Farewell Thee Alamosa

Our final month in Alamosa, we were homeless and were so blessed to live with the Kooimans.  Somehow I managed to forget to get a single picture of them or their home.  It really was a great situation!  We had three bedrooms at our disposal, cable television, a ping pong table, a trampoline and play structure in the backyard, a basketball hoop, and even two shelves in the fridge.  It doesn't get much better than that.

We spent most of the month hanging out with friends and saying our farewells over and over and over.  I was ready to just rip off the band-aid and move on. 

I have wonderful memories of life in Alamosa.  I will miss the people most of all.  We had our fifth child, and watched our other four grow up.

We are now in a temporary rental and living among boxes.  We closed on our house yesterday but will rent it to the previous owners till the end of July.  I am ready for life to settle down.  After ripping up my roots, I am ready to transplant them and let them grow deep.

Surprise!!!

 Ordinarily, we only do birthday parties on the even year birthdays.  Brandon was turning 15 in April, and because he knew we were moving, he wanted to do a birthday party this year.  I thought that was a good idea, but I thought that an even better idea would be to have a surprise party.  Several of his friends had approached me about throwing him a going away party, so I invited them to help me organize a surprise birthday. 

Emily and Paige were great to pass out the invitations to all his friends at school, since I didn't know most of them.  Elise planned the games for his party.  Since our house had sold, the DeGolyers were kind enough to host the event.  I brought food, ordered pizza, and picked up a cake, and it was set.

The day of his birthday, Brandon was in a foul mood.  He had just discovered that someone had stolen $60 from his wallet the previous weekend at the pool, and even though he had birthday money, it didn't even make up what he had lost.  He missed his dad and was bummed that he had to wait (so he thought) two weeks to have his party. 

I told him that we could go out to dinner for his birthday, so we all piled into the car.  He played a game on his ipod and grumbled that it was the worst birthday ever.  I told him that I needed to drop something off at the DeGolyer's house.  We rounded the corner, and all his friends were in the front yard holding up signs they had made for him.  At first he didn't understand what was going on, but the instant he figured it out, I could see a few tears in his eyes. 

They were quickly wiped away, and the rest of the night was what he termed, "the BEST birthday EVER!"  They played capture the flag, went to the river, jumped on the trampoline, opened presents, at a lot of food, and fooled around taking pictures.  It was AWESOME!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caving

 

 

I remember reading Thor Heyerdahl’s description of exploring Easter Island, when there were only natives living there.  I was more than an little creeped out by the idea of all the caving he did.  He was a pretty lean man, but he still had to squeeze through some of the openings.  I have a few issues with claustrophobia, so thinking of small openings gives me the heebie-jeebies.  

While we were out in Klamath, we took a day to go down to the Lava Beds National Park.  It didn't look like much on the drive out, and I braced myself for the whining sure to ensue when we got there.   

Surprisingly, we discovered that dozens of caves are available for self-exploration.  Because these caves are the result of lava formations, they aren't as protected.  We ended up exploring five caves that day and vowed to go back soon.  It was amazing how different each cave was.  Some were smaller and went on for longer distances.  Others were enormous and have year round ice inside them.  It was quite the adventure.  My favorite was Valentine's Cave, named after being discovered on Valentine's Day.  Though the longest cave, I didn't feel claustrophobic, because it was quite roomy.  Nicole and Andrew were a little less thrilled at that one, but Danielle and Connor were maniacs.  They didn't want to stop, even when the tunnel narrowed.  

Altogether, it was a fun day had by all.