Introducing......

Keto Struthers

Could you not just die from the cuteness?!?!?!

Welcome to the family little one.

Yes Stu. That is Cool.

Was all i heard in my head when i took this picture.....

7 years strong.....

For our 7th wedding anniversary, I decided Eric and i would do something just the two of us for a weekend. Thankfully Auntie Bria was able to help us out and stayed with the boys for the weekend.

I decided on Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Stables in Salida Co. http://www.coloradotrailrides.com/

I just goggled horseback riding, and that was one of the options, it looked fun and it offered a really cool package "A great trail along scenic Brown's Creek, enjoy the spectacular and interesting Waterfalls along Brown’s Creek, a 2 hour ride out, relaxing and enjoyable lunch and a 2 hour ride back to the stables"

Friday we saw Aragorn off to school and left Rohan with Bria and started out on the 3 hours drive.  It was a GREAT drive, wonderful view, i was in awe.  I LOVE this season,  and one of the reasons i love it is because of the changing leaf colors, on this drive, there was plenty of color.  Everything is changing.  After we found the hotel we got ready and headed to  dinner at a place called the Twisted Cork Café. They make their own wine there. I had 3 glasses, of different kinds. ultimately, i bought the first one i had tried called Cherry Apple blush. The cafe sits on a little creek that gives you lovely soothing background noise, and the great view is worth it.  They have horses tied up not far from the patio, along with the creek, we were in a little heaven.  For a while Eric and i had the entire area to ourselves.  It was the most relaxing moment.  After dinner Eric and i were so full we couldn’t even see straight. So we took dessert to go (chocolate cheesecake mouse for me, and tiramisu for Eric) and went back to the hotel.  Saturday we got up nice and early had breakfast at the hotel (Holiday Inn does GREAT continental bfasts now) after that we headed to the stable. There were cats all over, young ones, so one of the momma's must have recently had a litter. One of them jumped right into the van, I named him Chester, and he almost came home with us J The guide came out, and we followed him in the van to where the trail started, it was a good 20 min drive from the stable to the trail. When we got there I got Tequila & Eric got Domino. We started off, and I soon realized that this would NOT be an easy going little horsey ride. We literally went up the side of a mountain. Literally. The “trail” wasn’t that at all it was the “trail” that the water run off had made, we did great going up. We got to the waterfall and it was AMAZING!! So pretty the view was great just trees and rocks and water, no life signs at all, no city no nothing. We ate lunch and walked around a little while Rick (our guide) went back and watched the “kids”. When we were done Rick says to us “we made really good time getting up here, you guys wanna go up a little more and see a little more?” So we say SURE, why not. So we start out. I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of the “Trail” we took, because I was too scared. We followed Rick for about 30 mins, and we stop, we were at the beginning of the waterfall looking down. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty, and I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO petrified. We had traveled to 10,500 feet (the tallest mountain in CO is 14,000) so we were pretty high up. We were ½ way up when Rick says “I hope you’re not afraid of heights” and I said “yes, actually I am terrified” but it was fine. I did however ask, “now that’s we’ve come up this way, do we have to go back down the same way?” Rick laughed and said “Yup” and that is when I FREAKED. The ride down was in fact very scary. The rocks are lose, there is lose dirt, it’s just scary. Tequila and I did good. I felt her slip a couple times and held my breath A LOT. Eric and Domino did in fact almost fall. Domino got his foot stuck in a rock, and tripped. Eric held on, but was ready to jump if he had to, because at that time we were on the side of the mountain, there were 2 choices, straight, or off the cliff. Eric wasn’t letting a horse determine his fate. But they figured it out and all was well. We made it back alive and in the end it was fun. And I’m glad we did it. BUT I will let the stable know that they really should put a difficulty level on their rides. I am not kidding when I say on a scale of 1-10, this ride was at LEAST a 7. It was pretty hard. Saturday night, we weren’t feeling TOO bad, so we went to Wal-Mart and got me a lil sundress and Eric a new shirt (we didn’t think we’d be going ANYWHERE Saturday night so we didn’t pack anything) we went to downtown Salida, and had dinner at the Riverside Boathouse and Cantina, we had a great view of the river. Then we went back to the hotel, ate dessert from the night before and went to sleep. Yesterday I woke up and almost couldn’t move. My back muscles were used so much Saturday riding the horse, they hurt so bad, I could barely walk. As the day went on the pain moved from my butt, to my back to my legs, to my thighs. I didn’t think RIDING a horse would be that much exercise but I guess, it is. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then headed home. I missed my boys A LOT!! Bria said they had a great time, and just had fun. Which made me happy. I am looking forward to next year’s getaway now......Hmmmmmmm. Where can we go??

Oh how he loves her.......

Aragorn again.....

"Mom........Mom........MOM!!!"
"WHAT?!" i yell back as i make my now 2nd trip back upstairs after putting the boys to bed
"Mom, you gave me the wrong water!"
"Excuse me?" I ask stopping just short of the 2nd set of stairs
"You gave me Soda water and it's yucky"
"You have Ro's soda water?"
"Yeah you gave it to me"
::Sigh::
"You called me all the way up her to tell me i accidentally gave you Rohan's water?"
"Yeah"

turning purple....

This is the new bedding set i got this weekend.  I think it will transition into fall/winter nicely.  What i LOVE, is the fact it's a light lavender color.  I am slowly but surely changing the room colors to purples, and this is a great addition. 

Green monster

So the other day on Pintrest i decided to make a board for "Body Image" in it i have put all kinds of pictures and quotes and recipes that inspire me and my weight loss goals.  One of those was a recipe for a drink called Classic Green Monster, it linked me to  http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/13/classic-green-monster/ where she had a GREAT way to get some more veggies into your day.  This drink is loaded with ALL kinds of good for you things.  In fact SO many, that i didn't think to look it up on my Weight Watchers plan.  On a whim i did today.  This drink is 13 points, all by itself.  I get 29 points a day.  Now, i do have to say i use a VERY good grade of peanut butter, in fact i use almond butter, adding that much more good for you stuff.  So that add's some of the points.  And i do have to admit, it does fill you up, without making you feel full.  Oddly enough, you get a 2 point hit for the Chia seeds (which admittedly i went into that ingredient blindly, won't do that again) after i look up what Chia seeds are, i laughed.  They are basically little itty bitty balls of FAT, good for you fats, like omega 3, but still fat.  They also have antioxidants, protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, vitamin B, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, zinc, the list goes on.   So all in all this drink IS good for you......but is it worth the points......I am going to test it this week and see how i do.