Hiking Flying J

Yes, another hike... there are SOOOOOOO many wonderful trails to hike, it's going to take us a year to see them all! This was a quick one that the boys and I went on last week... it's just a couple miles down the road from us.

I decided to chance this hike with the 2 year old AND the dog... without Michael. Big mistake. It was not a stress-free hike by any means, but it certainly was BEAUTIFUL!



Some Colorado education for you here... this is the state flower - the Columbine. It's actually on the endangered list right now because so many people pick them. There's big signs at all the trailheads warning hikers NOT to pick them. It was hard convincing Maddox that this flower needed to stay in the ground.

And for my parting shot... one of my all time favorites.

...to think I live just a couple miles from this exquisite beauty!!! God is good!

Michele

Mommas Can Drive Tractors Too!

I never liked cutting the grass... but that was before we had a riding mower and 4 1/4 beautiful acres to cut! (but we don't cut all of that - a lot stays natural). In any case, Michael came out and caught me in the act one day.

Smile, Momma! You're on candid camera!

It's not just another chore... it's an opportunity for me to get in touch with my masculine side! ...now if I could just coax the men in my life to get in touch with their feminine side by cooking and cleaning... or even just changing a diaper every now & then!

Hugs,
Michele

Rice Krispie Treats...

Now that we're in the mountains, we're discovering that groceries don't necessarily like being at 7,800 feet of elevation. For instance, it's nearly impossible to open a yogurt container without it "spitting" yogurt all over the place. New bags of chips? They are so puffed up and tight that you'd think they're going to explode at any moment. And many times, the extra pressure in bottles gives them a rounded bottom and they won't stand up. Just something to get used to!

But this one topped them all... I bought the ingredients to make my boys some Rice Krispie treats the other night, and when I went to retrieve them from the cupboard, this was what I found:

I assure you, it was NOT like this when I bought it! I guess that last few hundred feet from the grocery store to my house put it over the edge... literally!

Oh well, it still made for some good Rice Krispie treats!

Michele

EJs Visit

My oldest nephew, EJ, was in the Denver area for a Young Life camp and he accidentally scheduled his flight home to Dallas a day too late. But that was great news for us!! I went and picked him up at the airport and we got to visit with him for a day before he went back home! It was great to see him...

And as always, Maddox was quite taken with his big cousin. In fact, he was infatuated with how EJ always wore his hat backwards. After EJ left, I saw that Maddox discovered a whole new "look"...

It was great to see you, EJ... you're welcome here ANY time!!

Aunt Miki

Concert at the Lake

Yes, this is my fourth post today... and yes, it's my birthday (for about another 52 minutes). I don't have any birthday photos to share with you (I had a wonderful day)... but I'm so far behind on posting that I need to crank these out! I hope you enjoy the catch-up...

Evergreen puts on some summer concerts out at the lake... we went to one while Tyler was with us. It was VERY crowded, but a beautiful evening was had by all.

I love watching Michael & Maddox wrestle...



Tyler's just another big brother as far as Maddox is concerned!


Mason & Morgan WERE there with us, but they were out mingling with all the people and apparently unavailable for photos. :)

Michele

Tyler's Visit

A couple weeks ago, we had an opportunity to host Tyler Thomson for a whole week! He's the oldest son of our neighbors back in Allen... great friends whom we miss terribly! In any case, we were thrilled to have him... and as you saw from the two previous posts, he did some hiking with Michael and the boys while I was at the homeschool convention. But here are a couple of shots of him here at the house enjoying our great outdoors.

He helped us with a lot of yard work... hauling slash (tree limbs) and working on our 4-wheeler trail:

...and then just messing around on the zip line for fun:

Tyler, we thoroughly enjoyed having you... Debra & Scott - thanks for letting him come!

Michele

Red Rocks Ampitheatre

As I mentioned in the last post, the boys went to the famous Red Rocks Ampitheatre after their trip up Mt. Falcon. We've hiked here before, but didn't make it up here... as you can see, it's quite a trek and Maddox was already tired.

See Mason waving?! It's a long way up there! But look at this cool NATURAL ampitheatre... it's hard to see in this next photo, but Mason & Morgan are standing in the middle of the stage. Michael was halfway up the bleachers and he said he could hear the boys talking in their regular voices. Pretty cool!




Someday soon we plan to go and watch a live concert here! Wanna join us?

Michele

Mt. Falcon

While I was away at the homeschooling convention, Michael hired a babysitter for Maddox and took our older boys (plus Tyler Thomson who was staying with us) and the dog on a hike up Mt. Falcon.

There's a story of a man who wanted to build a summer home for US Presidents to stay in here in Colorado. Here's what I found online about it:

"The story starts in the early 1900's. John Brisben Walker made a fortune on land speculation in West Virginia and his purchase of Cosmo Magazine. He bought over 4,000 acres of land in what is now Jefferson County. Walker built a beautiful stone castle for himself and his wife.

Then he decided to build a summer home for the Presidents of the United States on a ridge to the east of his home. Thousands of school children in Colorado each donated 10 cents to Walker's dream. A marble cornerstone with the words "Summer Home for the Presidents of the United States, gift from the People of Colorado, 1911" was laid out and construction began...

...But America got involved in World War I and due to a lack of money the project near went very far. Then Walker's wife died and his own castle caught on fire."

Needless to say, the project was never completed and instead, it is a popular hiking destination. Beautiful, too!


In this next photo, you can see Red Rocks just to the left behind Mason's head. They went there next - and I'll share those photos in the next post.

I'm glad they all had such a great time together... even Maddox had fun, because later on that day, he went up to Michael and said, "I LIKE my babysitter!" Too cute!

Michele

Firewood

Frequently, we take some time to enjoy the beautiful weather outside... and get some work done in the process. Here we are restocking our firewood shed.

And around here, EVERYone helps!


Then Michael took some time to teach the boys how to chop firewood.


They realized it's not quite as easy as it looks! But it sure is good exercise.

Michele

Morgan's 10th Birthday!

Yeah, I know... it's been too long. I went to a homeschool convention in Denver last week for 3 days - I booked a hotel and everything! It was a wonderful mini-retreat for me, very inspirational, and very productive. I've got the boys all set to go and I am so pumped that I can't wait to get started!! The boys tell me they'll do their best to wait until August to start. :) They're going to have so much fun, they just don't know it yet!

As promised, here are a few photos from Morgan's birthday.

Mason got him this cool ant farm, and then we proceeded to go catch all the big ants that frequent our back patio.

Morgan got to choose his dinner and dessert... he chose a taco ring for dinner and an ice cream cake (from Baskin Robbins) for dessert.

His gifts trickled in over several days, but here are some shots from his "big" gift - an acoustic drum set!


He was quite surprised, as we kept telling him it would be a long time before we could get him a set like this. Now we just need to get him set up with lessons again so he can pick up where he left off in Texas!

Now I have two kiddos in double-digits... next phase - Teens! Eeeek! (at least I'll be through the terrible twos by that point)...
Michele

World's Youngest Guitar Player

Yes, today is Morgan's 10th birthday!!! But I don't have all the photos ready for you yet... mainly because we still haven't taken them yet! We're going to have a special dinner tonight and give him his gift... so you'll have to wait for those photos.

In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy these photos of the world's youngest guitar student!


"Look, Mom! I'm playing the guitar!"

We also have a special guest staying with us this week - Tyler Thomson! He is the oldest son of our neighbors back in Allen. We're thrilled to have this opportunity to host him, and I must say, he's liable to pack up his bags and move out here! Watch out, Debra, the boy is falling in love with Evergreen!! :) I'll have some photos of his stay in the next few days as well.

Michele

Bread Class

Before the school year was out, the boys went to a bread making class and learned all about bread. They learned about (and tasted) all different varieties of bread, and even got to help make some of their own from scratch.

The instructor was a very nice homeschooling father who happens to be the pastor of this little church that we met in. You can see him above in the red apron. He had so much patience with all these kids!


Mason made a little french-looking loaf and Morgan made a pizza. Both of which were very yummy!

Here are some loaves that the other kids made.

Now that the boys know how to make bread from scratch, perhaps I can get rid of my bread machine?! Nah, probably not.

Michele

Just stuff...

I don't have any pictures to share this post - been quite busy lately - but I wanted to share a few things anyway. As I type this, we are having our usual afternoon hail storm. It's so predictable! The mornings are beautiful and sunny, and then by mid afternoon - around 2pm or so - the dark clouds roll in and it pours for a few minutes, followed by a quick shower of pea sized hail, and then it blows over and the sun comes back out. It seems to do this just about every day. We have been told that this amount of moisture is unusual, although they do typically get some rain in early June. Since they didn't have much snow this winter (that is, until WE showed up), everyone is glad to see all this rain. I actually like it, too. There's just something so cozy and comforting about being tucked away in our little oasis, safe from the elements and snuggled up together. I suppose if there wasn't much sunshine, it would get quite depressing, but that's not the case. We wake up to gorgeous sunshine every day. And this morning at breakfast, we were treated to a fantastic show of two squirrels (one Ebert and one regular brown one) chasing each other around, up, & down a tree. They were the funniest thing to watch... but it got even funnier when a hummingbird had had enough of their shenanigans and started dive bombing them! I suppose they were getting too close to her nest, but it was something we have never seen before. It's a regular Nature Channel right outside our windows! No wonder we haven't gotten our TV set up yet! We don't need it!

In other news, the boys and I just finished up a busy week at Vacation Bible School at our church. We've been regularly attending the Methodist church here in Evergreen and we all really enjoy it. I signed the boys up for VBS (Morgan to attend and Mason to assist a volunteer) and then I was told they have childcare for the volunteers... so, despite my efforts to sit on my hands and not volunteer for anything, I found my hand creeping up and next thing I know, I'm a crew leader for 19 little 5-8 year olds! I was very nervous about it, because the only other time I was a crew leader for something like this back in Texas, I did NOT enjoy it. But I was SOOOOO pleansantly surprised. I actually had a wonderful time. This church is so loving, and they have got their VBS down to a science. It's a well-oiled machine and it felt good to be a part of it. The boys all had a great time too. Now if I could just get these songs out of my head... :)

On Tuesday this week, we will celebrate a very special birthday as Morgan officially hits the double digits! Our little guy will be TEN! I told him I would make him whatever dinner and dessert he would like, and he has chosen a Taco Ring... hasn't made up his mind about the dessert yet. If you get a moment, be sure to send him a birthday e-mail! If you don't have his e-mail address, let me know. I don't want to make it public here, but it's his first name followed by the same domain as mine. If that didn't make sense, let me know.

Then later this week I will be heading down to Denver for a homeschool convention. It is my intention to finally select which curriculum we will be using in the fall and learn as much as I can while I'm there. I have booked a room at a hotel where I will camp out for a couple nights and enjoy some alone time!

Speaking of alone time, Michael and I had our first official "date" since we've been here! One of the neighbor girls babysat for us while we went out to dinner to a nice restaurant called "The Bistro" here in Evergreen. It was quite yummy! We are surrounded by fabulous neighbors - what a blessing.

I think that's all for now. I promise to get some pictures posted soon. The hail has stopped, it's just sprinkling, and the sun is already peeking through the clouds... another glorious day in Colorado!

Michele

The Elk are Coming

From what we've been told, we're about to be overtaken by elk. Apparently, they are about to begin their breeding season which means we will soon be awakened in the morning by the sound of their bugling. [Correction: I was recently informed that I misunderstood. The elk are having babies right now and will begin breeding in September... so I have a couple months of peaceful sleeping after all!]

Supposedly, all that racket is attractive if you're an elk... which I, most certainly, am not. I've been told that we could get herds of up to 100 of these creatures in my back yard...

...but for now, it's just this one out by my driveway. And it looks as though I'm disturbing his dinner.

That's okay. He's about to disturb my SLEEP.
Michele