Swiss Visitors

We get a lot of visitors up here in the mountains, and we are always happy to host.  Some visitors, however, prove to be a little more exciting than others... case in point:  We had 3 ladies from Switzerland come stay with us for several days!  My Aunt Ruth is friends with these ladies and they like to come to different places in the US.  Aunt Ruth suggested the mountains of Colorado this time, so we got to be their hosts!  This is (from left to right) Rita, Aunt Ruth, Margarith (pronounced Margaret), and Helene. 

It's a good thing I had Aunt Ruth here with them... she speaks just enough German to translate most things.  Helen and Margarith speak English fairly well, but poor Rita - I think she was in the dark most of the time!

I took them to Red Rocks Ampitheatre, and that proved to be one of their favorite places.  The weather was beautiful, and they took the opportunity to serenade the onlookers with an authentic Swiss yodel!  (in fact, they yodeled at just about every place we went!)
 

 I then took them up toward Mount Evans and we stopped at Echo Lake for some pictures.

 Rita may not speak much English, but she and Maddox had a special way of communicating.  They enjoyed several games of cards together!

Our resident coin collector, Mason, had fun showing them his treasures.  They, in turn, added some new coins to his collection.

One evening, they insisted on cooking a meal for us... and I certainly let them!  It was delicious - even Maddox had about 3 helpings!

Helene is an excellent cook (I think she does catering in Switzerland) and she was in charge.  The only thing she needed help on was how to use our gas stove... oh, and the temperatures in the oven are quite different (Celsius vs Fahrenheit).  Once we figured those things out, she was good to go... (until I ran out of mustard for her sauce).

For their last evening with us, they surprised Aunt Ruth by dressing up in their yodeling costumes!

They wanted to treat us to dinner, so we suggested the Yard House.  And yes, they did yodel out here in front of the restaurant.  :)

 Michael made sure they knew what this restaurant is known for...!

We had a lovely time with our new friends and would love to visit them in their own town someday...

A Visit from the Obermarks!

As soon as the Thompson/Rostanzo clan left, we had another group of guests arrive!  The Obermarks!

To be more specific, we had Mike, Kim, Cheryl, Eric, Alex, Jason, Steve, Kris, Ashley, and Evan!  They basically took over the entire downstairs, as well as the treehouse... thank goodness we have the treehouse!  Everyone had a place to sleep.

One of their favorite outings while they were here was their visit to St. Mary's glacier... a perennial snow field not far from our house.  Michael and the boys went with them.

Here is Steve, enjoying a little rest on the snow field...

The boys got a wild hair and started sliding down the slope on their rear ends!

Aside from that outing, we had fun playing cards, sharing meals, and just about everyone had a turn on the zip line!  I don't have any photos of those things, but here's one from when Michael took Mike & Alex on a hike up Berrien Mountain (our mountain):

And lastly, here's one when we took a little walk around the lake.

Always good to see the Obermarks...!

Thompsons & Rostanzos Visit!

We had a lovely week-long visit from Heather, Conner, Grandma Sara, & Papaw Nick!  They went on several adventures, including the Georgetown Loop Railway...

...a wonderful park in Georgetown...

...and Tiny Town.

We visited downtown Evergreen, did a little shopping, and had lunch at the One World Cafe.

But mostly, we hung around the house and had some fun just being together!  The kids played several games of Monopoly.

We spent a lot of time on outdoor activities, like this amazing Badminton match.  The best part was watching them throw pine cones at the birdies that kept getting stuck in the trees!

Michael worked with Heather and Conner on riding the motorcycles.  Heather has graduated to learning how to use a clutch!  Michael said she did very well and catches on quickly.

 

Now that the lessons are completed, Heather decided to give this one a try.  :)

Nick got in on the motorcycle action, too!  This is the only one we'd let him ride.... (teasing!)

We introduced the kids to our chickens and Heather enjoyed holding one!

Conner wanted to try unicycling - he was getting quite good!

The boys had fun just horsing around... (look at who snuck into this photo!)

We may not get 100 degree temperatures up here, but it does get rather warm a few days out of the summer.  The kids decided to cool off on our inflatable water slide... the problem is, the water comes straight out of our well - very cold!  :)

And after all that fun in the water, these kids were very happy to sit on the swing in the sun and eat some watermelon!  I love this picture...

The kids played a few rounds of croquet... notice Heather all bundled up in her new Evergreen sweats?  She was still cold from the water play!

Of course, everyone had a go on the zip line... starting with Heather.

 Then Conner...

And little Maddox...

And even Papaw Nick!

Nick is such a great guy to have around... when he gets bored, he finds something to fix!  Here he is cleaning out our gutters!  Thanks so much, Nick!

No trip to Colorado is complete without a hike.  The views are always worth the effort!

 One morning, we took Heather to ride horses with our friends' daughter, Josie.  They are about the same age and seemed to really hit it off!  Josie and her parents lease horses for the season and Heather rode one of their other ones last summer.

We had a great visit!!