Oh, What a Beautiful MORNING! . . . .

I have always loved the morning. Especially sunrises. Here are some favorite early morning shots.



Here's grandpa and alex.
































This is the meadow next to our camp. Kiki and Alex could stand, and we could only see the top of them. We also had to get a picture of the cows in the meadow. They had come right next to us, and when we went to get camera's, they went out into the meadow.

Chio and DIRT

So, Here is Chio, burying her hand, and arms in the dirt. Grandma was actually paying really good attention. I got my camera as soon as I saw what was happening, and squoooshed down and took some GREAT photos.








Here's Chio after she rubbed her wrists clean.


She sat and played in the dirt for quite a while.



Alex and Auntie Cathy .. . .. .. ... .

And then she got to fly with uncle Mark and auntie Goose

Family FUN ! ! !

Brendon with the fish that DIDN't get away



So, we were SOOOOO excited to have all our daughters here. We were sad that not all of the husbands got to come.

We enjoy going camping. Camping for our family means, tents, comfy chairs, hammocks, and lots of yummy food.

That could be WHY we like to camp. Chantel has felt deprived, because once the sisters started to leave home, we stopped camping as much.

Here are some fun photos.

Alex loved catching the FIRST fish. Then I think he realized that we were going to eat them, and he wasn't QUITE as EXCITED. Chio, on the other hand, liked the worms the very most, and liked squeezing the fish.

Brendon kept getting them onto the shore, and they'd flip back into the water. The last one he had about 3 or 4 feet from the water, and was squeezing it hard so that it wouldn't get away.




Auntie Trish was a wonderful helper for all of the fisherkids.

She was VERY patient, and Chio LOVED being the bait keeper. She'd stack alllll of the bottles of fish eggs, etc. and then someone would "need a bug" and Chio would unstack the stuff, get the night crawlers out, and carry them over. She was VERY efficient. After she caught her BIG fish.
She had as much fun playing with the worms.




























I love spending time with my family. And seeing them SMILE! we love you all, mom

Up, Up and Away in that Beautiful Balloon . . . .

Did you know those are the lyrics to a song? Goosie (aka Chantel) and I finally got our balloon ride.

It was very nice, although the sky was hazy, which is NOT common in New Mexico. Our pilots name is Pat. We met with the chase crew at 5:30 am, and we went looking for calm, and no rain.

We ended up flying from the park in Northern Meadows, at the end of King. Once we were airborne, the wind stopped blowing, and we just stayed in one spot. It felt really strange, to just hang in the air.

Pat took us a little higher, and we caught some wind, and then we went close to the ground, the pilot pulled a little branch of a pinon tree and gave it to Goosie as a souvenir. (When we got out of the basket, the basket had picked a couple of larger branches from the pinon.)

We could hear cows lowing as we flew higher, and we'd look down, and WAAAAAAAY below were a couple of cows walking down a road on the mesa, Mooooooing. We mooed back and flew away. We were up in the air for about 45 minutes. It was way fun. He touched down, and went back up three times in the beginning, just as soft as you please. I thought it would be jarring, or something, but it wasn't.

We found out that he used to live in Santa Fe, He was a journalist there in the 60's and 70's. What a small world. That's when we used to live there.

Wish you could have come with us. He told us that air pressure was what was causing the haze, we could still see a long way away. We landed just off of King further out on the Mesa.

I hope I get to fly another time.

Playing with my Food - or - Cakes

I received an embossing mat for fondant, and I wanted to play with it. Soooooo, I volunteered to make a cake for Standards Night. It was very fun.
You may not be able to tell, but the cake was about 6 inches high, and 10 inches round. THREE batches of batter, 8 cups per cake.
We put raspberry gel between layers, and buttercream frosting to attach the fondant. YUMMY! :0)

I love you

MOM

Philmont Scout Ranch, June 2009

Hike to Lover's Leap. Philmonst June 2009

We had to get up at 4 am and hike up to Lover's Leap in the dark. It was a climb.
I kept having to stop and catch my breath as we got higher and higher up the mountain.

It was beautiful.

Surprise! :D)

Chio loves to eat sausage, she had this one for about 30 minutes.


















Chio and her friend Alivia, and Alex and his friend Andrea were in the parade.
Alivia let Chio ride in her wagon.
They were like princesses.
Alex and Andrea would ride around on their bikes. I would see Alex zoom around two or three times, and then ride normal.













Yes, We surprised Kiora. Alex knew we were coming, but she did not. I saw her through the window on the door, and her eyebrows went up, and her eyes widened. It was very cute.

We got to spend lots of time with the grandkids, grandpa's favorite thing to do. AND we got to eat Alex's wonderful BBQ, he is definitely the best BBQ-er around. AND we got to play with KIKI and GOOSE.

We made fun curtains for Chio's bedroom, and we played with Waffle, and we did fireworks, and went to the parade,

and ate breakfast outside, and went to Addison for their Fireworks display, and we got back to Sherman after midnight.

I think we'll need this week to recuperate!

Here are some fun photos, enjoy.

This was a fun park in Addison, where we parked our car to ride to Kaboom Town.