First meal

This year for Olivia's 11th Birthday, her new chore for the year is learning how to cook meals.  Tonight was her first and she choice spaghetti with meat balls.

 Payton down the road got excited and wanted to cook too.  I fried the meat and the girls did everything else(even dished).  Olivia even chopped the fresh herbs for the sauce.

Kids made, kids approved!

First Day Back

 I got a trade from work for 12 hours to come home and spend the first day with Olivia.  Olivia went to Dominica the Island to visit with her mom and siblings.  She was gone for 7 weeks.  I am thrilled she is back!  After Donut for Breakfast, we headed to the county fair.  Our county fair is small but always enjoy our selves.  The petting zoo is were it was happening this year.  Wallabies, goats, camels, and kangaroos.  There was a couple more I don't remember.

 We even got a little coloring in.  Olivia was amazed this year at all the 4-H crafts.

 After the Fair we had a couple of the neighbors join us for dinner to celebrate Olivia's 11th Birthday.  Yes we went to Village Inn, her favorite due to the free slice of pie!  She had a blast, but jet lag.  We headed home and I headed back to work.

Turquoise Lake Molly Brown Campground Site 30

 We went camping for our last time in 2014.

Beautiful lake, lots of friends, and good weather.

 The lake was huge but hard to fish in, there was nothing biting.  We starve!

 We started the drive for the historic Mining in Colorado where they mined Ore, but we got lost or just ran out of road!  It was a beautiful day and the scenery was amazing!

Mandy from China is making my blog.  She made it state side and join us with her husband ZR for two days camping!   

 Below is ZR holding a 40lb log and Jon is going to tickle him!

 Then I had to hold the log and show off....

 and then Jon one up me.

 Mandy being Mandy, love it.  Can you see Olivia in the boat behind her.

 After these pictures were taken above it started to rain! and rain and rain.

Today we headed home and stopped in Buena Vista for lunch and a walk on the river.  We had a great time with lots of company.  The Clowe family of 5 joined us.  The Kirt family of 7 joined and Mandy and ZR.  What a wonderful visit of friends!

crafty 11th Birthday present

 Last year Olivia wanted sticker stars for her room.  Well time passed by and I totally forgot.  This year Mary's bedroom with painted stars inspired me.  Yes they make glow in the dark paint.  I printed up the constellation and went to work.

 Let me just tell you how hard it is to dot the ceiling with white paint to a white ceiling, mmmm where did my last star go too.   It was fun and turned out pretty cool.  Olivia gets home Saturday night and we will see how long it take her to figure it out.  SSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry no pictures, glow in the dark does not put off enough light to see in the camera.

4th of July

 Every Year Jon and I climb a 14,000 foot mountain.  This year he chose Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron and Bross.  We drove up on  July 3rd and slept in the car at Kite Lake. We woke at 530am and started our adventure.

 We first climbed Democrat, 14,148 ft tall.  I think we started at 11,000 ft.  There was several people dress in flags and one guy was carrying a flag the whole way.

 Summit Democrat above!  Yes the dog joined us too.  This made Punky's second 14er.
 Next we headed down Democrat and saddle over to Mt Cameron 14,238 ft.  In Colorado they do not recognize cameran as a 14er due to elevation loss to lincoln.  Jon and I still counted it because we still walked it.  Summit of Cameron below.

Then we saddled over to Mt. Lincoln which is 14,286 ft.  The wind was getting really strong and cold. I think it was like 30 degrees up there.  Very cold for July, and there was still snow.  After Lincoln Jon and I agreed it was time to get down and not do Bross.  The dog was beat and we were both chilled. 7 hours of hiking and unsure how many miles.  We headed home for a 2.5 hour drive.

When we got home we joined the neighbors for a cook out.  Brats, hot dogs, and hamburgers.  

At 9pm we started the fire worked.  It was a 2 hour setting off/show.

 Then while we were setting off ours the street behind us and in front of us was lighting off illegal fire works which we watched as well.  Some reason the sky ones are so much neater.

I hope all of our Family had a wonderful Independence day as well.

Home Improvment

While Olivia is gone we are working over time, working on the house, and spending time just the two of us.  Here is a little insight of the projects Jon has been working on.  Below we had the laundry room door switched to swing out.  Now I can walk in my laundry room.

 We got a new ceiling fan for the living room and Jon took out the old one and hung it in Olivia's room.

 I got Olivia's old light in my closet so I can see in the winter when its dark.

 And punky is getting back into running, so he is more tired, but if you notice he has a new blue chicken next to him.  He loves this toy.  $2, love walmart for soft plastic toys for toothless dogs!

I love all this stuff being done.  I am working around the house, my projects are just not day one, you will see soon.

Camping trip 2

Tuesday we left again for another camp ground which we have never been to or seen this area.  

It is know for the wet mountains, lots of rain, but it was so green and beautiful.  

If you have time look up Bishops Castle in Colorado, that is where we headed after getting our camp set up.  This guy is building his own castle, weird but cool.

 This bridge Jon is standing on, just ended, not yet finished.   After the castle adventure we drove around and look at the land and views.  Amazing!  Then we went fishing, Jon and Olivia were hooked and just got there.  Olivia is an amazing caster.  She is not a great bobber and waiter person so Jon bought her a lure, she loved it.

 Day two we went to a park to go hiking, this was great short hikes but beautiful.  This picture below is devils canyon.

Then we hiked to this old fire look out tower.  After our hikes they went fishing again, still no luck.

 Thursday am we rented a boat for two hours and i paddles around and Jon and Olivia fished, and you guest it still no fish.  After lunch it started to pour.  We headed towards blue sky and found another lake to , you guest it fish!!!

Jon got a baby fish, well got two of them.  Now he was fish crazy!

Yes the poodle came along on this trip too.  he did not like the fire and was cold so he stayed in the car.

 Today Friday, after clean up and about to go home, we stopped for an hour to you guest it again FISH!

 Olivia caught her first fish ever, then caught 4 more.  Jon caught two.  They even caught one each at the same time.  Olivia's fell off the hook for the picture and she was a little unsure about holding it.

And of course lessons on how to free it, she did great!

 Jon is loving fishing, I think there will be a lot of father daughter lake times now!

Camping trip 1

Summer began right after the last day of school.  Olivia was tearful due to her last year at this school so we started summer off with a bang.  3 days camping with a school friends. 

Jon brought his fishing rod, this is his new thing, and each of the girls tried too.

 Even the poodle came on the trip and snuggles to keep warm.  It rained the first evening around 730 pm so we all went to bed early.  The next day was on and off again but turned out great, due to it poured after 9 pm.  We all stayed tried and slept well.

 Jon testing scooter stuff before the girls think about doing it...

 Funny photo 

Claire's mother backed the girls with a fun camping bag of cool goodies.  

 And of course lots of smores', they ate a whole bag of marshmallows.

What a great three day get away, relaxing run, and cool weather.