From 1200 to 12,000 ft ina week

Buller has been from here to there and back again.
We left Minnesota with Buller in tow on August 13th.

We drove from Minnesota to Pierre SD the first day. We stopped at 1 am and slept for 4 hours in the hotel. Luckily Buller and the kids had fallen asleep long before that in the van. The next day we were back on the road by 6 am. We drove until we reached Colorado. We were determined to reach our destination quickly. That night we stayed in Idaho Springs, CO. We camped in a tent by a small (very small) spring feed stream that is part of the hot springs there.

We drove across the entire state of Colorado the next day. Driving from the Plains to the the top of the Rocky Mountains and back down the Western slope toward Grand Junction, CO. Once in Junction we finished the last 100 miles by heading South down two canyons. We finally arrived in the small town of Naturita, CO.

The next six pictures were taken on the last 100 miles. It is a scenic by-way. It is one of my favorite drives ever, and one that the kids did well on considering that one side of the road is a straight 1000 ft drop (I actually don't know how far down it is, but it is a straight drop down) and the other side of the road is a sheer 500ft cliff up.
Red Rock is the feature attraction in Gateway, CO. Center point of the two canyons.
Buller felt at home. We had a hard time getting him back in the van to reach our destination. We finally convinced him that where we were going would be lizard heaven. That is we had him convinced until he ran into a lizard friend (can you see the lizard? he is brown.) Like all lizards we had to trick him. Was he ever that naughty for you? Maybe it is the little lizard that persuaded him?


The kids became very good at lining up for pictures by the time the trip was over.

Looking at the spring. We visited two natural springs and filled our water bottles. The water is fresh and clean as it is filtered naturally through the mountain.



The Dolores River

"Fairy Palace" behind cabins that we stayed in. Does this rock look magical enough for fairies to live in?

The first place we went (daytrip) was Ouray. There is a hot spring swimming pool there. After visiting a water fall, and having a picnic in the park, us and 20 friends enjoyed the rest of the day in the springs going from the very very hot part of the pools to the freezing cold water slide area and back and forth.

Part of the Cascade Falls, in Telluride CO

The next day was spent in Telluride. This town was known for it's mining. Today it is more of a tourist area. After a yummy lunch at the bakery we went up to another waterfall (or as close as little legs can get us) and then road the gondola to the top of the ski area and had a look around then, back down for ice cream in the car on the way back to the cabin

Buckeye Reservoir in Utah. Natural lakes are few and far between in Colorado. Reservoirs are man made lakes. (can you see Buller hanging out in the sun?)

The water level had dropped so low that the shore line had become quite muddy. The kids found this quite fun. Addie's suit still shows the "fun" in each mud spot stain today. Good thing we have a new one for next year already. No worries.

We are ready to head back across Colorado. Picture taken in front of the little cabin we called home for the week. The van and trailer were repacked and ready to go. Our next destination was Estes Park.
We had a great trip. Including several days in Estes National Park where we finally tracked down a herd of elk. We went from our elevation of 1200ft up to 12,000ft. and back down again. We were gone for 14 days.

Buller has now been to Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (we had him waving as we went past your grandparent's area), Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah. He has seen forests, prairies, mountains, semi-arid desert, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, mountain streams, and waterfalls.

If you look back through the blog, you will see that Buller has been to school, he has been camping, and hiking, biking, down the Mississippi River in a canoe. Buller was at family celebrations, and listened to bedtime stories snuggled in a loft bed.

He has watched Addie go from second to third grade.

He traveled short distances - to Grandma's, Headwater's of the Mississippi, in town for a statue walk, or just to the couch to watch t.v.

He learned about Earth Day, and how to fish and garden in Minnesota. He cooked a hotdish, and learned about fashion. He read favorite books, and packed school lunches.pictures of taking pictures

He has been busy.
Yes, we even showed him just how big Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox really are.
But, we have a problem.
Buller won't get out of the van. He has been clinging to his Colorado river rock on the dashboard of our van since we returned. Seems he misses Denmark, and he misses you Sabin. Buller wants to come home. Although it is a strange time for a robin to fly North (most are gone for the winter now) we are wondering if Early is ready to fly the coop too?

Addie has a brilliant idea. She doesn't want to shut your blog down, rather keep it open and post on it when you two have something you want to share. Halloween and Thanksgiving, Christmas, Addie's birthday - there are lots of things coming up. Thing to share. When you want to. I think it is brilliant.

What do you think Sabin?

Buller Finally Made It!

My main goal for Buller when he arrived in the States
was for him to make it to the
Headwaters of the Mississippi River.

On Sunday July 19, 2009 Buller arrived at this location. Luckily for our cold blooded friend it was a lovely day out. Those have been few and far between in the great state of Minnesota.

The Mississippi River runs the length of the United States. It starts just outside of Park Rapids, MN at what is now a State Park named Itasca. It then travels North to Bemidji and then starts heading South toward Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.The Mississippi flows out of Lake Itasca and travels 2552 miles before becoming part of the Gulf of Mexico and eventually part of the Ocean. A man named Schoolcraft was the person who discovered the correct source (as others had been named as such) and the short story is on the sign below.

Remember Sabin: click to enlarge it
so that you can read it better

We try to make it to Itasca State Park at least once a season if not more often. There are miles of bike/hiking trails, camping, boating, fishing, dinner cruises, naturalist programs, swimming, shopping, restaurants, etc. Plus it is one of the last great stands of old age/ untouched forests in the area. Almost everything else has been logged at one point in history.

Here is a collage of our time at the headwaters. I will first point out the upper left and lower right pics - these are from a 10 mile canoe ride that Addie's mom and dad took down part of the Mississippi on Friday. You can read about that here. Buller came along for the ride, but due to the rain and cold he stayed in dad's jacket.

From there I will start at the top left and continue to the right and around
1) Loon - Minnesota state bird. Came up right in front of our canoe
2) This is a shot taken at the Lake Itasca swimming beach - across the lake is the headwaters. You can barely see people walking across
3) My feet (mom) on the rocks of the headwaters. Imagining the water going across my feet will eventually be in the ocean
4) All four kids sitting on the Headwaters
5 &6) A shot of people walking across
7) Buller basking in the sun on the rocks collecting memories
8) Rocks to send to your mom out of the Headwaters - they will be making the return trip with Buller
9) Canoe trip - cousins in the canoe behind us
10) Heading down the path toward the river
11) The kids and dad walked from the Headwaters to the first bridge.
12) Dad holding Addie's brother's homemade boat he was floating down rocks
13) People from all over the world come to see this
14) Ducks and ducklings on Lake Itasca
15) Buller on the log bridge
16) Addie sitting in the headwaters
The middle pic) Buller hanging out at the Headwaters of the Mississippi sunning on the rocks.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Sabin -
Ask your mom if she ever made it to this place?
Did her family take a trip here?
Does she remember it?
Are the pictures hidden in your granparent's basement ;)

Webkinz World or Bust

Seeing as it has been so cold and gray and Buller is an reptile, there for subject to the temperatures around him. He has been spending lots of time cuddled up with his other friends down in Addie's bed. He is just trying to stay warm. Buller has become good friends with Lil Pink Bow Bitsy (The Dog) and Brownie (the Horse).
Bitsy and Brownie live in Addie's bed and in a virtual world. Do you have a Webkinz? Have you played in "Webkinz World" online? You purchase one of their super cute "pets" it comes with a code (Like Littlest Pet Shop animals) and you can "play" with them in a virtual world as well as having a super cute cuddly animal. Addie recieve Bitsy for Valentine's day a couple years ago and Brownie for Christmas (both from Grandma). One or two seems to be plenty in her mom's opinion ;)

Buller found it quite fun to go online and see where his friends spent their virtual time. He even helped Addie pick out some of their food- he is getting quite good with the mouse.

Addie and her siblings are limited to 20 minutes of computer time a day. They seem to be able to get a game or two in that time. We are quite rushed after school and every minute seems to matter (plus because 20min x 4 gets to be long when there is only 1 hour from the time they get off the bus until we eat)

What games do you play online?

Where is Buller Now?

Buller is in this picture. Can you find him? Where is Buller?

The Birth of Paul Bunyan

retold by
S. E. Schlosser

Now I hear tell that Paul Bunyan was born in Bangor, Maine. It took five giant storks to deliver Paul to his parents. His first bed was a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses. His father had to drive the wagon up to the top of Maine and back whenever he wanted to rock the baby to sleep.

I will zoom in to help you see him.

As a newborn, Paul Bunyan could hollar so loud he scared all the fish out of the rivers and streams. All the local frogs started wearing earmuffs so they wouldn't go deaf when Paul screamed for his breakfast. His parents had to milk two dozen cows morning and night to keep his milk bottle full and his mother had to feed him ten barrels of porrige every two hours to keep his stomach from rumbling and knocking the house down. Within a week of his birth, Paul Bunyan could fit into his father's clothes.Hint Hint

After three weeks, Paul rolled around so much during his nap that he destroyed four square miles of prime timberland. His parents were at their wits' end! They decided to build him a raft and floated it off the coast of Maine. When Paul turned over, it caused a 75 foot tidal wave in the Bay of Fundy. Buller spent the morning hanging out with one of our main attractions
Paul Bunyan and Babe his Big Blue Ox

They had to send the British Navy over to Maine to wake him up. The sailors fired every canon they had in the fleet for seven hours straight before Paul Bunyan woke from his nap! When he stepped off the raft, Paul accidentally sank four war ships and he had to scramble around sccooping sailors out of the water before they drowned. After this incident, Paul's parents decided the East was just too plumb small for him, and so the family moved to Minnesota.

More stories here

Do you have sea gulls? (these are actually heron gulls)

If you do, you know they were laughing at us the whole time

Statue Information found here

Paul Bunyan story - Bemidji Style here

Buller is Here!

Addie wore another of her favorite shirts - this one a Birthday gift from grandma. It was the perfect outfit (yesterday) to welcome Buller! He has arrived and is safe and sound.
(minus one sequins after a night of sleeping in the new loft)
Addie made quick work of making him feel at home. she took him out into the first Spring rain to show him the yard (since we figure outside is where he feels the most at home)
Although lizards tend to prefer dry warm environments Buller seems to be adapting well.

Where is Buller?

I was hoping to share the good news that Buller had arrived safe and sound.
However, there was only a single letter in the mailbox from a friend in Idaho.
We anticipate his arrival tomorrow.
The way our mail travels he is
probably hanging around Fargo, ND right now.
(is it a he or a she?)
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Where is Buller?

getting the mail is fun!

early arrived safely today!  he's actually been in the country since saturday, but we missed the postman that day and had to wait 'til the post office was open today to pick him up. the first thing we did was take him to lunch at café le zinc, our favorite local cafe. we won't say that the reason we had to go get lunch was that far (pronounced "fah" and the danish word for dad) forgot to put the lunch he made in sabin's bag, so she was totally starved today. :-( oh wait, i guess we did say that.

as you can see in the next picture, sabin loved her little necklace as well and put it on immediately! so a very big thank you for that and for the other goodies in the package!! it was such a treat!

and you'll be happy to know that we pulled ourselves together and sent a puffy envelope your way today as well. i can say that receiving the package with early has made sabin very excited about this project. i'm not sure she really understood what we were going to do before she actually got early in her own two hands. we were biking home and she carried early so he could see where we were going. she's currently watching a little t.v. and relaxing with him.

here's a little hint as to what we sent:

sabin made a last minute switch to send "buller" instead of the beanie cat named kooky that she had intended to send. buller--pronounced "boolah" is a little lizard that sabin made at her after-school program. he's called a "firben" (pron. fear-bean) in danish (that literally means four legs and is the word for lizard). he's colored with pastels and has a few bead and sequin accents and loads of character. we think you'll have lots of fun taking him places and taking his picture. he's very curious about things and we can tell you already that he likes going to the beach:

sabin's already looking forward to taking early to school next week. they have a special "middle ages week" and the kids will all do various activities from the middle ages--making shields, making clothing from leather and furs, felting, oral storytelling, and the like. sabin thinks early will get a big kick out of that.

it will probably take about a week for buller to arrive, that's usually what it takes when we send things to grandma and grandpa in south dakota and aunt monica in iowa, so be on the lookout early next week.