Worlds smallest kite

 Olivia's Smallest Kite that our friends gave her when they were over seas in Ireland.

 The kite needs 5-10 miles per hour wind and today we just have guest but it still worked.

 What a beautiful day to fly a kite

Past week

 Last Saturday we went to the Denver zoo for there Free day.  We had a great and the crow was not bad at all.  You can see in the penguin picture there is a light reflection on the rock.  Somebody was using there phone to reflect the light and the penguins were following it, even under water.

Olivia really enjoyed the reptile area.

 So this month Olivia is doing horse back riding lessons.  Sh eis loving them and looks forward to it every day.  Her horse even has a funky hair cut.

Olivia got to ride backwards

We have one more week of horse back riding.  Then we have a break before our next activite.

Paramedic of the Year award

Jon was Nominated and won Paramedic of the year in Colorado.

We went to Keystone last Saturday for his award.

Below are the pictures and the letter that was written to nominate him.

 In 1986 a young man was riding his motorcycle in Boston. A car pulled out in front of him. The young man’s motorcycle crashed into the driver’s side door of the car. The young man was catapulted over the handlebars and through the driver’s side window; his forehead hit the door jam on the way through. He came to rest sprawled across the driver and passenger. He was unconscious and quickly became pulseless and apnic.

Luckily for EMS in Colorado, that is not the end of the young man’s story.

 He was one of the very small percentages of people that survive a trauma arrest. Several years later he had moved to California and again had a life changing event on his motorcycle. He rode by a volunteer fire station. He turned around and went back and volunteered on the spot, he felt a need to give back for his life being saved. In 1996 he was certified as an EMT and fire fighter 1 and continued to volunteer in California.

In late 1999 he had moved to Montana for paramedic and graduated with honors from Montana State University. He was also working for American Medical Response in Montana.

 In 2000 Jon Webb transferred to AMR in Colorado Springs and has been a valuable team member since. Jon is a practioner and an educator, in 2002 Jon completed both the primary and assistant instructor courses. He was a field instructor for many years before being promoted to field supervisor.

The above paragraph is a pretty dry distillation of Jon’s time in Colorado. I could include many letters of thanks and appreciation, lists of his classes and credentials. Many paramedics in Colorado have these same lists to their name, I will instead tell you of two more items that separate Jon from the rest of the many excellent care givers in Colorado.

 Shortly after 9/11/2001 Jon felt a strong desire to serve his County, in addition to his Community. Jon’s beloved father had been in the Navy (but we are in Colorado….) This didn’t stop Jon, he joined the Naval Reserves and has been proudly serving for almost ten years. His rank is E5 and he is certified as a hospital corpsman basic.

Jon was the founder of the Colorado Springs AMR Honor Guard. He saw the need for an EMS Honor Guard in Southern Colorado, to honor EMS colleagues as well as being a good will ambassador of EMS to the Community. Jon spent over a year gathering info, presenting his plan to management, enlisting like minded “EMS”ers, interviewing for positions on the honor guard, training and finally, during EMS Week 2009, being able to present “his” honor guard to the Community in a badging ceremony at Memorial Park. Since then the honor guard as assisted at several funerals for agencies in New Mexico, Woodland Park, Wescott and Colorado Springs. They have marched in parades and presented the colors and numerous community events- Colorado Balloon Classic, Sky Sox baseball, graduations and the EMSAC Fall Awards banquet.

Without Jon’s first experience with outstanding EMS in Boston, none of his contributions to EMS would have been possible. None of the accomplishments, none of the thank you letters… Jon has given back to the Community tenfold from his second chance. I hope you will consider Jon Webb for Colorado Paramedic of the Year.

I am so proud of him and all that he does.

Thankful Tree

We brought it back again.  We traced out hands to make leaves for the tree and wrote what we were thankful for.  Olivia got a little more creative and did one for each dog.  Then I joined her and did one for each cat.  lol  It is a great decoration for the kitchen window to look at during every meal.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Update on the run

 I looked up the official times yesterday and Olivia did her 5 k in 45:20 and got first place in her age group.  I wish we stayed to get her prize.

 Jon did great with a time of 31:46, 93rd place over all and 4th in his age group.  Way to go for the both of them.

Pumpkin carving

We headed to Falcon Fire Station for a chili dinner and pumpkin carving.  All the kids plays and then ate.

Then we started with the pumpkins.  Olivia loves pulling out the middle.

She drew her face then cut it all up.

Jon had to help, her pumpkin was so thick and hard it was really hard to get the knife in.

 Her Pumpkin for 2011

Olivia and I carved, Jon helped.  His pumpkin was napped off our porch 4 days prior and then smashed out in the street.  He did not want another one.  We were just luck it was not Olivia's.

 These two were lite and looked great.  Wish the night picture with out flash turned out better.

Creepy Crawl 5k

 This morning we did the 5k creepy crawl.  Olivia and Jon were registered for the run.  I ran with Olivia to help keep her going.  Olivia was a witch and Jon and I were Mummies.  Yes again I made our mummy costume.

 Jon and Olivia starting there 5k run.

 Jon on the back end of his run, you can see Olivia  going the other way.

 Here is Jon encouraging Olivia at the finish.

Olivia did great and ran the whole race.  Very proud of her.

 Like if that was not enough, she then ran the kids 1 mile race.  Over all Olivia ran 4 miles in an hour.

 Jon won best Mummy costume this year.

We had a great family morning.

South Dakota

 We headed to South Dakota for a fall four day break.  On our way to our cabin we stopped at Crystal caves.  Olivia's first time in a cave and she was a little nervous at first. We had a great ranger that had her help out and she loved it after that.

 Here Olivia is getting her Jr. Ranger award from Crystal Caves. 

Our next day we headed to Mount Rushmore and to Bear Country USA.  Both places we had a great time at.  Olivia got another Jr. Ranger from Mount Rushmore.

 What is Olivia Pointing too?

 On our way to dinner we stopped at this reptile place.  It was pretty cool but a little pricey.  We went to a snake show and it was very interesting.  We saw a cobra out of a cage and Olivia got to pet a.....

 Boa constrictor, she was in love and wanted one for a pet.  Yea that did not go well with me.  I do not like snakes.  At least she has places like this where she can enjoy them.

Our third day went went for a road trip just to look around this beautiful area.  We came across an old Fort which was another first for Olivia.

 We stopped at some falls, which ended up being nothing but a river.  Olivia had a blast catching grass hoppers.

 And on our way back to the cabin we stopped at Wind caves.  And that is where Olivia got her Last Jr. Ranger for this trip.  This cave was interesting but not as colorful or spacious as the first.

 Of course we had fire nights.  Smores is what we look forward to.  Jon enjoys the huge fires.

We had a great time and glad to be home.  It is always wonderful to explore a new place for just a short time.