Dude and Chick Trips

One cause for delay in blogging lately was that both Dominick and I had separate road trips out to California to visit our families, each taking turns remaining behind to mind the store.  The "Dude" and "Chick" Trips were each wonderful in their own right, as male bonding took place over visits to breweries for research, meals where 2 lb hamburgers were served (or so it looked) and donuts were obtained from an old haunt.  In fact, it looks like the entire trip centered around food:

Hoagies...

Who knows...

Snacks...

Burgers...

Donuts...

Yes, your sympathies about the cost of feeding them all are appreciated.

There was a little fun and visiting thrown in alongside perpetual eating:

The girls and I didn't have quite the focus on food that the boys did on our trip, instead focusing on friends.  We spent the night in Vegas, where Christi had never been so the girls thought they had to show her the town at night.  We saw the gamut on Fremont Street, as expected, enjoyed an 80's cover band, and laughed as we took pictures of the lights.  

There was, however, a bit of a Food Fest moment for Angela, when all of us were shocked to see her go back SEVEN times to the buffet, as she gorged on crab legs for the first time. 

Driving back to Montrose, we stopped multiple times along the way to take photos of the beautiful Utah scenery at sunset.  It looks magnificent when caught at this time of day, less so at high noon:

Big Ol' Open Sky

We spent a few days at home with Candi and Christi, enjoying spring break before heading off to Denver to put them on their flight back home.  One of the days we went Geocaching in Delta, and just enjoyed lazily taking a 3 mile walk as we searched for caches.  The kids rode bikes, teased each other, walked on bridges, and had fun sleuthing to find the hidden boxes.

Dominick and I both enjoyed having a "third daughter" around for a brief period of time, and though we missed her brother, we were so happy to have Christi with us and look forward to another visit this summer.

Always room for more!

It was nice to have a break from reality and hard work.  Everyone is ready to get back in the groove now and put their noses to the grindstone!