Thanksgiving '09

Another Thanksgiving has come, and gone. Once again this year, I am so thankful we have family nearby to share in special days like these. And this year, we added a couple new faces to the mix, thanks to the Hoffmanns ( and God, of course!) The day was spent in eating, playing Wii, eating, talking, more eating, walking the dog, playing games, eating pie, puzzles, and finally more eating.

Bye, Bye, Birdie

Wesley has been taking a drama class as part of "Super Saturdays", a 6 week enrichment program for gifted kids hosted at UCCS each fall. Today we got to go watch his performance as Albert in a scene from "Bye, Bye, Birdie".

By the way, it is hard to believe he is about to enter "double digits" in just a couple days! Our "little boy" is not so little any more!

Time for a Hike

So, what are Saturday's for? Chores? Housework? Family time? Relaxing? All of the above?

We decided to take a nice 90 minute hike up Captain Jack's Trail from Gold Camp road this afternoon, taking advantage of the sunny, warm fall day. We have had temperatures in the 60's and 70's this week, 10-20 degrees above normal for this time of year. We know the snow will come soon enough, and the chores will be waiting for us when we get home, but we decided today was a good day to get out as a family and get some exercise. (By the way, for our friends in California, the trailhead for this is just a ten minute drive from our house! ) We are blessed to be so close to outdoor getaways like this. Photo by Anna.

A Horse and His Girl

Anna starts many of her Saturdays riding in the morning, either with a lesson or a "practice ride", as she did today. Of course, the horse (Desert Diamond or "DD" for short) is borrowed, not hers. But she sure treats him like her own, and he listens to her, most of the time, anyway.

Big fire 5 blocks up from us

Last night shortly after dinner, after watching our dog being agitated and 5 minutes of continuous sirens and firetrucks going past, I went outside to the street and looked up the hill. The site was quite frightening for one who lives in the foothills. (Thankful we live in the "lower foothills, and it wasn't windy!) My view wasn't quite as clear as this picture from the Gazette, but I could tell that there was some serious trouble. Turns out a big house being built in a gated community no more than 1/2 mile from us burned down, and threatened to take the whole Stratton Forest/Skyway Heights neighborhood with it.

They evacuated 24 homes right away, and put several more on notice up the hill from us, and around this house. They set up our local high school as the command center, and used Gold Camp Elementary, just a couple blocks away from us, as their evacuation center until people were alowed back home about midnight.

Thankfully, everyone was fine. Less than an acre was lost, and the one 10,000 sq. ft. home, which was under construction, and nearly finished.

Two of the top photos are curteousy of our local new channels KKTV and the Gazette.

Those who go before us....

During a week of illness with the swine flu last month, I "resurrected" my genealogy hobby. About that same time, I recieved an envelope from a distant cousin with dozens of photographs of our ancestors. Some were too good not to share...so here are a few...I may post more later.

This first one is Bessie Cagle, by her baby's grave. She was my great grandmother's sister. My great grandmother, by the way, died of the swine flu October 30, 1918! Unfortunately, I have no pictures of her.



The second photo is of Cyrus Worth Neff, my great-great grandfather. Anna decide it was kind of creepy, and wrote a Halloween story about it. My understanding from my distant Neff cousin was that family lore paints him as a "jack of all trades", but also not a very grandfatherly type man.









The three little girls are my great aunt Opal, my grandmother Mildred Geneva Neff (the baby, born Oct 7, 1915) and my great aunt Helen. They were the granddaughters of the man above. This was taken in Arkansas in 1915, according to the back.




They are all gone now, although my grandmother and her sister Opal both made it to 2002.

Halloween Costumes

This year Anna went as "Happy Holidays", with a symbol representing each major holiday somewhere on her. And Wesley went as a Star Wars bounty hunter. He also had his friend Baxter along, which thrilled his sister immensely ( not!)

Halloween - Tricks and Treats

This past week's weather made us wonder if Halloween was going to be bearable. We went from fall to winter really quickly, but then back again in a couple days, as we often do here in the fall. The first photo was taken last weekend, and the next one was taken this past Monday afternoon. We had snow off an on from Monday until Thursday, but got less than 6 inches here. Denver got up to 2 feet in some places. However, by yesterday, it was 60 and the snow had almost all melted away in time for going out trick or treating.

Excuse me...I've been distracted by a little place called "school."

I've heard several complaints or concerns lately from a number of our out of state friends and relatives that they haven't seen any changes on our blog since summer. This is largely due to the fact that school started again in August, and being a "new" teacher to my school, Skyway Park Elementary. I have been putting in a lot of extra time and energy there. I also spend a lot more time on Facebook, and have posted several albums of pictures there. If I could figure out how to attach the albums here, I would.

However, I have not given up blogging. There will be pictures and notes posted here from time to time.