Beth's 16th Birthday

Yesterday, Sept 26, 2009 was Beth's 16th Birthday. After our Saturday work was all done, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for lunch and the afternoon. Jeffrey was not able to go with us, as he had to work all day, so we really missed him.

The changing aspen trees "quakies" were in their prime this weekend. We saw many beautiful vistas!

We ate our lunch by a picturesque brook (green circle on map below), which Beth, Jason and Emily enjoyed boulder-hopping in and around.











After enough of that kind of relaxing time, we drove on up the Bear Lake road to the trail head to Bierstadt Lake (red circle on map above), which we hiked in its entirety. You can see from this topographical map contour lines
that it was a steep climb for us flatlanders. We climbed from about 8,800' - 9,400 in 1.3 miles on the trail.

(More pictures later, as it won't let me upload them right now)

All of us were fatigued at some points, but we all made it to the top and back. The lake itself was a bit disappointing, as the natural grasses were quite grown up in and around the water, as it was very late in the season.

Here we are at the top of the trail, with Bierstadt Lake behind us.

Rowen's horrible childhood memories...revisited!

Tonight I found myself reminiscing about my childhood... I recalled terrible memories of when I was... oh maybe 8 -12 years old. One thing that I always hated to do was cover the tomatoes with old bedspreads on the first night that frost was threatening. The whole ordeal, of getting out the ragged bedspreads used only for this purpose, to enduring the bitter cold breeze with rain or snow in it, to tramping around in the now-muddy garden soil, to .... you get the idea. The next morning someone had to pull those nasty, wet, muddy bedspreads off of the tomato plants and figure out what to do with them. So often I would think, why don't we give it up already? All this for a few lousy tomatoes?

Now tonight, I found myself, (a 51-year old dad, grateful for every delicious vine-ripened tomato after we thought we'd have no tomato crop due to hail in July) covering our precious tomato plants.

It is the first day of Autumn, and the forecast is for 35'F and rain / snow tonight and tomorrow. It is too early to give up on our garden yet...

I know that autumn actually began on Tuesday September 22, but the first winter storm system moved into northern Colorado on Sunday afternoon, two days prior. The atmosphere turned from summer to winter in a matter of hours, and tonight an early frost, with possible snow is likely. I just love the changes of the seasons, that God set into motion so long ago.

Maxwell Family Home School Conference Sept. 11-12

On Friday evening and Saturday all day, Sept. 11-12, our family was privileged to be at the Maxwell Family Home School Conference. On Friday evening, the family gave an hour long Bluegrass Concert before speaking for an hour about "Having a Vision for Your Family." We got some pictures only during the concert, and then not of all the family members. But you can go to their website and see better pictures of all of them. The sessions on Saturday were for young men and young ladies, as well as for the dads and mothers. The older Maxwell children, Christopher and Sarah, taught the younger people, while Steve and Teri taught the dads and mothers. We enjoyed this conference immensely and are trying to put the things we learned and were reminded of into practice. If you will go to their website linked above, there is a schedule of conferences they are doing right now. If one is in your area, we think you would benefit from going, even if you do not homeschool. They are a beautiful, Godly family and a blessing to many people.

Sarah Maxwell, with her mother, Teri, on the left

Anna Maxwell, playing the fiddle

Steve Maxwell, father of eight

John and Jesse Maxwell, Mary hidden behind John.

Joseph Maxwell, brother Christopher hidden behind him.

Labor Day Yard Work

We worked together in our front yard today, Labor Day holiday in the United States.

In the photo series below you can see that when we moved to our house twenty years ago this year, in 1989, the front lawn was everywhere. We wanted some flowers, so we had 15-tons of top-soil delivered, and made an irregular-shaped mound, or berm, on which we planted flowers. We slowly gathered rocks when we saw them in the mountains, and created a rock garden berm. It was nice for several years, then several of the plants began to take over. First the Gold Dollar monopolized the area, so we ripped most of it out. Then the Vinca Vine expanded, and thickened, until it almost choked out all other vegetation. Where tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocuses, many irises, rose bushes, columbine, and several plants that we've forgotten had once thrived, Vinca Vine totally reigned.

We were quite disgusted by it, so today we attacked it!

This is the miserable condition of our rock garden / flower berm that existed this summer. There were almost no flowers growing, as most everything was choked out by the very prolific vinca vine. Here is the scene of Jason, Beth, Emily, and Janet as they began their attack on the mound.

We removed the rocks, the few Belladonna Lilies (aka Naked Ladies), Creeping Charlie, Gold Dollar, Lily of the Valley, Hen and Chicks that we want to replant. We used the loppers, the string trimmer, and lawn mower, and our hands to destroy our flower mound! I then sprayed it thoroughly with Poison Ivy / Kudzu Vine killer.

We plan to add several inches of good, fertile soil, and plant many fall bulbs. In the spring, if the federal government will allow it, we'll add perennials to make a beautiful corner in our yard once again!

Update: 15-SEP-2009

On Friday Sept. 11 (yes, 9/11) Rowen got off of work, and he and Jason went to get some special soil for our re-do flower garden. We got about 4 cubic yards, and Janet, Beth, and Emily helped us unload it.

Janet purchased 100 Red Tulip bulbs and 100 Yellow / White Daffodils that we need to plant this week...so our flower berm may be colorful next May!

Jeffrey's new job

When we went to the farmers market downtown last night, we stopped by the local ACE HARDWARE, where Jeffrey has been working part-time, for the last two weeks.

Here he is, working as the front cashier:

Jeff has permission to go to Ukraine with Mission Helps in October, and still keep his new job. We are excited about that!

One of Our Late Summer Traditions

Every year, for several years now, our family has had this tradition of going to our local 'Farmer's Market' on Friday evenings in August and September. We get various locally grown produce items, but almost always get the ingredients for fresh Pico de Gallo.

Rowen always makes it, as Janet can't tolerate the fumes! It always turns out a little different, depending on the ratios of the ingredients, but includes tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, anaheim peppers, onions, garlic, sometimes raw corn (cut off the cob), salt and lemon juice. We just started calling Rowen's concoction "Chicken Lips" loosely translated and Americanized from the Spanish "Rooster's Beak".

Peaches, Old Friends, Jason's 14th birthday

Beautiful, fresh Colorado western-slope peaches!



Twice in the past two weeks we have canned peaches. We were thankful for how old our children are, so that they are all good helpers!
Because of Facebook, I have been able to be back in touch with one of my nursing school classmates. We graduated together in 1981 from Missouri Southern State College (now University) in Joplin, MO and had not seen each other since then. In the picture below, Hermina has a white arrow pointing to her and I am under the black arrow.

Hermina and her husband, Craig, came out to Colorado on vacation last week, and we arranged to get together for a mountain picnic. It was such a delight to see Hermina again and to visit together.

We looked at our nursing graduation picture and identified each person. Hermina has kept in touch with some of our class through the years and my goal is to try to find more of our classmates if they are on Facebook.

Jason turned 14 on August 29. We had such a delightful day celebrating his birthday. Mike Durkee came up for the day and we played some Dutch Blitz. We threw some horseshoes. We did some go-cart rides; some of our group had a great time on water bumper boats and got very wet from the water guns. Everybody got dried out during a game of miniature golf. But, alas, after the pictures were removed from the camera and on the computer, they were not saved in the computer, and they are GONE! That is the only sad note about the day, because we had a very fun time and Jason said it was one of the most fun days that he remembers. He had a nice cake too, and blew out all the candles, but we cannot prove it without the pictures...

Our 20th year of homeschooling is underway!

On August 26, 2009, we started our 20th year of homeschooling.
When we started home schooling, Randy was almost 5 and starting kindergarten. Tim was an almost 3 year old; the other four of our children were just twinkles in their father's eye, as the old saying goes!
This year we have only three fulltime students: Beth is in 11th grade; Jason is in 10th, but trying to double up on some of his subjects to overtake and graduate with Beth; Emily is in 6th grade. We have 7 more years to go!! Jeffrey is working part-time at ACE Hardware and wanting to finish his Physics class this fall. He is also praying and planning for a two week missions trip in Oct/Nov to Ukraine. So his "schooling" is on a different path.
Hitherto has the Lord helped us!

In memory of our friend, Zonya Campbell

Our friend, Zonya Campbell, went home to heaven August 17. Cancer had invaded her body and God, in His wisdom, chose not to heal her. We don't understand His reasons, but we know He doesn't make mistakes. Zonya and her family are very special people. We feel blessed to have known them and fellowshiped with them. Together we enjoyed many meals, picnics, snack times, lots of volleyball games, popcorn, bonfires, even a hay ride, several hikes, lots of songs, much laughter, some games, and lots of visits and testimonies of God's leading in our lives. Zonya had such a cheerful and grateful spirit; she was creative in many types of crafts. She loved the outdoors, gardening, singing, making something special out of what other people did not value. She homeschooled her children and taught her girls to cook, sew, crochet, and keep house.
Here is a picture of her family, minus their older son, from sometime in 2005.

Their family are quite the walkers and hikers and this is a picture taken one evening when we and other church families went on a mountain hike with them. Never mind that it rained cats and dogs and we were all soaked when we got back to the trail head! Zonya has an arrow pointing toward her.

Labor Day in 2005, we spent the day together in Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we are at the top of Trail Ridge. Zonya has the arrow pointing to her again.

For 2005 Christmas, the Campbells wanted to do a Living Nativity for the community. This picture is special to me because the little girls in the picture are the girls I have babysat all their lives. They were experiencing baby Jesus and mother Mary (Zonya) up close and personal.

Zonya's funeral and burial last Friday brought blessing through the tears. She has finished her race and won the prize--she's at home with Jesus in Heaven. I'm anxious to go there too. Don, Isaac, Hannah, Abigail, and Phineas are in our prayers as they learn how to live without the wife and mother in their family. God's grace will hold them.

Janet's birthday

We are privileged to live very near the Rocky Mountains and like to take advantage of that fact by having picnics in the mountains frequently. Last evening, since we wanted to do something special for my birthday, we took a picnic to the hills. On the way, we passed this beautiful sunflower field. It was so gorgeous that we stopped and took pictures of it with the backdrop of the mountains we love. This was a couple of miles east of Loveland on State Highway 402.

We drove up the Big Thompson Canyon, past Drake, and up Glen Haven Road. It is a slower, more scenic route to Estes Park than Highway 34. If you ever get a chance and have time, take this road. The speed limit is 25-35, so it does take longer, but it is very enjoyable. If you go on to Estes, you will get to experience two switchbacks that are very exciting to drive! We were not going to Estes last evening, but stopped at one of the picnic areas about 13 minutes past Drake.

Our favorite places to picnic have the river running beside them. We love the sound of the river. This is our second favorite place on Glen Haven road. There were too many people at the other one, and this one was empty except for us. We were eating homemade chicken fajitas, lettuce salad, potato salad, tomatoes, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert.

Mountains and birthdays are cause for pictures, so I'll share a few of the many that we took after supper.

Besides lots of mountain picnics, we want our children to always remember that we love each other!

Next to our relationship to God, our marriage is our most treasured relationship.





Jeffrey, our 18 year old, who had his first day working at ACE Hardware on my birthday!

Beth, (almost 16) who missed our last 2 mountain picnics because she was in NC!

Jason will be 14 on Saturday!

Emily, 11.5, who got 5 baby teeth pulled last week because they refused to come out on their own!



Janet, 48, and still too young to drink coffee!

The sign by our picnic area--so you will know where to stop for your Northern Colorado Rockies picnic!

Guests for the evening

Last evening, we were privileged to have Sam and Debbie Lindahl for a meal and visit. They were KCCBS boys' dorm parents when I was a student 27 years ago. Debbie and I worked together on 3N at Shawnee Mission Medical Center for two years. She was always such a good nurse and leader and helped me gain skills and confidence I needed as a new RN. Debbie still works as an RN, even though I gave it up long ago when Randy was born.

It has been nearly 26 years since I have seen them in person, and Rowen and our children never had known them except for my stories and letters from them through the years. Our children really enjoyed Sam's sense of humor, (he kept them in stitches), which we are so glad he still has, even though he has been battling cancer for 12 years. The joy of the Lord is their strength.

I thank God for this opportunity to renew acquaintance with these precious people of God.