More on the KS Albertsons' visit

A big highlight for us this past week was getting Jeffrey home from his trip to Haiti! On Thursday we prepared food for eating at the Mendezes in the evening, and food for our trip to the mountains on Friday and evening meal at home. Herb, Jenny and their kids went on over to the cousins' house in Greeley, while we went to the airport to get Jeffrey. He was on track to get in early, but a storm came in over Denver and put his plane in a holding pattern over Colorado Springs for 25 minutes, making him come in late. We were thankful that he was safe! Here he has just come up the escalator from the "train". This is just before he was mobbed with hugs and kisses!

We got to Mendezes about 7 pm and everybody was starving. Here the cousins are waiting for the chance to eat supper. From left around the table: Hadassah, Sarah, Celeste, Emily, Abby, Ben, Kwani, Daniel, and Jason.

Rowen and his sister, Esther, stirring the spaghetti sauce one more time.

Zeke, Herb, and Abby wishing they could already have some strawberry foam!

Maria, Manoj, and Christy

Gerrie, Mary, and Esther. Gerrie and Mary got in from TX on Wednesday. We were happy to get to see them again. Their time here was one reason Herb's family came to CO when they did.

Beth and Jeffrey catching up on their visiting.

Beth, Abby, and Jeffrey. Jeffrey is wearing his TLC Haiti South Team shirt.

We had a fun evening with our Albertson relatives.

Visit from the KS Albertsons

Last Tuesday, our nephew, Herb, his wife, Jenny, and their kids, Abigail, Ben, Celeste, Daniel, and Ezekiel came for a visit. Because they have lived so far away for several years, it was the first time they had come to stay for several days since Celeste was a baby, (around 9 years ago). Now they are located in Sterling, KS, only 7 hours away. We had a great time together!

The kids played a lot of games together, besides taking bike rides, and playing "Hide and Go Zeke!!"

A really sweet thing Zeke wanted to do when Beth practiced her flute--play along with the recorder. He was very good at doing the same rhythm as Beth.

On Friday, we went to the mountains. On the way, we stopped to enjoy climbing on rocks down to the South St. Vrain River. We always enjoy the sound of the rushing water. Here Jeffrey and Emily are getting reacquainted. (We got Jeffrey back from FL and Haiti on Thursday evening!)

Jenny and Zeke. Notice how beautiful the sky was!

Daniel, Celeste, and Emily enjoying the scene.

We got to Meeker Park where we intended to eat our picnic 'way before lunch time, so we spent the time playing horseshoes. Mostly we were trying to teach the younger ones to play; the adults barely got to play a short game...
Jeffrey and I on one end; Jenny and Rowen were on the other end.

Emily, Daniel, and Celeste waiting their turn to play horseshoes.

This is such a funny picture I had to include it for silliness. Nobody knows what we were gesturing about!

The scene of playing horseshoes at Meeker Park picnic area.

Jeffrey with his ringer.

Jenny was the only adult with a ringer. Guess the kids got to play the most!

Ben and his ringer.

One of Emily's ringers.

Abby and Daniel both got ringers on this round!

Our mountain picnic. You are not going to believe this, but we had hot lasagna as the main dish! We baked it before leaving home and wrapped it in towels and kept it warm in the "cooler" for our picnic. It was yummy!

Mt. Meeker, taken from Meeker Park picnic area

Our kids and their "cousins-once-removed": Emily, Jason, Celeste, Ben, Abby, Daniel, Jeffrey, and Beth

The girl cousins: Beth, Abby, Emily, and Celeste

Herb and Jenny's family "high in the Rockies!"

Our family "high in the Rockies!"

Saturday evening: The pelican we saw on the Johnstown Reservoir.

Our walk around Johnstown Reservoir. Janet, Zeke, Jenny, Beth and Abby in the back.

Celeste and Emily up on the climbing wall at the park by the lake. Isn't the sky a gorgeous shade of blue?!

Sunday afternoon: a group picture before the KS Albertsons departed.

We were so glad to have the KS Albertsons for a fun summer visit!

Father's Day 2009

Father's Day was a beautiful day. We went to church at Wesleyan Bible Church in Lakewood in the morning. We got to meet the Goings from our online Hobe Sound, FL church because they were vacationing in Colorado. It was nice to meet them in person. We feel like we know people we see all the time in online church. He sang "May those who come behind us find us faithful." It was a beautiful and meaningful Father's Day song. After church we drove until we found a place to picnic in the mountains. We found out it is easier to find picnic areas in Northern Colorado than west of Denver, but we did finally get to eat about 1:30 in Golden Gate State Park.

Since Jeffrey was in Haiti, we were a small bunch. The view was better in the direction we were facing, so we all sat on one side of the picnic table!
The kids did some exploring and took lots of pictures.



Rowen took the following picture. It was one living tree among a bunch of dead ones. It suggests the idea of standing alone--alive to God, no matter what others around us do. It is something we have discussed and modeled to our children, and we hope they will always live for God, even if they have to stand alone.
After our picnic and enjoying the mountains, we headed to Federal Heights to help with the children's service with our friends, Ben and Marlene Reynolds. Right now, we feel like that is a place we can be of service on Sunday evenings.

Hail storms twice this week (so far)

This is what our garden looked like on Sunday afternoon after a hail/rain storm. This is taken through the family room window. (Some tomato fences are leaning against the house by this window.) On the left front, under the milk jug is our cherry tomato plant. Beside it are zucchini hills and closer to the bottom of the picture is the lettuce row. Everything else you see is green beans. Some of the green beans had holey leaves, but the damage wasn't too bad.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a repeat hail storm. Some of the hail was slightly bigger than the pea size we had on Sunday, but with the accumulated hits, the beans really were damaged. Some of the leaves are completely beaten off, some still holey. I'm afraid we are going to have to replant.

Here are the regular tomato plants, covered with the milk jugs. Where the growth was outside of the protection, the stems are stripped of leaves now. We are thankful we still had the jugs on. A couple of them tipped over.

Tuesdays' hail piled up against the house on the deck. It came from the south. Sunday's hail did not land on the north side of the deck at all because of the overhang and the direction of the storm.

It seems to me that it is pretty rare for us to get hit twice in 3 days with hail storms. We are hoping and praying that is the last of it. In another part of Johnstown, the hail was quarter size, so we could have been worse off...

June happenings, so far

June 1st, Jeffrey left for TLC Boot Camp. We talked to him over the weekend, and he survived Boot Camp, enjoyed it, and was ready to fly today to Haiti for his two week mission trip. We are praying that all the TLC teams will be a blessing and help and that everyone will be healthy and safe.

Beth has a special opportunity to learn Flute. A home school friend of ours is allowing Beth to use this flute for free and giving Beth lessons. Beth has never played a flute before, but we love Flute music and are trusting she will develop the skills needed to become a flutist!

Rowen took Beth, Jason, and Emily fishing a couple of times last week. They have not caught anything but seaweed so far, but they are getting casting practice and enjoying Daddy time.

Our Clematis is blooming beautifully. This picture was taken before the 1/2 hour of pea sized hail we got yesterday afternoon.

Johnstown Barbeque Day was Saturday. Jason was rather unsuccessful in capturing the Historical Society's entry in the parade. There was no way he could be everywhere at once, or stop the parade to get a good picture of Bonnie Ruppert and Starlee Miller, volunteers of the year, dressed so nicely in their dresses and fashionable hats.

Johnstown has always done fireworks for BBQ Day since 2002, our Centennial Year.