Weekend Company

Brent Susan and Jaron Byler visited us from Saturday evening, April 12, until Tuesday morning, April 15. Brent is one of Tim's best friends, and Jaron is Brent's best friend from college days at Penn View ('04 grads). They spent some time in Colorado Springs at Garden of the Gods, which they really enjoyed. The weather was beautiful on Monday as they hiked and snowshoed in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a great time visiting and playing foosball with them in the evenings.

Brenda's birthday, April 12

We celebrated Brenda's birthday on April 10 in the evening, because on April 11, after we were done at the capital, we took her to the airport and she flew off to Joplin, MO for the weekend!!
That night, we had Phoebe Hinkle with us for the evening. Brenda asked for cheesecake, so we had PTA Dessert instead of a traditional cake. It was yummy. We gave Brenda a zippered case holding a set of assorted sizes of crochet hooks. We sent her new Rada knives and peeler to Joplin when Tim went. Brenda had a wonderful weekend in MO seeing Tim, Randy, Joy, Quil, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Tim, Aunt Sherry, Caleb, and Tasha. She and Joy got her kitchen all organized, rearranged some furniture, and hung some pictures on the walls. Quil gave her lots of kisses! Joy made her a birthday dinner and a cake shaped like a hat with flowers on it.
Brenda came home to us late on Monday night.

Homeschool Day at the Capital

April 11 was Homeschool Day at the Capital in Denver. Brenda went with our family. Her Uncle Phil Brown is the Chief Sargeant of Arms for the Senate. We got to meet him and he had a senator invite our family into the Senate! We got to sit in on discussions of 2nd readings of some bills. Brenda's cousin, Lori Brown, also works for the Senate, so we got to meet her and Brenda and she visited.

Uncle Phil grabbed a couple of miscellaneous Senators and the other two Sargeant of Arms he works with for this picture with Brenda in the Senate chamber.

We climbed the many steps to the dome, which hasn't been open other times we have been there since 9-11. At noon, the homeschoolers had a rally on the west side of the capital, which was said to be the largest homeschool rally attendance ever. We celebrated 20 years of the legality of homeschooling in Colorado. In this photo, you can see some of us in the front, right of middle. Also the Cruzes and the Mendezes are nearby.

This is only the middle section of the crowd. There were probably twice this number on the sides that are not pictured.

J-M Homeschooler Field trip to NCAR

One April 10, our family went to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. It was a cold, snowy day on our trip down there. On the tour we learned about our atmosphere, weather, density, and the super computers used there. Here is a picture of the girls trying out one of the lobby displays.
Jason blew up several balloons from NCAR. Three of them popped from being so stretched.