Wedding Doings - September 15, 2018

Nephew Buck is marrying today, to a most lovely bride.  The whole family, right on down to cousins, is abuzz with getting ready for the big event.  My grandsons are probably searching YouTube right now for instructions on how to tie a necktie. 

But this post is about Buck, who, in his lifetime, has provided the family with some interesting stories.  (I am certain there are many more good ones I haven't heard.)

Buck was fearless. 

Let's start around age 2, the time of his life when I knew him best, before everyone grew up and struck out in different directions. 

At about age 2, Buck rode his tricycle out of the secluded cove where he lived.  He took a right at the entrance of the cove, and rode several blocks, all the way to busy Central Avenue, where he took another right turn.  His frantic parents caught him pedaling leisurely down the sidewalk, traffic whizzing by him. 

A year or so later, he gave his whole family heart failure when he was caught climbing up the side of a log cabin, using the protruding logs as a ladder.  He was almost to the roof when apprehended.

Another year later, Buck got into his grandmother's car, managed to shift it out of gear, and rolled it down a hill at his family's Christmas tree farm, flattening multiple saplings. 

Fast forward a couple more years.  Buck and his sister spent a few days out in the country at his grandparents' house.  All of his local cousins came to visit.  At some point, Buck's grandparents got into a spat.  Shortly thereafter, Buck went missing.  Grandmother called out to him.  No answer.  She called out again:  "Buck, if you are in this house, you'd better come out right now, or you'll get a spanking when you do come out."  No answer.  Thus began a frantic search.  Grandmother enlisted all of the grandchildren to help find him.  They spread out in all directions, calling for him.  No answer.  Remembering Buck's tendency to wander off, Grandmother drafted one of the older grandchildren to ride up and down the road with her in the car to help look for him.  They scanned the ditches.  They called and called.  No answer.  Grandmother was sure he had drowned in the pond, or someone had kidnapped him on the road.  Finally, someone found him.  He'd been in a bedroom closet the whole time, frightened by his grandparents' argument.  I'm told that he received the promised spanking from Grandmother.  It looks like the one time Buck let fear overtake him, he got in trouble. 

I'm not telling some of the other stories I know.  ;)

I'm guessing that, at this moment, Buck is all dressed up in his wedding clothes, and probably posing for photographs with his beautiful bride Lindsay. 

And I am betting that, although he may be nervous, he is fearless.  :)

Colorado Trip, September 2 - 7, 2018

My sister-in-law has a cabin near Estes Park, Colorado, and she and my brother invited us to come for a visit.  They also invited my sister and her daughter.  On Sunday, September 2, at about 8:45 a.m., we loaded up in an airplane and headed to Denver.  My brother picked us up at the airport.

Garden of the Gods

My lovely, frugal niece had bought an airplane ticket to Colorado Springs because (for some reason) it was cheaper, even though she was on the same plane as us.  The deal was that the plane stopped in Denver, then went on to Colorado Springs.  Unfortunately, so did the niece's luggage.  No problem, my brother said, he'd wanted to see Colorado Springs, anyway.  So there we all went.  On the way, we drove through the Garden of the Gods, but it was really crowded, so we didn't linger.  We stopped for lunch at a Mexican place - I don't even remember the name of the town, but the food was good and so was the margarita.  (Don't judge me; I was on vacation.)  After lunch, we took the backroads all the way to Boulder, where we laid in some groceries for the week, then we drove on to the cabin.  It was dusk when we arrived.  We were all stiff from all the sitting we'd done, and in no mood to cook dinner, so my brother opened a bottle of wine and passed around cheese, crackers, and olives, and soon we were all just as happy as could be.  ;)

One thing about my siblings is that they are early-to-bed folks.  They drop like flies when the sun goes down, and get up with the chickens.  When I got up at 5:00 Monday morning, my sister had been up for an hour.  She'd already made the coffee.  Good girl!  When the rest of the crew got up, my brother made us pancakes for breakfast, and then he drove us down to Estes Park.  He dropped us off in the touristy part of the town (it's all rather touristy) and had ice cream on a park bench while we visitors poked our heads in the shops.  The weather was a little chilly, and I had to buy a pair of wool socks to keep my toes from snapping off.  There were street vendors in a little plaza, and we took a slow stroll past the booths.  They had some neat stuff.  We had another Mexican lunch, then headed back to the cabin.  We'd made crock pot lasagna before we went to Estes Park, and it was ready by the time we came home.  We had an early dinner, and everybody hit the sack.

Us, at Rocky Mountain National Forest

Tuesday morning, we're up at the crack of dawn again.  After breakfast, we drove up to the Rocky Mountain National Forest.  Such beautiful scenery.  It was about 45 degrees up there, near 14,000 feet.  We stopped at a few vistas, hit the gift shop, then took the long way home.  On our way down the mountain, we saw a rainbow BELOW us.  (I guess you could say that we were "over the rainbow."  Heh..."way up high.")  ;)  In a country field, we saw prairie dogs scampering all over the place.  That evening, we had steaks (grilled to perfection, I might add), baked sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, and more wine.  My sister made a coconut pie.  It was all very, very tasty.

Over the rainbow...look closely.

Us, in the rocky clearing.

Wednesday, we delivered the niece to meet a shuttle to go back to the airport, for she had to go back to work.  When the shuttle left, we went down to Estes Park to shop at a yarn store (my hands were needing some work to do).  On our way back to the cabin, we saw a guy pulling his trash can down his driveway.  His dog was with him, and I was looking at the dog when I heard my husband say, "Damn, dude!" and I looked at the guy, and HE WAS NOT WEARING ANY PANTS.  He had on a flannel shirt and tennis shoes.  That's it.  One wonders what the urgency was in returning the garbage can to the house.  Or maybe he just never wears pants.    Back at the cabin, my brother suggested a picnic lunch up on a mountain.  We had to go off-road to get there, which delighted the menfolk.  (I kinda dug it, myself, to be honest.)  It was a rocky clearing, and on a clear day we could have seen forever, but a cool mist had rolled in, and we were enveloped in a haze.  Still, it was fun.  More wine, cheese, and olives, with caramel popcorn for dessert.  Who couldn't like that?  

Sprague Lake

Thursday, we drove around again.  On the way through Estes Park, we saw a herd of elk right at the edge of the town.  We went up to Sprague Lake.  Absolutely beautiful.  When we left the lake, the sun was shining bright.  A few minutes later, back in Estes Park, it started to rain, then sleet pelted down so hard that it was heaped up at gutter downspouts.  Back the cabin, it had hardly rained at all, but it was chilly.  We warmed up some blackeyed peas and stirred up some cornbread for supper, and called it a night fairly early.

The next day was going-home day, so we got up early, made breakfast, cleaned the cabin, battened down the hatches.  By 9:30, we were on the road to the airport.  We stopped at a grocery store in Boulder for coffee and doughnuts.  In the store, I slipped on some liquid and bent my arthritic right leg further behind me than it had bent in years.  Had to fill out an "incident report" for the store.  Thankfully, that didn't take too long, and we made it to the airport on time.  It was not raining when we landed, but by the time we shuttled to our car, rain was coming down in buckets, right there at rush hour.  Land sakes!  Happily, we made it through the city traffic without any trouble.  It was dinner time by the time we crossed into our county, and we were able to have our usual Friday night Mexican dinner with my husband's sister and her husband.  Made it home about 8:30 that night.  I put on my pajamas and went straight to bed.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, but, as always, it was good to get home.  :)