Camping in Taos

This is one morning last week, before school. You can tell who is excited and who is not so sure. We took a trip down to Taos, New Mexico . To meet my parents for some camping. A friend told me about this great kid's store called "Twirl" . The store is fabulous and even better- They have a great playground out back. SO Rich and my Dad watched the kids play while my mom and I got to do some shopping around town. Fun was had by all.

hmmm....just noticed that Ellie is missing shoes in this picture.

Ethan and Ellie's first "Smores"

They were so excited to crawl in their sleeping bags and fall asleep in the camper.

Awe... some brotherly /sisterly love and new jammies.

A cold Weekend in October

Fall is upon us and it seems Winter too... some days.

We had a great weekend with some visting family from Texas. We took a drive up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday. This time we had a great tour guide. A Texas Native who spends his summers in Colorado. Just when we were finishing up the tour a snow storm blew in. SO- we played. Below is Ethan getting ready to throw thisbig snow ball at his selected target.

Ellie, loving the snow.

Daddy, Ethan and Ellie making snow balls.

The infamous Stanley Hotel. Where Stephen King is known to have thought up "The Shining" while staying at it.

They have great tours.

This pictures is not from this weekend. I just found it and wanted to include it.

Finally, after almost 2 years of living in Colorado, we had our first "wild" bear sighting. This was taken with a cell phone, so it is definitely not clear. But the bear was about 50 ft from us.... (maybe?) We wer safe in our car. So no worries. It was beautiful.

Our first picture of Ethan and Llie "holding up Balance Rock" at Garden of the Gods. I can't beleive after all the times we've been there... we've never had them do this.

The Great Pumpkin Race

What a beautiful day and great day for a race. We went down to Venetucci Farms for the Great Pumpkin Race. Pictured below are Josh, Richard and Michelle gettiing ready for their 5k and 10 k races.

Richard finished his 10k with a personal best time of 42:30, 6:51 per mile pace. 11th place!!!

The racers before the race.

Josh finishes...

Ethan and Marlowe at the start.

Ethan finishes his first race. Wahooooo.

Ellie finishes her first race.

At the pumpkin patch, Marlowe chooses her pumpkin.

After the Kids raced, they got to go choose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

Fun on the farm.

Fall and some Projects

Gotta love our boy's imagination. Its amazing what a couple sticks and slabs of wood can become.

A little concrete project in the back yard. Ethan really embraced doing "hard" work with daddy. He was a great help.

Our first tree purchase. Being a new neighborhood, we didn't have any trees in our back yard. So we bought and planted this Emerald Maple. The fall colors have been amazing here.

It was getting pretty late with this spontaneous project. We were loosing daylight behind the Mountains,but obviously not enthusiasm.

Richard wins the ASAFA HAWC Biathlon!!!

Yahoo! We are so proud of Richard for winning the Air Force Academy HAWC annual Biathlon. He did so great. It was a 12 mile bike and 5k run. He finished in 1:01:24

Here Richard and our friend, Michelle are at the start. You can't really see Michelle, she is to R's left in all black.

Oh yes, an after the race shot with Ellie. Daddy gets a free massage. I actually got one to while waiting for the racers to come back around. Very nice!

The T-shirt:

This was right before the race began. Richard and Michelle waiting for the "Go".

A group shot with Richard's co-workers:
R, Michelle, Kristel and Dave.

Our friend Lexi's Princess Bday

Finally some pictures. We went to a bday party and my friend, Kristen took these photos. We still have no working camera.. so the pics are less frequent. enjoy! Pretty birthday girl.

What fun castle decor!

Summer fun

We tried to go to a Skysox game one summer evening. But with the evening showers unfortunately we got rained out of this one. The next night R and E went just the two of them for some man time. The Colorado Balloon Classic was fantastic. A great night out with friends enjoying some the fun Colorado Springs festivities

Ethan did get a little spooked at the fire blazing all around us.
It was fun.A definite must for next summer. Next will try for the early morning where we can watch them all take-off.. and maybe even get a ride in one.

Pretty cool to be surrounded by lots of giant hot air balloons.