My Life

Thursday, March 30, 2017

"A dog will teach you unconditional love. If you can have that in your life, things won't be too bad."- Robert Wagner

' Today is my birthday. Every year I tell Rick not to get me anything and I mean it. But this year he broke the rule and got me a very special gift.

All you long term blog readers know that in January of 2015 I had to put my dog Dexter to sleep. For those of you who are not here is the link
It was one of the hardest things I have every had to do and to this day I still cannot forgive myself even if I know it was the right thing to do.

So a month or so ago Rick and I went to the Waseca Art Center to see an exhibit by a young man that has been in the archery class Rick teaches.

Kevin Chen is a 14 year old that has unbelievable talent. I was so impressed with his art. I wanted to buy several of his works. I said in passing as we were admiring his work that I wonder if he would do a drawing of Dexter for me. I knew exactly which picture I would have him look at. Of course life got busy and I forgot about it.

Rick did not forget and even knew which picture of Dexter I was talking about.

Kevin did this wonderful charcoal picture for me of Dexter.

This is the picture that Kevin used as a model for his work. It is my favorite picture of Dexter. It was the last time he was truly happy and pain free.

I know Dexter was just a dog but he was my dog and I was his person and I still miss him. This was such a thoughtful and loving gift. It means the world to me.

Sharon

Friday, February 17, 2017

“Oh the places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

For the last 11 years we have traveled to Las Vegas for the World Archery Shoot. We have flown 6 times and driven 5 times. We usually get into Vegas on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Leaving on Sunday night or Monday morning. This year we decided to leave on Saturday morning and get to Vegas on Sunday morning. We left Vegas on the following Sunday getting home early Tuesday morning. Of all the years we have gone to Vegas this was our favorite trip. Well other then the year we got married :)

Every year we try and squish everything we want to do and see into the one day we have before the shoot starts or depending on when we shoot the hours before or after. We have managed to see and do a lot of fun things but it always seems rushed. This year we had 4 full days to do whatever we wanted before the actual shoot started. It was so nice to just relax and not really have any plans. We saw so many beautiful things. Rick said it best when he said his eyes hurt from seeing so much and trying to take it all in.

The Las Vegas area is so much more then the "Strip" if you just look around. We had many wonderful adventures on our trip. We just pulled up the map and started looking for places to go and we were off.

We went to Sloan Canyon Nation Conservation Area to see the petroglyphs. It was less then 15 minutes from the Grandview where we were staying. It was so fun to go to an area I had never heard of and hike and see the petroglyphs.

This was the trail we were on. We came in on top of the rock and had to make our way down. We managed to not get lost which was a feat because when we got there we were told they were out of maps. If you know us at all you know that we always get lost even with a map!

We decided to go back to the Valley of Fire State Park. We had been there a few years ago but only had a short amount of time and saw just a little part of the park. I am so glad we went back. We spend about 6 hours there and could have spent another 6. The rocks and the cannons were so beautiful it was hard to take it all in. The pictures do not even come close to the true beauty and vastness of it.

These are just a few of the many pictures we took.

We next made our way the the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. This is the one place that we did not spend enough time at. We did not get going until late in the day so we did not get to go out and explore much as it was getting dark. We did go to the visitor center and walk on the trails near it. It is part of the Mojave Desert. I only took a few pictures.

The last day before the shoot started we went to the Hoover Dam. The last time we were there they we in the middle of constructing the new bridge over the dam. This time it was done and we got to walk across it. It was fun to see the dam from a different view.