House O' Sullivans

During our through hike of Telluride, Pandora, and the surrounding areas, Sophie and Hallee kept asking to go to the bathroom.  They must think that going in the woods is pretty awesome or something because we were stopping every 15 minutes or so.  A little #1 there, a little #2 here.  After several stops I was sick of digging holes with rocks to bury the evidence so I pulled out a doggy-doo bag from a trail-side stand.  The next time that Hallee needed to go, I taught her how to pick up her OWN stuff and directed her to carry it to the nearest trash can (which was a good mile down the trail).  I challenge you dog owners to get YOUR pet to do THAT! On the way back into town, we passed this cemetery.  Of course we had to pass through and look at old stones and carving (for Casey) and run through the sprinklers (for the girls).  How would you like to be buried in a place like this?  That is one amazin...

The Sunday afternoon after the reunion ended, we packed up the van and headed for Telluride, Colorado.  Now THAT is one beautiful place.  We booked ourselves into a four star hotel on the cheap (priceline.com is the hook-up) right up in Mountain Village--the heart of Telluride Ski Resort.  What an amazing place with an incredible view. Telluride has an interesting public transportation system--it's free and it's a gondola.  Now THAT is fresh.  Monday morning we headed out early and rode the gondola into the town of Telluride proper. The views from the tram are AMAZING!!!  Zeke was so funny . . . he was SHAKING on the gondola ride.  Must be pretty scary being way up high in a little compartment when you have no idea whats going on. That GIGANTIC white building in the background is where we stayed.  This was the view looking down on the town of Telluride.      One of the first th...

The kids LOVED the gigantic pinata on Friday night.  This family does NOT mess around.  There was so much candy and junk food piled around that the American Diabetes Association would picket outside the lodge if they knew about it. Hallee had a hard time filling her princess loot-bag at first because of the large hole in the bottom of it.  She kept filling it and watching in disbelief as the contents fell to the floor, over and over. Grandma Tiede set us all up with matching green shirts with our names on front.  The green came in handy at the Indian Ceremonial Parade in Gallup on Saturday when Hank and Emory disappeared.  The names came in handy for random people in the street to call us out of the crowd.  Casey, Hallee, Zeke, and I decided to explore the Kiwanis compound one night.  We hiked all the way out to the perimeter of the camp. The Zeke-Horse is one tough hiker.  That ...

The story continues . . .  On the way home from El Malpais (direct translation from Spanish-- the bad country ) we stopped by the Ramah Cemetary where Grandma Tiede's parents, grandparents, and second Husband Joy (he went by "Joe" and was apparently no patsy) are buried.  We wanted to take Zeke (that is Noble Ezekial Roanhorse) here, since he's named after his great-great-grandpa, Noble Rogers--the man who made the reunion possible.  We had to go, right? Soon after we arrived, a man came up to us, visibly emotional.  His look was "gentleman cowboy"--that is cowboy hat, cowboy boots, prominent belt buckle, ironed shirt, ironed polyester pants.  You know the ones.  He introduced himself as Allan Smith.  He explained that he had known Noble Rogers.  When he was a little boy, Noble was his mailman and would pick him up (along with his brother) when the weather was bad and drive him home from school.  Sometimes he would spend the ...

After the El Morro expedition, we went in search of the perfect picnicking site in El Malpais.  Casey brought a rope and strung up a makeshift swing.  Grandma Sullivan organized an impromptu family service project--each person picked up 20 pieces of trash.  (Great idea Ilean!)

When I married Casey, I quickly learned how IMPORTANT family reunions are to him.  (We attended no less than two on our honeymoon .)   People are still incredulous when I tell them that.  In MY family growing up, we actually tried to AVOID family reunions.  (I've since repented.) This particular reunion was the Rogers part of Casey's family--that is his great grandparents, Noble and Hazel Rogers.  Casey's Grandma Tiede is Noble and Hazel's daughter.  So Grandma Tiede and her living siblings and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were summoned to New Mexico. We stayed in a big bunkhouse at Kamp Kiwanis in the Zuni Mountains.  I'm not sure why they call them mountains . . . they are KIND OF hilly and they ARE at about 7,200 feet elevation.  The camp encompasses 160 acres in a dry ponderosa pine forest, although it did rain several times while we were there; that place hosts some crazy thunder storms. ...