I’m not sure, but I think this was a once in a lifetime trip and it was incredibly hectic and I felt like we were on the road way too much, but damn it was worth it. Last Wednesday night, Brandon and I drove to Lubbock to knock out half of the trip, and spent the night with Matty. The next morning the three of us drove to Amarillo to pick up Justin, who had to delay his trip in order to finish out a bid. From there, the four of us drove to Trinidad, Colorado where we met up with Lee and Clayton, who had spearheaded this trip.

We went to Wal-Mart, picked up our fishing licenses and we were off to the local lake in Trinidad.

Matty waiting for the fish to arrive.

No High Life, and we had to settle for Yellowbellies.

The clouds finally break.

Matty and Brandon:

Fish was caught and we moved on to Lee’s house where we fried up some fish and potatoes. The next morning (Friday morning) we got up fairly early and made our way to the San Luis Valley. We hooked up with our guides, Spencer and David, who worked for an outfit called Solitary Angler and made our way out to some property that was owned by Van Beachum, who owned the fishing spot.

You’ll note that this was truly a valley and the land leading up to the Calabra River was more marshy than anything else.

We split into groups and I’m with Brandon and Justin. Here’s Brandon and Dave.

Justin with a freaking awesome back-cast, follow through and good sized trout.

Here’s your very own PDB (backpack was necessary to carry camera).

You might say that this was perfect.

Justin catches another trout and I have my camera handy.

We finish up fishing and we then head to a place that Lee suggested, which is a public land area near a small lake where we can camp overnight for free. The only problem was that the afternoon mountain ran shower happened until about 7:30 that night and which made putting up the tent more difficult. We got it done and needless to say, when you’re in Colorado, it’s pretty awesome.

The next morning, after a long night of Matty snoring (which he can’t help) Lee, Justin and myself get up for some breakfast in town, we clean up camp and we head to the next fishing spot which was some ranch (I think it was the Blanco Ranch?), which was 256 square miles of pristine Colorado countryside and mountains. The story goes that the ranch was formerly owned by Steve Forbes. The drive to our fishing spot was pretty spectacular and I’m pretty sure that who ever owned the ranch owned the mountain too.

Want to see a guy who had not had a shower in four days?

Now this fishing site was completely different. This was your mountain stream and the fish were going to be smaller.

If you can just imagine miles of this type of scenery.

Here’s Matty.

And Brandon.

I’m sorry that I never got photos of Lee and Clayton fishing, but here’s the entire group. In order, Brandon, myself, Matty, Clayton, Lee and Justin.

Again, this was maybe one of the best trips ever. I had a ton of fun and I’m pretty sure I’m hooked (no pun intended) on fly fishing.

It’s been a while, but I went fishing with Randy, Justin, Clay, Francis, Brandon and Donny. Lots of pictures and lots of fishing. Justin, Brandon and myself drove down, while the rest of the group (sans Donny) drove down first. We arrived at our beach house and it was pretty danged nice:

That night, there was a thunderstorm on its way:

Justin and Brandon (camera is foggy due to the humidity);

Donny and Donny and Brandon:

Someone caught a shark:

Randy:

Justin’s got something on the line:

Me:

Clay:

Brandon with a beautiful cast:

On our first stop was near an old oil rig and caught our limit of Kingfish. No pictures of the actual fish because I was actually fishing. Proof is later.

Donny has something on the line:

Clay gets in on the action:

Someone is in to this:

Randy with a Red Snapper (which was pretty par for the course in terms of size):

Randy with a Mahi Mahi:

After it was all said and done, this was the fish. Yep, a ton of fish:

Me, Justin, Randy, Donny, Brandon and Clay:

The next day, Brandon, Justin and myself (mainly the other two) cooked up a freaking awesome shrimp boil:

Later in the day, we fished from the beach, and just for memories sake, this was our beach house:

Waiting for a bite:

Me:

Randy, Francis, Donny, Brandon, Justin and Clay:

And I replace Donny, but I’m shirtless:

Pretty nice sunset that evening:

So after the wild and crazy times in Cozumel, the rest of the cruise was essentially spent waiting to get back to Galveston. The rest of these photos are just lounging around and eating, which is what you do on a cruise.

Myself and Sweet Sweet:

Ashley and Sweet Sweet:

Justin and Ashley:

The last afternoon and night aboard the ship, Justin and I belly up to the bar and have a few. Our lovely wives join us and Sweet Sweet and I enjoy some good times:

The entire trip, we were served by Prito and his helper (I can’t recall his name right now). Prito was incredibly helpful and had no problems bringing out additional deserts and appetizers. He was a tremendous waiter.

The next morning, we waited for a few hours to get off the ship. We were a little over 2 hours late and this caused all of us to get a tad bit antsy, not to mention, the method of getting off of the ship was quite simply awful. Needless to say, we were ready to be on dry land.

So, after getting on the ship, having a nice dinner, we finally arrive in Cozumel without any sort of plan. In fact, they always encourage you to make sure that you’ve booked your excursion and we decided not to do that.

Seat.  Of.  Our.  Pants.

This is Sweet Sweet and I getting off of the ship:

Justin and Ashley:

The Ecstasy, in all of her glory:

Walking on the dock, I can’t believe Justin would carry this bag:

So, we find a taxi and long story short, we ask the driver to take us to the best public beach in Cozumel. He does, and it’s amazing. He essentially drops us off and we find ourselves in an outdoor bar/restaurant that was made for us. We sit down and have a few beers before getting acquainted with the water.

Although I was trying to take a picture of Sweet Sweet (yes, I fail at camera), you can tell that that the sand is beautiful and the water is crystal clear:

The ocean from our table:

Yeah, this doesn’t look like a public beach, but it is:

Justin and Ashely not looking at my camera:

So I’m out in the water and to make another long story short, it turns out that Lori Cochran (now Anding) is at the same beach on a different cruise. So we hook up with their group while we’re there. They paid for the excursion and they were able to eat whatever they wanted and drink as much as they wanted. Justin and I shared some civiche as well as this beautiful fish:

Here’s everyone and the bar/restaurant:

More beautiful beach and water:

Me (someone needs to work out a little harder):

Me, Sweet Sweet and Lori:

Our afternoon ends and we head back to the ship:

Do not remember:

One of the best days ever, other than having to get back onto the ship.

So the second night of the cruise was the night we were supposed to get all dressed up and look decent. Before dinner, we tried to go out on the deck and take photos. The sun was somewhat blinding:

We then decided to take care of this later and moved inside to the Captains Welcome where we threw out gang signs, some cooler than others:

After the Captains Welcome (which turned out to be free drinks) we went back on the deck. This is prior to turning on the flash:

Then with the flash on:

Pretty amazing, right?

Prior to dinner, we had drinks:

We’re going to break the Cozumel vacation into a couple of parts, building to a crescendo of fun and excitement.

Up first is the trip to Galveston.

We’re all excited about the drive:

This is us driving over the bridge between Houston and Galveston:

We checked our bags first thing (we actually arrived a bit early) and decided to grab some lunch on the beach.  I can’t remember where we ate, but it was an open-air bar/eatery and it was good:

Me:

Sweet Sweet:

Ashley:

Justin:

Justin and I decided to share the fried food platter and a dozen oysters. Oysters:

Fried food:

After eating we went back to the port and boarded the Carnival Ecstasy.  This was one view of the bay. Big rusty metal structures:

And I tried to take some pictures of the city of Galveston:

I’ve got some serious catching up to do. Last month we had Jenson and Thea’s birthday parties and as you might imagine, good times ensued.

Sweet Sweet and Ryan:

Darius taking a break:

The incredibly large slide:

The birthday boy goes up for yet another slide down:

On to Thea’s Birthday as we had a pink princess theme. Thea contemplates blowing out the candles:

And we’re off:

With some help from Blake:

Who loves icing?

Sweet Sweet was out of town last weekend and as a result, I had a little bit of time to kill. Earlier in the week I was wondering if someone could smoke ribs or brisket while using a simple charcoal grill. Turns out that you can. But before we get to that, I did snap one picture of some of the vegetables from the garden and a photo of the dogs.

Vegetables:

Dogs:

So I did find an article online detailing how it’s done and I used a dry rub found online from Bobby Flay.

Here’s the grill before making any modifications:

The article suggested using an aluminum pan and in the comments of that article, it suggested using bricks to separate the charcoal from the water pan, to help regulate the temperature:

Also suggested was to soak the wood chips as long as possible, which I did at 8:00 a.m.:

About 3:30 p.m. I started the charcoal and followed the directions closely:

As you can see, this is the first time the ribs hit the grill. You’ll also note the thermometer sticking out of the right side of the grill. The thermometer was moved back towards the coals in order to get a true idea of the temperature of the grill to help regulate the meat:

About halfway through the process:

Elam attempting to help:

I also realized that smoking ribs is about drinking as much as it is about smoking ribs:

The final product:

As far as taste is concerned, perhaps the best ribs that I’ve ever had. The process of maintaining that core temperature was a little tedious, but I had plenty of time and plenty of beer. As sad as this may sound, probably one of the better times I’ve had lately. Lots of fun and up next will be a brisket.

No apologies, just been a tad busy (not really). So these pictures from probably a month ago of the garden in no way represent how it looks today. It’s gotten to the point that the tomatoes were tilting the cages, to the point that they were falling down and I had to tie the cages to the fence to keep them upright. I’ll have to take some additional pictures today. In any event, here’s the garden from about a month ago.

Tomatoes:

Peppers:

Broccoli:

Onions:

Squash:

Sweet Sweet and I also spent some time and Justin F. and Ashley F.’s for dinner with Todd and Beth. I was in charge of cooking bacon:

And drinking:

And taking pictures of myself:

Bella wanted to come outside:

Elam and Sweet Sweet:

Elam:

Bella gets her wish:

Elam wants a cold one:

We had Grace’s B-Day over at Marilea and Blake’s house during Easter weekend.

Here’s Grace opening presents.

Grace, Saralyn, Jensen and Darius.

Dad, Hogan, Thea, Marilea and Sweet Sweet:

Mom makes Grace a new dress, complete with bonnet.