Here, There & Everywhere

Here’s hoping that 2010 is a happy year for us all.

We had to go home. We had such a good time with Evan, Amanda, Moose, Molly, Charlie and Penny (when she would show herself)!

Amazing–we got all 4 dogs and all 4 people looking towards (kinda) the camera!

Amanda and Evan are trying out and enjoying the firepit they got for Christmas from Sara and Hall.

Some time during the past year Tommy had seen on TV a program about a sausage maker in Eustis, Nebraska. So on our way home we took a detour off of I80. We found the store in Eustis that sells this sausage and bought $38 worth. On our way back up to I80, we saw the above barn. Of course I made Tommy stop so I could get a picture.

Another barn that I really liked–unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop for this one. So it was shot as we were going 75 mph (or so).

Hay bales in the snow–also shot while we were going 75 mph (or so).

This is one of my favorite shots (while going 75 mph or so) because while we were traveling one way at 75 mph (or so) the train was going the opposite direction at probably 75 mph (or so)! We tried and tried to get some good train photos while in Laramie. Funny how the best one was taken while driving down I29 in Iowa.

Bubba is such a good traveler! He sleeps almost the whole time we’re driving. Can you tell that he’s comfortable?

Tommy and I had another wonderful trip to see Amanda and Evan. We thoroughly enjoyed being with them for Christmas.

I’m off to start planning the next trip. :)

We went sledding out at Happy Jack and when we get out of our car before we got to the slope, we saw this sign. If you’re brave (or dumb) enough, you keep going–which we did!

The slope doesn’t look like much from the bottom looking up.

But walking up it is so tiring. At least that’s what I’m told. :)

When Tommy and Evan first started sledding, the snow was pretty soft and deep and it was slow going. However, they had Evan’s really good sled and things improved for them. There were some people on the slope that could only go a few yards before they stopped. As the “official” photographer I didn’t have (I mean get) to go down. I must still have been thinking about the warning sign. Hah!

I did walk around some to take pictures. At one point I sank up to my knees in the snow. It was truly beautiful out there–but so cold.

When I was going through old pictures and saw this one I thought we must have been dressed in our Christmas pajamas. However, this picture was either taken in Michigan or northern Illinois and there’s no snow on the ground and there are flowers blooming in the pots. But it does look like there are some Christmas lights on the house. Hmmm…….

Miss you Ter!

Shopping for day after specials. We found a few.

It’s not that there was no one shopping at the Hallmark. It was the fact that you couldn’t park in front of the store–see all the snow piled up?

This is a very large pile of snow in the parking lot of WalMart. We had to go shopping for the day after specials.

I took this picture from the back seat while we were driving down Grand Avenue. I can’t even imagine this many cars on the road at home after this much snow falling. And the surprising thing–the grocery stores still have milk and bread. :)

This is the alley next to Amanda’s and Evan’s house.

Evan warmed up the car for us before we headed out. Notice the snow that he’s brushing from the car.

While Evan was working on the car, Amanda was shoveling the walkway.

We woke up to more snow and 11 degrees this morning. I’m really enjoying this, but maybe because it’s so unusual for us.

I opened up the front door to get the picture above and found that the snow had drifted up onto the steps and was about 6″ deep. The steps themselves were nowhere to be seen. :)

It’s 8 degrees here with a windchill of -15! Brrrrrrr!!

Last night we went to the Cavalryman for dinner. Tommy had a rib eye, Evan had the prime rib, Amanda had the Rustique Pasta and I had (of course) a filet. Dinnner was delicious. The company was wonderful!

On our way home we decided to drive around and look at Christmas lights. This year the Albany County courthouse was decorated with lights. The lights were then synchronized with music from a local radio station. When you turned to the station you could see the lights blink along with the music.

This house had the best lights! Click on the photo so you can see it larger. Then take a look at the windshield.

More pictures to come later today. Right now we’re waiting for the Monkey Bread to finish cooking. :)

More pictures from Christmas day:

Moose, Molly and Amanda (with her new Wyoming hat) taking a rest after opening presents.

Evan is trying to figure out how the Buttermilk Pie wound up upside down on the kitchen floor.

We got more snow over night and something was falling (don’t know if it was more snow or just blowing snow) all day.

We woke up to -7 degrees. After we’d been awake (Tommy, 4 dogs and I) for a couple of hours it had warmed up all the way to -6!

Our beautiful view from the front door. I tried to get a picture without having to go outside–didn’t work. So I braved the elements for a minute or two. The high is expected to get all the way up to 14 today.

We got word that volunteers were needed to help place railroad ties down onto the ballast for the eventual placement of train cars at the Laramie Depot Park. With nothing better to do, we headed over there. Luckily Tommy showed up to help–there were a total of 5 workers to start with (one left soon after work began). The above ties are those that needed to be moved.

Luckily, they had this little tractor to help pick up the ties and take them to where they need to be laid. Then Tommy and another of the workers would pick them up and place them at the correct spot.

While they were all working I walked down to the footbridge over the railroad tracks. Being afraid of heights, it was a scary walk for me up to the top. I stayed long enough to look back into town and get this picture.

Sometime in January (depending on the weather) the plans are to lay the rail. After that they will bring in an engine, snow plow, bunk car and caboose.

Measuring the distance between the ties. The distance for all the cars except for the engine is 24″. For the engine, because it weighs 180,000 pounds, they will close the distance to 22″.

Almost done!

We took a drive outside of Laramie to a railroad crossing in the hopes of taking some pictures of trains. We sat for 30 minutes waiting–no train. But if you’re going to sit and wait for a train, can you think of a better place to do it?

Since it was getting a bit cold, and according to some–boring, we headed out of Laramie in the opposite direction. These were all taken around the Allsop Lake area.

No long and winding road here.

This guy got here about the same time as we did. He gathered all his ice fishing things and went out to the middle of Allsop Lake. We watched as he took a pole and beat the ice until he created a hold. He then took the bucket, sat on it and proceeded to fish. No fishing hut for him. This must be fun for some people, but you won’t find me doing it.

This snow fence was about 75 yards off of the road (to the left of the picture). It’s hard for me to imagine that it could do any good, but those who know better than I put it there for a reason.

No pictures for this day (other than the flag already posted). It was a sit and be lazy day! Well, at least for Tommy and me. The kids have to work.

But, before I forgot I wanted to post about seeing bald eagles on our drive through Nebraska. Just west of Lexington we saw three bald eagles and three other birds that are either bald eagles without the white head and tail or golden eagles. The unmarked birds were as large as the bald eagles but a grayish brown color. The first eagle we saw was in a field eating something with the other three around him. The second eagle (this was the coolest one) was out in the middle of a pond surrounded by geese. He kept doing a sort of dance trying to scare the geese into flying up. He would go up into the air about a foot or two while spreading his wings. He did this numerous times that we could see. The third eagle we saw was flying towards the pond. I was wishing that we could have stopped and that I had one of those mack daddy zoom lens.