Historic Downtown Yuma

Owen and Alfredo at the Davis Dam in Laughlin

Fun in the Sun

I never thought my sunny little piece of heaven would come high up a mountain surrounded by a bunch of snow.. but this afternoon I found myself sat quite happily on a bank of hard-packed snow, watching Owen having so much fun on the sledding hill. The sun was warm enough that we needed just 2 tshirt layers and snow pants, it was so gorgeous up there. We were out in the snow for a good 2 hours or so and it felt so good to feel the sun beating down on our faces. Alfredo & I took it in turn going up and down the hill with Owen and we were both exhausted by the end... my little snow-man of course didn't want to go home! There were lots of people at the sledding area and a lot of crazy teenage kids who apparently had no fear as they hurtled down the steep hillside - it sure was fun to see them having so much fun (.. and crash.. lol). The hill doesn't look too steep in the pictures but it was! We flew down the hill so fast, it was awesome. I took some snacks and Owen thought it was cool to have a picnic in the snow.

Alfredo and Owen headed up the hill for another run.

Owen and I about to take flight..

Phew, we made it!.. and had a lot of fun!

New Year's Eve at Rusty's

Happy New Year everyone! I'm still in denial that the year really is this far along, somehow, it really doesn't feel like we should be celebrating a new year (and a new decade!!!) already.. but here it is! Last night we went out for dinner with 16 people (we only knew 4 of them) up the canyon to Rusty's Steakhouse. The atmosphere in there was really nice; the place was packed! .. and for those who know Rusty's, it's really not that big in there. The food was good and plentiful, but one kinda got the feeling that they were so slammed with orders that they didn't really have time to pay attention to detail like they normally do; the food was either under-cooked or over-done and it took forever to arrive, which was ok as we were all busy chatting and laughing. Owen came with us and had a good time; he was really well-behaved and ate a lot of food which I was pleasantly surprised by - I think he was generally just really starving since he polished off the yucky green garnish leaf things they put on the plate with the loaded potatos kins, lol.. normally he won't go near anything green and leafy! After dinner we came home and I'm ashamed to say that Owen and I were asleep in bed by 10.30pm! We managed a nice lie-in until 9.30am this morning which was a real treat. I then of course freaked out at the time because Alfredo was being picked up at 10.00 to go shooting skeets with the neighbor guys, so that's where he's gone today. I hope that this New Year brings everyone what you hope for.. good health, happiness and all of that!

Alfredo & Carrie

Me & Scott (Carrie's husband)

My little new year's reveller!

Special Christmas Message...

Happy Christmas!!

Wow.. the big day is finally here!.. about time really since I doubt that Owen could have contained his excitement for much longer. He has been a lot of fun this year; it is the first year that he really understood what was going on and he has been obsessed with everything to do with Santa - he has watched the Tim Allen 'Santa Claus' movie about 50 billion times! Fortunately, Owen didn't get us up too early - 7.00am which was acceptable! He was so excited to see all the presents under the tree. I want to thank everyone who mailed over a gift for Owen - thank you soooo much. We didn't have much money to spare on gifts this year, but thanks to the kindness of everyone who sent a gift for Owen, he was very blessed with so many wonderful gifts - THANK YOU!! After the opening of gifts, we went for brunch with the Kaczmar family. Our neighbor Stacey's parents are such welcoming folk and as always, their house was full of children and grandchildren and it was such a lovely atmosphere. We had a large spread of food for breakfast which all us gals helped prepare; Linda has a huge kitchen where everyone hangs out talking and laughing, it's so nice. We stayed until about noon when we came home and we'll stay here for the rest of the day, watching tv and playing with Owen's new toys. Currently he's running round dressed as Batman, intermittently stopping to take a breath and have a drink of 'tea' from his tea-set which was all he really asked Santa for!! The weather outside is perfect for today; a good layer of snow on the ground, bright sunshine and bitterly cold!
Merry Christmas to everyone, enjoy the day!! We love you all.

Who thought Batman was so civilized??

Good Fun with Good Neighbors

Saturday night, we decided to make a quick trip to St.George to visit the LDS Temple, see the Christmas lights and see the Portraits exhibition they had going on in the Temple Visitor Center. 4 Couples went (right to left.. the Heirtzlers, us, the Bouchers and the Barney's). The Temple is an amazing sight at the best of times, with the bright white building gorgeously lit up in the dark night sky, but with the large grounds full of what seemed like a million colored lights, it was so beautiful... my pictures nowhere near do it justice.. you just had to be there. The Portraits exhibition was really nice and the pictures very powerful; we'd been talking about going for a couple of months, so it was nice that we were finally able to get and see for ourselves. After we were done at the Temple, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. It was so fun to have everyone sat together, talking and laughing. The food was delicious and very plentiful. We had such a fun evening and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends to share fun and memories with.

Party Night

2 Parties in one night... I've been upgraded to socialite status! lol.... First on our party list was a surprise party for our sweet neighbor Robyn .. Dwayne did a great job at making sure she didn't know about it and all would have turned out great had Robyn not seen Ryan (another party guest) running past the kitchen window yelling to everyone that Robyn was here and we should hide!! it was really funny... also due to all the snow, everyone had to park their cars near the house which also kind of gave it away, but it was a lot of fun and Neasha's dutch oven chocolate fudge cake hot out of the oven with ice-cream was to die for!! ... One huge helping of choccie cake later, we were on the snowy roads again and on our way to my work Christmas party which was so much fun. It was so nice to have everyone together in one room with spouses and children and it just made for a really nice atmosphere. I'm so fortunate to work with such a wonderful group of people. Owen had a blast running round with the other little children his age.. his latest love is Kaylee, my co-worker Mickelle's girl; the 2 of them were inseperable - it was so sweet to see them so excited together waiting in line to see Santa. We had Dutch Oven food which was delicious but unfortunately I spent too much time talking that I didn't get as much eaten as I'd of liked!! A really fun time was had by all but unfortunately I still don't feel one bit Christmassy -what's wrong with me this year??? Merry Christmas y'all! xx

Festival of Trees & The Storybook Cavalcade Parade

I love this time of year in our sweet little town; they put on so many fun activities for the children and I can't imagine living anywhere else and missing out on all that goes on here. This morning we took Owen to the annual Festival of Trees. There are at least 30, if not more, themed Christmas trees; all decorated beautifully - each representing a different theme. They also have storybook characters wandering around in costume to greet the children - it really is a fun little event. Owen's favourite trees were the Superman and Batman trees and of course the Toy Story tree! The festival is held in the Heritage Center that has 3 levels and Owen was like a kid in a candy store, running up and down stairs to each level, I was quite exhausted after our hour looking round and trying to keep up with him - there was so much to see, he didn't know where to go first! The majority of the upper floor was dedicated to 'The North Pole' and Santaland. A little tunnel leads you into an area full of penguins and snowy things, along a hallway all decked out Christmassy, ending in Santa's den. I just love seeing the look on Owen's face when he sees Santa.. it's just priceless.. of course I never have the camera ready at such a moment! After a brief chat with Santa, we were off to our next fun event... The Storybook Cavalcade Parade... another annual tradition for us it seems! I was a little worried that the weather would ruin it because it's been so jolly cold this last week, but the weather proved me wrong and although only 43f, we bundled up and it actually wasn't too bad stood in the bright sunshine. It was quite a long parade and very well done. Each of the floats represented a different child's storybook. Owen loved the floats, especially when he saw the Buzz and Woody floats.. although when Buzz Lightyear came round, I noticed that he was rather more interested in the guy inside of the float who was driving it, he smiled so big when the guy stuck his hand out and waved at Owen - it was funny. So many people had turned out and it was such a nice atmosphere.

Snowy Sunday

Yesterday it snowed about 3 inches worth. The night and early morning were above freezing point so the snow had started to melt some by the time it had warmed up enough for us to take Owen out playing in it mid-afternoon today. It sure was pretty outside; it was quite mild and the sun was shining brightly in cloudless blue skies... I love the snow when the weather is like this. Fortunately, Owen has the best snow gear out the 3 of us so he was kept snuggly warm and dry while he sledded and threw snowballs. Alfredo & I sure were given our afternoon exercise running round the field and up and down the hill with him on his sled! It was fun to see Owen have so much fun though and I thought I'd share some of these pictures with you.

Thanksgiving.... and a lot to be thankful for..

Wow.. I cannot believe that it is the time of year again when we sit down to eat turkey and all the trimmings with friends. Thanksgiving morning was as beautiful as one could hope for on this special day.. clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine amid a very crisp cold air.. gorgeous! We started the morning with a semi lay-in (does 7.30am count?) and by 10.30 we were on the road south to the town of Hurricane with good friends Roger, Arlene and their 4 kids for an afternoon gathering at Roger's parents' place. The Olcott family are the most welcoming and friendly group you could ever wish for - they're simply awesome people and I am so happy that we got to spend our Thanksgiving with them. There were 17 of us sat down to lunch which was cooked to perfection and perfectly coordinated by Roger's dad. Around the table were us 3, Roger, Arlene and the 4 kids, Roger's sister Shay, her hubby and their 2 kids, my best work gal pal Becky (who is Roger's sister and my desk-mate at the Sheriff's Office), her husband Kyle and their 2 boys and of course Roger and Becky's parents who were such wonderful hosts. Owen had such a fun time with all the children, who although a lot older than him, included him a lot in their games and with a 'grandkid cupboard' full of toys, he was in his element. The home was all decked out gorgeous for christmas and looked really festive. Food was plentiful with the traditional turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and everything else you expect from a Thanksgiving feast... and there were 4 kinds of pie for dessert... wow, we were all very uncomfortably full to say the least, in a really good way! After clearing away the tables, we sat around talking and laughing and then decided to hit the stores for a spot of sale shopping, unfortunately the sales don't really get underway until tomorrow which is Black Friday - the most awesomest sale day of the year!, so anyways, we left the women shopping and 5 of us decided to start the journey North and for home. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to battle the crowds in the sales for what few bargains I can find, so let's hope the die-hard shoppers who will be at the store at 5am haven't pipped me to the post and taken everything by the time I get there at 10am or so!. Wish me luck! What a very fun and lovely Thanksgiving we had today with such wonderful people who we are so blessed to have each and every day in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for in our life here in Utah and I think that Thanksgiving is a really nice holiday to celebrate - there is no gift giving or commercialism (if you don't count Black Friday bargains!) like at Christmas, and the whole point of this holiday really is to get together with friends and family and to just enjoy being together and be thankful for everything we have.

Baja 1000, Ensenada, Mexico

I think pretty much everyone knows that Alfredo recently spent a week down in Mexico working on the Baja 1000 off-road race.... he was originally intending to be part of the support crew for a guy who had signed up to race solo but the course was somewhat rougher than expected and plans changed at the last minute and Alfredo got signed up to be the race partner which of course he was thrilled about! The race was 675 miles off-road and between Alfredo and Eric, the 2 of them finished in just a little over 28 hours, a time to be proud of given the technical difficulties the course posed. So anyways, here are some pictures of Alfredo in action!

Veterans' Day.... and Mommy and Owen's fun day

So today is Veterans' Day and I am fortunate to work for a company who observes this holiday and gave us the day off! - yay for me!! ... As on all holidays, we woke to find a gorgeous American flag flying outside our house, blowing proudly in the breeze... that's one of the things I love about this country, we're so patriotic!! Owen always gets well excited when the town puts a flag outside our house - he loves it! So, on a day off, never one to sit home and do nothing, I wanted to go do something fun with Owen. Our day started off at the Highland Park in St.George (love that place!) - this park is awesome. It's less than 2 years old so is still very clean and is in a really nice area of town and the grounds are very well maintained and Owen just loves it there - there's so much for him to play on. The park is huge and atop a big hill so has awesome views of the surrounding mountains. After he'd expended some of his seemingly limitless energy for a good hour and a half running round, we headed to Costco where they have 4 big aisles full of christmas toys and he had a wonderful time running round pressing buttons and testing stuff out. We had a quick slice of pizza for lunch then headed to the Washington City Aquatic Center to use up some more of my little man's energy! .. LOVE the Aquatic Center!!! This was only like the 3rd time we'd been in the 2 years or so they've been open but Owen totally remembered it and couldn't wait to get there! They have the classic lap pool but the majority of the Aquatic area is devoted to the play center for kids. They have a baby area for little tots and then a bigger play park, for want of a better word, that is inside the pool area that is full of so many fun things and there is this huge bucket on the very top that constantly fills with water and every couple of minutes dumps gallons of water on anyone unfortunate enough to be on the play park at the time.. it's so much fun!.. So anyways, we're back home now and i'm struggling to keep my eyes open; we had so much fun at the water park and we went up and down the waterslides so many times I was getting dizzy, lol. Owen practically passed out with exhaustion in the car on the way home so I know he had an awesome day since he rarely naps in the afternoons any more. So all in all, a very fun day and what a treat to have the whole day with my little man on a Wednesday!.... back to work tomorrow...