Tales from Colorado

A Camping the Ryans Will Go!!!!

2009-09-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

The weekend after the Corn Festival, we all decided to go on a camping weekend together. (Unfortunately, Lori wasn't able to join us that weekend, but we are looking forward to seeing her next weekend when we will go on our last camping trip of the season!) We hadn't gone camping with Joe and Jen since Juliana was about a year old and James was three!

After having seen our pictures from our camping trip to Woods Lake in July, they quickly decided that that was where they wanted to go.....beautiful scenery and a good fishing lake! What could be better? They don't have a lot of camping stuff, so we told them we'd try to make it as easy for them as possible. They did buy a tent, so they did have their own "home". We took two camp spots, side by side....we staked our "claim" in our "regular spot" as we've now camped at the same site three times! We really like it there. Joe and Jen pitched their tent in the adjoining spot, but other than sleeping there, they were with us at our site all the time. We cooked and ate together and had campfires both nights together.

During the daytime, Dusty and Joe took the kids fishing up at the lake and Jen and I hung back at the campsite, visiting and taking care of little Jack. All of the kids did so well that weekend. Camping can be intimidating for young ones, when you take them out of their familiar surroundings, but they all really seemed to enjoy themselves! Even Jack enjoyed watching the breeze blow through the leaves and played contently in his "pack and play". The highlight of the weekend was that both Juliana and JT caught their very first fish! And so now the fishing excitement goes into the next generation of the Ryan clan!!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend......

Our little man, JT...all bundled up in the morning. It really wasn't all that cold!

Jen with Jack

Juliana with her very first fish! Yeah, Jules!!

Jen got matching fleece jackets for all of the boys and a girl's version for Juliana! We couldn't miss out on this photo op!!! So cute!!

One of my favorites of the weekend, of Juliana and her baby brother!

This was the first time we allowed James to clean a fish! You can be sure the adults were hovering close by as he worked with that sharp knife, but he did very well!!

Here is the photo-elusive, Joe Ryan!!

James, deep in thought, about what who knows!!

James and JT, during campfire time!

Father and Son (Dusty and Joe) enjoying the campfire....

JT trying his hand at fishing up at the lake.

Homeward bound....we had one tuckered out boy and dog! James discovered that Lacey made a great pillow!

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend! The weather cooperated, with clean skies and no rain, although the wind did blow alittle harder than we would have liked. But I would have settled for wind over rain anytime!! We ate well and made smores over the campfire. And more important than anything else, we made many happy family memories that weekend!!

So Far Behind....Let's Start with the Corn Festival!!!

2009-09-07T15:15:00.001-07:00

I can't believe so much time has passed since I posted my last entry. Yes, we've been busy, but not that busy!! We had a few very busy weekends, where the camera never stopped....lots of fun time with the family!!

The first Saturday in August is always our Olathe Sweet Corn Festival. It's a day we all look forward to the rest of the year. It's a LONG, exhausting day out in the heat but we love it! Last year was the first year Dusty's daughter, Lori, drove up from Denver to join us and she really seemed to enjoy herself at our small town festival! This year it was her brother, Joe's, turn with his wonderful family!! On Friday evening Lori arrived with Juliana and JT....Joe and Jen's two oldest. They came down on Friday so that we could all go to the street dance that evening.

To kick off the Corn Festival each year, on Friday afternoon, they have an antique car show "downtown". This is followed by a street dance, where they line the downtown street with bales of hay and a local band plays. I might mention, too, that as part of the evening's entertainment there is also a "burn out"......where people who have "soupped up" their cars, turned them into hotrods, smoke their tires in a performance and noise show until the tires pops!! Can you say "REDNECK DELUX"!!!?? I long ago have stopped going to this "event" as I really don't enjoy the noise or smell, but Dusty and James always have to drag our unsuspecting guests to it!! It's about 6 blocks from our house, and I can still hear it from inside our livingroom!!!

Anyway, back to the story at hand.....that whole weekend was a big slumber party at "Nana and Papa's" house. Lori brought the kids down on Friday night and we all enjoyed the music and ourselves at the street dance. When we got back to the house, we assigned sleeping partners. This was going to be a challenge, as our house is quite small and by Saturday night there would be a total of 8 of us sleeping under our roof! On Friday night, Juliana slept with Aunt Lori in our spare room and JT shared "Uncle" James' bed! Quite cozy!

Joe and Jen arrived on Saturday morning with baby Jack and we all headed up to the Festival park. They run free shuttle buses all day and night from the downtown area and since our house is only three blocks from there, it's much easier to take the shuttles up and back than trying to find parking close to the park and paying for it. You just make up your mind that that day you walk your feet off! It's part of the "magic"! Hehehehe!!

After spending a few hours munching on corn and various other foods, playing games and spending a lot of time at the climbing wall, we headed home for the hottest part of the day. Joe, Jen and Lori took the kids to see Grandma Stella for a few hours, before they all returned to our house so that we could head back up to the park for the evening and the Clint Black concert! It was a great evening, with lots more family time, corn, food and some wonderful music! The weather was perfect and there wasn't a mosquito in sight....Dusty always says with 14,000+ people even the mosquitos are overwhelmed and don't know where to start, so they don't even try!! The evening always ends with a terrific fireworks show! From beginning to end, it's a weekend that makes you proud to live in Olathe....and wonder how this little town (of only 1,100!!) can pull it all off like it does. From the corn to the entertainment to the security to the peace and harmony, no one could do it any better!!

Here are some pictures I took that weekend......

Here's Juliana with her glow stick headband at the street dance.

And JT....

Papa Dusty kicking up his heels with his granddaughter! I love how I caught her in midair!!

Aunt Lori dancing with the kids....are we all tired yet???

I took this on Saturday morning right after everyone woke up. Lori with all three kids, cuddled up on the couch!

Settling into the festival. One of our first stops is the corn, of course!!

We spent quite a bit of time with James, Juliana and JT at the climbing wall. James had never done a climbing wall before and we were so proud of him as he made it all the way up to the top of the 30' wall and then repelled down. Not easy for a kid who, until recently was afraid of heights!!
Getting secured in....

...going up!

...to the top!!

Back in the evening,Baby Jack's had his first taste of corn....YUMMY!! (He actually got more butter than corn, but that's okay for the first time with no teeth!!)

Uncle James playing with Jack....

Ahhhh, the love of cotton candy!!!!!

The sister-in-laws....Lori and Jen!

JT, all bundled up and ready for the show! "Start the music", he says!!!

Here I am, playing my beloved role as "Nana" with sweet little Jack! It won't be long before he's running around and keeping up with the other kids!!

At the end of the concert! I loved how James "melted" into his chair and had to take this picture!! All three of the big kids did the same thing! They had gone nonstop since 9am and it was now after 11pm. Juliana woke up for the fireworks, James watched with one eye open and JT slept through the whole thing! Better luck next year!!

A Taste of Next Week......

2009-07-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

Our corn season has arrived!! Next week is our annual corn festival....yippee! Joe, Jen and the kids are coming down to join us for the festival next week, as well as Joe's sister (Dusty's daughter!!), Lori from Denver! It's going to be a real family affair this year! We're going to have so much fun!

Clint Black is the headliner at the concert on Saturday night and we're all looking forward to that!!! We were driving the streets of Grand Junction yesterday and I saw this billboad....I had to take a picture, as I'd never seen a billboad for the Corn Festival before! WOW! We've hit the big time!! LOL You have to remember that it's the one day of the year when our little town of 1,100 people swells to tens of thousands! Pretty exciting stuff for us, though we're also pretty glad when things go back to normal!!

For about two weeks now, I've been seeing the trucks full of corn, coming down out of the fields on their way to the packing plant, across the highway! It's always exciting to see, as it's the area's major crop and income! Jen had asked us to bring them a case of corn (which is 48 ears, for those who don't know!), so that she could freeze it for the winter. We stopped yesterday morning on our way up to their house, at the packing plant to pick up the case of corn....picked just the day before! Yummy!!!

Here is a stack of the plastic trays of corn that they bring down from the fields. And that's a giant mountain of ice in the background! They produce ice 24/7 to keep up with the demands of packing the corn for shipping. They pack the 48 ears of corn in each case with a generous amount of crushed ice to keep it cold in transit. From this packing plant, they ship OUR corn to grocery stores, all over the country! WOW!

I took a picture of James standing in front of the ice mountain, so that you can see how huge it really is.......

Dinosaurs......OH MY!!!!

2009-07-26T11:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we made the hour drive up to Grand Junction, to Joe and Jen's new home! Then we took all the kids to the Dinosaur museum called "Dinosaur Journey". What fun time we all had. It's a great interactive museum for kids, though the adults enjoyed it too!! It was a hot, humid day and it was nice to find an indoor activity to do for a few hours!

Here are all the kids out in front of the sign!

There were many replicas thoughout the museum....these are my two favorite pictures! The second one was a bit gory, but realistic nonetheless, I suppose!!

James, Juliana and JT posing with the skeleton of one of the dinosaurs....

They were doing "tatoos" for all the kids! James had one on both arms by the end of our stay!!!

Even Baby Jack, at 6 months old, took it all in! He was so cute, all wide-eyed!! Here he is with his Mama, Jen!

And James with a mean looking dinosaur!!:)

Recorder Music, Sunsets and Mustaches

2009-07-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

James really enjoys his sessions with the school's music teacher, Mr. Chenivert. He has been able to experience all sorts of wonderful and fun musical things through this man in the last 3 years. Then this June, when James found out that Mr. Chenivert was teaching the recorder as part of the summer camp, he was THERE!! James has learned quickly and well, practicing often at home.

Mr. Chenivert called and said that he performs at the Coffee Trader (a locally, privately owned coffee house in Montrose) on Thursday and Friday evenings and he was inviting some of his students to join him to perform on Fridays! They have a lovely patio area and he sets up there. So we went on Friday evening for James' first performance!

He did very well dealing with the "butterflies"....Mom and Dad knew they were there because we've heard him play these songs flawlessly many times at home, but that wasn't to be at performance time. Nonetheless, he got up there and performed and now knows what it feels like to be in front of an audience!

This is Mr. Chenivert and James setting up the stage before they all started performing......

James, rehearsing beforehand. He's always so serious when he plays!

I'm looking forward to his being able to start an instument in the 4th grade. We're already discussing which instruments he might be intersted in.....will it be the clarinet, the french horn, the sax??

And here he is playing "When the Saints Come Marching In"! We were so proud of him and I love the look on Mr. Chenivert's face! He obivously was quite proud too!

On our way home, we were treated to a specatular sunset!! There have been fires in our area the last week and no doubt they were contributing factors to the beauty of the sunset! Here are two pictures that I took when Dusty pulled off into the cemetary (which sits up on a hill) just as the sun was setting.

And then, when I woke up yesterday morning, I was greeted by a mustache-less husband!! Never in the 12 1/2 years I've known him, have I seen him without his mustache!! The beard comes and goes, depending on the season, but the mustache is ALWAYS there. When I asked him what happened, he said, "It fell off!" Something about the trimmer! LOL I don't suppose it'll last long, and so I grabbed the camera to document the "moment"!!

This Sunday afternoon finds us being lazy around the house, as we head into another week. This Thursday evening, I'll be performing with the band, in downtown Montrose. That should be fun and I'm looking forward to it. We've already got plans for next weekend and I can promise that many pictures will be taken. So stay tuned for another posting soon! I hope that in the mean time, you'll have a terrific week!!

A Weekend in the Mountains

2009-07-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went camping! We went to one of our favorite places....a campground up above Telluride at a place called Woods Lake! It's amazingly gorgeous up there! At about 9,500 feet above sea level, we were up in the aspen forest! Woods Lake sits in a "bowl" surrounded by high alpine mountains, several above tree-line. The views and scenery are spectacular, and reminds me of why people say Colorado is "God's Country"!! And we are lucky enough to live only an hour and a half drive from this beautiful place!!

I have many pictures to share with you from the weekend. I took so many pictures and choosing which to post here has been difficult. I'm glad I don't feel like I have to hold back too much when I comes to posting pictures here! LOL I hope you'll enjoy seeing these. As we were camping and I was taking pictures, I was thinking how cool it would be to have you all there with us!! Well, this is the best I can do!!

As I said, we were up in the aspen forest. I've always thought that the aspens have a different "feel" than being in a pine forest. The aspens tend to be "lighter" in feel, with there light colored bark and light green leaves. Dusty took this picture, near our campsite, and I really like the way it came out!!

I took many pictures of the wildflowers that were blooming. This is one wildflower that I really like. It's so delicate looking. I believe it's called "Queen Anne's Lace". If you know differently, please let me know as my wildflower education is lacking!!!

I took this one of the aspen trees above where we had set up our tent.

Here is our "home away from home".....how we'd LOVE a camper of some kind!! Maybe someday!! But for now the tent is fine....all four of us fit in it just fine (yes, Lacey too!!).

And our newest purchase....a screened canopy! When it rains (which it often does in the mountains in the summer!), it's nice to have a place to escape that's not the tent!! The tent tends to get very hot and humid during the day! This gives us another option! While the screen part is supposed to keep the bugs out, we found it did the opposite! As we use it in the future, we'll perfect HOW to use it, but it was nice to have!!

And before too many people complain that I never post pictures of myself, here I am! I didn't do a very good job of getting in front of the lens this trip. I was enjoying being behind it too much!!

And a great close up of James....the "camping kid!"

And one (the only one!) of James and me that was taken this weekend!!

And a close up of Dusty.....so now you've seen real current pics of all three of us!!

Here's James concentrating on Dad teaching him to tie a fishing knot!

On Saturday afternoon, even though it was raining on and off, the boys decided to go fishing up at the lake. I stayed back, reading and resting a bit in the tent, listening to the rain! When Dusty and James came back about 2 hours later, there was great excitement.....for the first time James had "out-fished" Dad!! (Of course, Dad's busy helping James and not fishing himself, but that didn't count!! LOL) James had caught 4 nice brook trout, and kept two of them, bringing them back to camp for dinner. Here is the proud guy with his catch!!

And sitting down to enjoy the "fruit of his labor"! Ahhh, the sweet taste of success!!!

On Sunday, after we packed up our camp, we headed back to the lake for some more fishing. While no fish were caught, it was so great to see that James is truly becoming a lover of fishing, just like his Dad! It's so much fun for me to stand back and watch my boys do something together that they love so much!! James really listened to the pointers that Dusty had for him this weekend, and it showed! He's well on his way to being a great fisherman, just like Dusty!!

Here are some pictures that I took while we were at the lake....

I don't know how you can concentrate on fishing when you are surrounded by this beautiful scenery!!

There they are....the two fishing Ryans!

Some pictures of James fishing. I love the concentration he showed....he was really into it!!

I thought the reflections, of the clouds and mountain across the lake, in the water were amazing!!

And I leave you with a picture of our State Flower....the Colorado columbine!!

WHEW!! What a LONG day!!!!!

2009-07-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

July 4th was a LONG, but fun-filled day for us!! We started out at 8am, as we headed up to Telluride, so that I could perform with the band in the Telluride 4th of July parade!! It's about an hour and half drive from our home in the valley.

Telluride is an old, historic mining town which in the last 20+ years has been transformed into a playground for the rich and famous. Way up in the San Juan mountains, the scenery is spectacular and the land has become quite pricey, to say the least. There is a beautiful ski resort there, that attracts people in the winter from far and wide. People like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and many others have built "trophy homes" in the area. They may visit and stay in their multi-million dollar havens a couple times a year!! (These are the houses that we fit with plumbing supplies as they are being built, at the plumbing wholesaler where I work.....our "bread and butter"!) That area provides much of the employment for our valley, both construction jobs and hotel/tourist positions.

It is gorgeous all year round! Here is a sample of the mountain beauty!

Here are the crowds assembling, before the parade, which was down the main street of the town....

Dusty and James were in the crowd, with the camera, as the band went by! Being a concert band, we don't march! So they loaded us on the back of a flat bed truck and away we went!! It was a good thing that only 20 of us showed up (of the band's almost 40!), as 21 would never have fit on that truck with the chairs, music stands, instruments and people!! We had fun though, once we where settled in! We played "Washington Post March" and "The Liberty Bell", several times down the parade route!

We had been invited to perform for the parade and we were so warmly received! They also paid for lunch for all the band members after the parade! The local fire department put on a wonderful BBQ!!

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain, stopping at the grocery to pick up dinner fixings before going home for showers and naps!! At 7pm, we headed out again, this time 10 miles north of us, to the town of Delta for their fireworks display at Confluence Lake! We enjoyed our picnic dinner of fried chicken as we waited for the festivities to start. Vonnie and her family, along with Stella (Dusty and Vonnie's Mom) joined us and we all enjoyed the show. Here are some more pictures from the evening!!!!

James playing in the lake around sunset. He loves to look for crawdads!!

My hubby!! :)

I love this picture of the ducks on the lake! Kind of reminds me of "On Golden Pond"!

My attempt at a patriotic photo! LOL

James setting off a "Confetti Popper"....if you look real hard you can see the confetti way above him, as it's coming down!!

Vonnie and Katie, having fun with sparklers!

James enjoying the 4th!!

Happy Independence Day to one and all!!!!

And the Celebrating Continues!

2009-07-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, we went over to Dusty's sister's house. Every year for the 4th of July, Vonnie and John host a party at their home. Neighbors gather in their driveway and we share ice cream and conversation, while Vonnie and John's son, Devon, entertains us all with a fireworks display! Where we live, fireworks are legal as long as they don't leave the ground. Only public displays are the "big shows", but we always have fun with the neighborhood party! Thanks John and Vonnie for doing this every year! It's something we all enjoy!!

Just a good picture of James! They are so few and far between these days, as the funny faces usually start as soon as I take out the camera!

James and his big cousin, Katie! He LOVES Katie!! He always has....they have a great relationship and for some reason she puts up with him!!

Making ice cream....a Ryan family tradition, especially for the 4th of July!!

Dusty's sister.....known as "Yvonne", "Vonnie" or "Sister", she's an important part of this family and we love her!!

A sample of Devon's display!!

Let the Celebration Begin!

2009-07-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July celebration started a little bit early this year with the Montrose Community Band Concert the evening of Tuesday, June 30th. This time around we played patriotic faire.....lots of Sousa marches with some other pieces too! It was fun as we played outside, and though it was hot when we started out (at 7pm), it cooled off as the evening progressed. We served ice cream for a donation and people brought lawn chairs and picnic blankets, covering the lawn area behind the Montrose Pavilion....our regular venue. It was a fun evening!!

We played "The Armed Forces Salute"....a tribute to each branch of our military. The MC asked the people in the audience to stand when the band played the theme of the branch for which they had served. It was very emotional!! We played a patriotic sing-along that was fun and also "Black Canyon of the Gunnison", a beautiful piece written for the amazing National Park that is just 10 miles down the road from us. And the favorite piece of the evening (aside from all of the old, favorite marches!) was called "The HomeFront"....a medley of wonderful tunes that were popular during WWII! What fun that was...."Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Thanks for the Memories", "White Cliffs of Dover" and many others!! The Swing music is sooo much fun to play and listen to and people left humming those songs!!

Here are a couple of pictures.....
You can see me to the left side of Toby, our director, in this picture!

Here is the video that Dusty filmed at the end of the concert of the band playing, "Stars and Stripes". The quality isn't as good as the last video I posted, because we were outside and he was easily distracted! Hehehehe!! The girl that ran in front of the camera in the beginning is our niece, Katie! Then she came back towards the end and asked "Uncle Dusty" to dance!! He did, but never stopped filming....hence the swaying of the camera!! LOL He panned around so you can see the audience sitting on the lawn too. Please take note of the awesome piccolo playing by Monica! She always does a great job!! I hope you'll enjoy it!!

Another ride up Escalante Canyon

2009-06-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

We seem to be back where we started! I believe my very first blog entry was about a ride we had taken up Escalante Canyon, with photos included. We try to make this easy trip at least once a year....it's close and doesn't require us to be gone all day, and yet it's one of our favorite places to visit. It's so much like the "wild west" one would see in the old western movies. There are old, abandoned cabins along the way, where explorers had set up camp. It's easy to transport yourself back in time.
Both James and Dusty think it would be cool to live there. I'm not so sure. The cabins we've explored somehow give me the creeps. I'm not the time who gives in easily to believing about "haunts" or ghosts....just lets say these places leave me feeling "uneasy". I'm okay with it all during the day, but I don't think I'd be very comfortable there at night! Nonetheless, it's a beautiful place and one we all enjoy visiting!! The red rock canyon walls (isn't that which gave Colorado it's name??!!), the bright blue sky and the green of the irrigated fields and other vegitation all makes it an amazing place. I hope you enjoy the pictures I have to share from our drive........

More Pictures......

2009-06-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

In an effort to share a some more pictures with you (before I pitch my computer out the window!), here are some that I took the evening we spent with Joe's family......my mom with baby Jack (who is now 5 months old!), Juliana with her Grandma Marsha, darling Baby Jack, and James and JT.

Misc Pictures

2009-06-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

I am soooo frustrated right now!! I'm having trouble with my Picasa program and can't seem to get it to post pictures to my blog, so please bear with me!! Here are a few pictures, taken the last couple of weeks.....James and Dusty planting corn along side our house, my "Easy-chair plumber"...Dusty putting the new faucet on the new sink before installation, and James making himself lunch....he flips a mean grilled cheese sandwich!!!

A Visit From Nana.....and more!

2009-06-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

First of all, I owe everyone a huge apology. I've received several emails checking in with me, to make sure all is okay around here, as I haven't posted anything in so very long. The fact of the matter is that there just hasn't been much going on to write about! All is fine.....we've just been busy with mundane life! Going to work, going to band practice (we have 3 more concerts lined up soon, with all new music!!), doing home improvement jobs (Dusty's been so busy painting, planting a garden (which hasn't been doing very well due to the very weird weather we've been having!), replacing one of the bathroom sinks and faucets and now flooring, replacing the old ceiling fan in the kitchen with a preferable light fixture....the list goes on and on!) We still have the backyard to work on, which is currently piled high with tree branches that need to be burned. It is our hope to put in a campfire pit in the backyard, so that we might be able to enjoy having a campfire, without always having to go camping! Ahh, the joy of living in a more rural area!!

As an effect of our economic times, my hours at work have been cut, adding extra stress to our family life. My 40+ hours a week have been cut back to 32 hours, just enough to enable me to keep my benefits....most importantly, my family's health insurance coverage. While I am grateful to still have my job, I hold my breath daily that I won't be cut altogether! Time will tell, I guess. I honestly feel that if I can hold on through the summer months, things will begin to improve. The building industry has really slowed in the last six months (as it has everywhere in the U.S.) but is starting to show signs of picking up again. Our fingers are crossed!!

On a more upbeat note, my mother came to visit us this last week. We hadn't seen her in about 18 months, and we had a good visit with her! I tried to plan to do something each day she was here, but not so much that we sent her home totally exhausted. On Monday, we spent a nice afternoon in the park with my friend Cindy (James' Cub Master) and her three boys and then she went with me to band practice that evening which she really seemed to enjoy! We took her to show her James' school and she was able to meet and visit with his teacher from the school year he just completed (she's teaching summer school!). We visited a local dairy and cheese factory. We had a nice visit with my mother-in-law and visited the cemetary where Dusty's Dad is buried. On the last night she was here, we drove an hour up to the town of Grand Junction to see Dusty's son, Joe and his family. Mom had never met, Jen (Joe's wife) or any of their children! She hadn't seen Joe since our wedding, almost 12 years ago! An added bonus, was that Jen's mother, Marsha was there too. Joe and Jen just bought a home and were moving the following day, so Marsha was there to help. We brought in pizza for dinner and just had a nice evening visiting.....thank you, Joe and Jen for allowing us to descend upon you on the eve of your move!!

I, unfortunately, did a very poor job taking pictures while she was here, partly because James has become extremely uncooperative when the camera comes out! Somehow, it's just not worth getting into a fight with him about, through I really hope that this is a short-lived phase!!! Anyway, I only got a few pictures the night we were with Joe and Jen, and very few of those are of the "appropriate" people!! I REALLY must get better at this!! And I REALLY must start spending a lot more time with my camera!!

WOW!! I think I've Got This Video Thing Figured Out!!

2009-04-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

With a lot of help from my good friends, Helen (in Australia) and Cindy (who lives here, close to me!!) I've FINALLY figured out how to post a video here!! Many thanks, ladies!! This wouldn't have happened without your help!!!!

Here is the Montrose Community Band during our performance on Sunday, playing the theme music to the movie "The Cowboys"! Seemed right to post something with a western theme living on the western slope of Colorado! It was the only piece that Dusty taped completely, mostly because it was fairly short. It's not quite like being there, but it gives you an idea of how we sounded. I'm doing this through YouTube, and the quality is not as good as the original, but beggers can't be choosers!! I hope you'll enjoy it!!!

It's Time for Music!

2009-04-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

The long awaited day had arrived! Yesterday was my first concert with the Montrose Community Band! Were we ready? Well, I guess musicians never feel really ready....there can always be one more practice! But we went out there and performed a pretty darn good concert!

Yes, there were those "klunker" notes, but they were few and far between and after all, none of us are professionals!!
Most important, I think everyone had fun and were proud of the results!

Here I am at home, as we headed out the door to the Montrose Pavilion where we were going to perform!

And James was pretty excited too!! After weeks of going to rehersals with me every Monday night, he was going to hear it "all come together"!! He had also been given the job of handing out programs and greeting people as they entered the auditorium. You can bet that he took that seriously!!

Dusty took 112 pictures before and during the concert, as well as 16+ minutes of video. When I'm able to figure out how to post a video clip here I will do so in the next few days! I have the perfect one.....I'm just too dumb right now to figure out how to do it!!! Anyway, I was very proud of the job that Dusty did with the camera! He not only negotiated the darkness of the auditorium and the sound issues (gee, maybe you'll get to experience that on the video!!?!!???), but he had to navigate the many heads in front of him! The zoom on the camera also got a workout, as all the pictures were taken from his seat, many rows back!! Outstanding!! Many thanks, honey, for doing such a great job and giving me so many great pictures to pick from!

Here I am, during our short rehersal, before the performance.....just working out the rough spots!!

And he caught this one of me looking up at Toby, our director, as he was talking to us. I usually don't like pictures of myself, but this one's okay! Not one to post pictures of myself on this blog, this is probably as much as you'll see of me in the next 6 months. I think I'll go now, and hide back behind my camera!!! See ya!!

And a few more pictures.......

2009-04-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the entire Montrose Community Band on stage for yesterday's performance. There were 38 of us there yesterday.

Here's our band director, Toby King. He stepped off the podium to do a sax solo for "Catch Me If You Can". It's a jazz piece and rather difficult. Not my favorite kind of music, but we pulled it off pretty well!

This is my sister-in-law, Vonnie, with her alto sax!!

Along with playing in the band, Vonnie is also a member of a sax group that is made up of others also in the band. They played three pieces during yesterday's concert as well. Here she is playing that music......I love that Dusty caught her daughter, Katie, peering at her through the music stands!!

It's Party Time!

2009-04-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

After the band concert, Dusty's sisters family (us included!) had planned a small surprise birthday party for her. Her 50th birthday was Friday, and we figured that the best time to celebrate was after the concert! We had the party at a lovely, new assisted living facility where Vonnie's daughter, Katie works. Vonnie was very surprised!! Besides family and friends, several band members dropped by and it was a fun couple of hours!!

Here is Vonnie with her husband, John and their daughter, Katie.

The 1st clarinetist from the band joined us. Holly is an accomplished musician and is so much fun for me to watch and listen to during our practices. I "get to" sit next to her and really enjoy it. It was a pleasure to have the chance to spend some time with her away from the band yesterday, to visit and get to know her better!

And one more family picture.....here's Vonnie with her big brother, Dusty, (yes, that's my hubby!) and two of her children, Ryan and Katie.

A Walk on a Warm Spring Day

2009-03-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, we woke up to beautiful, clear skies and warm temperatures. It's often windy here in the Spring, but on Saturday, it wasn't only warm but the air was still. It was definitely a perfect day to get outside and enjoy, as at this time of year the weather is not dependable and winter can return at any moment! So we all (Lacey included of course!) headed out for a walk in one of our favorite areas.

The Uncompahgre Valley (where we live) is considered a "high mountain desert", and desert it is! I'm including several photos that I took on Saturday, mostly for our far-away friends who have never visited us here, so that you can see what the "back country" looks like, when you're not in the mountains! We went walking on BLM land.....Bureau of Land Management, which is Federally managed. There is a LOT of BLM land close by and we spend quite a bit of time out and exploring when possible! The trail that we were on, on Saturday, is one that we've walked before, but each time we see something new!

I especially like walking along this trail as it reminds me of the old Western movies! I half expect cowboys to ride up to the edge of the hill above us on horseback!!

So dry and desolate, even at the end of winter! We have had a rather dry winter, with little snow or rain so things are looking particularly dry already! Even though it looks like "snake country", they aren't very common. While we are always on the lookout, we've never come across one, except for the one we found in an irrigation ditch last Spring and brought home and made a pet!! (That's a whole different story!!!!)

What a great place to take a boy who LOVES rocks!! James loves to explore here and find interesting rocks! It provides a wonderful lesson in geology and many other earth sciences.....we always end up having very interesting discussions while walking!! LOL

Cacti grows everywhere, which provides a challenge....to keep the dog and James safe. At this point, I'm not so worried about James, as he's old enough to understand and be careful. Lacey, on the other hand, is a different story!! She'll have to figure it out on her own and I guess she will. Once or twice through a cactus patch ought to cure her!!!

Some of the rock outcroppings on the hillsides above us are quite amazing!

And here comes James, running up the trail, to catch up with us! That's tumbleweed growing on either side of the trail......so unusual to see it growing! Most of the time when you see it, it's blowing across the road in front of your car!!!

James hiked up off the trail to have a look at the big rocks.....when there are rocks, they have to be explored!!! In those camo pants, he just about disappears!!

And one more of James....I stopped him as he was examining some more rocks!

As the weather continues to warm and improve, we look forward to more trips around our area!!

It's Not That You Win, But How You Play

2009-03-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's really hard to stand by and watch your child learn about losing first hand! James had his second wrestling tournament on Saturday and for the first time since he started wrestling, he came away empty handed.

He worked so hard and played so fair. We were so very proud of his efforts! He is now in the biggest (heaviest?!) group in the division, which means he's up against kids who have been wrestling longer and have a lot more experience than he does. Even though he wrestled during his kindergarten year, his missing last year seems to have really put him at a disadvantage. They've all had so much more "mat time" and although he's a strong kid, his lack of experience is showing.

He works so hard at practices and often becomes frustrated when the other kids are "messing around" as he always wants to get the most out of the practice. At the tournament, he was all business, but just came up short. He wrestled in three matches on Saturday, and all he lost, but not by much. Yes, there were tears, and times when he wasn't even sure why he had lost. With time, if he sticks with it, it'll come together.....the skill level and the understanding of the sport (which we are all learning!!)

What he does already possess is raw determination. I saw it on the mat during Saturday's tournament and I could see it in these pictures as I was editing them to post. (Please excuse their poor quality, as they were taken at quite a distance and my editing program leaves a lot to be desired!!) He wants to learn, he wants to do it right and he wants to win! All three of the boys he wrestled against on Saturday said he was a challenge for them and I think that helped to boost his morale, even just a little bit.

If he doesn't get anything else out of this experience, I want him to learn more about being a gentleman, and a team player. Yes, it's nice to win, but that's icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned. What is mandatory is to always do your very best, to cheer on your other teammates, to be encouraging to one another and to be a good sport! These are all things that we talk about away from practice or tournament time and I know he's getting it.

And so we move forward and prepare for the next tournament on Saturday! We keep telling him, as long as he goes out there and does his best, all will be fine because it's not that he wins, but how he plays!!

A Busy Kid....

2009-03-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

I tend to be a homebody. I like my time at home, especially after working a full day. But somehow, in the last month or two, that precious time has been gobbled up by various extra-curricular activities. As I wrote in the last posting, my involvement in the band is our Monday evenings now.

James continues to LOVE his Cub Scouts and swimming lessons. And a few weeks ago he started wrestling. He had done this in kindergarden (boy, they start 'em young!!), but we skipped last year. He seems very happy to be back to it this year. They have practices on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and then meets every Saturday, to compete with other kids on the western slope of Colorado. Yesterday was his first meet and he came home with a bronze medal!! Third place isn't so bad for his first meet of the year!! We were very proud of him. His big sister, Lori, came up from Denver and surprised him! He was so happy to have her there at the meet!!

And so our weeks now fly by, being busy Monday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Sundays! As much as I'd like mellow home time, it's well worth it to see the big smiles on James' face as he thoroughly enjoys these various activities!!

This picture is from yesterday's awards ceremony, when he was awarded his bronze medal!! Way to go James!!

A Time for Music

2009-02-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

For years, Dusty and his sister, Vonnie, have been after me to join the Montrose Community Band. I played the flute in elementary school, Jr. High School and a little in High School, but haven't done anything with it since. My Dad used to tease me, saying he was going to get me an attachment so that I could do the drapes, because when I played early on it sounded more like a vacuum cleaner than a musical instrument. Presumably, I did improve with time, though I was never top-notch!

Having not done anything musical or with "organized music" in more than 34 years, I was more than hesitant to join this band. But with the family's insistance, I finally broke down. And so that's where you'll find us on Monday evenings! The band practices every Monday night at Montrose High School, which coincidentally is where Dusty is an evening custodian! James goes to practice with me and gets to sit right there in the middle of the band, as we practice. He LOVES it and sits so quiet and still for the two hours that I certainly don't recognize him as my child!! It has become one of his favorite parts of the week, and if only for that reason the experience is worth it!! He is working on drawing pictures of each of the instruments as he sits and listens to us practice, and what he comes up with amazes me! He is quickly learning and can identify the different sounds from each instrument. All of this he would never get from school in 2nd grade, so I'm glad to be able to give him the experience.

I started at a good time, music-wise. The band does several concerts a year and when I joined, just after the holidays, they started learning a new set of music. This next concert (April 5) will be entitled, "Montrose Does the Movies" and all the pieces we are doing are movie showtunes. We are doing "Pirates of the Carribean", "Star Wars", "The Incredibles", A James Bond Medley, A John Williams Medley, "Hymn to the Fallen" (from Private Ryan), "Catch Me If You Can", "The Wizard of Oz", "Jesus Christ Super Star" and some others! Quite a line up for someone how hasn't played in 34 years!! Yikes!!

My sister-in-law, Vonnie, plays the alto sax and her daughter (my niece), Katie, plays the flute and sits next to me, giving me moral support. And so it goes! If you're sitting around on a Monday evening, toss a positive thought in my direction please, as I will be, no doubt, struggling with a measure or two at that very moment!!!

A Blog Award from a Special Friend!

2009-01-30T20:04:00.001-08:00

My friend Maz, in Australia, has honored me with a blogging award. This is meant to be passed around to those who's blogs we visit often and truly enjoy. I originally "met" Maz through the scrapbooking website we both frequent and now sharing each other's blogs makes our lives so much more real to one another. That's what blogging is all about!! And so, as I think of those who's blogs I really do enjoy visiting on a regular basis, Maz must be on that list!! So "back atcha' Maz"!! And to that, I'd like to add the following blogs that I would feel empty without these days!!

Helen H. at "Hancock Blogspot.com"

Helen M. at "Around the World With Helen and Tony"

Cindy at "The LaJoy Family....The Family That God Built"

Wendy at "Life in South Texas"

Melisa at "Whatever May Be, May Be"

Jen at "The Ryan Family"

All of these can be accessed by clicking on the name of the person, on the list of blogs I follow, to the right here. Keep on blogging!!!

Swimming Lessons for James!

2009-01-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

This last Sunday, James started swimming lessons! We had been wanting to do this for along time, but were never able to, due mostly to scheduling problems. Then we met Dru at Vonnie (Dusty's sister) and John's house, New Year's Eve. She's a friend of theirs and has taught swimming on and off for years. When she offered to take James on as a student, we jumped at the opportunity. She's a busy lady, but agreed to meet us at the local pool on Sunday afternoons, to spend an hour with James.

The only lessons James has had previously was a "Mommy and Me" class that we did when he was very little. That did nothing to make him "water safe". While he goes to the swimming pool all summer long with the daycare he's in, they don't teach them how to swim and I imagine, have their hands full keeping their eyes on the many kids that they take to the pool! James, over time, has taught himself how to swimming underwater for short distances, but always insists on holding his nose.

We really wanted him to be "water safe". For us, that may have a different definition than for those who might have a pool in their backyard or go to pools a lot. We don't. But what we do do is spend time during the summers at lakes and creeks, camping and fishing. I wanted to know that if James were ever to fall in, he'd be able to save himself!

After an hour with Dru, James was already starting to swim on top of the water, both on his stomach and on his back, and was trying real hard not to hold his nose! All was a vast improvement to the hour before, when he got into the pool! I think that the one-on-one with her is fabulous for him! In a class with other children, the temptation to mess around with the other kids would be strong. It's just the two of them and he really liked it!! And Mom and Dad were very pleased with the progress that we saw! And so, you'll find us at the pool on Sunday afternoons for awhile!!
Here are some pictures that I took during James' hour with Dru!! Thank you, Dru, for all you're doing!!!

We Welcome Baby Jack!

2009-01-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

We are all so excited!! A week ago yesterday, on Saturday, January 1oth at 12:12pm our daughter-in-law gave birth to she and Joe's third child. We are thrilled to join them in welcoming Jackson Glenn Ryan to the family! Weighing in at 8 lbs, 1 oz. and 20 inches long, he's a precious little guy who, so far, sleeps a lot (and through anything!) and seems pretty easy going.
We drove the hour to their home, yesterday, to spend the afternoon/evening with them all and, of course, to take MANY pictures! They all seem to be settling in well with this new addition to the family.

Here he is with his big sister, Juliana, and big brother JT! They both love him so much already and it shows!

Here is Papa Dusty holding Jack.....pretty amazing stuff!!

And Nana.....yup, that's me!!! WOW!!

And Uncle James taking it all in! He thought Jack was pretty cool and was fascinated by him!

What a sweetie!! This was one of the few times while we were there that he opened his eyes, so we took full advantage of the moment. After having two children before him, Joe and Jen have been trying to figure out who he looks like (Juliana takes after Mom and JT looks a lot like Dad!). Looking through their baby pictures yesterday, we all agreed that Jack looks like Jack!! It'll be so interesting to see what he looks like as he gets older!

We spent the day passing him around like a football, all taking turns holding him. It's a good thing he's so good natured!! One thing is for sure.....children in this family are well loved!! We welcome you, baby Jack, with open arms and love you very much already!!!

A Perfect Way to End Hanukkah 2008

2008-12-29T16:33:00.001-08:00

Being in a bi-religion marriage, Dusty and I have always tried to include both religions in our family life. We celebrate most of the major holidays in both our religions....he was raised Methodist and I was raised Jewish. Dusty has grown to truly love and enjoy many of the Jewish holiday traditions and food (just ask him about his love of gefilte fish.....and there are many Jews who won't touch the stuff!!) and sees it as very important that James be exposed to as much of it as possible! There are challenges to that, for sure, living where we do, as there are very few Jews here. The closest temple is more than an hour away and I was appalled to find that I was unable to even buy Hanukkah candles anywhere locally this year. Thank goodness for the internet!! And so, I do the best I can, with Dusty's help, to teach James about his Jewish heritage.
Years ago (perhaps when James was 3 or 4) Dusty told him that Jewish law stated that if your mother was Jewish, then you were Jewish. Even at that young age, James took that to heart and from that moment on any time he is asked, he proudly says, "I'm Jewish!" You can be certain that he's the only kid in Olathe, Colorado who knows the Yiddish words for sweetheart, head and thigh (OK, so Mom's knowledge of Yiddish is VERY limited, but I am making an attempt to pass it on!)!
We usually keep to ourselves, only occasionally sharing our holidays and foods with other family in the area. But this year I had written something about celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah here on my blog, and James' Cubmaster from Cub Scouts had sent me a comment about how great she thought it was that we did both, exposing James to both religions. She and her family are very involved in their church, and I thought they might be interested in experiencing Hanukkah, so we invited them for the last night.
What a wonderful evening we had! Their three boys where attentive and so polite as they took it all in.....the hebrew prayers and the meanings of all eight candles.

Kenny, James, Josh and Matt around the burning menorah.

Cindy reading, "Latkes, Latkes Good to Eat", a great kid's Hanukkah book to all the boys.

Homemade challah (egg bread) was part of the dinner.....Dusty made the dough and I finished it off with the traditional braiding. It came out quite nice, I thought!

We all settled in for a dinner of roasted chicken, latkes (potato pancakes) with sour cream and apple sauce, green beans and the challah. For dessert we had chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Maybe not your most traditional Jewish holiday meal, but the friendships that grew around those two tables warmed the souls as well as having the food fill our stomaches!

We were allowed adult visiting time, too, as the boys disappeared into James room to watch "Return of the Jedi".....so much for playing the dreidl game. Enough "lessons" for one night! The boys had so much fun together! What a very special family they have!! You can read more about them, if you're interested, as I follow her blog. It's posted on my blog page as "Cindy".

So a big thank you to Cindy and her family for allowing us to share our holiday and family traditions with you! We enjoyed every minute of our evening together and hope that there will be many more in the future. Here's to sharing with new friends!!

I actually took this picture on Friday night, which was the 6th night of Hanukkah. I had 8 nights to play with my camera and the burning candles. It was a struggle! But I did like the way this one came out, with the Christmas tree and part of our village in the background. I think it makes a good statement of what our family is about!!

Christmas Afternoon/Evening

2008-12-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas afternoon we went over to Dusty's sister, Vonnie's, house to have Christmas dinner with the family.

Vonnie's husband, John, asked us all to put our handprints on the ceiling above their stairwell to personalize it a bit. That's what was going on in this picture of Dusty, Vonnie and their Mom, Stella!! (In case you're wondering why they were all standing on the stairs!!)

I made everyone slowdown in the kitchen and stop for a moment to take this great picture of the three generations .....Grandma Stella, Vonnie and her daughter, Katie!!

My hubby, Dusty, manning the stairwell during the handprint painting!

James sitting patiently waiting for dinner to be served!

Katie and James being silly! They spend a lot of time being silly! They love each other so much and have a lot of fun playing!!

We did miss having Dusty's son, Joe and his family with us that day. Even though they live only an hour away, the weather and roads weren't all that good that day (it had snowed much of the morning) and Jen is expecting their third child anytime now!! As much as we would have enjoyed having them with us, we thought it best that they stay close to home and their hospital! So far no baby, but some of us are betting that little Jackson Glen will join the Ryan clan in the next week!!

Dusty's daughter, Lori, who lives in Denver called Vonnie's house that evening. We put the phone on speaker-phone and set it in the middle of the table, all visiting with Lori for quite awhile. We even told jokes! It was almost like she was there with us!

It was a very nice Christmas all around!

Christmas Morning

2008-12-28T13:02:00.000-08:00

We woke up Christmas morning to this wonderful display under our tree! Actually, I don't think that James slept at all that night (as Dusty kept chasing him back to bed all night long! LOL), but when morning FINALLY arrive this is what greeted us all! Santa was generous all around, leaving movies, a ball roller coaster for James to assemble as well as the much asked for game of "Battleship"!!

There were serious moments of reading exactly what the new, unfamiliar toys were.

And moments when the excitement took over and James appeared "possessed"!! LOL (I thought it was a funny picture, anyway!!)

Even Lacey was pleased with the new bone that Santa left for her!!

Dad got multiple tubes of the hand lotion that he covets and an IOU for the MP player that he wants (I knew HE needed to pick that out!!).

Mom got a digital picture frame for her desk at work!! Yippee!! Great choice, honey!! I love it and am looking forward to down loading my favorite pics!!!

The Finished Product....Inside and Out!!

2008-12-21T20:50:00.001-08:00

We brought the tree home and went right to work. By the end of the weekend, our house was looking very Christmasy, both inside and out!!

Since Dusty installed the new flooring this last summer, we've moved all the furniture around, which created a new challenge for our Christmas decor. Our living room is small, so fitting everything in without it looking crowded is a trick! I have a Christmas/Winter village that we like to put up next to the tree. We figured it all out and are please with the results!

This picture was taken with a flash.....

This picture was taken with the night setting, and no flash!

And this is the front of our house! It's the first time in a few years that we've decorated the outside and all our neighbors have come by to tell us how much they are enjoying our display! Dusty did such a great job on the fence and the tree.....on everything! After a few years of not feeling well enough to do this kind of thing, we are all so happy that he's back to being able to do all of this for us!! Everyone seems to appreciate it!! Thank you, Dad!!

We're very busy at this time of year, celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah! Hanukkah started this evening, so be sure to be watching for more blog entries very soon, as that camera of mine is clicking away!! Happy holidays one and all!!!

Our Annual Trip to the Christmas Tree Farm

2008-12-21T20:00:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how much time got past me since my last entry here, except we've been busy (like everyone else!) getting ready for the holidays! I've been out there taking pictures. They just haven't found their way to the blog. I'll try to be more diligent, as I really don't like to let so much time pass without writing here!

Last Saturday, we went to our favorite local Christmas tree farm to find our tree. It was cold and windy, but no snow except for the little bit that was already on the ground. We discovered this farm a few years ago and really enjoy going. The people who own it are very nice and have several acres of trees to choose from. They take you out to the trees on a hay wagon and you can stay out as long as you would like, until you find your tree and cut it. Then you jump on the next hay wagon that comes by and they take you back to their barn, where they wrap up the tree while you enjoy a cup of hot apple cider. It makes for a fun and lovely day and a wonderful family tradition!

James in the trees during our tree hunt!

Mom and James with our pick this year.....a beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce!

Our little money always has to climb the hay bales or his trip to the tree farm isn't complete!!

Now we were off, back to the house to decorate!!

Something That Can't Be Overlooked.....

2008-12-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

As many of you (if not all of you!) know we live in the small rural town of Olathe, Colorado, on the western slope of the state just 50 miles from the Utah border. Olathe's "downtown" is just two blocks long, with a hardware store, a small grocery, a restaurant and a few other businesses. Our population is now 1800 strong, mostly in the outlying areas of farms and fields. We have an elementary school and a middle school and high school (the latter two share the same campus).

Our Fall season this year has been made so much more interesting by the fact that the football team at our Olathe High School never lost a game all season long. Now, it is fairly well known (at least among my family!) that I am NOT a football fan! Despite the fact that Dusty's son, Joe, even played semi-pro for awhile, I've just never caught on!! But this season, in Olathe, what I HAVE caught on to is the enthusiasm of backing a winning team!! I am so proud to say that our Olathe Pirates went all the way to the state championships and won for their division on Saturday!!

We have lived in Olathe for going on 11 years now, and I've never seen this little community pull together like they have behind this group of teenage boys!! There were blue and gold balloons and streamers everywhere you looked and a look of pride on everyone's face. On Saturday, the day of the BIG GAME, Dusty taped this sign (provided by the local newspaper!) in our front window for all to see! While we are a small town, "our boys" are in a division of similar small schools (there are only about 500 students total at our high school) and we came out on top! For the first time in the history of the school.....yes, it's a big deal, a very big deal!! As far as those of us who live here are concerned, they couldn't have done any better if they had won the Superbowl!! Even though James is only in 2nd grade at the elementary school, we still know a few of the boys on that team.....remember, it's a small town!! :)

And so we are all basking in the glow this week, along with the team, that at least for the moment we are the CHAMPIONS!! GO PIRATES!! We couldn't be prouder of you!!

Photo Challenge #27 - In Motion

2008-12-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Having no time for picture taking this last week, I raided my archieves and came across these two pictures. I love the first one, for the look on James' face and the movement of the water coming out of the hose! If I had an editing program, I would have done something about the neighbor's lovely cars! Yuck! But we wanted motion and that's what I was focusing on here!

And I took this one at the Corn Festival in August. Having to take it through the mesh siding, doesn't make it a terribly focused photo, but I love how I caught him in mid-air!

Photo Challenge #26 - Weather

2008-11-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge brought to mind an old saying...."There's always weather, whether or not!" Boy, there hasn't been much going on here weather-wise in the last week....certainly nothing specatular enough for picture taking! Given a week or two, we'll probably have our first real snowfall, snowstorm or perhaps a blizzard!! You never know, living in Colorado!! As we say in our state (and I guess many other places around the world from other's comments here in blogland!), if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes!!

I did manage some nice photos of the whispy clouds during a ride on Saturday afternoon. This one is my favorite.

And this one was taken earlier in the week out my backyard at the beautiful autumn sunset! Yes, the clouds and weather patterns do create the sunsets!! (And it gives me another reason to take pictures of more sunsets, like I need another!! I'm definitely addicted to sunsets!!)

Here's hoping that everyone is having a wonderful week!!!

Photo Challenge #25 - Low Light

2008-11-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed this challenge, but found that I had better pictures in my archieves from the last year than I was able to take tonight. This one was the best of the bunch from this evening, when I lit the candle and took out the camera.

This is my favorite from our Hanukkah celebrations last December. James loves to light the candles and say the Hanukkah prayers. Being a bi-religion family (my husband was raised Methodist and I was raised Jewish), James gets a little bit of both.

And I took this picture over the summer on a camping trip. James is always mesmerized by the campfire and can sit for hours looking into it and talking quietly with us.......treasured moments!

While I wasn't terribly successful this week, this challenge has heightened my awareness of how to take low light pictures. I shall continue to work on it!!

Photo Challenge #23 - Make Over

2008-11-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

While working on this challenge over the weekend, I came to realize why I don't do much editing. The editing program that came with my digital camera just doesn't do a whole lot! I have my sights set at upgrading my camera in the next year and with that, will do so with an editing program as well. But I did have fun poking around with what I do have and tried some things I hadn't really used before.

Using a picture of our son James standing in a field of wild flowers, that I took this summer while camping, I used some of the edit modes that my digital program offers. I like the effect I got when I used the "fisheye" feature together with the "spotlight" feature. Thanks for stopping by!!

Before

After

A Fun Halloween for "Ninja Boy"

2008-11-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Every year I make James' Halloween costume. In 8 Halloweens I only didn't make it last year, when he wanted to be Darth Vader and I gave in and bought the costume. Over the years, I've made a bumblebee, a devil, a dinosaur, a skeleton, the Tin Man (from the Wizard of Oz), and Count Dracula.

I am by NO MEANS a seamstress!! I take the sewing machine out once a year....to make his costume!! I can make do and my philosophy is, "It's a Halloween costume and it'll be dark outside!!" I can get away with almost anything and get by. The costumes I've made are never perfect, but are always cute, enjoyed and appreciated. That makes it all worthwhile!

This year James decided he wanted to be a Ninja, so a Ninja he was! Though, wearing the finished product made him look a little bit like a terrorist (I thought!!) he was quite pleased and proud of the outcome. Slipping into the costume, he became the "King of Drama", fulfilling the role and loved posing for the camera, as you can see!!

The Ninja didn't scare Lacey. She knew that was James under there!!

Halloween night, James' school had a party for all the kids. This was taken out on the playground before the party.

This is James and his best buddy, Cameron, who dressed up like a StormTrooper from Star Wars. After the party at school, I took the two of them Trick or Treating through the neighborhood close to home. A great time was had by all!!

As we sat quietly in the livingroom winding down from the evening and getting ready for bed last night, James looked at me and said, "Gee, Mom, I wonder what I'll be next year!!?!!!" Good grief, give Mom and the sewing machine a rest for awhile, OK?! I love you, my little Ninja.....you are the best!!!

Photo Challenge #22 S.O.O.C. (Straight out of the Camera)

2008-10-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

I was hopeful that our trip to the pumpkin patch would result in several good pictures to choose from for this week's challenge. The weather was beautiful.....clear and sunny! I took many pictures. When we got home and I downloaded everything into the computer, I was sad to see how most of the pictures looked so washed out. I had tried several settings on the camera, but none really did the trick. Sticking to this week's rule of not editing, there was little to choose from. I'm glad that digital cameras allow editing! LOL

My entry of the pumpkins is the best of the pick without editing! I like the contrast between the blue of the sky, the orange of the pumpkins and the brown and texture of the dirt and vines. Thanks for a fun challenge, Wendy!!

It's Pumpkin Patch Time!

2008-10-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

The weekend before Halloween each year we make our annual trip to our favorite pumpkin patch in the area. It's always a walk down memory lane for me, as we've been going there since we moved here 10+ years ago. Because James was born in October, I always think back to that first time we brought our precious 10 day old son to the pumpkin patch! And ever since, when we make this annual pilgrimage, I stop and reminice, seeing how much he's both grown and grown up!! When you're with a child day in and day out, you don't often see the growth. But this annual trip provides me with the bittersweet mile marker of my son's growth and development.

This year's visit was on a beautiful warm and sunny day! There were many great pumpkins to choose from and a fun corn maze to walk through! It was a fun afternoon!

Dad, the pumpkin carrier!

Our choices for this year.....

Who IS that big kid????

Time to Carve!

2008-10-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

When we got home from the pumkin patch, James and Dusty set to the task of carving our Jack-o-lanterns. With Dusty working nights now, Sunday afternoon was the only chance they would have to do it before Halloween on Friday night! Here are some of the pictures we took of James working on the pumpkins, on our front steps.

Photo of the week .... is ME!!!!

2008-10-24T02:02:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!! I'm so very pleased that my entry for this week's photo challenge has been voted the winner by our group of awesome photographers!! This week's theme was "Zen Photography" and pictures entered were supposed to depict things that bring us (inner) peace. Please see below for my entry! All of these gals (and now a couple of men too!) post truly amazing photographs for this challenge on a weekly basis, so I feel honored that they've voted my photo as "Photo of the Week"!! We've all joined this group to learn more about our cameras, more about photography, to help us "think outside the box" and most importantly, to have fun taking pictures!! I'm having so much fun participating and am learning a lot! For those of you who are interested in learning more about this group, you can click on the icon on the right side of my blog and it'll take you right to the photo challenge blog.

Thanks again, gang, for the honor this week! It's just raised my enthusiasm level and has made me even more eager to get out there with my camera!!

Photo Challenge #21 - The Zen of Photography

2008-10-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

An interesting challenge to say the least......and with a busy week and weekend, it being James' birthday, I've had no time to take pictures other than birthday and family pictures!

And so I've decided to offer my favorite sunset picture of the summer for this challenge. I LOVE this picture! It is my screen saver and I have done exactly what Helen's description says to do with it..."A photo that you can imagine sitting in front of and meditating on the contents". The many hues in the sky that night were really amazing! It was truly spectacular! For me, this photo also evokes memories of that evening......the warm breeze as we drove through the open fields, the smell of the air, the sound of the crickets and water running through the irrigation ditches!

I hope that I've at least come close to achieving this week's challenge. Since it can be interpreted many different ways, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with!! Thanks for stopping by!!

A Fun Friday for Mom in 2nd Grade!!

2008-10-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

With Sunday being James' 8th birthday, I contacted his teacher, Mrs. Swihart, and asked her if I could bring cupcakes and drinks in for a little celebration today. She was happy to have me come and even invited me to come for the hour that they study math! It was fun to join James at school for awhile! Here are a few pictures from the day......

Mrs. Swihart doing a math exercise with James.
James with the cupcake birthday cake that he chose......military motif complete with barbed wire and an army tank!!
Mrs. Swihart leading the class in singing "Happy Birthday" to James.....in English AND in Spanish!!
James and the "Big Deal Day" buddy that was his today in celebration of his birthday! It kept him company all day at his desk!

A Rough Wednesday......

2008-10-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

I know I'm two days behind, but we're going into James' birthday weekend (and Dusty's, too, as his birthday is next Wednesday!) and I figured that if I didn't write about the happenings of the past few days, it just wouldn't get done!

On Wednesday afternoon, I got a call at work from James' school telling me that he had fallen on the playground and had hit his head. He didn't knock himself out, but he had cut his scalp, he was bleeding and he's eyes were dilated. Not good! On my way out the door to pick him up, I called his Dr. who told me to take him to the emergency room at the hospital. When I got to the school he was sitting with an ice pack on his head, covered in blood. Of course, a head or face wound always bleeds so much more than any other kind and I knew that, so it didn't worry me too much. But he was pretty out of it and so unlike James....glazed look on his face and very quiet..... and THAT had me worried!! I got him to the hospital and after cleaning him off and doing a neurological exam, the attending Dr. decided not to run any scans for the time being. He said James had done very well with the neurological tests and the Dr. didn't think he had a concussion. He wanted us to keep a close eye on him for the next several days, but he was sure James would be fine. He just didn't see any reason for putting him through a scan at this point, and introducing all that radiation, especially it being his head.

The Dr. did, however, think that the cut needed to be attended to (it's so small and I thought it was nothing and would heal fine on it's own.....but I'm no nurse!!!) so he used one staple to "seal the deal". James was great and said it was "no big deal". Stitches would have been so much more traumatic for him!!

When we got home, there was a box from "Aunt Rita" (my dear friend for many years) of hand-me-down toys from her now 13 year old son!! WOW!!! Did James ever do well!!????? He loves "Bionicles" and she sent him about 10 of those, plus awesome Legos and more!!! What a wonderful thing to find, upon returning from the hospital. That certainly lifted his spirits and it was great to see! After sleeping with Mom for the night (so I could keep an eye on him throughout the night), he's been doing great!! I haven't seen the need for him to go to Physical Education the rest of the week, so he's been staying quiet. He's aware that he needs to be protective of his head until that staple comes out next week. But other than that, he's doing great! We're so proud of him and grateful, too, as we know it could have been a whole lot worse!!

Ouch!!! The little cut with staple!

James' was thrilled to get the box filled with Bionicles and other goodies!!

Photo Challenge #20 - The Colors of Nature

2008-10-12T10:00:00.001-07:00

This weekend was so not the best time to go to the mountains for the Autumn colors! It was cold, windy, rainy and even snowed on us while we were up there!! Not the best for pictures either, as the weather system that came through brought with it a lot of fog, so many of the pictures I took lacked sharpness and looked just plain dull and fuzzy!!

This first one was my favorite of the bunch. We've had such a wet Autumn in the mountains that most of the colors are already gone. There are just pockets left! This was one such pocket.

I couldn't help but sneek in one picture that I took last year at the same time...in the middle of October. It was a very different kind of Autumn (with the colors holding on for several more weeks!) and a very different kind of day than we had yesterday.....lots of blue skies that day!
Another from yesterday.....some kind of red berry bush in a grove of Aspen trees that had already lost their leaves.....looking much more like winter than Autumn!
And one more, which was taken coming down off the mountain.....very foggy, but the colors were still pretty!

We stopped at a fruit stand on our way home and bought a bag of apples. Today we'll be making an apple cobbler!! Happy Fall everyone!!

Just because.....

2008-10-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Melissa, left me a sweet comment about my photos for this week's photo challenge and said she'd like to see the last one I posted in color, so here it is!! I was experimenting with the black and white with these pictures......something I'm rarely comfortable doing and I wanted to leave my comfort zone and try something new for me. I like the way most of them came out, but I still like the color!! So this one's for you, Melissa, and anyone else out there interested in seeing the difference between these two pics!!

Photo Challenge #19 - Art of Portraiture

2008-10-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting challenge for me. James is almost 8 years old and has had the camera in his face since he was born. But now he's going through a very uncooperative stage whenever Mom picks up her camera! It's so hard to get a good picture of him, NOT making a silly face. (And the other member of our family -- the father -- is going through his annual Autumn ritual of growing hair on his face and currently looks like a cross between an unkempt bear and a homeless person, so taking pictures of him was not currently to my liking!! LOL).

So you work with what you have!! I realized this morning that with all the pictures I've taken of James throughout his life, I've never tried a "photo session" at home. He's been to a professional photographer a few times, but those visits are few and far between! So I grabbed a sheet, rearranged the livingroom temporarily and started taking pictures. He was remarkably cooperative and I did get a few good shots, inbetween the silly stuff! I'm just posting three from this morning, one of which Lacey had to get into too!! The first one was actually taken the other night, while we were deep in conversation about something.....somewhat less posed, but I think my favorite!

So, thank you, Rania, for a fun challenge! I ended up with some good pics of my little guy that I wouldn't have without your suggestion!! Have a great week everyone!!

Photo Challenge #18 - Bridges

2008-09-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, now you have to be kind! Please remember that we live in a rather rural part of Colorado.....no city scapes here with big, beautiful bridges like you would find in Melbourne, Australia or San Fransisco, California!! We like to think we have our own kind of charm, which at times might not be quite as obvious! I'm really trying hard to share those parts of why we like living here, through the pictures I post on this blog.

So when I set out to look for bridges to photograph this weekend, it wasn't quite as easy to come up with ideas right off the bat, but we did manage some!

The first two pictures were taken just across the road from where we live. A few years ago, some people put in a private campground. It's very nice and many people (with big, expensive motor homes) come and spend months on end there! They have a little pond with a water wheel and a foot bridge......

And this one is a repeat of several weeks ago! I also used it for the "Symmetry" challenge! Hey, let's recycle when we can, right? This bridge is at a lake about 10 miles to the north of where we live.
As we were out traveling the backroads today, we came upon this cute little footbridge. The people who own the house had put it in to access the road, from their yard, across the irrigation ditch!! Their driveway was just a boring culvert "bridge" crossing the ditch....certainly without the charm that this bridge has!!

Thanks for having a peek! I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with!! Have a great week!!

You Make the Difference!

2008-09-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

James and Mikey

Today was James' second cub scout meeting. When he got in the car after the meeting he said, "Guess what I got tonight? Guess what Miss Cindy (the cubmaster) gave me?" Well, being as new as I am to scouting, I hadn't any idea and when James pulled a pretty coin out of his pocket, I was as thrilled as he was! He explained to me that it was a "You Make the Difference" coin and Miss Cindy had awarded it to him for being an outstanding scout and friend at Friday night's tailgate party/football game!

Let me backtrack a bit.....at the game, I had given James some money so that he and his friend, Mikey, could go and get the three of us drinks. A little while later, the boys came back with the news that James had lost the money on the way to the snack bar (high school football stadium+lots of people= money gone!) While I wasn't terribly upset, (he IS only almost 8!!) I had to tell the boys that I didn't have anymore money with me, so we'd have to forgo our drinks. A few minutes later, Mikey was in tears thinking that HE was in trouble. James was upset that Mikey was crying and put his arm around him and talked to him, to reassure him that he wasn't in trouble.....that Mikey had only been with James when HE had lost the money! Miss Cindy witnessed all of this and quickly came to the rescue, giving the boys some more money to go get drinks.

A few lessons were learned that evening......James learned a good lesson about holding on to money (and I think so did Mikey, through James) even though he thought it was in his pocket! But more importantly, James took the time to think about a friend who was upset and helped to make him feel better! The fact that Cindy caught all of that in the chaos of the evening, while trying to keep an eye on 21 little boys, truly amazed me. After only one week plus, I'm already impressed with her scoutleading abilities and the way she makes the boys feel so good about what they are doing! As James finished telling me about tonight's meeting he looked at me, with a huge smile on his face and said, "I love Cub Scouts, Mom!!" Yippee!!

The Week That Got Away....

2008-09-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I lost track of time. Too much going on and lack of organization I suppose, but I've missed the "posting window" for this week's photo challenge. I was only able to come up with a couple of pictures this week (this week's theme was "Mornings"), but when came to my computer to post them this evening, I found that Helen's collage was already complete. That's what I get, thinking that I could "stretch" it into the work-week. I know I really need to get my pictures posted here by Sunday evening and that'll be my rule from now on! My hat is off to all the ladies who did such a terrific job with their photos this week......it wasn't an easy challenge! You all did a great job!!

I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next week!! See you then!!!

A New Chapter

2008-09-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

James started second grade on August 20th. He's settling well into the school routine. He is also enrolled in the afterschool program (a wonderful program of extra-curricular activities), hanging out there until I can pick him up when I get off from work, now that Dusty is working for the school district as an evening (2pm-11pm) custodian.

After the first week of school, James decided that he also wanted to join the Cub Scouts, so we've jumped in with both feet. Yesterday was his first meeting and this evening I finished sewing all the patches on his new uniform! I took these pictures this evening as he tested it all out! Tomorrow night is their first "event", when they have a tailgate party at the Olathe High School Homecoming Football Game! We will all be in attendance to root on those Pirates!!

James is pretty excited about being a Cub Scout and Dusty and I are excited for him and are looking to all he will gain from the experience!!

I couldn't get over how grown up James looks. I know, in part, it's the uniform (don't you love a man in a uniform?? LOL) but he just looks so much older to me all of the sudden. The boy certainly has blossomed and I'm very happy that he has chosen the scouting path. I hope he'll stick with it for awhile. The group of scouts at his school is a good group of boys, many of whom he already knows. I like the things that scouting stresses.....the leadership and that especially when they are wearing their uniforms they are setting an example for the others in the school.

James has really enjoyed knowing that both Dusty and my Dad were Boy Scouts! Dusty dug out his old handbook from when he was James' age.....it was copywritten 1964!! It's a wonderful book, even though it's "a little" outdated, and James quickly emersed himself in learning the "secret code" and wrote us both letters in it!! Too funny!!

So here's to the world of scouting as we delve into it as a family!! Beware.....there are many more scouting pictures to come!!

Photo Challenge #16 - ANIMALS

2008-09-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Better late than never.....and I think (and hope!) that I made it before Helen's weekly cutoff for putting together the photo challenge collage that she does so well!!

Here are my contributions for this week......

Our puppy, Lacey, who is now 9 months old. She's on my *%#@ list this evening as she got into trouble while in her kennel today. She broke the bottom tray and distroyed the carpeting underneath.....in the corner of James' room! Just when you want to throttle them they do something cute or endearing. Kinda like kids, eh??!!! LOL She'll always be loved and well cared for in this family and this is the first real damage she's ever done. The human element was definitely involved there, too, as she wasn't left with a bone to chew on. Hopefully, we've ALL learned from this experience!! Oh well, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent.....just a bit frustrated tonight!!

Moving on, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to include a picture of "the girls" from the dairy up the road, enjoying their evening meal!!
And my friend, Debbie, currently has a whole bunch (flock?) of goats on her pasture and she invited us up to have a look. I think there are around 60 goats in total.

We got there at feeding time and had a great time watching them. They are difficult to photograph, thought, as they are in constant motion. James fell in love with a month-old baby, that they've named "Bart", who is blind. He is so sweet and is really struggling.....he really tugs at the heartstrings!! James can't wait to go back!

These were my two favorite pictures from this afternoon's adventure with the goats.

Photo Challenge #15 - ABSTRACT

2008-09-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

I took a walk around my neighborhood, to take pictures for this week's challenge.

This one is a look into the world of the Russian Sage! This plant is in the corner of our yard and is beautiful at this time of year, with it's purple flowers! The honeybees love it too!
A close up of a sunflower, grown to feed the birds this coming winter. This flower has seen it's prime, but is still pretty in it's own way.
I caught my neighbor watering her yard, and she was glad to help me with this shot! I thought that the water droplets looked pretty cool with the tree leaves in the background!
This one was a last minute thought. Dusty has just finished painting out livingroom. He's painted 3 of the walls a mocha color. The 4th wall is painted this "burgandy texture"......I took a closeup picture of it and it looks kinda weird here. Guess sometime soon I'll have to post a picture of the whole wall so you can see how nice it really does look!! In the evenings, with the lighting low it looks like fabric on the wall! But anyway, I thought that the picture was interesting!!

Thanks for a fun challenge Lotti!! What's next girls?? I'm ready and waiting with camera in hand!! Have a great week!!

Photo Challenge #14 - SYMMETRY

2008-09-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

The pickings for my contributions to this week's challenge were mighty slim. We just didn't do much over this long holiday weekend.....just hung out around the house and relaxed. The only reason we left the house was when we realized that my car had a dead battery at 4:30 this afternoon and we had to hightail it to WalMart for a replacement battery! These pictures were taken while we waited for the new battery to be installed! We had driven separate vehicles so we wouldn't be stuck at WalMart and could go for a walk around the lake while we waiting.....a good idea in theory, except a big rain storm blew in and we never were able to get out of the truck!! Ever have "one of those weekends"??!!!?? So these couple of pictures were taken from inside the truck!!

The bridge over the creek that feeds into the lake.

The grain silos across the road from the lake.
This picture was taken on our camping trip a few weeks back. An okay illustration of symmetry, I guess. Looking back through old pictures, I found I've posted much better examples of symmetry, even in the last few weeks, and those pictures were supposed to be demonstrating OTHER things!! Oh well, next week will be better and I'm already looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeves for us!!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Random Pictures from our weekend......

2008-08-24T20:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we drove up to the quaint mountain town of Ouray to enjoy their hot springs pool. We try to go up there a couple of times a year and always have a great time! How can you not when you're soaking in the wonderfully warm hot spring water, surrounded by this mountain beauty? Ouray is known as the "Little Switzerland of America" and sits nestled in the base of a canyon. A fun little tourist town, it's got lots of fun shops and bed and breakfasts.
Dusty and James enjoyed playing in the water. We always talk about going up in the winter to experience the hot springs in the snow! So far we've not been brave enough, but there's always this coming winter!!
The first time we brought James to the hot springs, he was 9 months old and he fell asleep in my arms in the water and slept for an hour!! He laughs at that story now, as he can't imagine sleeping rather than playing!!
What can I say about this picture??? I have a crazy kid and one very tolerant dog!!! Made for a cute picture anyway!!
No, not ALL our sunsets in the Uncompahgre Valley are breathtakingly beautiful, but we do have our share!!! This was this evening, on our ride! I was frustrated because I was loosing light so quickly, but then I looked to the west!! WOW!! I sure am going to miss our evening rides when summer comes to an end!!

Thanks for stopping by and having a look!!

Photo Challenge #13 - THE BEAUTY OF DECAY

2008-08-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

We went for a drive tonight in search of decay. Dusty's first idea was to drive by one of the dairy farms in the area....thought there would be plenty of decay there!! LOL As I wasn't terribly interested in taking pictures of cow poop, we drove on and found a few different options to explore.

We came across this old cottonwood tree with quite a bit of decay at it's base.
There was a farm that we drove by that had several very old pieces of farm equipment displayed out by the road. By this time, the sun was going down and the lighting wasn't good....this was that best I could do!
Then we came to a very old cemetary, way out in the country, that we didn't know anything about. We got out and walked around as the sun was setting. The graves went back to 1811!! We'll have to go back to check it out more when we have more daylight.

This picture is of one of the older graves.....I changed it to sepia as it already looked like I took it at night!

Photo Challenge #12 - LINES

2008-08-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

After our camping trip last weekend, we decided to stay close to home this weekend. We didn't even venture out to take pictures! So this is what I found around the house for the challenge this week.....

The rug at our front door. Lots of lines here!
The tiles in our little entry way. I also liked the way the sun shone through our screen door, providing a few more lines!!
This is the bottom of an antique radio cabinet that once belonged to my husband's great-aunt. There used to be material between the plywood and the X's (I guess it was destroyed years ago by a family cat....long before I joined the family!) Anyway, I thought the X's made interesting lines!
We were playing a new game of dominos that we've just learned, called "Chicken Foot"!! Here is the end product of one of the rounds.....talk about lines that lead nowhere!!
And this is the tile floor in our kitchen, the lines leading to Dusty's feet!! Looks like the grout could use some attention! Maybe next weekend!!

Well that's it for this week! Thanks, ladies, for another fun challenge!! Looking forward to Wednesday and the posting of the next one!!

Oops! How did I miss these??

2008-08-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

I had these pictures all ready to download, but missed them with all the others. I still wanted to share them, so here they are!!

What's a camping trip without fishing!?? Certainly not in THIS family! Dusty and James love to fish, and although James is still learning I'm glad it's an interest that they both share!

I took this picture on Sunday morning, as James grabbed his fishing pole and tackle box and headed down to the lake to join his Dad to fish while Mom made breakfast! Too darn cute!!
And here they are....the Ryan fishermen!! The fishing wasn't very good, but that didn't do much to diminish their enthusiasm!!

A Fun Weekend Camping Up on Grand Mesa

2008-08-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

WOW!! Well, I guess this is our camping weekend in pictures!! Though looking through these I realize one thing.....as I sheltered my camera from the incessant rain, it ends up looking like we had pretty nice weather! Quite to the contrary! We arrived at our camping spot Friday afternoon and it sprinkled on and off until evening. Our camp fire was very brief that night (I was very dissappointed as that's my favorite part of camping!) as it started to pour around 9pm. We were quite relieved to find out that our tent was rainproof, complete with it's rainfly! The four of us were all in our tent (yes, Lacey too!) all cuddled down, nice and warm and dry. It rained all night long! I only woke up one time during the night when it wasn't raining. As I lay there thoughout the night listening to the rain, I wondered if it wouldn't just be smarter to pack it all up on Saturday and go home instead of staying on until Sunday!

This is the only picture I have of James wearing short sleeves and shorts! After this he was in jeans and a turtleneck the rest of the weekend!

The first night, after being chased into bed early by the rain, thunder and lightening, James was all smiles! He loves to camp!
All bundled up against the cool, wet weather we took a walk in the woods, just the two of us!!
James has become quite a reader. He took a backpack full of books with him, just in case we had to spend a lot of time in the tent because of rain. Even though that didn't really happen, he still wanted to pull up a chair (in the middle of the forest) and read his favorite book...."Sharks and Other Sea Creatures - A Dictionary"!! I loved it!!

Because I've had several people comment that I haven't been including pictures of myself on this blog, I made an attempt to take some over the weekend! This is one of my favorites of James and me!
And here's "Dad" getting ready to make breakfast!
Love those camping meals cooked over the camp stove or campfire!! We try to keep our meals simple, but we always enjoy the expereince!
James and Dusty taking a break after breakfast. You can see part of our tent in the background.
And what would a camping trip be without smores??? I LOVE this picture of James!! This one will most definitely be scrapped! I can't get over how dirty his hands were.....just something you've got to look past while camping!! I bought a tub of "wet wipes" and we used them all the time, but the pictures tell a different story!! LOL

I set my camera on the "candlelight" setting while taking pictures of James with our campfire on Saturday night. It rained for about an hour and a half on Saturday afternoon and then the skies cleared and we had a lovely evening, cooking our dinner over the campfire, making smores and enjoying the campfire for a couple of hours before going to bed.
This was Lacey's first camping trip and she did very well!! She's now 8 months old and is so much fun to watch as she explores the world around her. The longer we have her, the more attached James becomes and they are very cute together!

While she wasn't thrilled by the thunder and lightening, she was pleased to be in the tent with us and didn't complain too much.
James is very responsible with Lacey and takes on most of the "dog chores" without being told. He walks her acouple of times a day. Here they are walking through the camp ground.

We had a long chain, so we were able to tie her up at our campsite, but she was able to roam quite a distance even on the chain. James took her for walks (without the leash) in the woods behind our site, and she was so much fun to watch as she explored.
James loves his puppy so much and is constantly entertained by her. I think she finds him entertaining as well!!
All that fresh air and activity really pooped her out!! She found a patch of sunshine to nap in!!

Wildflower Beauty!

2008-08-15T18:54:00.001-07:00

The wildflowers up on Grand Mesa are truly spectacular this year! Everyone was saying how everything is late because we had so much snow and such low temperatures this last winter. Well, it all may be later than usual, but it certainly paid off! The wildflowers were everywhere you looked and were so gorgeous! It's no wonder that I took so many pictures this last weekend!!

After this camping trip, I now realize that I definitely must get myself a Colorado Wildflower book!! I get frustrated when I can't identify what I'm looking at!!

James enjoyed the wildflowers a lot this weekend! They grew right up to the banks of the lake and with him standing in the middle of them, you can tell how tall they were (he's around 4 feet tall now!).

This picture was taken in the small meadow that was adjacent to our campsite. James really enjoyed walking through this meadow and did so several times in the few days we were up there, looking for chipmunks! I love this picture and feel a scrapbook page coming on!!
Another one of the lake and flowers!
A whole hillside of wild daisies!! WOW!

And some more!!!

Photo Challenge #11 - Morning, Noon and Night

2008-08-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping and I was very excited because I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take pictures for this week's challenge. Well, it would have been with the exception that the weather didn't really cooperate most of the weekend. It rained A LOT!! That made the camping experience very interesting, to say the least!

So with cloudy, and rainy skies much of the weekend, taking pictures for this challenge was.....well, a challenge!! The whole idea was to capture different lighting in the same spot, at different times of the day. This was virtually impossible when all we had was clouds and rain! I did manage to come up with these two pictures. The first one was taken in the morning with the sun shining on Ward Lake, where we camped. (This was almost the only time we saw the sun all weekend!)

This second picture was taken in the evening after one of the storms had passed and the sun tried to break through the clouds for a few minutes. It did well enough to create a rainbow, which I managed to photograph!

So that's my contribution for this week! Stay tuned though.....I took 110 pictures this weekend and later on in the week, when I have more time, I'll be posting some of them here! Now I'm off to get ready for my week, finish unpacking from the camping trip and watch a little bit of the Olympics before heading to bed!!

Corn Festival Weekend!

2008-08-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend we've had.....the 17th Annual Olathe Sweet Corn Festival was yesterday. It was a long day, but it was filled with friends, family and much laughter. It was hotter than I like it (around 100 degrees!), but somehow we pushed through that to really enjoy the weekend. It started on Friday night, with a street dance in downtown Olathe (remember the pictures I posted last week of our downtown area?). James had a blast, meeting up with several of his old classmates! Here he is with Kylee! They had a wonderful time, dancing the night away to the live band!! They were so cute to watch!!

We were so glad that Dusty's daughter was able to drive up from Denver to join us for the weekend! It was so much fun to be able to share "our" special weekend with her and she really seemed to enjoy herself!!

Here she is with her Dad! Thanks, Lori, for giving us your weekend and letting us share our small town experiences with you!! We love you!!
Once at the festival on Saturday, we enjoyed wandering around and looking at all the vendor boothes. There were over 200 different vendors there, selling food, crafts, services and other stuff! It's amazing how many people I saw that I knew! I guess working at the grocery store in this small town really has helped me meet A LOT of people!

Here is James enjoying the "bouncy house"!! He loves to do flips and I managed to catch him in midair, though it's not a great picture as it was taken through the netting side!
And, of course, it wouldn't be a Corn Festival without eating large quantities of corn!! My boy took a moment to peer out from behind his cowboy hat for Mama to take this picture! But you better be careful not to interrupt him for long, as corn eating is serious business!!
James had to proudly "brag" that he had actually eaten 4 ears of corn!! OMG!! The thought of that makes my belly hurt!! I only had 2!!

Travis Tritt Comes to Olathe!

2008-08-03T19:55:00.001-07:00

Last night, as the heat of the day subsided and the sunset, we headed back up to the festival grounds (the benefit to living only a mile away is that we can go home for a few hours and then go back in the evening for the concert!). Travis Tritt was the main entertainer and he put on a great 2 1/2 hour show!! This is part of the crowd that showed up to enjoy the sights and sounds of the night. After the concert, there was a fireworks show! A perfect way to end a very fun day!! We didn't get home until 12:45am, but it was worth it!!

Here's James, eating yet again!! How can you NOT eat at a festival!?? Last night it was snowcones and funnel cakes.....yummy!!
While waiting for the concert to begin, we took some pictures of each other. We don't see Lori very often, so it was nice to be able to include her in pictures as well. Here I am with her!

And there aren't many pictures of Dusty and me, so here's a new one!

Photo Challenge #10 - SIGNS

2008-08-03T19:34:00.001-07:00

I don't have much to offer for this week's photo challenge, but this one did strike us funny! On our way, walking to the street dance downtown on Friday night we came upon this street sign. Now we've lived in Olathe for more than 10 years, and early on I must have seen these signs along "Main Street" and thought that they were funny, but after so many years, I just don't see it anymore! Dusty's daughter, Lori, was with us all weekend.....she had come up from Denver for the Corn Festival, and she was the one who pointed out the sign! You see, even though Olathe is a very small town the local government often has trouble agreeing on things. Apparently, this was one such situation! They couldn't agree on whether it should be "4th Street" or "Main Street", so they named it both!!

The Shot That Got Away!!!
Right after taking the above shot, we walked passed a house with a hummingbird feeder hanging in front. Right next to the feeder was a "No Tresspassing" sign. As we walked passed, a hummingbird flew away from the feeder. If I only could have gotten a picture of the bird, the feeder and the sign together that would have been classic, but I just wasn't fast enough!! Oh well, maybe next time!!

Photo Challenge #9 - "Hangin' Out in the Hood"

2008-07-27T21:43:00.001-07:00

Hmmmm! How to portray my little town of Olathe, CO?? While we were coming off the Grand Mesa today, Dusty suggested that we try a panorama shot of "our" valley! Well, it IS our home!!

This is the canon that sits in the small park right in town. The thing that frustrates me, is that there is no plaque or markings telling of it's history. One can assume it's from WWI or WWII, but I'm not sure. When I go into Town Hall (to pay my water bill....LOL) this week, I shall finally make a point of asking about it! But as my Mother said several years ago while she was visiting, "Doesn't every small town need an old canon in their park??!!!"
I've always liked the look of this old, rundown "feed elevator" that belongs to our West Slope Ag-Center!
And this is the river that is only about two blocks from our house. Yes, we have to have flood insurance because of this river, though I don't think it's gone over it's banks in anyone's memory! We often take walks in the evening and James enjoys throwing rocks into the river. It's called the Uncompahgre River and we live in the Uncompahgre Valley!!

I've chosen not to include any corn this week, but wait until next week, as we're gearing up for our big corn festival!! Stay tuned!! They'll be A LOT of corn posted here next weekend!!

Hangin' Out in the Hood - Part 2

2008-07-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Just a few more pictures of our little, tiny agricultural town. I took the pictures, I figure I might as well share them!

Here is our True Value hardware store. It's one of the main businesses in town! Dusty worked there for a few years and the place is a real trip! It's like stepping back in time....with warped wooden floors and aisles so narrow you have to walk very carefully as not to knock things off the shelves!! Nextdoor is an old time variety store, with everything from appliances to candles and note cards!
This is the small grocery where I work part-time! (On the far left of this picture, with the silver van parked in front!)
And our Producers Co-op.....very important in a farm town!!!
Right across the street is the Ag-Center with the Olathe Volunteer Fire Department next door. I keep trying to tell you this is a small town......ya believe me yet??

Time for Fishing!

2008-07-27T21:06:00.001-07:00

After a lovely walk along a wooded path that parralleled many of the lakes up on Grand Mesa, Dusty and James chose a spot to fish for awhile. It was so nice to sit in the shade of the big pine trees and enjoy the smells and sounds of the forest and lake.

James is still learning how to fish from his Dad, and it seems as if each summer we start all over again! Now he's old enough though, I think, to start remembering more from summer to summer. One thing is for sure....he seems to have inherited the love of fishing from his Dad, and I'm so glad for that! It's something that they'll always be able to share!
This was the catch of the day! And you can tell from the look on James' face that he was quite excited!! It was served as one of the courses of tonight's dinner in the Ryan house!
Here's James with Lacey and his fish!
I loved this shot! Going back to the car after fishing, I caught James and Lacey walking along the trail!

Cooling Off in the Mountains.....

2008-07-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today we headed "up" in an effort to escape the heat. It's been very hot (near 100 degrees daily) and much more humid than we're used to, as a result of Hurricane Dolly. We are a long way from the Mexican Gulf, but we ended up with a lot of humidity caused by the hurricane. Usually the western slope of Colorado is very dry, as we are part of a "high mountain desert", so we really feel that humidity when it goes up!

Today we went up on The Grand Mesa. It's one of our favorite places as it's only about an hour's drive from our house and is easy to get to. It's call to fame is that it is the largest flat- topped mountain in the world. We like it because it's often many degrees cooler up there than it is at home. Once up there, we were driving around looking for a place for the boys to stop and fish and we came upon this beautiful stream with wildflowers surrounding it. I, of course, had to stop and take pictures!!

I think that this is mountain beauty at it's best!!
And this is a Colorado Columbine! It's the state flower and something we Coloradoans are quite proud of!! We teach our children that our beautiful wildflowers are there to have pictures taken of and to be admired, but never picked!!!

Photo Challenge #8 - NEGATIVE SPACE

2008-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

This challenge was so hard for me! I just couldn't wrap my mind around the concept, I guess. I took the camera with us on our trip out into the corn hoping to get the perfect shot. No such luck! All of the pictures I took just seemed to have "too much subject". Guess I really need to take more time to master this one, and time is just something that is very limited for me right now.

Anyway, here are a few of the shots that I've taken in the last couple of days that I think (and hope!) are acceptable for this week's challenge. My favorite is of James, lying on and enjoying our new flooring!

An old, dead tree that I captured against an evening sky.
This is the tree in the yard next door to our house. I've always thought it was pretty in the summer, with it's green leaves and yellow "flowers", especially against a blue sky!

Well, that's it for this week. This is something I will work on some more, as I don't think I did a very good job. But, once again, thanks to Wendy and Helen for making me "think outside the box!!"

Hooked on Corn and Sunsets.....

2008-07-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Another hot evening chased us out of our house for a ride through the cooler corn fields! It was a delightful way to spend an hour, just out driving slowly and stopping every now and then to take pictures.

The Olathe Sweet Corn Festival is only two weeks off now. The highlight of our year, our one day festival celebrating the beginning of the corn harvest brings people to our little town from far and wide! It's a fun day, small town style.....all the corn you can eat, craft vendors, music, games for the kids and lots of festival foods. The day is capped off with an evening concert and a fireworks show. A few years ago, the planners of this event realized that they could draw a bigger crowd by having big country stars perform. In the last few years, we've had Randy Travis, Lonestar and Leann Rhimes! This year Travis Tritt will be performing! I always giggle about it, saying I'd love to be a fly on the wall during the conversation between the star and his/her booking agent......"You've booked me in concert WHERE?? Olathe, Colorado?? Where the @#$% is THAT!!!???" I don't think that any of them have ever been disappointed in the crowds that have shown up to appreciate their performance! I'm sure this year will be no exception!

Showing how big the corn has gotten in a short amount of time, here's James getting a closer look!
Our magnificent sunset last night! WOW! This one took my breath away!!
When we got home, James and Lacey were playing on our new floor and I captured this picture of the two of them, which I love!!

A Wonderful Visit with Old Friends.....

2008-07-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

We were so excited when we got an email from Kerri about a month ago saying that they were going to be in our area this weekend! We have missed them so much since they left us 4 years ago, to move to Michigan. We met because Kerri worked for a plumber in Montrose and I worked at the plumbing wholesaler (where I've now been for more than 10 years!). She and I became fast friends and once we introduced our husbands, the two families became friendly. Tom and Kerri have a son, Cody who is a year and a half older than our James, and a daughter, Sarah, who is a year and a half younger than James! I guess we miss the Hubbards the most during the holidays, especially the 4th of July! We always made an effort to get together and celebrate together and always had fun.
Today, we met at a local park so that the children could play. We couldn't get over the kids. Cody was 5 and Sarah was 2 when they moved away! Boy, are they all grow up now! James didn't really remember Cody, even though he was James' first friend! James and Cody were once put on the same blanket on the floor to play, before James could sit on his own!!

Here is Kerri and her daughter, Sarah, who will be starting 1st grade in a few weeks.
The three kids, with James in the middle, right where he belongs in this group!

The old, good friends! James and Cody had a lot of fun playing today and it was great to see. They still can be friends, even with the distance between them!!

Thank you Tom and Kerri for saving an afternoon out of your busy trip to spend with us!! We loved every minute and hope we'll be able to do it again, next time sooner than 4 years from now!!

Photo Challenge #7 - FILL THE FRAME

2008-07-13T19:59:00.001-07:00

This week's challenge WAS a challenge for me, and I didn't really think it would be! Nothing jumped out at me as I wandered around with my camera. I did manage to come up with a few decent ones to post.

Here's Lacey, in one of her calmer moments. This was taken before she discovered that water play could be so much fun, because after that a shot like this would have been impossible!!
This one of James was the best of the day! He's going through a stage and has become very difficult to photograph! He absolutely hates it when I appear with the camera and all I get is funny faces! (Not that that is altogether bad, but it does have it's place! I have gotten very few good pictures of him recently, mostly because he's become very self-conscience about his two front teeth that are coming in. He absolutely will not give me his wonderful smile for the camera.....all I get now is a goofy grin. He promises to do better after the teeth are both in! We'll see!!)
And here are some pretty flowers. I have no idea what kind they are, do you Wendy??

A Weekend of Pictures....

2008-07-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

It seems that everywhere we go now, I make it a point to have my camera with me! These pictures where taken yesterday evening, on our way home from town. Taken just a few minutes from our house on "the back road" as we call it.....a nice alternative to driving the highway!!

This picture is of a flowering alfalfa field, which is a big summertime crop around here!

I've just always thought that this little farm looks "quaint" in it's surroundings. I loved the evening lighting in this picture.

Today, we headed to the mountains for a few hours, to escape the heat in the valley. We went up the "Little Cimarron", which is one of our favorite places. It's so peaceful and beautiful there. We have a particular spot that we discovered several years ago, that we enjoy. It's got a secondary, slower moving branch of the river which is a good place for James the play and wade.
Today's Lacey's 7 month birthday! We brought her home when she was 6 weeks old and it's been a lot of fun to watch her grow up! She is a golden retriever/border collie mix........she looks just like a golden retriever except for the fact that she's jet black!! James calls her his "black retriever"!! She is a very sweet dog and eager to please. She's fit well into our family and is a constant source of entertainment!

Today was Lacey's first trip to the mountains and her first experience playing in a creek. She was pretty funny! Once she got used to the cold water, she was all over the place trying to catch the water! Silly pup! Occasionally, she'd reach down into the water and come up with a rock which she'd proudly deposit at our feet! Such a gift!! It was definitely a successful day for her as she continues to experience new things!

Photo Challenge #6 - TEXTURE

2008-07-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

A bucket lid of screws that's also become a catch-all for leaves and elm seeds! I thought it was interesting anyway!
Looking up into the cottonless cottonwood tree on our front yard.
An unused trellis against the painted siding of our house.
Our nextdoor neighbor's wood pile.
The Russian Sage plant on our front yard.

Here are my contributions for this week! Seeing as how we've been housebound this long weekend with the flooring project going on, I just decided to take a walk around our house and see what I could find. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! It's amazing how these challenges are helping me see things in a different way!!

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-07-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

We drove up to the town of Delta (10 miles to our north) to enjoy their fireworks display. It was a wonderfully warm evening (after a very hot day!) and was perfect for this outdoor activity! Delta has a lovely lake in Confluence Park and they launch their fireworks off over the lake. It's just a perfect setting.

We had packed a picnic dinner and enjoyed the beautiful sunset as we ate.
James enjoyed wading in the water, looking for crawdads! He brought home a very little one, but unfortunately it made it less than 24 hours. The lesson learned here, hopefully, was that it's better to enjoy that kind of thing in their natural environment! We had been successful bringing one home a few years back, but I'm afraid that this one was just too small to make it out of the lake.

James loves all creatures and wants to bring home everything he catches. That's why we have a snake now! Several weeks back we were out looking for asparagus (welcome to rural Colorado!! We go out and search the irrigation ditches for the wild asapargus that grows there!) and James found the snake (of non-poisionous variety!!) in the dry irrigation ditch! Well, of course he HAD to come home with us! What's a mother to do??!!! As long as he stays in his tank, I'm OK with it all.

Anyway, back to last night......it was a great show and an enjoyable evening! It's hard to believe that it's already the middle holiday of our summer season! It always goes so fast!! We hope that you all had a happy and safe holiday weekend!!

The 3rd of July is family time!!

2008-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Every year Dusty's sister, Vonnie, hosts a neighborhood and family ice cream social/fireworks extravaganza at her house. Her youngest son, Devon, is in charge of the fireworks show which he does out in the street, a safe distance from everyone. We all enjoy the time together! This year Dusty's son, Joe, and his family (wife Jen, six year old daughter Juliana and three year old son JT) joined us from Grand Junction, an hour to our north.

Here is Juliana, climbing one of Aunt Vonnie's trees!
Papa Dusty really enjoys his grandchildren and is looking forward to the arrival of #3 early next year!! We're rooting for you Jen, and hope before long that yucky morning sickness will be a thing of the past!!

JT and Dusty were patiently waiting for Devon to start the fireworks!!
Our "multilevel family'!! With Dusty having a 31 year old son and a 7 year old son, things have gotten interesting. James became an uncle at 19 months old, when Juliana was born. I still giggle when the three kids play together and I hear Juliana or JT refer to James as "Uncle James"!!! The other thing that makes us all laugh is to realize that Jen is James' sister-in-law!! We do know that families like ours are less and less unusual as time goes by, but it still seems weird!!
James gave JT a piggyback ride much of that evening! They really seem to enjoy each other, which does this mother's/Nana's heart good!!!

A Sneak Peek at a Home Facelift!!

2008-07-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

After several years on our existing carpeting, we've decided to replace what there was in the living room and hallway (what is lived on the most!) with Pergo laminate flooring!! After much searching, discussing and debating we found one that we really like and decided to go for it!

The problem with a project like this in our house is two-fold. Our home is VERY small. The living room is really our only living space. So as this project is going on we have no place to "be", except in the midst of it all! The second problem is that we have no real place to put all of our living room furniture while it's going on. So we just keep moving things around as we go!! Here is a picture of the work team......Dusty and James!!

The first unexpected "issue" we ran into was when we pulled up the first 4 foot section of carpeting, Dusty discovered that our sub-floor isn't level......more work!!! Yuck!! Dusty showed James how to use the level and planer and he has been such a big help prepping the floor! It's so great to see his enthusiasm to help his Dad and be a part of it all!! It's proven to be more work than we anticipated to begin with, adding a lot more time to this project.
James has been a trooper as he helps. Even as I sit here, typing this I hear Dusty muttering and mumbling from the other room......something about "this board is challenged and so am I! Between the two of us, neither of us are too bright!!" I think it's time for a break, what do you think?? LOL Actually, Dusty has done a great job so far. He tries to anticipates anything that might come up and still has to keep in mind length of the boards, the patterning in the boards, etc. Even though it's a small area....only 320 square feet total, there's a lot to think about. I'm proud of both my boys for taking this on!!

Here is a picture of the first several rows of boards that went down under our front window. We chose a light color board mostly because the room is so small and because we already have several pieces of wood furniture. So far we're very pleased with the look of it and get more excited as more is completed. We will have the living room done by the end of the weekend, leaving the hallway to do.

Stay tuned!! I'll posts some more pictures once it's all done!!

Photo Challenge #5 - FOOD

2008-06-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't enjoy food?? I actually think I'm much better preparing it and consuming it than I am taking pictures of it, but I gave it my best shot!! (No pun intended!!)

Here is a platter of wonderful fruit that the family consumed on a hot day! It still makes my mouth water just looking at this one!!
Here is a pan of nachos I made for dinner the other night, before I put the cheese on top.....you wouldn't have been able to see all the goodies once they were covered in cheese!! It looked so pretty!! This is one of the Ryan family favorite dinners!!
And I HAD to take a picture of this beautiful dessert that James made for me the other night!! I love it when he kicks me out of the kitchen and says, "Mom, I'm making you a surprise!" I never know whether to be thrilled or worried!!

That's it for me this week! I'm off to see what's for breakfast!!

Photo Challenge # 4 - REFLECTIONS

2008-06-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is funny, more than anything.....last night while we were out for our ride, I was trying to come up with a picture or two I could use for this week's photo challenge of reflections.....well there wasn't any standing water in sight. Now that was frustrating in itself. I knew that with my work schedule, I'd have to come up with something then or not have an entry this week, and I really do want to participate!!
Then I had this idea....use the side mirror on the car! Great, except for here we are driving around on dusty, dirty roads!! Oh well, I made an attempt and I guess that counts. And I'm having fun at it!! Dusty is enjoying the fact that I'm participating in this weekly challenge as well, and it's becoming a family thing as James often chimes in too!! So thank you, Wendy and Helen, for providing entertainment for those of us who wouldn't necessarily come up with it ourselves!! Incidentially, while I've been preparing to post this, Dusty came in and said, "It's OK to post that picture as long as you're posting others with it today that show that you REALLY do know how to take a picture!!" LOL I agree with him wholeheartedly!!! This is definitely not my best effort, but it's all I've got!! I DO like the fact that I got a double reflection....the reflection of the fenceposts on the side of the car, in the mirror.....kind of weird, eh?? Anyway, gang....this is it for this week!!! TFL!!

An Evening Ride in the Country

2008-06-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

We love to go for a ride after a hot summer day. Riding "out in the country" isn't difficult for us, as we live in a VERY small town and it's about a mile to the "edge of town"!! Riding out in the cool, irrigated fields in the evening is just a wonderful way to unwind!
We are in the heart of Colorado's "corn country" and I always think of the saying, "knee high by the 4th of July!" Here we are on June 21st! The farmer's in this area plant their corn in staggered lots to extent the corn season as long as possible. As you drive along, you'll see corn at all different stages of growth. We can already almost taste our "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn!!! YUMMY!!

Our rich, fertile valley is used to grow many crops....corn, potatos, beans, onions, tomatos, peaches, cherries, apples, sod (for people's lawns!) and Christmas trees just to name a few! Everything is so green at this time of year, as they started irrigating about a month ago.

A pretty sunset taken from the mesa above our house.

Even with the awful price of gas, these rides are pretty cheap. We take our time, don't go very far, stop often to listen to the birds and watch for deer and to breathe the wonderful air!! The peace and quiet of the evening is rejuvinating!

More Pictures from Escalante......

2008-06-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Because Wendy has requested it and because I'm trying to figure out how this blog thing works, I'm posting more pictures from our trip up Escalante Canyon last weekend. These are some of my favorites.

This weekend is Father's Day, so there's no telling where we'll end up! Dusty's daughter, Lori, will be visiting us from Denver and we'll see what Dad feels like doing on his special day! Happy Father's Day, one and all!!

Photo Challenge

2008-06-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

We took a drive up Escalante Canyon......only about 20 miles north of our house and then in another 12 miles to the west. It's very pretty, as you can see from the pictures. We keep trying to go places and take pictures in the area so you can see what it looks like around here. We have such varied terrain....from the desert to the mountains, all within a very short distance.

Escalante Canyon is fun to explore and James had a great time, wandering around and hiking up the sandstone rocks! There are a few cabins along the way, built in the 1800's and early 1900's by settlers. It's truly amazing that they are still standing, to walk through and explore!

I had a lot of fun taking pictures. Even though I'm not yet participating in the weekly photo challenge I thought I'd try my hand at this week's challenge of framing my pictures!