Jason's actual birthday

Because Kelly Kaus is the Sunday dessert person, she brought key lime pie and lemon meringue pie for Jason's birthday dessert. We all loved the pies, and we prefer them over cakes.

This is a tradition at our house--to have a birthday picture with Mother hugging your neck!

This proves it!

Before bedtime the other night, we decided to see if I was right in thinking Jason was taller than Rowen. It looks like Jeffrey is the tallest in this picture, but he was on a chair. :) If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you will see that the bubble is not in the middle! Jason is slightly taller than Rowen! Maybe Jason will be like his cousin Adam and keep on growing!

Jason's 15th birthday!

Two years ago I put some sweet pictures of Jason as a baby on here for his birthday. They are really precious, so please click on the hyperlink and see them!
I can't resist adding a couple of pictures from 2003 when Jason was 8 years old. He has always had that mischievous twinkle in his eyes!


Today I measured Jason against our wall of memories where all the children's heights have been marked for 21 years now. He has surpassed his daddy's height of 6'2" now! That has been the standard for many years. Jason is now 6' 2.5"! We are very proud of the fine young man Jason has become. He is very entertaining to us, full of fun, yet thoughtful, devotional, serious, and kind to young and old. Here are some recent pictures of him from this summer.
Jason reading a story to Kassie Reynolds while David Giordano watches.

Jason playing with Quinten Kaus on a mountain picnic.

Pictures from the String Recital in June.



Jason enjoying the mountain stream after a Sunday picnic in July.

Jason contemplating the privilege of Colorado living while at our Johnstown Lake!

Below is a video of Jason playing a song that he has recently made up. This is at the Federal Heights church where we were waiting for the vans of children to arrive for Sunday School.

We love you, Jason! Happy 15th Birthday!!!!

Kremmling visit on the way to Delta 8-20-10

On our way to Delta, we went north a ways so we could go to Kremmling, CO and meet some new friends. Because of Beth's God's Girls' Newsletter, we hear about and become friends with sweet girls all over the country. Beth and Emily have recently begun writing Beth and Hannah Worden after they joined GGN. Since Kremmling was kind of on the way to Delta, we felt it was a good opportunity to get acquainted in person. We only had an hour to stop, but we enjoyed getting to know the Worden family, except for the dad, Paul, who was at work. They had mint tea and yummy oatmeal peanut butter M&M cookies for us to eat!
Beth Albertson and Beth Worden

Cherish Worden, Emily Albertson, Hannah Worden

The Worden girls: Cherish, Beth, and Hannah

Beth, Daniel, Faith (Mrs. Worden), David, Cherish, and Hannah

Cherish and David are twins. They are a home school family and all of them play string instruments. Their family also makes music DVDs in which they match music to beautiful scenery movies that they capture around the beautiful area where they live. It was a fascinating and fast hour visit!

Fat Man's Misery (or What Jason and Emily did while we went to Ouray!)

Jason and Emily were invited to go on a hike with some of the church's young people on Saturday afternoon. Actually we all were invited, but we really wanted at least some of us to go to Ouray, so Jason and Emily were the ones who were brave enough to go on a hike called "Fat Man's Misery" with almost strangers!
The next couple of pictures show why the hike is titled "Fat Man's Misery". You had to squeeze through about 30 feet of this rocky staircase with the opening about a foot and a half wide.

Sister Cheryl had never been on the hike before, but she was a fearless leader!

After the "misery" part, they climbed up a little hill that overlooked the river pictured below.

They watched some guys jumping off the top of the bridge into the water, but they were more sensible than to try it. A couple of the kids who had been here before said if you jumped off the wrong side of the bridge, you could be killed because a train car was submerged in there.


They did a lot more hiking but unfortunately Jason's camera batteries died after these pictures, so they can't prove anything else that they did! They had a good time and got some mosquito bites and some good exercise. This area was very desolate and desert like, except for right around the river being green. There are so many different types of terrain in Delta and the surrounding miles. We appreciated Sister Cheryl taking the kids on the hike.

Afternoon trip to Ouray, CO from Delta

On Saturday afternoon when we didn't have a church service to attend at IHC, part of our family and the Kaus family drove 1.25 hours to Ouray, CO. Rowen had been there about 30 years ago, but the rest of us never had been. We found that the scenery on the Western Slope is very different from our side of the mountain. We enjoyed it very much.

At Ouray, there is a Box Canyon formed by a waterfall that we hiked down many steps to see. Rowen said it is much safer now with all the guard rails compared to when he was there before.


You can see part of the waterfall in the following pictures. It was hard to get in a single picture.

The picture above is taken from the stairs before getting to the bottom.
There is mist in the air from the waterfall.

It was almost like a cave there in the bottom by the river.

After we went to the bottom, then we hiked to the top of the canyon where there was a bridge over the canyon. These pictures were taken of the town of Ouray from a pavilion on this hike.

This picture was taken with my cell phone to send to our grown boys in MO. It is similar to a picture Rowen took so long ago which has been installed in the back of our family nativity stable for over 25 years. I always imagined it was what Mary and Joseph saw when they looked out of the stable. (Except that their stable did not have #2 on it)!


Rowen, Randy and LeighAnna Kaus enjoying the view from the bridge on top!

Kelly Kaus, her boys, and I had to go through the tunnel on the top. It led to a hike that would have taken us to town, but not to the parking lot, so we came back.

The trip to Ouray was a fun way to spend the afternoon. We got a cardio workout from the heights and the hike! It was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed what God has made and set in motion in nature.

IHC in Delta, CO

Ever since we heard that our Internet Pastor Rodney Loper was going to preach at the IHC in Delta, we have been planning and praying toward going. This past weekend, we were privileged to enjoy the beautiful trip across the mountains to the Western Slope, the many friends from past meetings there, the wonderful sense of God's presence in every service, the new acquaintance with the Loper family, the truth in songs and messages, and many other blessings.
A very special blessing was that the Kaus family also made the journey and enjoyed getting to meet the Lopers and be in the services. The Kauses have church with us each Sunday morning as we use the Internet to join the services in Hobe Sound, FL at Hobe Sound Bible Church.
The Kaus family with Pastor Loper

Pastor Rodney and Melissa Loper, Scott, Breanna, Brooklyn, and Colton

Our children playing "Duck, duck, Goose" with the Loper children on the front porch of the church. Emily is holding Colton at the right edge of the picture.

Scott and his precious baby brother

Brooklyn and I share August 24 birthdays. She is five today and starting kindergarten.

Our children enjoyed being with the Loper children so much. They are sweet and well behaved and fun to be with. They also helped their parents sing in every service.

Colton is a precious, happy baby and we all got to hold him and get a "baby fix"!

Visit with the M. Family in Cheyenne, WY

This week we drove up to Cheyenne to spend an evening with the M. Family. Amy M. is having a birthday next week, so that was the occasion. Amy and Emily are great friends. We ended up getting lots of pictures of them and few of anyone else. Besides taking pictures, Jason, Beth, Emily, Amy, and her brother, Daniel, played "Capture the Flag." They had a lot of fun.

The neighbors have horses that Emily and Amy love to visit.

The adults had an inspiring discussion about Corrie ten Boom and the book Tramp for the Lord that we are reading in devotions. We also took a nice walk around the country block. It was a lovely and relaxing evening.