JUMP

We Had a few motor bike days in Colorado. Dave let all the relatives ride. It was pretty fun but a little too much power in those bikes for me so I was was happy to hang out and let them be the super heros. Steve actually made a pretty awesome jump on one of his last turns and I just barely caught it on film. Lucky!

Steve's brother Vance is one of the experienced bikers and he climbed this hill a couple times. This picture really doesn't do justice to how high and steep the hill really is.

Most of Vance's kids came to Colorado to hang out too. It was a fun party. This is his daughter Kimmy.

This is the son in-law Kelly and grandson Beckham.

The grown-ups took turns teaching the kids how to ride. Look how teeny this bike is. Danielle was a pretty good rider.

Cedric refused to let others wear HIS helmet and just paced the trailer. He's such a cute kid.

Hiking Colorado

Since we've been married I've learned that one thing the Smith's are definitely good at is hiking. I'm cool with that since I love hiking too. (Except when sick) One of the hikes was straight up the mountain above Denise and Philip's house. It was kinda rough going since we weren't on a real trail for most of it. Just climbing a stream bed. but we made it to the top-ish. This is the one I was sick for so I wasn't all there, but it was pretty up there. Sophie adapted to Hiking quite well. though she was limping for a bit afterwards. Her paws weren't made to roam rocks too much.

Philip and me had fun egging the kids on so they ended up trying to float on this log down the creek. I figured it would immediately roll them over, but it decided sinking would be best.

We're the best :)

I'm not sure if these guys actually wanted to be in the picture but its too late now. Aren't they such a cute family. Lets play "Where's Waldo" with Steve.

Oh cactus flower

Road Trip

We are serious road trippers. Not the road trip masquerading pansy kind. We were so excited to get off the islands so we could travel normal and never get on a plane again. And now we are so tired of driving cross country. This trip was 7 hours to Kentucky, 20 Hours to Colorado, and 25 to Michigan. Of course it was through out a 3 week period but it still takes its toll. Any how here are some "beauty" pictures I took on the trip through the car window. (That talent might just go down in my resume.)

St. Louis Arch

Bridge in St. Louis

Sophie was crammed in between my seat and the backseat and this is one of her comfy positions. Silly silly dog. We're so glad she travels well. She doesn't throw up or whimper, but she also doesn't eat or drink or relieve herself. She was so skinny after our drives. Luckily she bulked up again once we got home.

Ohio scenery

Cincinnati

Canon City

Good ol' Kentucky

So this is chapter 1 of our summer vacation. Steve took his Step 1 exam which consisted of 8 hours of testing and the next day we took off for Kentucky where my Aunt Esther lives. She owns 100 acres of land. most of which is her back hill that has trails to ride on that never get used so its pretty over grown. I love my aunt's farm. We helped with chores and rode horses and just had fun. Its kind of like going into a warp zone out there. Being so cut off from everything else makes time fly.

So chores at my aunt's has always been fun for me. (Probably since I go out there so rarely) We got to feed the rabbits and goats, chickens geese, cats and a mare and foal. I wanted to teach Steve to milk the goats but my Aunt hadn't been milking them since she got surgery on her arm. Se la vie. Riding the horses on my aunt's farm is actually a lot more work than one might think. Before you can even think about riding you have to call the horses from the pasture and catching them is always interesting when they are so obstinant, but I'm determined so they don't stand a chance. One day we helped with the ferrier so we had to catch all the horses. That was a long day but we got to ride after so it was worth it. (A ferrier is the guy that trims the hooves and shoes the horse.) Anyway we loved it and had so much fun.

Here are a few pictures from Thoroughbred Park in Lexington. We couldn't resist pretending to ride the horses. IT started to rain before I could get on a jockey horse.

This is Catboy who kept stealing Sophie's bed. She's sucha chicken that she would just stare at him til she gave in and laid down on the porch next to the bed. The only cat there she liked chasing was one of the few black cats. (My aunt must have like 30 cats and keeps adding more. since she had 4 kittens when we were there.)

This is a picture of the riverfront restaurant. They keep a this flood pole up to record how high the water gets each winter. This year it made it all the way to the stairs. I think the worst year was in the '70's.

My aunt told us that year they went canoeing in their front hay field since the water was so high. This year it messed up her hay field pretty bad but it was fast crazy water that would have been suicide to go out in.

Isn't Kentucky pretty. I love all the horse fields with pretty fences and old barns. Its just breathtaking.

Steve learned to ride on Orchid, who is half percheron (which means BIG). Shes actually really gentle for her size and a personal favorite. Steve was actually a good rider. We rode with a mom and daughter one day and the daughter was a beginner and her horse was kinda stubborn so Steve was good enough to give her Orchid and he got to push around a smaller horse. That is really awesome progress for a beginner.

I got stuck on the iffy horses most of the time so I could feel them out for my aunt. Its not as fun but makes for an interesting ride.

Of course this horse wasn't cooperative and tried to kill me. She decided to rear and then came down against my cousin Monte's truck. So weird that it didn't even bruise me especially since where the horse and my leg hit there was a big dent left behind. I'm just lucky I guess.

Spring Leaps to Mind

Maybe I've figured it out now. All I have to do is edit the pictures on my computer save them to the external hard drive and then add them on Steve's laptop. So so simple. No? No. It's annoying and driving me mad but at least I can blog so its all good.


The first picture is a great one to show just how big our pup is. She is a good jumper and we really have high hopes of getting her to twirl in a circle on her hind legs. We'll see. The rest of these are pretty spring pictures I've taken. One thing I've noticed that is so different from Utah is how much the trees blossom here and the crazy amount of bumblebees everywhere. A few got stuck in our house and Steve had to kill them for me. One got drowned in the shower, thankfully I wasn't in there when it happened. He's a good husband!

Update on the uncertain things in our life. We are possibly about to be sent off to Atlanta Georgia for a elective rotation. It still just a possibility but we're tired of waiting so we kinda grab onto any thing that might happen. Steve is applying for the Saginaw program with Synergy here in Michigan and we will find out if we get it around the middle of July. And that's all we know. A whole lot of maybes is all that's going on here. We just sit back and are doing a lot of reading these days!

Saginaw Zoo

So FYI I am going to eventually get up to date with this blog. My computer is having some kind of break down right now and its really hard to load pictures. Some day maybe it'll actually work until then whatever. So this is a visit me and Steve took to the Saginaw zoo. It is pretty small but its fun when some of the creatures are approachable. King of half a petting zoo.

This is our friend Marsel. Don't recognize that name? Good. It means you aren't addicted to "Friends" and you'll probably go to heaven. Either way he's a cute little guy.