Author: rsusanpuckett

DECEMBER already. Can’t believe it. Saturday we left Raton, NM and made it to Dumas, TX. Cloudy all day. Cows, cotton, and oil wells. Made it to Woodward, TX tonight. We are headed to Pawhuska, OK tomorrow to The Mercantile (the Pioneer Woman’s shop). Hope it isn’t as busy as when we came by last summer. Love seeing all the different industries and land terrain. Home soon.

Feeling a bit like Willie (Nelson) – “On the Road Again”. Left Littleton around 11:00 and headed south through Colorado Springs and Pueblo, just into New Mexico. The weather forecast was for cloudy skies, no rain, temps in the 40’s. As we drove, we watched the clouds blow in over the mountains. Soon, there were clouds on all sides of us and the temp was dropping. As we got close to the New Mexico border, we had to climb the Raton Pass at over 7,000 feet. We could see the rain coming in the clouds from the west and soon it started raining. As we climbed higher in elevation, the rain turned to snow. As we came down from the pass, it turned back to rain. Made it to the campground and got set up and snuggled in. It started snowing again around 7 PM. So much for weather forecasts. The wind is howling outside, but we are warm. Tomorrow we will head east, into Texas, then Oklahoma. Will see how the weather holds out – I want to go through Pawhuska, OK to Ree Drummonds Mercantile.

Spending a relaxing day at the camper. Trying to finish up some baby blankets that are in process before we leave next week. (Not looking forward to leaving.) Yesterday, Megan, Josh, & Avery came over and Tony fixed Thanksgiving late lunch/early supper for us. We had a baked ham, macaroni & cheese, green bean casserole, hot pineapple salad, cheesy potatoes, & a vanilla sour cream pound cake. Yum! Avery has grown so much. She is started to look all around at what is going on. She wore her cute Thanksgiving outfit (for a little while)! We still have snow on the shading side of the camper from last weekend. Starting to pack up a few things, bit by bit, to get ready to leave. Thankful that we have gotten to spend almost a full month with Avery. She changes every day – I can’t imagine how much she will grow before we get back. Last Friday, we celebrated my birthday at Cheesecake Factory. Avery slept through the whole dinner! So nice to celebrate with Megan, Josh, & Avery.

A cutie patootie!

Birthday dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

Still here – just been busy – holding my little angel! Visited the little family in the hospital last Monday. Avery had to stay until late afternoon Tuesday due to jaundice – we met them at their apartment and took formula and supper. Wednesday afternoon I went to a sewing class. Thursday, Megan and Avery came and stayed with us all day while Josh went to class. After class, he came here and Tony fixed Mountain Man and biscuits for us all. Friday we visited with Avery. Saturday, we drove around the old downtown part of Sheridan and I discovered a cute little quilt shop. Sunday, Josh & Megan went out to eat and brought Avery to us to keep. I held her and she slept the entire time they were gone. It started snowing last night and we got about 5-6 inches. At 7:00 AM it looked like a winter wonderland. When the sun came out, it started melting. The temp. is down to 25 now (6:30 PM) and everything is freezing back. The snow was beautiful. We were snug as bugs in a rug. Our next door neighbor was out with his little boy yesterday, sledding and I stuck my head out and talked to them. Told him they were bringing the baby, so he volunteered to shovel a path to the steps. So nice. By the time they got here, the path was almost covered again. Today we ran some errands and ate at Texas Roadhouse, then got back before it got dark. Haven’t seen my baby today, but she is coming tomorrow.

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Friday I got my haircut in Monument and then we decided to ride on to Colorado Springs.  After doing some shopping, we saw a sign for an Arts & Crafts Festival in Black Forest, which was north and east of Colorado Springs, so we went. Quaint little community festival. We then drove north to Parker and saw some beautiful, rural ranches and land. Saturday, Megan and I got a spa pedicure. The technicians told her it would be good for her and would make her go into labor. She went back home and Tony and I drove into Denver to the Merchandise Mart for a Christmas Arts & Crafts Festival. We then ate and headed back to the camper, with a stop at Hobby Lobby. Guess who I ran into at Hobby Lobby? Megan and her friend, Becca. Got home and was so wound up that I watched TV until midnight. When I went to bed, I told Tony I had no particular time to get up, just let me sleep until I woke up. Phone rings at 7:30 – twice, before Tony could get to it. Megan. She’s been at the hospital since midnight, when her contractions were 5 minutes apart. Tony went on to the hospital around 9:30, then he came back to get me around 11:30. L O N G afternoon, waiting. We stayed in her room with her until about 2:30, when they said they were going to get her ready to start pushing. That’s when Megan waved me out. Didn’t get to see her again until about 7:30. She had had a long, difficult delivery. They were within ten minutes of doing a c-section when she was finally able to push Avery on out. Megan had used a nurse practitioner/midwife, but they called the doctor in during the last hour as well as the anesthesiologist. And now we have a beautiful, healthy baby girl – Avery Wren Mitchell – 8 1bs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long.

We are really enjoying the fall weather here in Littleton. We’ve been exploring the area and on “baby wait”. We have really enjoyed being so close to Megan and getting to visit often. She spent Monday with us and Thursday evening after work – Josh was in class and her Dad made chicken and dumplings – sort of. There are no frozen dumplings around Littleton – so he tried making them out of flour tortillas. They tasted pretty good, but the texture left much to be desired! Saturday was a beautiful day, Megan was off, and we all went to Rocky Mountain National Park. Stopped in Estes Park for lunch and then searched for herds of elk. Great day, but long day – I was really tired. Today I have rested, read, and worked on the Job Bible Study. What will we do next week? Countdown the days.

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While we were still in Monument Friday, we made a quilt shop hop to shops south of us. Neat going in to “Old Town” Colorado Springs – shops all along the downtown main street. Saturday we moved up to a different campground in Littleton (actually Englewood). We are only 3 miles from Megan’s apartment. Drove all around the area yesterday after getting set up and ate at Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Then got back to camper, preparing for the winter storm. We were watching TV and around 9 PM, the wind started blowing for about 30 minutes. Then we heard a slightly different noise – we thought it was rain and/or sleet, but neither one of us wanted to get up to look out. Finally I did and it was rain/sleet. Then about 10:00 in got quiet – we looked out and it was snowing and in the 20’s. Woke up this morning to snow and everything covered – so pretty. We were snug as bugs in a rug. Megan & Josh came over and hung out for the day. We had soup already made and heated it for supper. I got to finally feel Avery Wren kicking her Mom! Doctors said she could deliver any day – due date is the 8th. They want her to make at least Thursday which will be 37 weeks. Getting ready to meet that little girl. We’ve got a lot of exploring to do around here the next few weeks and I have a lot of sewing to do!

Saturday afternoon before the storm.

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And, after the snow on Sunday.

Snow, snow, snow! We hibernated in the camper today. (Well, Tony actually made a quick run to Walmart to get what we needed to make homemade soup.) Soup bubbling away, we both did some reading and I did some sewing. The yellow and red leaves are still holding on to the trees and the snow is sticking to the leaves and trees and roofs. It is so pretty – this campground is very wooded. Tuesday we went to Colorado Springs to run some errands and make a 3:15 movie. When we got to the theater, we were at the wrong one and we could make the 4:00 time in Castle Rock, so up the interstate we flew. We made it in time for the movie. It snowed yesterday too. Monday, Megan came and spent the day with us. She brought her embroidery machine (actually, our machine) and did some embroidery on a couple of quilts for me. We have been mostly just hanging out here at the camper and checking out the communities near us. Friday we went into the old part of Monument and looked around. Saturday was a special day – Megan & Josh re-tied the knot. They had a nice ceremony in a park near Littleton – at 6:30 PM. It was pretty chilly! Her friend from school, Becca, lives in Denver, and she and her husband and baby came, as well as Josh’s sister. Afterwards, we all went out to eat. According to the weather here, we are having unusually cold weather for this early in the year. We had planned to go back to Pike’s Peak, but Monday the high was supposed to be in the 20’s with very high winds. As the weather has progressed this week, we’ve decided that we probably won’t make Pike’s Peak until the spring. It is supposed to be really cold Sunday – highs only in the 20’s with snow and we are supposed to move to the other campground on Monday.

Snow on the leaves, trees, and picnic table.

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Pictures from the ceremony.

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Monday we drove from where we are (between Monument and Palmer Lake, about 45 minutes south of Denver) on frontage roads, looking for a closer campground to Littleton, where Megan is. We also went into two campground/trailer parks in Littleton. We have talked to one of the campgrounds several times, but once we got here she said she didn’t have a spot for us. We rode around it and I convinced Tony to walk in and talk to her – she said she would have a spot for us to move to on the 15th. Yeah – that is only 3 miles from Megan. Yesterday, we hung out at the campground all day, washed some clothes, and took a stroll through the campground. Today, we headed to Pike’s Peak. We got there at 3:10 – they wouldn’t let us in. They closed the gates at 3:00, because they said it took an hour to get to the top and an hour to get back down and they closed at 5:00. Oh well, we decided to ride to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. We got there at 4:00 and they closed at 5:00, so we took a short hike. Saw some petrified redwood tree stumps. There were miles of trails to walk. We left and drove about a mile and came to an old homestead that was preserved. We walked around the homestead – very interesting. The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Refuge was on our way to the fossil beds – it requires reservations to see the animals. Since we have to return to Pike’s Peak, we may go to the refuge. If you watch Rocky Mountain Vet, this is the wildlife refuge that Dr. Jeff goes to. Clouds rolled in all afternoon and it was really strange looking when we arrived at the camper. We are hearing thunder in the distance. Hopefully, we will get some rain tonight.

Petrified trees on our short hike.

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The homestead.

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