Long Overdue!

Boy - where has the time gone?  Easter was three weeks ago!  Much has transpired since then. We celebrated Rebekah's birthday (our baby is nine!!), along with my brother Steve's.  They were both born on April 1st - NO FOOLIN'!  Had a great day of celebrating and eating cake!!

The kids have started soccer.  As in most places where there is snow - soccer in the spring can be cold!!!  They are having a great time though.  Each girl is on a team with their cousin - so it helps with the picking up and dropping off!  The girls are also still working hard at school.  I think we should be all finished up the first part of May.  We are all looking forward to that - however, it has been a really fun year doing school with their cousins.  Audrey and Joe are wonderful classmates, and they all get along great!

The past two weeks have been very busy with the CO house.  Donna has held things down at "the fort" while our friend Calvin came in from MN to help us do sheet rocking.  He and Jim worked like dogs for two and a half (longgggg) days!  With help from Steve, Kyle, Mike and Stan (and me helping where I could), we got it mostly done.  It was heavy, dusty hard work. Insulation was mixed in with the dust.  There is just no easy or clean way to do it!  Thanks again to all!

While we were in the midst of working - we had our friends Brian and Karen (also from MN) stop by.  They were on vacation in Breckenridge which is only a couple hours away.  So they took the scenic drive down and we enjoyed lunch with them!  To see Cal, Brian and Karen was so therapeutic for me!  It was hard to let them go!

I ran Cal to the airport on Wednesday afternoon (it's only three hours one way), and while I was gone - Jim rested, and packed.  When I returned, the girls were just getting home from AWANA, and the four of us took off!  We headed down to AZ to see Jim's folks.  

The ride down was really long due to the fact that we drove in snow (off and on) for about five hours!  We went over a mountain pass call Wolf Creek Pass that is 10,000 ft at it's summit.  We hit it around 12:30 am - blizzard conditions.  There have been very few times when I have been so scared that I have wanted to throw up - this was one of those times!

Why didn't we pull over you ask?  There really is no good places to do that once you commit to it.  Needless to say - on the way back - we traveled it during the day - nice and sunny.  If we would have known then what we were really on - I don't know if we would have tackled it.  ( I can't tell you how many times I pleaded "Please help us God!!" )  Good news - the girls slept through the whole thing!

We had a very nice visit in AZ.  I sure like the 90 degree stuff!  We did some four wheeling with the LaCroix's four wheelers.  It was great!  One of our purposes for our visit was to bring the four wheelers back to CO with us.  Jim and Ginny were going to leave them in AZ, as they have no way to get them all the way to MN for the summer.  So - we are going to "take care of them" at our place!  In AZ - there are miles and miles of trails!  We had just a great time visiting, and also seeing Jim's grandparents in Sun City.  The girls are still with their grandparents in AZ for the rest of the week.  They will all be here in Salida on Saturday.  

This weekend - along with Jim's parents, both of Jim's brothers will be in town to help with the house.  It will be wonderful to see them!

The MN house is closing on the 13th of May.  I think the girls and I will be home a couple weeks prior to that - and may be staying a little later.  It will be great to see (and hug) everyone.  We miss our family and friends - and look forward to some good "catching up"!

Please stop in and see us at the house prior to the 13th. We will be working at getting everything out.

I think that's it for now!  It's a beautiful here - in the 70's (still windy though...)

Thanks for taking such an interest in us!  Blessing to you all!