Author: Chuck

Bean Pick Up

The day finally arrived – the Bean Trailer pick up in Salt Lake City, UT.

Jen and I drove out and picked up our tear drop trailer. It was both exciting and a little nerve wracking. Never hauled a trailer before. Turned out not to be too big of a deal. I will still need to practice backing up with the thing.

First camping spot, Utah Lake State Park, was very nice if a little windy the first night. The following morning was clear and beautiful. We were surrounded by mountains on all sides. This park is right in Provo, UT.

Jenna and the Bean in Utah Lake State Park

After a successful night 1, we were off to Moab, UT. Visited Arches National Park and Deadhorse State Park. Both are always a crowd pleaser. Apres Margaritas were a nice touch too.

Deadhorse State Park

Arches National Park

Welcome Home Max

Jen and I spent the holiday weekend driving to Cross Roads, TX to pick up the newest member of the family – Max.

Max profile
click any image to enlarge

Max is a 7-month-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  He looks like the other doggie, Ruby, who is a King Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and mini–Australian Shepard (aka Ausslier).  Max has a white tail and a brown freckle on his head, Ruby has a red tail and the distinctive aussie blue eyes.

The 1,500 mile round trip allow us to see miles and miles of Texas was fun and mostly uneventful other than traveling during a polar vortex that kept the temps in the single digits for most of the trip.  The temps also kept the puppy potty breaks pretty brief on the way home.

Jen enjoying her barbeque

We split the trip into two legs to make it a little easier on everyone.  Amarillo (6 hrs) is about halfway to Dallas/Ft Worth and was base camp to break the trip up. 

No trip to Texas is complete without a visit to get some barbeque.  Found Rudy’s in Amarillo for some brisket and baby back ribs – highly recommend when in Amarillo.

Max was a good boy riding in the backseat

Leaving Amarillo by morning, we made it back to Denver early Sunday afternoon for Max to acclimate to his new home and meet the growing group of Mahoney animal friends.  The good news is Max loves and seems to be loved by all the current animal residents.  Max and Ruby are enjoying wrestling matches and chasing sessions in both the living room and back yard.  Garth has also said ‘hello’ to Max and smacked in in the head at least once that I’ve see.  Alls good – Garth smacks everyone in the head at least once😉.

Max (originally Hobbit/Leo) is a rescue from Dog Ranch Rescue in Anna, TX.  His prior owners ran into some health issues apparently and couldn’t handle a puppy and his energy.  So far, we’ve found Max to be a very sweet boy, and Ruby helps us keep his energy and attention under control.  Max has big brown eyes and loves to sit with us on the couch and play with us and Ruby in between naps.

Ruby (blue eyes) and Max (brown eyes)

The family even made the Dog Ranch Rescue Facebook page when Jenna sent them a status update on “Max” once we made it home.

Benard Maine

Family trip to Benard Maine completed this week. The whole Chuck Mahoney clan made it out including the newly minted, baby Westyn. He was definitely the rock star of the show.

The first few days were a little foggy and cloudy, but still nice enough to do thinks like visit Accadia National Park, Bass Harbor Lighthouse, the Rockefeller Gardens and Beals Lobster Pier for both lobster rolls and whole lobster, yum.

Visited the sandy beach inside Accadia and took a hike, or two, inside the park. I survived my gorge path hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain, just barely. Connor had to haul me up the last pitch after I pulled something in the lower abdomen scrambling over some big rocks. The views from the top were spectacular. Fortunately, we found a friendly tour bus driver that offered the injured party (me) and my support team a ride down the mountain.

Thanks to Carolyn for the area research and the points of interests and activities lists.

Attendees: Judy, Alan, Sandra, Arre, Andrew, Sutton, Carolyn, Carlton, Ailsa, Freya, Chuck, Jenna, Connor, Cameron, Lindsay, Madisyn, and Westyn.

Ruuuuuby, don’t take your love to town.

Since we didn’t have much of anything else going on…

We figured we would go out and get a puppy.

Meet Ruby, the 10-week-old, Ausslier puppy.

She is very sweet and very much a puppy – right down to the puppy breath and whining at night. You forget about that part.

We love her nonetheless and will be providing any updates of note as she acclimates to Colorado and our family.

Hailing from the state of Minnesota, she weighs in at about 5-6 pounds and about 8 inches high. Jen flew out to pick her up and fly back to Denver. The flight was a little stressful, but she came through with flying colors.

With blue eyes and a wiggly tail with a white tip, she already enjoys bouncing around the backyard and giving lots of puppy kisses.

Welcome Westyn

He has finally arrived. Welcome, Westyn Dennis Mahoney!

Born on 5/23/24, 6 lbs 15 oz. and cute as a button.

Mom and Dad both doing well and adjusting to new parenthood.

He has been visited several times by eager extended family members and so far, the reviews are unanimous – Wes is a rock star.

Main daily course of activity is sleep, eat, poop, repeat. He does it well.

Look for updates and pictures on the Cam and Mady page. FUN.

Baby Shower

Yesterday was the baby shower for little baby ‘Taco’.

The venue was the Breckenridge Brewery and the day was a historically windy one for Colorado.

Despite the wind, the gathering was very nice. In attendance were multiple generations of family from both sides of the little fella’s parents – Nanas, Mimis, Great Grandmothers, and regular old Grandparents. There were also aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and classmates.

It was fun catching up with some of the Vista and CU kids. Also fun attempting to predict baby names, as well as offering the best advice for the parents-to-be.

I’m sure they will be fine. I know I will enjoy watching them grow and experience the joys of parenthood.

I also expect a few “I had no idea how (hard, frustrating, awesome, tiring) this would be comments along the way.

This was my first visit to the Breckenridge “Beer Fort”, which is across from the main restaurant and bar area. It boasts a lovely patio with an outdoor fireplace that would have been perfect on a crisp spring day if the darn wind hadn’t been blowing so hard.

The indoor décor also provided an opportunity to educate the young ones about the status symbol of the console stereo system – a signature piece of furniture where LPs by Roberta Flack, Shirley Bassey, and John Denver were played in the Mahoney household back in the day.

Even ‘big sister’ Dixie got in on the action.

Even more pictures here.

Cam and Mady page added to Mahoneyplace

No one can accuse them of moving slowly. First an engagement then a pregnancy announcement, things are moving quickly and can be challenging to keep up with.

So… I plan to keep track of what is going on here, on the ‘Cam and Mady‘ page – I’ll probably have to rename it if they keep up this pace.

My plan is to follow all things Cam and Mady; including tales of Dixe the dog and ______ the newborn.

I’ve already had fun making up and guessing names for what he may be named. Let me know if you have guesses too.

Looking forward to being that good ‘bad’ influence on the little dude.

McKee-Green Visit

The Mahoneys had fun hosting the Mckee-Greens for a pre-Christmas visit. Other than some of the folks feeling under the weather, we all had a good time either skiing or eating, or both.

Jenna brought a few games and ignited the competitive sprit in all of us. Who knew there were so many creative writers in the group – some more brief than others. My favorite answer “poop control”.

In addition to games, there was skiing/snowboarding, some serious snow tubing in Frisco and one quality day of just exploring the town of Breckenridge.