Winter Love

We forget so often that we live 30 minutes from THIS.  And then we go and it all comes rushing back how blessed we are.  Its been a few years since we forged the forest to cut down our own tree and it was time.  The mountains were beckoning us and we answered.  Tim's dad was in town and joined the ranks. Beautiful sunny day, a big group of church friends, leftover Thanksgiving food at friends' cabin afterward....an escape that was well worth the extra breathing room.

 Dad found our charmingly sparse tree.  Isn't she beautiful?

 This family has grown rather dear to us.  Tamara and I sing together for our church band and Max shows up here in his overalls to work on cars with Tim on a regular basis.  

 My little feisty heart.

 Up she goes!  Our favorite tree to date.

 Our church does a bang up job on their nativity show.  Dude sang his joyful heart out and Squirt did what she does - anything to NOT draw attention to herself.  

 Our little wise man.  That he is indeed.

My tribe.  I think I'll keep um.

Halloween N Stuff

Halloween in the new hood was a blast.  How can it not be when you're roaming the streets with 30+ fellow trick or treaters?  Tim and I might have had more fun than our children.  Jason provided the booze wagon, which was a lovely gift.  Dude took off and was out of sight 90% of the night and Squirt kept close.  Candy rewards kept the whining at bay and Enzo got his exercise for the week. I didn't get a photo of myself (what else is new), but I was quite proud of my Social Butterfly getup - wings and social media logos plastered all over my body.  Thank you very much.  Dude donated all his candy for $3 at the dentist and Squirt decided to hand over half of hers.  We still have 85% of it sitting in our pantry since none of us love sweets.  You're welcome to it.   

 It was Cubbies season and shockingly, our teddy bear allowed us to don him in a tshirt.  That was a first.  

On another note, Squirt had her first official project/presentation at school.  She chose the Northern Lights and wrote a hypothesis about what she thinks they are:

"God and Jesus shine their power onto the sun and it bounces to the moon.  They squeeze their power, the juice comes out and pushes up the moon and the sun.  God and Jesus mix up all the colors, scribble, scribble, scribble and twirl them all around like an art project."  

There Was This Fall Day

 

 

Estes Love

For the second year running, we packed up house and home and headed to Estes Park YMCA for a weekend of friend fun.  This year we rented a cabin together that provided comfort rather than chills up and down our spine like last year's excuse for lodging.  We hit the weather jackpot, resulting in fresh air in abundance.  Enzo and Samson were in dog heaven and the kids hiked and ran around with giant sticks until their hearts were content.  Our cabin had a view that knocked my socks off (see the first photo).  Elk weren't bugling this year, but they showed plenty of face for our elk loving crew. The boys/men mastered 18 holes of Frisbee golf while the girls/women took a hay ride and partook in the arts and crafts room.   We ate well, fit in a couple board games, sent the big kids on a meadow horse back ride, got scolded for running the ponies on the snail's pace pony rides for the littles.....it was a weekend well spent.