WHEW!! What a LONG day!!!!!

July 4th was a LONG, but fun-filled day for us!! We started out at 8am, as we headed up to Telluride, so that I could perform with the band in the Telluride 4th of July parade!! It's about an hour and half drive from our home in the valley.

Telluride is an old, historic mining town which in the last 20+ years has been transformed into a playground for the rich and famous. Way up in the San Juan mountains, the scenery is spectacular and the land has become quite pricey, to say the least. There is a beautiful ski resort there, that attracts people in the winter from far and wide. People like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and many others have built "trophy homes" in the area. They may visit and stay in their multi-million dollar havens a couple times a year!! (These are the houses that we fit with plumbing supplies as they are being built, at the plumbing wholesaler where I work.....our "bread and butter"!) That area provides much of the employment for our valley, both construction jobs and hotel/tourist positions.

It is gorgeous all year round! Here is a sample of the mountain beauty!


Here are the crowds assembling, before the parade, which was down the main street of the town....


Dusty and James were in the crowd, with the camera, as the band went by! Being a concert band, we don't march! So they loaded us on the back of a flat bed truck and away we went!! It was a good thing that only 20 of us showed up (of the band's almost 40!), as 21 would never have fit on that truck with the chairs, music stands, instruments and people!! We had fun though, once we where settled in! We played "Washington Post March" and "The Liberty Bell", several times down the parade route!




We had been invited to perform for the parade and we were so warmly received! They also paid for lunch for all the band members after the parade! The local fire department put on a wonderful BBQ!!

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain, stopping at the grocery to pick up dinner fixings before going home for showers and naps!! At 7pm, we headed out again, this time 10 miles north of us, to the town of Delta for their fireworks display at Confluence Lake! We enjoyed our picnic dinner of fried chicken as we waited for the festivities to start. Vonnie and her family, along with Stella (Dusty and Vonnie's Mom) joined us and we all enjoyed the show. Here are some more pictures from the evening!!!!

James playing in the lake around sunset. He loves to look for crawdads!!


















My hubby!! :)


I love this picture of the ducks on the lake! Kind of reminds me of "On Golden Pond"!


My attempt at a patriotic photo! LOL


James setting off a "Confetti Popper"....if you look real hard you can see the confetti way above him, as it's coming down!!

















Vonnie and Katie, having fun with sparklers!


James enjoying the 4th!!


Happy Independence Day to one and all!!!!

And the Celebrating Continues!

On Friday evening, we went over to Dusty's sister's house. Every year for the 4th of July, Vonnie and John host a party at their home. Neighbors gather in their driveway and we share ice cream and conversation, while Vonnie and John's son, Devon, entertains us all with a fireworks display! Where we live, fireworks are legal as long as they don't leave the ground. Only public displays are the "big shows", but we always have fun with the neighborhood party! Thanks John and Vonnie for doing this every year! It's something we all enjoy!!

Just a good picture of James! They are so few and far between these days, as the funny faces usually start as soon as I take out the camera!


James and his big cousin, Katie! He LOVES Katie!! He always has....they have a great relationship and for some reason she puts up with him!!


Making ice cream....a Ryan family tradition, especially for the 4th of July!!


Dusty's sister.....known as "Yvonne", "Vonnie" or "Sister", she's an important part of this family and we love her!!



















A sample of Devon's display!!

Let the Celebration Begin!

Our 4th of July celebration started a little bit early this year with the Montrose Community Band Concert the evening of Tuesday, June 30th. This time around we played patriotic faire.....lots of Sousa marches with some other pieces too! It was fun as we played outside, and though it was hot when we started out (at 7pm), it cooled off as the evening progressed. We served ice cream for a donation and people brought lawn chairs and picnic blankets, covering the lawn area behind the Montrose Pavilion....our regular venue. It was a fun evening!!

We played "The Armed Forces Salute"....a tribute to each branch of our military. The MC asked the people in the audience to stand when the band played the theme of the branch for which they had served. It was very emotional!! We played a patriotic sing-along that was fun and also "Black Canyon of the Gunnison", a beautiful piece written for the amazing National Park that is just 10 miles down the road from us. And the favorite piece of the evening (aside from all of the old, favorite marches!) was called "The HomeFront"....a medley of wonderful tunes that were popular during WWII! What fun that was...."Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Thanks for the Memories", "White Cliffs of Dover" and many others!! The Swing music is sooo much fun to play and listen to and people left humming those songs!!

Here are a couple of pictures.....
You can see me to the left side of Toby, our director, in this picture!




Here is the video that Dusty filmed at the end of the concert of the band playing, "Stars and Stripes". The quality isn't as good as the last video I posted, because we were outside and he was easily distracted! Hehehehe!! The girl that ran in front of the camera in the beginning is our niece, Katie! Then she came back towards the end and asked "Uncle Dusty" to dance!! He did, but never stopped filming....hence the swaying of the camera!! LOL He panned around so you can see the audience sitting on the lawn too. Please take note of the awesome piccolo playing by Monica! She always does a great job!! I hope you'll enjoy it!!

Another ride up Escalante Canyon

We seem to be back where we started! I believe my very first blog entry was about a ride we had taken up Escalante Canyon, with photos included. We try to make this easy trip at least once a year....it's close and doesn't require us to be gone all day, and yet it's one of our favorite places to visit. It's so much like the "wild west" one would see in the old western movies. There are old, abandoned cabins along the way, where explorers had set up camp. It's easy to transport yourself back in time.
Both James and Dusty think it would be cool to live there. I'm not so sure. The cabins we've explored somehow give me the creeps. I'm not the time who gives in easily to believing about "haunts" or ghosts....just lets say these places leave me feeling "uneasy". I'm okay with it all during the day, but I don't think I'd be very comfortable there at night! Nonetheless, it's a beautiful place and one we all enjoy visiting!! The red rock canyon walls (isn't that which gave Colorado it's name??!!), the bright blue sky and the green of the irrigated fields and other vegitation all makes it an amazing place. I hope you enjoy the pictures I have to share from our drive........

More Pictures......

 
 
 
 

In an effort to share a some more pictures with you (before I pitch my computer out the window!), here are some that I took the evening we spent with Joe's family......my mom with baby Jack (who is now 5 months old!), Juliana with her Grandma Marsha, darling Baby Jack, and James and JT.

Misc Pictures

 
 
 

I am soooo frustrated right now!! I'm having trouble with my Picasa program and can't seem to get it to post pictures to my blog, so please bear with me!! Here are a few pictures, taken the last couple of weeks.....James and Dusty planting corn along side our house, my "Easy-chair plumber"...Dusty putting the new faucet on the new sink before installation, and James making himself lunch....he flips a mean grilled cheese sandwich!!!

A Visit From Nana.....and more!

First of all, I owe everyone a huge apology. I've received several emails checking in with me, to make sure all is okay around here, as I haven't posted anything in so very long. The fact of the matter is that there just hasn't been much going on to write about! All is fine.....we've just been busy with mundane life! Going to work, going to band practice (we have 3 more concerts lined up soon, with all new music!!), doing home improvement jobs (Dusty's been so busy painting, planting a garden (which hasn't been doing very well due to the very weird weather we've been having!), replacing one of the bathroom sinks and faucets and now flooring, replacing the old ceiling fan in the kitchen with a preferable light fixture....the list goes on and on!) We still have the backyard to work on, which is currently piled high with tree branches that need to be burned. It is our hope to put in a campfire pit in the backyard, so that we might be able to enjoy having a campfire, without always having to go camping! Ahh, the joy of living in a more rural area!!

As an effect of our economic times, my hours at work have been cut, adding extra stress to our family life. My 40+ hours a week have been cut back to 32 hours, just enough to enable me to keep my benefits....most importantly, my family's health insurance coverage. While I am grateful to still have my job, I hold my breath daily that I won't be cut altogether! Time will tell, I guess. I honestly feel that if I can hold on through the summer months, things will begin to improve. The building industry has really slowed in the last six months (as it has everywhere in the U.S.) but is starting to show signs of picking up again. Our fingers are crossed!!

On a more upbeat note, my mother came to visit us this last week. We hadn't seen her in about 18 months, and we had a good visit with her! I tried to plan to do something each day she was here, but not so much that we sent her home totally exhausted. On Monday, we spent a nice afternoon in the park with my friend Cindy (James' Cub Master) and her three boys and then she went with me to band practice that evening which she really seemed to enjoy! We took her to show her James' school and she was able to meet and visit with his teacher from the school year he just completed (she's teaching summer school!). We visited a local dairy and cheese factory. We had a nice visit with my mother-in-law and visited the cemetary where Dusty's Dad is buried. On the last night she was here, we drove an hour up to the town of Grand Junction to see Dusty's son, Joe and his family. Mom had never met, Jen (Joe's wife) or any of their children! She hadn't seen Joe since our wedding, almost 12 years ago! An added bonus, was that Jen's mother, Marsha was there too. Joe and Jen just bought a home and were moving the following day, so Marsha was there to help. We brought in pizza for dinner and just had a nice evening visiting.....thank you, Joe and Jen for allowing us to descend upon you on the eve of your move!!

I, unfortunately, did a very poor job taking pictures while she was here, partly because James has become extremely uncooperative when the camera comes out! Somehow, it's just not worth getting into a fight with him about, through I really hope that this is a short-lived phase!!! Anyway, I only got a few pictures the night we were with Joe and Jen, and very few of those are of the "appropriate" people!! I REALLY must get better at this!! And I REALLY must start spending a lot more time with my camera!!