Weekend Update 9.28.08

It's been a whirlwind month for me.

The first three weeks were packed with remodeling and re-setting the co-op that I manage, and implementing our "re-branding", just in time for the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair. I got to give a tour of my store to George Siemons of Organic Valley, who is an alumni of CSU and was a member of the original buying club that became the co-op. Organic Valley is a great success story for both organics and cooperatives, and it was cool to show off our updated look to them and talk retail/organics/cooperatives.

My wife tells me that we're having another baby in May, and she's been weaning our youngest child so that she can have a break between her and our next child. It's been a full week now since they last nursed, but our little bean still asks to nurse every night. We've had some really loud toddler meltdowns, but it's getting better...

We had planned to go to our homestead property for a week, but my truck has a bad knock (sounds like a pushrod?) and I didn't want to drive 700 miles and head out to the boonies with the chance of getting stranded, so we rented a vehicle and decided to head to the high country instead. We are due in Durango for a wedding next weekend, but until then, we are footloose. We spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park (on the old Fall River Road), then headed through Kremmling and Toponas to Eagle. South on 24 through Leadville to Buena Vista was the next leg, and we ended up in Salida and spent two days there. Gorgeous little mountain town. Today we headed to the San Luis Valley and spent the afternoon at Valley View Hot Springs. After some good soaking, we loaded up and headed north and west to end up in Gunnison. Next stop is Ouray, then Telluride, then Durango.

Today is our youngest's 3 year birthday. Man, time flies when you live the crazy family life!

I think we're nuts: a pregnant woman, a high energy 3 year old, a 10-going-on-15 year old, and an overworked cranky dad in a very full car in the high country. If we make it to Durango without any more major meltdowns, we'll be extremely lucky.

Next vacation, we're staying at home...

Great bumper sticker seen recently: Pictures of McCain and Obama, with a caption of "Same Shit, Different Piles"