Sabrina turns 5 and the big party.

This would normally be the place where pictures would appear, but alas, there are no pictures to post. The day was filled with talking, eating, talking, more talking and more eating. It was a fabulous day of fellowship, fun, laughter and basking in the friendships that the Lord has blessed us with. To all that came, thank you for blessing us. I wish there were pictures to post, but I never got around to finding the camera.

The pinata was a smashing success, the banana splits (with homemade strawberry and vanilla ice cream, homemade caramel sauce, crushed pineapple, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and banans) were fantastic, as were the root beer floats and all of the delicious food that was brought to share.

You will have to imagine the rest. We haven't had the family celebration of her birthday yet, so she has yet to open the family's gifts for her. I will try to get pictures of that. :)

Elkhead reservoir.

We planned a picnic to the local reservoir for Sunday afternoon. We made monster cookies, lots of sandwiches, brought chips and carrots and water and headed out. Not wanting to spend $6 to park on the Lord's Day, we found a pull-off and started eating our lunch. The children of course wanted to walk the steep path down to the water. So, after eating and cleaning up, Dad led the way!
Pictured above, back row l-r: Brian, Maria, Adam, Ellie, Thomas
bottom row l-r: Nicholas, Sabrina, Joseph, Matthew, Ruth

When we got to the bottom, we found a little beach (I mean little) and sat down to enjoy the sun and the water. Adam found a few rocks and decided to taste them. Isn't he just too cute?
Yes, they are quite hard.
"Oh Mom! Don't you just love me?"

"Yes, honey, I do"
The short version is that the kids wanted to swim and we didn't have any swimming suits. The longer version would include things like swimming in their underwear, drying off on rocks, perhaps a 30 second skinny dip (carefully planned in the murky water so nobody was the wiser) and an afternoon of splashing, skipping rocks and gut renching laughter. What a blessing to be able to spend the Lord's Day basking in His sun, splashing in His water and enjoying His creation all around us.

After all the swimming and drying off, the hike back up looked a little daunting (at least for Mom). In my defense, I was also carrying Adam in the carrying pack which added 20 lbs. So up we went. We were breathing pretty heavy when we reached the top and were thankful for the air conditioning and cool water waiting for us. We headed back home and ended the evening with a few games of foosball. Our beds were calling so we retired early. All in all, a fantastic day.

Brian's 14th Birthday (September 12, 2008)

On the right we have a new 14 year old. The day started with breakfast in bed (his favorite--waffles with strawberries and whipped cream) and a rousing verse of Happy Birthday. As expected, he harumphed with a smile on his face when we sang although inside I think he was secretly delighted. Here he is pictured with one of his gifts.
A second gift is pictured below. I couldn't resist buying it for him. He has such a quicky and funny sense of humor and immediately appreciated the fun in it.
Nicholas (fingers only pictured on the left and right) thought the shirt needed a little help, or rather that all of you needed a little help in order to read the entire thing. Thanks Nick! Brian got a kick out of all the comments he received all day. Happy Birthday, dear Brian!

I'm an official soccer mom.

Nicholas decided to try soccer this summer. The family wasn't able to go to every game, but they did attend a few. Mom was at every game, however.
Here are Ruth and Sabrina always have a good time.
Look at those sweet sisters.
Here he comes!
Nicholas is in the bottom row, second from the right.
Here is the whole team pictured after the last game, eating pizza. The coach is top left. What a great group of kids! Nicholas thoroughly enjoyed himself and plans on playing again next year.

Gypsum days parade.

Part of the gypsum days festivities. A helicopter came and did a fly over before the parade started. It made 3 passes total, then parked in an empty parking lot. The children were able to get up close and inspect.

During the parade, a few of the older kiddos rode on the float for the Gun Club. They were up in the log cabin. After the parade, the fire trucks shot out multiple streams of water to shower anybody who wanted to get wet. Now that's a parade!

Above, Joseph peeking out the back window.

Some of the Dade kids and Law kids were also on the float. Some of the pictures are too shaded to see them, but they were there!

Gypsum Days 2008

The following pictures were taken in Gypsum, CO during the Gypsum Days festival. The Law family graciously invited us and the Dades to camp out on their land and enjoy the parade and other events. We are already planning to go back next year!


His hair looks like it's on fire!

Mr and Mrs Law (Jerry and Lara) holding the youngest Dade, Dathan.
Jerry and Lara with Cathy Dade and Dathan.

more trick photography (or should I say lucky photography)

lots of smores were eaten by giddy young ones

fun with fire

Maria's 12th Birthday

Maria did in fact have a birthday party. She wanted to have a water balloon fight, so we tracked down some water balloons, filled the cooler with them and behold, a water balloon fight. It was a nice hot day and the kids had a blast. Okay, bad pun.
Above, Thomas and Maria and other children not looking at the camera.
Above from left to right, Ellie, Thomas, Joseph, Nicholas & Maria.


Thank you for the birthday money!

Some beautiful scenery.

This sunset picture was taken by the children and doesn't capture the beauty of that night. What a sweet thing to know that tomorrow night God will paint another picture just for us. The whole world is a museum of God's handiwork.

The children are fascinated by rainbows. This summer has been a wonderful summer for seeing them! We saw a full rainbow one day, but were not able to get that photographed. We have also had the privilege of seeing a double rainbow. The beautiful rainbows we have seen have given Larry and I the opportunity to remind the children about God's covenant with us all. It was He that gave us the rainbow as a sign that He will never again flood the whole earth. What a beautiful reminder!

May I also take this opportunity to address my great sorrow when I think that the homosexuals have taken the rainbow and used it as a symbol of their perversity and sin. "They will call evil good and good evil." How true it is. May the Christians take back the glorious rainbow as a symbol of God's goodness and mercy to us!!

Huck Finn Day '08 (June 7th)

Finally up and running and here are the Huck Finn Day pictures for 2008. Our children have been going to Huck Finn day for the past 4? years, maybe 5. Each year we scour the closets for appropriate looking clothing (see Nicholas, bottom left of first picture), then the boys roll in the dirt to make themselves look like, well, dirty boys. We like to claim that we have won the Huck Finn lookalike contest for all of the years that we have entered, but one year we were beat out. On this particular year, Nicholas did win. Brian also won the largest fish contest. All in all, the kids had a blast.
Below is a picture of Maria and Joseph trying to fish.
Below are some of the kids trying to fish. Brian on the left, Thomas standing with his hand on his hip, somebody elses kid standing, and Ellie sitting on the ground in the white sweatshirt.
Maria running across the stream on a "bridge". There is a very nice bridge that crosses the stream on one end, but on this end there is only this pipe.
And here below we have Brian. Doesn't he look enthralled? He is such a constant, level headed young man and often in times of quiet he sits pondering all sorts of things. All of those facts rattling around in his head are probably bouncing back and forth right about now. He sure snapped into action when he caught that fish!