Date Night!

Rowen and I planned to have a date night on Friday. For a while, it looked like the weather was going to keep us from it. Thankfully, though it snowed all day long, the roads only stayed wet, but entirely passable. So we went to Denver to the White Fence Farm. It is a beautiful place, full of interesting things to look at and enjoy. It is almost like a museum in parts of it. We could've taken a lot more pictures, but here are a few.

I thought these tractor seats were pretty cute made into chairs!

There were horses on the lights fixtures in many places.

The General Store display.

The grain elevator had a buffalo head on it. Click on the picture to enlarge.
We ate some very yummy food in the restaurant part of the place. Then we listened for 45 minutes to the Mountain Holler Bluegrass Band that our friend Greg Blake plays in. They are a very talented group and we enjoyed listening to them.

The stage was made like a front porch. It was neat. See the brown round thing on the right side of the stage. It was the end of a "Pig Shute" slide for children that started up on the second floor. It was only open for "business" when the band took the 15 minute break between shows.

While we listened, the snow kept coming down and so the roads going home were a tad bit scarier than they had been earlier. But thank the Lord, we had a safe trip home. We enjoyed our time to be alone together! We are glad to have such responsible and grown up children who can prepare a meal and get along together without us for an evening!

More of Emily's birthday

We usually let birthday people choose who they want to have over for the birthday meal, and what they want to have for food for the meal. Emily chose to have the family of her favorite friend, Amy M. So we had Paul and Renee, Daniel, and Amy over for supper on Emily's birthday.


The very fortunate thing is that Daniel is great friends with Jason and Jeffrey! They live in Cheyenne, so we don't see them as often as anyone would like. However, Amy and Emily do keep the phone lines busy almost every day!
Emily chose to have potato soup and salad, with Dirt Cake for dessert. So that is what we ate.

After supper, the kids played Capture the Flag in our yard. Jeffrey had to work until 7 pm so he didn't get to play as long as the others. In this picture, it appears that all the girls are "in jail" in the front yard.

Amy tried to escape. Even though Jason and Daniel had only two on their team, they have very long legs, so catching the girls was easy for them.

At least they were getting exercise. In this picture, Amy is standing guard in the back by our garden and the rock waterfall that is not started yet this year.

Emily had a fun birthday with these friends to play with, and Rowen and I enjoyed visiting with Paul and Renee.

Emily's 12th birthday!

Happy Birthday to Emily who is twelve years old today!

I can't resist putting on a few more pictures of Emily as a baby. See last year's post for more:
http://johnstownalbertsons.blogspot.com/2009/03/emilys-11th-birthday.html
Taken on May 10, 1998

Janet and her girls taken in fall 1998

Emily in her rocking chair June 27, 1999

Emily chillin' out on the piano bench October 1, 1999

We took a few pictures last night as she opened her gifts and will be taking more today. Emily is growing up more and more and becoming a sweet young lady. She is within an inch of her mother's height and daily checking to see if she is the tallest!
Her favorite candy is Skittles, which Beth obligingly bought for her!

Emily looking mischievous--a common sight...

Emily's hair is very long, and usually braided, but it was loose for going to bed.

Stay tuned! There will be more about Emily's birthday within a day or two!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Joyce!

I would like to take this opportunity to say "Happy Birthday" to my Aunt Joyce Conley!
She is a faithful reader of our blog, though a shy one, as she has never commented! :)
I pray she has a happy day and knows that I love her!

Field Trips March 11

This past Thursday our home school group went to our neighboring town, Milliken, to tour the new fire station and police station. We had a great turnout for the event and had to be divided up into groups so we could fit in the tours. So we didn't get to see all of our friends, but I am sure everybody learned a lot.
Emily trying on the fireman's coat. It was heavy!

A mural in the firehouse painted by some high school students for the new fire station.

The fireman suited up for the kids, to teach them to trust the fireman even if he looks scary and sounds funny.

A painting of the former police station in Milliken.

Our police tour guide, Technician Salazar, telling the kids about evidence security tape.

Visit with "old" friends!

The last post was about a new friend; this one is about old friends. But they are younger than us, and not friends from "too" long ago. Becky and Fred Weiser lived in Johnstown from 2001-2006 and we were close friends almost all of that time. They moved back to Pennsylvania where they had lived before and we have only seen them a few times since then. They were out to ski in Colorado this past week, so we were glad to have the opportunity to spend an evening together with them last night.

After supper, Rowen, Becky, Beth, Emily, and I walked to the Parish House museum for Becky to look around. She was a vital member of the Historical Society during her time in Johnstown. We miss her expertise in antiques so much. It was a delightful evening for a walk. We warmed up a bit with some tea after our walk. Tea was something Becky and I did pretty frequently while she was living here.

Rowen and Fred

Emily, Jeffrey, and Jason played Stratego and Risk with Conrad and Bryson.

It was so fun to visit and catch up. We were so glad they came to Colorado and we got to see them. Though we'd love to go to Pennsylvania and see them, it might not ever happen. Randy and Joy got to stay with them when they were in PA a couple of years ago and Becky was a wonderful hostess to them as she always was in Colorado. Becky and Fred are very special to us.

Fun Visit with a New Friend

On February 26, we finally got to meet our daughter-in-law's cousin, Dorie Johnston. We have been wanting to get together with her and were so pleased that it worked out. We had a fun time together and feel like she is "part of the family"! We ate together and then played Dutch Blitz, Pit, and Things.

Jason Fit the Battle of Jericho

Jason has been playing "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" lately. Hope you enjoy it!

Our neighborhood fox

For a couple of months now, we have seen a red fox traipsing around our property, but in the past week, he has decided he likes our deck and roof! Today the kids caught him in the act and took the following pictures from inside the house. We don't know if he would hurt us, so we are staying behind glass to look at him. Enjoy!



He climbs up on the shed roof.

Apparently, it's a comfy place for a nap!

(For those of you who don't know this, we can see the mountains from our living room windows! At least in the wintertime.)





Time to move along...

This picture proves he walks around on our roof in the front too!

I darkened up the picture above, so you could see the footprints on the roof better!

Valentine Week Happenings

On Tuesday evening, Teri Johnson, from the Berthoud Historical Society, came to our Johnstown Historical Society Members' Meeting and reenacted Jenny McCarty for us. Jenny was Dr. McCarty's wife in early 1900s and was an influential person in Berthoud. Berthoud and Johnstown had many connections in the early 1900s and Dr. McCarty took care of people's health needs in our area before and during the starting days of Johnstown. It was a very interesting program.

On Thursday, the Johnstown-Milliken Homeschoolers got together to play board games and decorate cookies (our tradition for February's activity). Everybody had a good time. In fact, everybody was so busy having a good time, we forgot to take very many pictures! Here are the three that Emily took:
Some sweet, shy girls playing a game.

Janet holding Honor Peterson.

Kelly and LeighAnna Kaus, Bonnie Peterson

On Friday evening, Rowen and Janet went to the CHESS Homeschool Valentine Banquet.
Beth was a server for the meal. Here are the servers and the young lady who played beautiful harp music during the meal.

This is a picture of us after we got home from the Banquet.

Beth enjoyed being a server.

On Saturday, we went to Cheyenne to shop at Sierra Trading Post. We dropped off Jason and Emily at the M.'s house and when we returned there, we ate supper and visited with their family. We had very yummy elk stew, cornbread, and salad.
Here are Jason and Daniel M., doing what they do best--computerizing! They are both extremely good at Blender and like to compare notes on their creations.

Emily and Amy M. enjoyed their time together and played the piano and violin together. It was fun for them to visit in person, as they usually can only talk on the phone.

Sunday evening, at Federal Heights Sunday School, the story was David and Goliath. Steve Cunningham was Goliath and used these drywall stilts to be very tall. He was practicing walking on the stilts before the children arrived. This picture was taken right before he grabbed the wall for support and the clock got broken!