Colleen made it thru the 1st cuts

There were 28 girls that tried out for the basketball team. They cut it down to 20 today. Tuesday they find out who is the final 15. They don't have anymore practices. The coach said she was going to check grades and behavior tomorrow. Colleen does have that going for her. This has been a new learning experience for her and us.

2nd day of school

I wasn't a good mother yesterday. I was too excited for them to get on the bus that I didn't bring out the camera. Their first day was a success! The boys said Great, Terrific Wonderful. Not only did they go to a brand new school, they also rode the bus for the first time. Colleen had a FABULOUS day. She is all about the social aspect of school. She started basketball tryouts, there are 22 girls trying out. 7 will be cut, so she is working hard. Ray and I are going to the elementary school today to help unpack math supplies. Today will be Ray's first time to see and meet the Cedar Forest staff. Conlan was very pleased with the new bathrooms. "They are automatic and clean."

Happy Birthday Sarah

Football Season is here

Conlan has started football. He is so excited. The practiced three days last week. They changed up the teams a bit, but he has the same head coach. On Thursday he got to work on offensive tackle instead of tight end. He realized he still has to block and no chance of touching the ball, so maybe TE is not so bad. He has also been working at DT which he loves. It will be interesting to see how the season goes. First game is Sept 6.

Getting ready for school

School starts on Monday:) Yesterday Colleen got to meet all her new teachers. She seemed pleased with her schedule. She will have four men teachers out of 8. Everyone seemed nice and she has the same gym and technology teachers that she had for 6th grade. Basketball tryouts start Monday, so she has 2 things to worry about over the weekend. Conlan and Donavan got to meet their teachers this morning. We have a brand new school, and it is WONDERFUL! Fancy Mancy with all its new technology. Donavan's teacher seemed nice. He has a couple of kids he knew from Lee HIll in his class. Conlan's teacher gave off an excellent first expression.
I am still trying to get back into the swing of things. I have been tired and highly unmotivated, but maybe getting back into structure days will energize me up!

Rocky Mountain High

Day 10

We had to leave the wonderful state of Montana. Two funny observations the kids made on the long drive to Colorado. Colleen pointed out a stop light. " Do you realize we went a week without seeing a stoplight." We were eating lunch at a Mexican place in Sheridan WY. Conlan asked "Why aren't there in Mexicans working here?" It is a whole different world than what we see on the east coast. We stopped in Fort Collins for the night. Ray had the most trouble adjusting to traffic. He wanted to stay with his fly rod on the mountain river. The kids and I are ready to get back to the real world, but it was great to spend a week without a single worry.

Day 9

The Beaver Family plus Isaiah went on a ride to Beartooth Parkway. This is a mountain highway that goes up to 10,900 feet. It was breathtaking! The kids got out and played in the snow and got to see tundra. The temperature dropped down 37 degrees. When we finally got to Red Lodge, we went and to a wildlife refuge and saw all kinds of animals tigers, lions, bears OH MY! Actually we didn't see a tiger, but they did have two mountain lions. It took us 5 hours to get there, so we took the main highway back and it only took 2 1/2 to get back.

Day 8

Horseback riding.

We went swimming in the river where hotsprings that average 124 degrees were located.

The hardest thing all vacation was trying to gather all the kids for a group photo.

Climbing Mountain Flowers

Pics of Day 7

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Old Faithful

day 7

The Beaver family was out the door at 6:45 to spend the day in Yellowstone. We spent the day climbing up part of a mountain, walking the southern rim of a canyon, seeing Old Faithful, and looking for the exclusive animals. We did see a brown bear, mule deer and lots of bison. We didn't get back to the house until 7. There is so much too see. You want to stop at every trail and explore but there isn't enough time.

Day 5 and 6

Monday we got up early to go hiking in the park. Our group got temporarily lost and missed the orginial planned family hike. So Ray made up for it and found us a couple of other off the road hikes. We also walked all around Mammonth Springs. Brooke was pure entertainment with her constant "I am not walking another step." "Uncle Ray go get the car and I will wait right her" Of course by the time we got home I thought if I had to walk another step I was going to die! The air is much thinner up here. Ann, Ray and I also spent a little time shopping in Gardiner. I was exhausted and was in bed by 8, but I heard the rest of the gang went looking for big horn sheep.
Tuesday, we took it easy in the morning. The afternoon we went white water rafting. We had so much fun. There were 13 of us. We were all laughing and screaming in delight. I do not have any pictures of this. Our family members are known for dropping cameras in bodies of water, so no one wanted to risk our new cameras.
It is also Isaiah's 8th Birthday today!

Mud Volcano and Bison

A bison next to the road


Mud is boiling.

River Fun

Conlan learning to fly fish.

All the kids love playing in the river.

Mammoth Springs

This place is so neat. I can't wait to be able to uplaod all the different pictures of jsut this one area.

Day 4 - Fishing

Everyone was tired from traveling and the kids were boycotting riding in vechiles. Ray, Louis, Conlan, and my dad set off fishing all morning. Conlan has decided he too needs to flyfish, so Ray spendt the day going over basics with him. It paid off b/c by sunset Conlan had caught two rainbow trout. A group of us girls went to Mammonth Springs and walked around a bit. Colleen and Brooke are already tired of looking at gesyers. Jane and I took a trip to Livingston (40 miles ) to buy food that wasn't at the tourist trap. All the kids, spent the evening playing by the river. The water is super swift so they can't go more than knee deep. Donavan is enjoying playing with Isaiah. It is nice to have a cousin that is your age.

WOW

Lakes and mountains

Brooks Lake, we found this spot by going off on this gravel road.

One of the Grand Teton peaks from Jackson Lake

Day 3

We headed off to Jenny Lake to go hiking 3 miles to find a waterfall. It was well worth the hike. The hike was not bad it went around the lake, so there were only a couple of places we had to climb uphill. It was beautiful, and we cheated on the way back and took a boat shuttle. We all enjoyed getting out and walking instead of being in the car. After our hike we headed to our vacation home for the week via Yellowstone. Yellowstone is a different place everytime you turn a corner. Geologist must love this place. Seeing the thermal springs and mud volcanoes were amazing. We also got caught in a bison traffic jam. The bison were crossing the highway and this caused all kinds of excitement. 95 has nothing on traffic compared to what these animals cause, b/c everyone has to stop and take a picture of each and every one. There were 100's of them. by this time we were on scenery overload. I was driving b/c I could no longer stand for Ray to drive 20 mph while looking at every single thing. We got to the house around 6:30 and the rest of the family was already settled and had dinner on the table. Since Ray and I were the last to arrive we got the cabin by the river. Darn! It is so peaceful, not that the house with 20 people isn't:)) The place as limmited wifi, so I can't download tons of pics but later today I will try and get a few up.

Day 2

Before we left Laramie we made a visit to the University of WYoming, then we were off to no man land. We would drive a 100 miles and not see anything human. Not only did we not see homes, we didn't even see power lines. It was very ineresting landscape, but it went on forever. We stopped in a town called Dubois and visited the Big Horn Sheep Center. That was interesting, they had sheep from all over the world mounted place lots of interesting facts. Our only mishap of the day was a flat tire, but we were very blessed b/c it happed in front of one of the only gas stations we had seen in hours. We found this beautiful lake that was five miles off the road. Our exploring paid off big time, it was one of the highlights of the day.
We finally got into the Grand Tetons. WOW! Pictures can not do justice on how awe inspiring these mountains are. But by this time we were exhausted and it was starting to storm, so we went to find our place for the night. The place is called FLagg Ranch Resort and it is between the two park systems. The resort part consisted of a log cabin with two beds and a bathroom. NO TV, cell service or WIFI. The kids were crushed. Thankfully we met up with Ann's family and that took the edge off of them.

Sights from Day 1

Colleen and the boot. Cheyenne has lots of different boots thru out the town

Train Depot in Cheyenne, also had a great brewpub in it!

Capitol Building

Fort Collins to Cheyenne is the Great Plains, but when leaving Cheyenne going toward Laramie there were these "hills of boulders" It looked like some one was picking up huge rocks and just dumped them in a middle of a field. It was greating dark so the picture is not the best.
I forgot to mention the weather is GREAT! Yesterday when we got to WY it was 78 degrees with this wonderful cool breeze.

Laramie, WY

We made it hear safe and sound. The only mishap on the plane trip was Ray's fly rod didn't make it to Denver. Hopefully it will catch up with us in the next couple of days. We spent a couple of hours in Cheyenne. We walked down to the the Capitol building, explored the old train depot and walked into this historic Catholic church. Didn't realized until we walked out that they were getting ready to have a funeral mass. I am sure they didn't mind the strangers taking pictures:)
Conlan was feeling bad this afternoon, but after a power nap and some food he seemed to snap out of it. He still isn't 100% or 75%. Last we heard Sarah and Jane's families are in Fort Collins. Ann got off to a rocky start when they missed their connecting flight in Denver last night and didn't get out of Denver until noon today. They are somewhere in Montana. We have no idea where the parents might be.....

Preparing for Montana

Important things like practicing for the big showdown!

Starting to Pack

We are starting the packing and list making!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness was the topic for the Sunday sermon. The preacher discuss how offering forgiveness to others is not an option for a follower of Jesus. The understanding of what forgiveness is and is not, and how miracles can happen when people practice forgiveness. During the service I was thinking about Jan (my mom's friend) whose son was murdered and now another family member has done terrible things. How does she forgive???? My friends who have and are going thru divorces and if they will ever be in a place that they can forgive and not be bitter. At the end of the service we were suppose to write the initials of the person or people who we needed to forgive. I was thinking and thinking and thinking, and couldn't think of anyone who I felt had done me wrong, or my family wrong. The lady next to me ask if she could use my sheet of paper, she had two pages worth! I told Ray how blessed I felt that I was currently in a "happy place". I pray that the Lord wants me to stay in my zone, and not have to make the choice to have to forgive someone when they have hurt my family.


At the awards banquet yesterday, Colleen got a plaque for being undefeated all year and the MVP trophy for her age group.

RSL Finals

Donavan lining up to swim with his relay team.

Our team won the championship.

Colleen and her BFF's, plus they are the unbeatable relay team of all time:)
Yesterday was the finals for summer swimming. Colleen remain undefeated for the season. Donavan's relay got first. Ray got to attend the meet while I stayed home with Conlan. We watched 3 movies and Conlan beat me in every Wii game we played. He is feeling much better and ate real food this morning. Today is the awards banquet. Then I will not blog about swimming until Sept.!!!!

How to give your mother more gray hair

Conlan went to the doctor this morning with a sore throat and headache. NO strep just a virus, eat Popsicles and watch movies for the next couple of days. We go to the video store and then the grocery store. While waiting in line, Conlan all the sudden says his head hurts and falls to the ground. I get him up and move him to a seat while I finish paying. One of the workers is helping me get him to the car, and he turns white and passes out cold in front of the store. Goodness! I was scared to death for about 60 seconds. He was just lying there with his eyes wide open. A group of generous souls stopped and gave us water, and got ice and called 911. Also we had the popsicles. By the time the fire dept got there he was more alert, we refused a ride to the hospital. I took him back to the doctor's office and they contacted the ER and set up for him to be admitted. Conlan got the works.. blood drawn, x-rays, EKG and IV fluids. 4 hours later left feeling like a new boy. He does have pneumonia. Go figure! Currently he is asleep and I think he might have a couple of days of being housebound. The bright side is he did it b/f our trip not during it!