Dig My New Shades?

We Love Our Thirteen Year Old!

Beautiful Scenery & a Squeaky Wheel

While my parents were here, we headed to Heritage Square, thinking that the kids would enjoy some of the amusement rides as an early celebration of Evan's birthday. When we arrived, we found the rides still and quiet. We told an employee that the website had listed weekday hours for the rides. He told us that we were mistaken, but I insisted to him that the website had mislead us.

We browsed in a gift shop for a bit and had old-fashioned portraits taken of the kids together. As we waited for the pictures to be ready, the amusement park employee found James, conceding that the website information was incorrect, and giving him two free all-day passes for unlimited rides to use when the rides were indeed open. Sometimes it pays to "complain".

My dad proposed that we drive to Mount Evans. The road to the top is not open until Memorial Day, but we enjoyed the scenery at Echo Lake. Since Logan had fallen asleep in the van, my mom volunteered to sit with him (also because the altitude was affecting her) while we roamed around a bit.












On the way home, we stopped in Idaho Springs to eat supper at Beau Jo's which makes gluten free pizzas!!! I ordered a gluten free Yukon, asking that they substitute black olives for the artichoke hearts. When the pizza arrived, they had indeed included black olives but had substituted mushrooms for the Canadian bacon!!! Mushrooms are not my favorite to put it mildly. My mom's pizza order was incorrect as well. Though I didn't want to point out a mistake again, I told the server. He resubmitted the GF order and was very apologetic that I had to wait, though it didn't bother me. Pizza is a rare treat for me. We received a discount on our bill due to the mistakes.

While the family waited for the pizza, James took the kids to see a train engine and this water wheel outside...




On the way home, my dad asked to see the view from Lookout Mountain. (James and I were married on Lookout Mountain at the Boettcher Mansion.)

Visitors to Our Side

During the first weekend in May, my parent came to visit. They didn't just come to play, but also to work, serving our family and the church.

My mom Margie is the administrator of our denomination's nursing home. She gave a three hour seminar at our church on caring for the elderly, specifically those suffering from Alzheimer's. The seminar was well-attended and, I might be biased, but she did a great job educating us about how to serve the elderly and their caretakers. Evan took this picture, and I noticed that my mom managed to escape the other pictures that were taken during their visit.


My dad Bruce preached on Sunday and also served our family by building a planter in front of our porch, greatly improving the curb appeal of our house. The kids, especially Evan, enjoyed helping him with all of the digging, loading, hauling, unloading and building. They enjoyed the working as much as the playing of the week!


My dad, ever the perfectionist, chipped part of the ledge off of the backs of the blocks on the corners in order to make them sit just right. He also glued down some of the layers to prevent shifting (or as he learned from building a planter at his church building back home: to prevent theft of blocks!)


After my parents went back home, my dad's sister, my Aunt Beth came over and helped us begin to plant flowers in the new planter. Aunt Beth plants wonderful flower gardens each year, and she gave us step-by-step instructions to get us started. (Gardening is not my forte.)


Aunt Beth helped us with the front rows of lobelia, pansies and violets (and two calla lilies at the back which are an experiment to see if they will thrive in the shade in Colorado).


Logan enjoyed playing in the dirt while we worked. The poor guy had a rough day that day, falling down and smacking his mouth on the pavement, giving himself a fat lip and loose front teeth. :-(


Matthew did a majority of the rest of the work, planting an assortment of begonias, impatiens, forget-me-nots, leadwort, columbine, dusty miller, and ferns. He demonstrated a knack for gardening. Aunt Beth also had him do some garden work at her house.












Thank you to my mom and dad and aunt for all your help and hard work!
More pictures of the visit to come...

Happy Moray's Day!

I bet I'm the only mother in the history of the world to receive a Mother's Day card with a Moray Eel on the cover! That's love from the heart of a 12 year old son. On the inside he wrote, "I love you, because you make macaroni and cheese for me" which made me laugh. I actually rarely make mac 'n cheese. Recently when the boys were getting haircuts, Evan and I heard a radio commercial where a kid said the above quote, and we chuckled together.






Card by Matthew






Card by Sophie



Miss Ponytail



Picture by Evan

Logan Sings

Logan usually will not "perform" for the camera, but I caught him this time...