Thanksgiving-Part 2

To pick up where I left off.......on Tuesday it was Morgan's 12th birthday and what an honor it was to celebrate it with him in Colorado! We let him pick what he wanted to do and he chose rock climbing. But first we took a ride up Middle Mt and found a little snow for them to play in....

Here's Lillie

Landon.......

Landon and Harrison......Harrison below

Now some of you who know Mom pretty well may be shocked at this next picture............YES..she is holding Lucee!!! It's a miracle!

She did quiet well all week living with Lucee and was proud of herself! (I can just hear her now, talking to you guys about how we let "that dog" eat off the table and sleep in our beds! We don't "let" her eat off the table but we do catch her quite often helping herself when she is unsupervised!)

Then we spent the rest of day bouldering up to the top of a small mountain near the house. I think the kids loved it...but Appi on the other hand.....let's just say she got a lot closer to God on that little excursion!!!

Finally made it to see the lake in the background.....


Here we are finally at the top!

All the kids from youngest to oldest......

There are 2 months between Lillie and Haven, 2 months between Mason and Morgan, and 6 months between Landon and Harrison. Did we plan this? Nope.....God did! Isn't it neat!
Our family shot from a top the mountain

On Wednesday, we journeyed to Honeyville for a taste of honey and to see the bees; and then on to Silverton and Ouray. The kids got to do more sledding at Molass Pass. Here are some shots of the day......

Oh, aren't they just the sweetest!! They played sooooo well together all week and were my best posers for the pictures! We were going to let the kids swim in the outdoor hot springs pool at Ouray but the fun part of the pool was closed and an adult had to get in with the girls so we ended our day at the Durango Rec Center so the kids could swim there. They had a blast!

Thursday was Thanksgivng Day and our church once again hosted a community lunch at the Communty Center. We had a good turnout but wasn't what they had expected so we had lots of leftovers! Appi made an awesome sweet potatoe casserole and caramel cake, and mom made her southern cornbread dressing.....yummmmmmmm!

Friday, Appi and I joined the Black Friday shoppers at 5 am first in Durango and then headed to Farmington, NM. We got back to watch the big game and I was literally sick to my stomach, from fear that we were going to beat by Auburn!! What a game!

They left out on Saturday morning for their 2 day trip back home. Appi and Mom, it was such a blessing to spend this week with you and I thank you for giving up your Thanksgiving with your other family to spend it with us. We made precious memories together that will be etched on my heart forever! I love you both so much!

Thanksgiving Week- Part I

What an awesome week I had! Thank you God for the blessing of my mom and friendship from Appi! We had a busy week so I will probably have to do this in 2 posts. Appi, Morgan, Harrison, Lillie, and Mom arrived here last Saturday night around bedtime after driving a half day on Friday and a looong day on Saturday. They went to church with us on Sunday and then I planned Haven's birthday for that afternoon. Haven wanted a "Little Mermaid" party and a "pinata" (she pronounces it as spelled....not with the spanish accent over the "N"). She had a great turn out and had a wonderful time with all her special friends. Mrs. Joy from our church made her cake as her gift from her and she did a great job!

(Yes--Mason has a blindfold on!)

Haven was very happy that her Nuna was there for her party!!

Next, we decorated cupcakes with sprinkles, gummies, M&M's, choc chips, etc. Here are some of the masterpieces.....

Haven's friend Gabi...

Appi's son Morgan (above) and daughter Lillie (below)

Haven's friend Alaina


Appi's son Harrison (I caught him while he was eating his!)

On Monday, we went shopping in downtown Durango......

Checked out the train station

And I promise you that you won't visit us without visiting the Rocky Mt. Chocolate Factory!! This is Appi's kids with the bear that sits outside

We then visited Mesa Verde National Park......here we are waiting for the guided tour....

This is the Spruce Treehouse Cliff Dwellings of the ancient Pueblo Indians.....There's a valley between where mom is standing and the dwellings

The whole crew!

Well, I am going to have conclude at another time......our company left this morning and today by 4 it started snowing and covered the ground! They got out just in time!

Elks and Prayer Requests

I forgot to mention the other night on our way home from ABQ, we were about 5 miles from the house and hit an elk. It scared me pretty badly because it is such a huge animal but the damage was not too bad because we got him in his back hind leg. It did do enough damage to declare the van undriveable but we are able to drive it. Thank you God that it didn't come thru the windshield and everyone was safe!

While I am extremely excited about Appi Pate, her 3 kids, and Mom coming in 2 days, my heart is very heavy for our niece Kayci who has lost her baby and is presently having to give birth to it. Please pray for her and her husband Jamie who are walking thru some very dark days right now. We love you Kayci and Jamie and are VERY sorry that this has happened.....

ALBUQUERQUE

We had such a fun weekend in Albuquerque at the YAFL State Tournament. We arrived on Friday night and many of the other team members were staying at the same hotel so the kids had fun swimming and hanging with the other boys. Our first game did not start until 2pm on Saturday so to appease Landon, we started our day out at the zoo.......This shot was taken right before going in and that's Max who spent the weekend with us there with the kids

We started out with our favorites....the apes and monkeys....which Landon is absolutely in love with! He fully intends to be a zookeeper one day and has declared that the Golden Lion Tamarin is his favorite monkey

I loved how neat it was to see the gorillas..they just seemed so close.....

This next picture was Baby Reece....so cute!

We found the polar bears to be very interesting as that one on top was working to get that big piece of plastic up into the pool behind him....and he did it eventually with audience that clapped at his accomplishment!

We had such a better experience this trip than the one in July where Mason was sick and Haven fell down and the temp was 100 degrees! It was cool and all of the animals were out and no one was hardly there....

OK so my favorite animal is the giraffe...check out this video of two of the males aggrevating each other.....

At the tournament there were 4 divisions....we were in the 2nd division and I haven't a clue who we were even playing but we creamed them 32-0. I don't know why but there were no weight limits at state tournament which means that Mason could carry the ball for the first time ever. He was soooooooo excited because they had a couple of plays with him at tight end. During the first game they did the play and he caught the pass! It was so exciting! But that was the only time he got to do it. Coach told us later that the score was so bad that they didn't want to keep running it up but that he planned to play Mason a lot on Sunday at tight end. Here of some pics from the Saturday game.....

Mas and Max....

One happy team after an easy win!

Much time was then spent at the pool at your own risk! The ballgame continued with about 20 boys in the pool!!

They also had a pizza party

Haven was a little worn out after a busy day and fell asleep on top of Daddy....

Sunday was a different story. Saturday was cold but Sunday was FREEZING!!

I don't know how Mason caught his passes but he did and he was soooo close to his first touchdown!! Oh, well....maybe next year! We were the ones that got creamed on Sunday by Rio Rancho and came in 2nd in our division which was still an awesome football season!

I do have to brag on my Mason.....we had the YAFL end of season party last night and his coach told us that Mason probably hasn't said 5 words to him all season (you all know he doesn't talk that much to adults) but that he thinks Mason has the most talent of anyone on the team and that next year he can probably pick his position on the 7th grade middle school team! We knew that Mason loved it and gave it all he had. He learned a lot this year because he hasn't played since 2nd grade and we attributed a lot of that to the very talented coaches that encouraged him (even though we wanted to wash their mouths out with soap quite frequently!!).

I want to leave you on this note........

ROLL TIDE!!!! (Isn't that baby elephant ADORABLE!!)