Pretty Place and kiddos...

I took this shot on a country drive a few weeks ago. Its some sort of chapel ..I think Batman... and his trusty sidekick..."princess"

Fun with Play Dough.... and yes.... I will try to get some better pictures soon.

Winter Fun

So, I've been a little behind on pics of the kids lately... I thought I'd throw some up for all you complainers. Lunch outside... See, it does get warm enough here in the winter to play outside.

AH HA!... and the angels from heaven ... rejoiced... We found Blue Bell In Estes Park! I had the strawberry cheescake flavor, R , of course Rocky Road, Ethan had Mint Chocolate chip and Ellie had banana split flavor.... All so yummy

I just thought these apples looked so good...

Hiking Blodgett Peak (but not on the trail)

An adventure...to say the least. So, what started out as a nice, little hike to the top of Blodgett peak at 9,423 ft., ended up being a long journey up a mountain with no trails. Rich decided to do the trail from The Academy. The trail was visible in the begining but soon proved to be lost under a blanket of snow. So Derek and Richard decided to just "make their way" up the Mountain. After 3.5 hours up. They Finally made it... but not directly, they peaked on two other Mts first. But eventually did get to their destination.
On the way they came across the wreckage of the old '44 airplane crash.

On the way down... They just sort of boot skied down dodging trees and boulders. Both Rich and Derek took on bruises and scars from this strenuous hike/boot ski down. Below you can see some of their tracks.

Here they are on the summit. They didn't even know what layed ahead. From this point they could spot the Dodge down on The AF Academy road below. This trail proved my more difficult than the Blogett open space trail. Next time we'll do that one.

There is a nice view of the city below.

Derek comes for a visit

We finally got our great friend, Derek to come out for a visit. It's been fun. We have so much more to do.. So I'll post more pics later Here Derek is at the Garden of the Gods and then...holding up balance rock. Yes, he is that strong.. It must be those kettle bell work outs.

Ethan, looking very serious, with Derek .

Vote Now: Should Derek move out here to Colorado? What do you think?

And yes, Ladies... he is single.

Snow play with our new Puppy

SO, having a puppy in the house is almost like having an infant (not quite). No really our new little precious is very sweet and so soft and cuddly. The kids have taken to her pretty well. Introducing Sasha, our new Aussie-Poo puppy. She is part Australian Shepherd/part Standard Poodle

She should grow to be a medium size dog.

She loves to play in the snow. And loves to try "hearding" Ethan and Ellie. And runs all over the backyard...back and forth. Hopefully we'll have her trained soon.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas Everyone! We went over to Mitch and Shannon's house for a little traditional Christmas Even get together. We played Christmas charades, Pin the tale on Rudolph, ate some yummy food, read scripture, and sang carols. Than Santa came.... The kids loved it. They were in so much Awe. It was precious. This is the moment Ethan discovered that the milk and cookies were all gone... eaten by Santa.

E and E with some of their gifts...

ETHAN SAID..."ALL RIGHT DAD LETS GO FINISH THE BASEMENT"

Silent night...

Ellie wasn't too sure about Santa, but she loved getting to wear her fancy dress again...

Merry Christmas!

R.I.P SADIE Dec 3,1992- November 26, 2008

We lost Sadie last month She was 16 years old. Sadie was the best dog in the world and will be hard to replace..here are a few pictures of her from through the years.

Sadie, just a few weeks old outside in our back yard in Prestonwood, in Houston Texas. Wasn't she so cute? One of Sadie's favorite things to do was to play fetch. She did this everyday for the first 14 years of her life... Then lost interest. This photos was probably in 2003

This was a proud moment for us and Sadie. She won the 1st place ribbon in the 2005 Bolling AFB 4th of July Picnic Dog trick competition.

This is my favorite picture of Sadie. In our first base house on Bolling. I think she was waiting for me to throw the tennis ball.

Camping this past summer here in Colorado.

All of us on Lake Travis this past summer. Sadie loved to swim too.

This was on a hike up to some falls here in CO, this past summer. Not bad for a 15.5 year old dog.

Sadie with Ellie a year ago December. Ellie was 1, Sadie was 15.

Ethan, 9 months old Aug 2005 chillin' with Sadie.

We love and miss Sadie...

Snowflakes and Smiles Christmas Parade in Manitou Springs

***update.. According to a letter Miranda (our head elf) received from the Manitou Chamber of Commerce, Our group won BEST IN SHOW at the parade.****

Today we were in the Manitou Springs Christmas parade. We had so much fun. I, along with the other moms was dressed as a Elf and the kiddos were all Rein Deer. The morning started off with some crazy winds, but with prayer answered the parade ended up being perfect.

We had a Birthday Party Today!

Ethan turns 4 on Dec 5th, and Ellie turns 2 on Dec 7th... But Grandma and everyone wanted to have a party while we were here... so that we did! We had lots of family come and had cake and played games. We all had a blast.

November in Southeast Txas

We had so much fun catching up with the whole (huge) family, but I don't have a pic of everyone yet.
Here we are with Rich's mom, Ken and Tammy(R's sister) with Nathan and Natalie, Vicki(R's sister) and Craig and then Randy(R's brother) and us ... Happy Thanksgiving...

Papa took the kids down to see the Ocean... It wasn't ideal beach weather... but still cool I love this tree in Grandma's backyard. Ellie and E got a new tire swing to play on...

Feeding the Ducks at Sam Houston park... Well we were feeding the ducks and then Ellie decided she was hungry and ate what was left of the bread...

Weeeeee

More Weeee....

Trip to the ZOO

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo proved to be awesome. The kids loved it. We saw almost all of the animals out actively "monkeying"around. haha This bear was pretty cool. A grizzly with his own pool full or trout.
I think the elephants were one of E's favs

And of course the giraffes were amazing. This zoo is known for their giraffe exhibit. they were very friendly and quite forward if I may say so...

This was pretty much the only time we used the stroller (walking in). Both kids walked/ran the whole ZOO.

more zoo pics to come