BLESSINGS

I am constantly amazed at how much I learn each day; about the world, about other people, about myself, about life.  Today I was reminded of how special Ann is to me and how my life is filled by her.  Sometimes being without reminds us of what we have.  As we spend time helping with our son's new addition to his life, I watch Ann as she goes about her motherly and grandmotherly tasks and marvel how blessed my life is and those of her sons and daughters-in-law by her contributions to their betterment.  She spends all day and night with them, helping where she can.  I help during the day and go home to the trailer at night.  I miss her so much when I am alone in the trailer and when I go to bed at night.  I am blessed with a great woman for an eternal companion!
WC

COWLEY GRANDCHILD # 11 7/26-28/2011

Late in the evening, after having spent the day with Kevin and Megan and shopping and such, just as we were settling down into bed back at our trailer, we got a call that said for us to come to the house and watch Batman because Megan was in labor.  Wayne stayed with Batman and Ann went with the kids to the hospital.  Here is Megan checking in for the birth.

 All checked in, the soon to be parents of two await the arrival of the stork.

In the morning, after the stork delivered the bundle of joy, Megan and Kevin presented a new Cowley to the world!!

Then the next day, during a severe thunder, lightening and rain downpour, they prepared Pineapple for her ride home.

Did I mention that it was raining?

Heaven's water broke for the delivery of Pineapple to her new home.

Big brother, Batman, gets to welcome his little sister to his domain!

My Baby!

The new family of four!

Grandma Cowley, who was there for the birth and got to hold Pineapple many times before, finally gets a little quiet time alone with her newest grand daughter.

Grandpa Cowley finally gets in on the act.  While everyone else was paying attention to Pineapple, Grandpa and Batman had been hanging out together.

The Champ, er, I mean, Princess!!

A WALK WITH BATMAN 7/24/2011

Sunday, after church we went far a walk with Batman and his parents on a beautiful new path along a man-made creek and ending up at a nice pond.

A happy family at a nice park waiting for the new baby to arrive.

Batman is a typical little one that loves to throw rocks,

climb things and hit trees.

Then when Grandpa asked where all Batman's rocks were, he wasn't sure.

Then he remembered and revealed a secret pile!!

Later we all worked together to fix dinner.

Dinner waiters!

Dinner eater!

OFF TO UTAH 7/21-22/2011

After we left Tucumcari, NM we began driving towards Provo, UT where we were going to stay and help while our youngest son and his wife have a new baby.  The drive began to get more and more beautiful as we went through Arizona.

The rock formations were getting more and more interesting.

Then we got into some cloudy area and we were really thankful for some rain.

This is Ship Rock.

The north side of Ship Rock.

Finally we crossed over into Utah!

We spent the night in Blanding UT in a trailer park near a Shell gas station and then the next morning headed out north for Provo, enjoying the beautiful rocky scenery of Southeastern Utah..

Hat Rock.

Wilson Arch, near Moab UT.

Wayne, after climbing to stand under Wilson Arch.

Close-up of Wayne under Wilson Arch.

Wayne and Ann at Wilson Arch near Moab, UT.

I bet you can't figure out where we are !!!

We had planned to spend a few nights here, but we felt we needed to move on to be closer to Kevin and Megan's, plus, we were not sure we wanted to tow thew trailer up the hill if we were not going to spend the night.  So, we moved on.

As we went through the canyons we saw several coal trains.  We figured they must mine it around here somewhere.

Well, we made it to Provo UT on July 22nd and set up camp at Wal-Mart for the night in Springville.  We spent the night there and then the next day set up in East Bay RV Park in Springville UT where we will stay until we finish helping Kevin and Megan.

TUCUMCARI, NEW MEXICO 7/19-21/2011

From Ada, OK we headed west across  the rest of Oklahoma, through Texas....

...seeing the world famous Leaning Water Tower of  Britten....

....then into New Mexico.

There in New Mexico, we stopped for a couple days in Tucumcari.  We had learned that Ann's grand parents that we had just researched in Ada, were married here by a Judge in 1911.  So, we decided to visit here and see what we could find!  Don't let the exit sign fool you.  It is a town that once was grand, but is no more.  When the railroad pulled out and Route 66 was replaced by I-40, the town dwindled rapidly starting in the late 1950's.  It is a skeleton of it's former self!

We got to town after the court house closed, but before we wanted to call it a night, so we found the local theater and attended a movie.  It was a theater house right out of the 1940's. It was quaint.... and for sale!  $65,000 and you could own your own theater with a sound and projection system that matches its age.  After the show (Green Lantern) we spent the night in Camp K-Mart,  Our air conditioner stopped working a few days ago and with the days hovering around 108 degrees, we were grateful for this evening's little breeze.

The next morning we toured town a little, viewing some of its attempt at a historical come back.

There we 56 murals in this little town!  All commemorated its past.  It was begun in 1904 and was a booming town until the late 1950's.  Now, it is just a blink of an eye as you drive by on I-40.

We went to the air conditioned (Everybody say ahhhhhhh!) court house and got to work.  We found the marriage applications, licenses and certificates for Ann's grandparents and for her grand mother's sister.  We also found the deed to 260+ acres that her great grandparents, John and Sarah Rice,  recorded for land that they had homesteaded here.  We later found a lease deed where they leased the mineral rights to a local oil company and then later the land was sold in two parts.  We used a local cartographer to locate the property for us by using the legal description.  We then went to the public library and read up on the history of the town and researched the schools.  We found that Ann's grandmother had taught elementary school here too, before she married Ann's Grandpa.

We found in the library that the school building still stood, but it was now a historical center.  It was closed when we got there.  We had scanned a picture of the school as it looked in 1906 and then took this picture as it stands now.  We also learned that the old court house where her grandparents had been married had burned down, so we could not get a picture of that.

We then drove out to find the property they had homesteaded.  It was the land located between these two mountains and beyond a little.

Here is a close up from on top of the trailer.  There were no roads out to the property at this time.

As you can see, it was desert like.  It is now used as cattle grazing property.

After Tucumcari, we drove west to Hidden Valley RV Park in Tijeras, New Mexico.  It rained most of the night. We were grateful for the cooler weather.  We actually pulled a sheet over us this night!!!