On Saturday I attended a bridal shower for one of the teachers...that sure brought back a few memories!! While making my way to the shower, my brakes decided to have a rebellious streak. They didn't give out thankfully but they sure made their presence known with an awful screeching noise and rancid smell. Well, I'd had enough so I called Andy and being the wonderful guy that he is Andy showed up at the bridal shower and traded vehicles with me. Awww... So after the shower I returned home, found my holey jeans, and the two of us made our way down to the storage unit where Andy taught me the on's and off's of changing brakes and rotors. What an educational experience! Not only did I learn how to replace brakes and rotors, I learned that pavement is abrasive (my poor knuckles-always wear gloves!) and if you think it might rain during the process, change your brakes inside where you will stay dry. Oh well, you live and learn, right? Honestly though, we had a lot of fun and made some great memories that we will continue to laugh about in the weeks and years to come.
Today, Memorial Day, was a memorable day as well. We were invited to share brunch with a wonderful family from church who just happened to have moved to the Vail area from Zeeland MI about the same time we did. Turns out we used to live about 3 or 4 miles from one another! Talk about small world!! Anyway, we had a delightful brunch with this family of 6 --twin 4 year old girls, 3 year old boy, and another boy who is 1 1/2 years old--talk about busy! After filling our stomachs and sharing what was on our minds, Andy and I headed out on a geocaching adventure. The first cache we found quickly and easily--a magnetic one hidden by the side of the road. The next cache required a bit of hiking but was not out of the realm of possibility. After finding the cache and logging our visit we decided to take the truck down a nice, muddy two-track road that offered spectacular views along the way. While I was out taking pictures, Andy managed to find a nice "puddle" in one of the muddy tracks. I think he said something to the effect of "Hey! Get a picture of this!" right before he plastered me with mud. He gets out of the truck just rolling with laughter because he didn't think the mud would fly that high or far. On my way to the truck I nearly lost my footing multiple times. Thankfully for Andy's gut I managed to stay on my feet--I don't think he could have handled it if I had done a face plant in the mud after the nice shower he gave me. We finally did make it back to the truck and about a half hour later we were making our way toward what would be our last cache of the day. When I read that the terrain difficult I never imagined it would be that crazy! We nearly gave up after searching in places no normal hiker would ever venture but decided to look in one last place and thankfully we found it. Finding the cache makes what ever you had to do to get to that spot seem a little less crazy.
So that was our weekend-full of excitement that we will carry with us as we return to work in the morning. I can't believe that this is going to be the last week of school! Craziness! Where did the time go! Don't get me wrong, I am not even close to complaining about the fact that the end is in sight! I am so excited for some R&R and even more excited about our upcoming trips to California and Michigan in June. I can't wait to see you all!! Hooray for visiting family and friends!!
Check out the pictures below from our weekend adventures:
Notice the gloves! Turns out they are not such a bad idea after all! I learned a lot about brakes and rotors by climbing in and around the wheel well on Saturday night.
So, the picture does not do the amount of mud caked onto this vehicle! The mud on the wheels was like an inch thick! There was absolutely no traction on parts of the road. It was as if we were driving on ice. Crazy!!
Again, one of those "pictures don't do the scenery justice" moments. There were rain showers all around the area today. You could see it raining in the distance over the neighboring mountains and valleys. In some areas, there were thin, wispy clouds hanging between mountains. It reminded us of pictures we had seen of Hawaii and the rain forest. The wildflowers were pretty neat too.
This was right before he went through a puddle and made me very muddy. So muddy that not only was my white long sleeve jacket covered with splatters of mud but my arm under the shirt was muddy as well!!
This is what the tires on the truck looked like. We had to find sticks to scrape the mud off our shoes before we headed home. It's amazing what a few days of rain will do to a dirt road!!
