Frontier Night-Aspen Grove

During our stay at Aspen they had lots of fun activities for the family to do together. One night they had Frontier night. They have a little minature village and they had gun shooting, candy shop, story time with a mountain man, hatchet throwing, popping balloons with whips, snow cones (ok they might not have been on the frontier but they were fun), train ride and other fun things that I just can't think of right now. One of the kids favorite was the train ride. They must have ridden it at least 6 times. Alyssa had a wonderful time this week being the older cousin. She absolutely loves her cousins. She is the perfect age for helping out because she is old enough to be resposible and young enough to still have fun. She was great and it was very fun to have all the cousins there and see how much they enjoyed each other. Somedays I wish we were born earlier when we all kind of stayed in one place together then we'd all be closer. It was great fun.

More to come!!!

Aspen Grove 2008

We had an awesome family reunion. The only bad thing was that Randy didn't get to join us. We really missed you Randy. We just got back tonight and I am exahausted. I want to write more later but for now I thought I'd upload our family pictures. This was at the beginning of the week before our eyes were bloodshot with black circles. Abby even asked Grandma what the dark circles around her eyes were. I guess those late night of game playing really did us in but it was well worth it. Now back to reality which means I'm on the job hunt.

Hail Storm

We just got an alert on our handy dandy tone alert radio saying that there was golf ball size hail and high winds headed our way. Mom, Ryan, and I put the van in the garage and moved Nick and my car under a tree in hopes that it would shield it a bit. Then in pulls Neal on his motorcycle to see if he could put it in the garage. He made it in with a few seconds to spare, the rain started, and about 30 seconds after that the hail came. They weren't golf ball size more like bouncy ball size but they did litter the yard and hurt when they hit (nothing like in 95 but still entertaining). Ryan thought it might be fun to jump on the trampoline before the hail started but it didn't just start small it came all at once. Luckily all is well here. the streets started to flood but it only lasted a few seconds so no harm done, my newly paid off car seems to be ok. Here are a few pictures of our most recent entertainment.

The Falls

I just downloaded mom and dad's photos and there was a few good ones on there I wanted to add.

Nick's "Scare Mom to Death" Jump

The Story begins

As you can see by our illustration there is a 120 ft. waterfall below which we have named Death Drop. Above to the left is the viewing area where mother, father, and Ryan resided. Notice the pattern of the trees.

You can imagine mom seeing her child plung toward the death drop. Picture mom screaming and yelling at Nick as he lands his jump and begins his ascend up the tree. Let your imagination flow on her actual words to the self believing immortal teenager.

Eagle Crest

We just got back from a great vacation at Eagle Crest. It was alot of fun.

We biked,

swam, tennis, golf (well I actually sat out on golf this year, we stopped in Arlington on the way down and I stunk it up so I figured I'd save dad a little money and just sit out at Eagle Crest),

games,

reading, resting,

Wii, movies, hiking,

and just a great time. It was great to have Ryan back with us and Randy was able to come this year also. We miss everyone else but can't wait for the reunion in a week and a couple of day.

Nick and Ryan kept things entertaining with their freestyle walking, climbing on things, in things, around things, and all around goofyness (sp?).

There are too many fun pictures to share so I guess I'll have to stop there. I do have a great video to share for all of you who know Nick you will get a kick out of this. It needs a little explanation so I'll throw it on separately.