December 2010

December is such a great time of year! Brandon completed his 7th grade basketball season and Jarrett began his 4th grade basketball season. Both Jarrett and Trey had their school musical/plays, and all the boys wrapped up the school semester. Wendy's parents came for a visit, and of course it's Christmas-time, which brings fun music, goodies galore, decorations, lights, and presents. We are indeed grateful to remember more fully the birth, life, and mission of Jesus Christ.

With Wendy's parents, we visited Santa, made cookies, played games, went to the Flying W Ranch, the Denver Zoolights, the Spaghetti Factory, and shopping in Manitou Springs. We had great weather and really enjoyed the time together as a family.

Visiting Santa and Mrs. Clause.

Wendy, Katie, and Kathy (Grandma).

Christmas Morning: BEFORE........and AFTER! What fun!
Wendy's dad spent Christmas day with us, opening presents, playing, eating, and watching a movie. We also enjoyed a visit that evening from Regan's brother and family.

November 2010

The highlight this month (aside from Thanksgiving of course) is Katie's birthday! She is FOUR already! She celebrated her last day of being three by riding a horse at a friend's house. She loved it - and Barbara is a great lady for taking the time and showing and teaching Katie how to feed, brush, saddle, and ride Charisma. Katie grinned the entire time and was a little saddle sore after at least a half hour in the saddle. Her birthday was marked with lots of birthday wishes, cake, balloons, and presents.

October 2010

Jarrett's 10th Birthday!

A decade old - can't believe it. He celebrated with friends, food, movie, gifts, and a donut tower!

Monticello Visit

We made a quick trip to Monticello to visit family for a family reunion. Regan's dad's side of the family gathered for food and reminiscing. While there, Wendy ran a 10K race in Canyonlands with some family members. It was a beautiful day and fantastic race. Wendy finished 13/76 runners, 1st in her age division (25-39 years), with a run time of 45:23, her best 10K time!


Denver Zoo

Halloween
We celebrated on Saturday by going to our community center and then to the church for "trunk-or-treat". The kids all got a load of candy! On Sunday night we had the kids dress back up for pictures and with all the lights out we watched a halloween movie while eating treats and candy. It was a fun night.

September 2010

Labor Day - Wendy ran the American Discovery Trail Half Marathon for the third year in a row. This was her best time yet, 1 hour 44 minutes! She was 2/45 in her age division, 9/235 women, 61/467 overall.


Hike in Monument - Beautiful day for a hike with the family. As we were leaving, after being warned of a bear nearby, we saw the bear saunter over to the pond we had just passed and watched him get in for a swim. Glad we didn't cross paths!


FOOTBALL SEASON! Go Firebirds! Brandon #80!


It was an undefeated season for the 7th grade football team, 8-0. They outscored their opponents 178 to 28. Brandon played in each "A" team game. He was given the "Goal Setting" award: His goal, to have 3 interceptions during the season. Brandon's stats: 20 tackles, 1 strip with fumble recovery, and 1 interception (during the last game). He played corner back, back-up wide receiver, was on the kick off team, and extrapoint team. He had a great season - Way to go!

August 2010

Back to school! Brandon is a 7th grader, Jarrett is in 4th grade, and Trey is in 2nd grade. Katie is doing "preschool" with Wendy 3 days a week - just some structured activities for fun.

Brandon is on the 7th grade football "A" team. This is his practice jersey. Practices are 5 days a week. Games start next month.

Jarrett and Trey's first day of school.

Katie with her stuffed animals.

We went to WaterWorld for Wendy's dad's annual company picnic - boy was that fun! The kids had been looking forward to it for a year (since we left last year's picnic).

We weren't able to go camping in the mountains, but we had a great campout in our very own backyard (benefits included no driving time, no packing, no coolers, indoor bathrooms, Wendy could go running, and easier cleanup). We all slept in the tent, cooked dinner and s'mores on the grill and ate breakfast and lunch outside.

July 2010

The Fourth of July was celebrated with the typical fireworks - only this year there was competition with the lightning! We went to the AFA to watch the spectacular show. The crowds were thin - due to a stormy afternoon. The rain let up for a couple hours. We watched the fireworks, with the mountains being silhouetted in the background by the lightning. After the show, we made it to the buses (to transport us to the parking lot) just in time for the sky to open up and pour rain - we were drenched! What a memorable night!

We hiked Stanley Canyon, up to Stanley Reservoir the next day. It was a tough hike (four miles roundtrip). The boys did great, Katie walked most of it herself - she complained at one point saying, "I hate this hike." Wendy's dad went with us, everyone had a good, challenging time.
A Weekend in Denver: We rode the lightrail into downtown and walked up and down 16th Street Mall. We toured the dome of the Capital building, walked through the Civic Center, ate ice-cream, and walked to Coor's field to watch a Rockies game - what a fantastic game it was! The Rockies beat the Padres.

The next day we went to Heritage Square, rode rides, ate lunch - FUN!



Monticello: Our annual July visit to see Regan's parents and family. The weather was beautiful. We went fishing, hiking, to the farm to move cows and bail hay, and fix-it projects around Regan's parent's home. On Pioneer Day Wendy and Brandon ran the annual 5K race, Jarrett and Trey ran the kids 1 mile race, went to the parade, and that night watched the fireworks.

Trey - 6th of 13 kids
Jarrett - 4th of 13 kids
Wendy - finished in 23:29
Brandon - finished in 24:59

June 2010

Busy month! The boys finished school at the end of May. Then we had family visit, Brandon turned 12 and was ordained a Deacon, Brandon went to boy scout camp for a week (Regan went as a leader for 2 days), Regan and Wendy celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary, not to mention all the other fun summer time activities!

Regan's neices, Melissa and Celise with all their kids came to visit. We did the tourist attractions - Air Force Academy, Garden of the Gods, America the Beautiful Park, it was fun.

Wendy's parents came to visit for 5 days, partially in honor of Brandon's 12th Birthday and ordination. We played at the park and ventured to Cripple Creek to ride the train - beautiful! It was great having them here.

The children after church and our family in our backyard.

Brandon (2nd from left) with his friends at Boy Scout camp. He completed 4 merit badges, loved the food, sleeping in the tent, "pinecone wars", canoeing, etc. He can't wait to go back next summer!