Pictures of our family from our trip to MO

We went to see our grown up kids and my parents in Joplin in July. Beth flew there July 2 and helped with the VBS and had time with her nephews and sisters-in-law and brothers. We drove there on July 22. We were glad to see Beth again and my parents and our boys and their families. The crape myrtles were in bloom all over Joplin. These are at my parents' house. We captured Emily and Beth by the beautiful blooms.

Here are my parents, Rex and Wanda Scoles. They are doing pretty well for the shape they are in. Everybody always wants to know how they are doing. They are not getting any younger, but they are keeping as active and useful as they can, and we are grateful they are in as good of health as they are. We enjoyed getting to stay with them and spend some time with them.

We went to the Smith-Kirks Reunion on July 24. This is a picture of my mother's branch of the Smiths, all of us who were there. My brother, Lyndell is rather unrecognizable as he was in costume as a black man who showed up to my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary vow renewal ceremony. I was the only one of my family with all of my family there.

Our oldest son, Randy, and our youngest daughter, Emily.

The following are pictures we took at a park in Galena, KS after a family picnic. Several are of our grandsons, Randy's boys, Quil, age 3, and Micah, age 1.5.



All of our children plus the grandsons.

Just our kids

Emily

Beth

The original Albertson Boys: Randy, Jeffrey, Tim, and Jason
(not in age order)

The Albertson ladies: Janet, Emily, Brenda, Joy, and Beth

Brenda and Tim

Micah on Grandpa Rowen's shoulders

Aunts Emily and Beth with Micah and Quil

Jeffrey gets his braces off!

Today, after 3 and a half years, Jeffery got his braces off. His teeth and smile look much better.
Now he has a retainer.

Two days after his birthday, we had some friends over for desert and games.
Jeffrey with his cake.

Raspberry Lemon cake

The Hinkles and we played Mexican Train (You can hardly see the dominoes for the photos we have under the plastic tablecloth protector!)

Posted by Emily

Jeffrey is nineteen!

Well, on Wednesday, Jeffrey turned 19! He worked his usual LONG Wednesday from 8am to 7pm at ACE Hardware Store. These pictures were actually taken on Tuesday evening so that he could open his gifts and we would have time to play!

We are having his cake tonight (7-16) with friends.

We got Jeffrey games for his birthday. The Monopoly Deal game is special because he played it with Joshua Sturtevant frequently while he was in Ukraine last fall.

Emily has been making these Perler Beads pictures lately after she got a bucket of them from a garage sale.

We played at least 5 games of Monopoly Deal before bedtime. It was a lot of fun!

Game night with Daddy

Emily likes to play chess and last Sunday evening, she even beat her daddy. Her brothers have been teaching her well!

Emily's first sewing project

This jumper is the first garment for Emily to make, mostly by herself! She did a great job and is going to be a good seamstress!

Kazmaier family visit June 30-July 2, 2010

We enjoyed having our niece and her family with us for a short and sweet visit last week. Wednesday evening we all got together with Rowen's sister, Esther Mendez and her family for a picnic in the park.
Jeff and Shirlene

All of us who were at the park for a extended family picnic! There was a continual breeze that evening. It did keep us from feeling hot, but didn't help our hairdos!

Jeff, Manoj, and Rowen visiting

Great-Aunt Janet holding Anjali

Dan Mendez and his wife and girls and granddaughter

Pictures from around our house:
Andy playing legos.

Emily and Lacie playing checkers. This checkers game was given to Jeffrey and Beth for being in Jeff and Shirlene's wedding 12 years ago, July11, 1998.

Andy in our front yard

Jacob playing trains

Jeffrey and Jeff

Shirlene

Lacie and Shirlene

Shirlene and Beth

Pictures from our walk around Johnstown Lake:
The cousins and cousins-once-removed

Rowen and Janet and our niece, Shirlene and husband, Jeff

Jacob and Andy, my great nephews

Fun on the climbing wall at the park

Kazmaier family at the Johnstown Lake

Our family at the Johnstown Lake

We walked around the Johnstown Lake together.

Brooding mountains behind the lake. There was a forest fire in RMNP.

We are so blessed to live in a beautiful place and blessed that our loved ones come to see us here!

July 4th, 2010

As most of you were enduring high temperatures on Sunday July 4th, 2010, we had an unusually nice and cool day in Northern Colorado. The high temp was 84'F, and the low was 51'F.

We decided to find a spot in the mountains to eat our lunch, which was probably at ~9,000-ft.


It was almost jacket weather, but really just perfect in the middle of the summer.

Temperature trend in Ward, CO just a few miles from our picnic.


We were unable to find an unused site with a picnic table, but we were brave enough to 'rough-it' for our lunch. We spread our tablecloth on the forest floor, and used rocks and coolers to sit on.

It was delightful. The South St. Vrain River was still quite high from spring snow melt run-off, creating a most pleasant ambiance in which to enjoy our lunch, just a few feet from the roaring water's edge.

With our lunch completed, we took time for some restful, worshipful, and contemplative time along the river. The kids took many pictures to document this time.

As we do every Sunday evening, we needed to go to Federal Heights (north Denver) for neighborhood kids' Sunday School, which begins at 5:00 PM. We chose to traverse the mountains via Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway to get to the Denver metro area, instead of returning to the interstate highway, which we see so often.

On our trip to Federal Heights we passed
Barker Meadow Reservoir, with Nederland, CO in the background.

It was a marvelous day, though we only had three sweet, attentive children in Sunday School; the others were involved in holiday revelries of various kinds.

As we made our way home from Federal Heights, we watched a tremendous thunderstorm building before our very eyes. Soon after we arrived home, the hard rain began, which yielded 1.3" in our gauge, but thank the Lord - NO hail. Though the area public fireworks displays had to be canceled or postponed, it was a splendid ending to a perfect day.

As always, it was a delightful Sabbath Day, a restful, and refreshing time in the mountains, and an enjoyable time with family; we did greatly miss Beth, who is in Joplin helping with VBS this week.

Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Surely we have found that rich blessing in His presence this holiday weekend.