Time for more news... warning graphic pic

August 16th, the first day of school and the kids are having to wear jackets. The weather has been so strange this summer and we're hearing rumblings of a wet winter. We started off this school year with the kids already having 2 half days! Thursday and Friday they were being tested and got out at 11:30. Supposedly this year they are trying to cut down on these types of weeks. We'll see!

Bonnie, Dylan and the kids sent us a surprise!

Silver Fortune cookies arrived in the mail engraved with our names and anniversary date.

Our fortunes were a repeat of our vows that we spoke 33 years ago. Thank you guys for such a nice gift and walk down memory lane filled with sweet memories.
Well its been a week since Kristina tried, thankfully! unsuccessfully, to lop off the end of her finger. We'll be headed up to get the stitches removed this weekend some time. Her finger is healing nicely and we've every hope that she won't do this again...

Twins! We've seen so many sets of twins this year. They are so cute when they are jumping and playing in the yards...

We are planning our next camping trip. This time I think we'll be headed to the "Great Sand Dunes Monument" in southern Colorado for a couple of days at the beginning of October. We're hoping for warm weather but are prepared for just about anything other than an snow/blizzard/extreme cold. Of course if that type of weather appears on the horizon we're gonna be outta there!

I think its safe to say that I've taken to camping pretty well. There are so many positives to the experience. I never thought I'd find it so enjoyable. My old saying about camping was, "My idea of camping.... is staying at the Ramada Inn!" ;-) I just wish I had known then what I know now. At least all of the kids have some type of camping experience whether it is with us or on their own. Now all I have to mention in this house is camping and all the kids get excited about it!

Of Birthday's, Anniversary's and Friday the 13th's!

Well what a weekend! I guess I'll start with our "Friday the 13th" experience. We arrived at the campground at about 9:20 a.m. and were setting up the camp, getting everything in its place and all the tents set up when it was apparently time for a bathroom break. So David and I headed off to the bathroom, you know all of 5 min's being gone. When we were headed back, we were met by Kaitlyn running up the road screaming that Kristina had cut off her finger! So we ran, walked fast, back to the camp not really believing that this was true until we saw Kristina and her hand wrapped in a red cloth (came from the store that way) and blood spattered over the front of her jeans. Well the finger, her pointer on the left hand, was still attached but doing a bit of dangling. She was chopping wood with our new axe when she got carried away and swung in the wrong direction and caught her finger lengthwise, cutting across her finger and nail diagonally. At the hospital it was determined through x-rays that she had not broken the bone but come close. So 5 hours and 5 stitches later, one through her nail, she and David were back, I was almost crying with relief and the rest of the birthday/anniversary weekend was spent celebrating a complete digit and having fun.
Our camp consisted of 2 sights one for Kaitlyn and Ivan and the other for us. Kaitlyn and Ivan took advantage of a great deal through Walmart in which they were able to purchase a tent, chair and sleeping bag as a combo deal.

We had our 2 tents which allowed us for the first time to separate the guys (Dad, Parker and Hunter) into their tent and the girls (Mom, Kristina, Olivia and Jolie) into their tent. I have to point out, that unbeknownst to us, the girl tent was apparently cursed for the weekend, but I'll delve more into that as the story progress'.

We had a steak dinner to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary that night with our friends Carrie, Cole and Anika and then ended the evening with S'Mores and a fire.

Saturday started off better after a nice nights sleep, pure exhaustion! mixed with relief. We got up to a great breakfast of cereal, breakfast burritos with eggs/steak. I loved cooking on the stove/grill with the cast iron that I got from my mom many years ago. Some how the food tasted better.

David, Ivan and the boys, with the Andy Griffith Mayberry RFD tune being whistled, walked over to the lake to experience fishing for the first time. Eventually all the kids got to fish and approximately 40 fish were caught and released. The lake holds trout, bass and blue gill. Most, if not all, of the fish they caught were little guys.

Later Carrie showed up with a pail full of water balloons for the kids. Water balloons were sailing all over the place as our group of 7 participants and another campers kids all started in the fight! Fun was had by all! Half way through the day David took Jolie in the car to the bathroom and upon their return Jolie jumped out of the car and slammed the door on her thumb. Quietly she walked over to me and showed me "her" injured digit with tears starting to roll down her cheeks. Typically Jolie is quite the screamer so her reaction was a surprise. I once again pulled out the first aid kit and cleaned her up and with band aid in place scooted her on her way. Shortly after that Olivia blew her nose and started a terrific nose bleed (which she is famous for). This leaving me as the only one in our tent to be untouched by the unfolding curse.

Saturday evening we had "make your own taco night" and loved the chips, salsa and tacos! Carrie showed up with a wonderful chocolate cake she had baked for us and the whipped cream and sprinkles to go on it! You could say that we're just a bit spoiled when we camp at their campground. At some point I realized that my middle finger on my right hand was throbbing a bit and looked down to see that I had split my nail way up into the nail bed. Blood was running into the side of my finger. My digit injury, I have no idea how it happened, was minor and quickly I wiped up the mess and told everyone about it. A sense of relief swept over me as I realized that all in our tent had some type of "incident" and we were probably safe from what ever curse was pursuing us. We ended the night with Jiffy Pop and a nice roaring fire that had to be extinguished due to a front moving in that we hoped would give us a bit of rain.

Sunday morning arrived to the squaking of a gaggle of Canadian geese touring the area. (The campground is home to a pair of producing geese. This years crop was about 12 babies large that are all now as big as their parents and wonder all over the area investigating each and every camp site for hand outs. Yes, they are just as cute as they can be but also they can be a bit overbearing if they think your holding out on them!) Jake made quick dismissal of them when he started to bark and they couldn't locate the offending poodle, as he was in the tent with us. Which of course woke all of us up for the day. Oh well, sleep was hard to come by this weekend. Kristina was a bit concerned about her finger and woke me up at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning to ask for permission to unwrap and examine her finger since it was hurting so badly. Once she was able to see for herself that all appeared well she relaxed that suddenly the finger didn't hurt as bad, of course the Vicodin she had taken shortly before hand probably helped just a little. Shortly after that Jolie woke up needing to go to the bathroom and off we went. At some point, that rain we hoped for arrived and I did hear some sprinkling. Others in our group heard some good thunder and a nice rain that lasted for a bit. Hunter experienced it first hand as his pillow got wet inside the tent since we'd forgotten to fasten down the rain fly on the "guy" tent.

Overall Kristina spent her weekend asking for food, drink and drugs. She probably had the most relaxing weekend of us all! Not bad!

I had a great Birthday and Anniversary to boot. Nothing beats everyone making it home in one piece even if one piece was dangling.

p.s. Parker, our normal walking accident, made it home without a scratch.

Birthdays, monsoons, camping, and school!

Happy Birthday Steve! The big "4-0"! The beginning of an even better decade. Enjoy it!

Monsoon season! Well its been so long since we've had the kind of rains like this I'd forgotten that Colorado typically has a "monsoon season". Wow! We've been getting out fair share of the water lately. And from what I understand we're still behind. Of course I'm having a bit of trouble believing it when I see water running through the ravine behind the house that reminds me of babbling creeks. I can just imagine what the folks at the bottom of the hill are seeing when it swoops down into the neighborhood as a torrent of water.

We're off shortly for our camping trip. So looking forward to getting to spend a couple of nights away from the house and from the looks of the weather reports we got lucky and we'll have highs in the upper 70's to lower 80's and nights in the 50's and 60's. The rain has a chance of catching us tomorrow night.

School for the kids starts Monday! Yea! They are all so ready and excited to get back into their routines. All are anxious to meet their new teachers. Olivia has the "new" teacher to the school and its a "HE!" I'm sure Mr. Stapleton is going to be great. Parker has Mrs. Webb, who Olivia had in 2nd grade. We loved her! She's a real no non-sense teacher. Hunter has Mrs. Longhenry who we've never had before. Mr. Schumacher who had all our group until Hunter retired this last year. We'll miss him but we're excited to meet Mrs. Longhenry. Jolie has Ms. McKenna who was her after school knitting instructor last year. We've always heard wonderful things about Ms. McKenna! Kristina doesn't go back until Tuesday being that she is now a Sophmore and not a lowly Freshman who do attend on Monday. She's taking 4 honors classes this year along with Latin. Wow....

Well I'm off to begin my birthday and anniversary weekend. Yipeee!

Storms, Getting ready, Fishin Poles,

Storm clouds..... Every day we've been having terrific storms roll in and cause flash floods, lightening strikes that have caused house fires and thunder that makes the houses rock. So I thought I'd video one of the systems that caught us the other afternoon. These systems are beautiful to watch after they've gone by but getting caught outside in one is definitely no fun as Jolie and I found out the other day.


Getting ready for the next camping trip. Dad and the boys have to try out the camping stuff to make sure it works properly. It was a true "man day" for my guys.

They checked out the lantern, the camp grill, the LED lantern, etc.

Now the rest of us can rest assured that all will be working properly and safely.

What I didn't get a picture of was Kristina trying to find a hole in the air mattress out in the pool. That was something to behold. For a time there I thought the air mattress was going to win! I on the other hand spent the afternoon organizing and packing up the camping stuff into a empty storage box I found in the storage room. Now all of our plates, cooking stuff, etc. is neatly in a box, ready to go!

Then it was time to test out the casting on the new reels. Parker got a fishing rod for his birthday. I didn't know what I was doing and unfortunately the rod was broken. Also the rod I picked up for Hunter. So we returned the rods, and with Dad's help, chose better rods that actually work. Below are short video's of the boys testing their skills in casting. I think we may have a couple of naturals here. Watch out! fish....

Visitor!

Apparently we had a visitor last night after I went to bed that toured the upper floor of the house. He finally decided, that after visiting the boys room, he really did like the dining room best...
and accomodated David's photography session for a bit before being shooed back outside. Cute!, isn't he.



FYI - That is 5" molding he's perched on.

Grandchildren, Camping again!, Riding and more...

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Bonnie left on Tuesday with our grandchildren and headed home. She turned the trip home into a 2 day adventure, instead of the 3 days coming down here, with few stops by the sound of it. But they all arrived safely to family anxious to have them all back! We, of course, miss them terribly and are looking forward to their next visit already.

Finally got the bike back from Joe's. The alternator is new and the 20K has been done. So off I went with Kristina in tow and a couple of other friends to Canon City for "The Abbey" and a bit of wine tasting. I ended up purchasing a lovely bottle of "American Reisling" that won a Double Gold award this year. I did taste multiple wines with my favorites being the "American Reisling", "Vineyard Sunset" and "Merlot Divinity". The "Apple Blossom" was quite nice but would fall behind the 3 afore mentioned wines in my opinion. I also purchased a nice bottle of Balsamic Vinegar that we got to taste between wine tastings. Frankly its the best Balsamic vinegar that I've ever tasted. I'm anxious to get a nice loaf of bread from the bakery and dig in!

Well the 51st birthday and 33rd Anniversary are coming up and we've been trying to decide just what to do to celebrate without breaking the bank. So the family voted and its another camping trip! I've contacted Carrie and made her and Cole aware that we'd love to come back for another visit. So on the 13th and 14th we'll be out enjoying ourselves on our 2nd camping adventure at their campgrounds. We've also made sure that they set aside one of the evenings to come and visit with us and have S'Mores! yummmmm....

Speaking of "breaking the bank" a warning to those of you who use your bank cards as debit cards. On the 15th of July our bank contacted us to let us know that my bank card had been compromised and the card shut off. Luckily no money had been taken from the account and I was able to remember that I had only used the card recently on two occasions, once at Dillards and once at the gas station. Typically I use cash for all my purchases. So I waited almost 10 days for a new card. The card finally arrived and I took it with me on the day trip to Canon City, yesterday. When I got home last night with Kristina, David came out to the garage to inform me that my card had once again been compromised! This time "they" got $500 out of the account! Thankfully David caught it and was able to shut down the card before anymore was taken. So this time I used the card at the gas station and at "The Abbey" for my wine purchase. We deduced that the problem is probably at the gas station, it being the common denominator on these two occasions. So we're taking the appropriate steps with the gas station, police, bank, etc. What a pain!