Just had to share....

The kids and I were privileged to be able to go hear John McCain speak at the rally a little over a week ago. We were sitting right over the walkway where the speakers entered, but my camera pooped out on me. (Surprise, surprise.) These are the pictures I *did* manage to get.

Ooops! Bo took the camera with him on his latest business trip, so I can't upload the pics. I'll add them when he gets back. (Course, the election results should be in by then, so not quite so timely a post!)

Is That Don Johnson?

Clay was invited to a 60's, 70's, 80's dress up birthday party for a friend in his co-op.  We knew that we were most likely going to go with the 80's (and why not...it was a great decade all around...the styles, the music, the president.)  We just weren't sure what direction we were going to go though.  There's the classic "hair band" look, along with other musical inspirations like Devo, Flock of Seagulls, Van Halen.  Or you can go 80's styles like parachute pants, upturned collars, preppie-Izod, pegged jeans, stone washed jeans, and oh, what we would have given for a sweet mullet.  But seeing as how he's 6'3" and we were planning to obtain this outfit at one of the local thrift shops, we decided to hold off deciding till we saw what was available.  

Well, the heavens shone down upon the most wonderful pair of white linen pants in just the right length and we knew...Miami Vice.  That's right, Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett.  We got the turquoise blue tight shirt, and even found a linen jacket.  Aviator sunglasses, dress shoes, and a gun finished off the ensemble.  But, the shining masterpiece was the hair.  I (Mom) feathered, blew dry, and hairsprayed Clay's hair in the most awesome (or was it tubular or radical back then?  But I digress...) style!  Oh, and wait...his good friend in the co-op had not yet picked out his outfit.  Clay called him from the thrift store, and he looked them up on the web. (You read that right...he didn't know the guys from Miami Vice!!! Neither boy did, actually.) But, as soon as he pulled up the website, his response was, "I am so gonna be Tubbs!"  

Clay and Joe looked great as Crockett and Tubbs.  They got 2nd place for their costumes.  Joe's brother Justin won though...He was dressed as Erkle!  (He was perfect, although wasn't that a 90's show???)  Neither here nor there.  The kids all had a great time!

Had to get a close up of the feathered hair!



Crockett & Tubbs

Photos from Steamboat Springs

Heading for the waterfall and FREEZING!

So worth weathering the cold (and my silly camera doesn't even attempt to grasp how beautiful this really is.)

Close to 12,000 feet...again, FREEZING!

I have a new computer!!!

Well, I managed to pick up a nasty virus, or some other crazy thing that all but slaughtered my computer, but I'm back up and running with a new computer.  This one is a Mac though, so there's a learning curve to using it.  Since last posting though, I've been up to see my oldest friend, Angie.  We were both nannies way back when and have managed to keep in touch, and even name kids after eachother (middle names).  It was a totally last minute trip, but she graciously allowed me to come "get away" and spend time hanging out with her and her girls and even her husband, Jason.  We cooked, recovered chairs, and scrapbooked (well, I would have except my computer died.)  We went and saw zebras, elk, deer, bears, and buffalo that chewed on her Odyssey.  We thrifted (woohoo!) and she even planned a girl's night out with her friends that have somehow become my friends through Ang and the internet.  We even hit Ikea on our way back to Seattle's airport.  Mainly, we just hung out, laughed, and had so much fun talking about everything under the sun.  

And now, since Bo is getting ready to leave for Hawaii and California for 10 days, he decided to take a day off work.  We went up to Steamboat Springs.  It's too late in the year for summer activities, but too early for winter sports, so we really didn't have a whole lot to do.  It was a nice trip up there though, and we walked around the old downtown.  The kids are always happy to spend the night in a hotel, especially Annie and Ellie.  The next day (today) we went to Fish Creek Falls, a 280 ft. waterfall.  There was a dusting of snow on the northfacing mountains and the birch trees were a brilliant yellow.  It was stunning.  We then took a different route home that looked more like Arizona than anything we'd seen so far in Colorado...very pretty, and then stopped for lunch in Vail.  We decided to get off the highway and took the Loveland Pass, which peaks at over 12,000 feet and over looks a 14,000 mountaintop.  At the peak, we got out of the car so the girls could play in some of the little patches of snow.  It was freezing, and Annie, our little GRITS girl, or Girl Raised In The South was sooooo cold.  It didn't seem to bother Ellie at all.  We're back home now, though, so it's back to normal....laundry, school, grocery shopping.  I'll try to add some pictures tomorrow, after I figure out how to put my new pictures into my new photo program.

The Mike Tyson of the Animal World

This past Saturday, we went for a quick trip to Castlewood Canyon again (hiked different trail than last time) and then couldn't resist heading up into the mountains, at least a little. So, we make the quick drive up to Evergreen to our favorite park. We normally stop at the first part of it where there are these great rock formations that are fun for climbing. There are difficult parts, which challenge Mary and Sam, as well as Clay even, although less and less, since he goes rock climbing almost every day at our rec center. There are easy enough parts though for Annie and Ellie, who love to go rock climbing, and fancy themselves as being quite adept!

This trip, we decided to head a little further back into the park, just to see if there were any other neat areas or rocks for climbing. We got just a little further in, and came upon a huge herd of elk. There were tons of female elk (cows) and one bull elk (the male.) He was HUGE!!! There were other bulls, but they couldn't get too near the harem. (Yes, that's really what it's called in the elk world.) They were in the woods right next to the road, as well as on the road, and the hill above us. We saw a biker, who wisely stayed tucked behind a bush till the big daddy bull went running after another bull who was trying to get next to one of his *ladies.* We kept hearing this high pitched yelling, and I thought a child had surely gotten away from her parents and was terrified by all the large elk she was surely surrounded by. I'm feverishly looking for this little girl, when Bo busts up laughing. It's the big guy himself...

That HUGE bull with his 7 point on each side antlers screaming like a little girl! The kids were dying laughing at the howling this guy was doing. Annie would imitate it, as well, and then just bust up laughing.

We sat and watched this herd for about 45 minutes. It was hilarious seeing the big guy go running after the other males who were skirting his harem, howling all the way. He'd then come back to the harem and squeal at them, and make them come in closer, I imagine so he could keep tabs on them. We later spoke with the wildlife rangers who came driving through, and they shared how the other males were trying to enter the herd, but the bull was not yet letting them. We took plenty of pictures, but I'll just share a few.

Bawling at the cows...gotta keep 'em in line (Big bully!)

Had to share this picture of my little ladies. (This was earlier at Castlewood Canyons.)

My baby is sixteen & I lost my job!

September 16th....My oldest baby turns 16! We officially celebrated Clay's birthday the weekend before by going climbing and hiking at Castlewood Canyon, then going out for pizza, but celebrated with cake and ice cream on his actual birthday. Oh, and speaking of cake...my position has been downsized, outsourced, I've been let go. Clay asked Mary to make his birthday cake this year. (WoooHOOOO!) And not just any cake. He wanted a checkerboard cake. Think Vans Old Schools. She is one messy baker, but she got the job done. Clay loved his cake (and I loved not having to bake it!)

The checkerboard cake is taking shape

Clay being a 16 year old goob

The finished product

Obligatory picture of the blowing out of the candles :)

One of our new favorite places

As homesick as I have been, I cannot deny that Colorado is amazingly beautiful. One of the things our family has really enjoyed since moving to Colorado is hiking and climbing, each at their own level. One of our new favorite places is Castlewood Canyon. After a short hike, you come to a beautiful waterfall, and there's plenty of fresh, cold water to splash around in.

P.S. In case you didn't know this (I didn't!) you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.