Frontier Days and a Birthday in the Park

Our son's family came for a visit in late July for a few days and to attend their cousin's birthday.

Of course we did a few Frontier Days activities; the pony rides and the carnival and watched the Thunderbirds perform their aerial show over the city and attended one of the four parades in Downtown Cheyenne. I only got a few decent pictures. When all the grand kids are around things move along pretty fast. The time always goes way too fast for my liking!

The Van Courts also got to spend a couple days in Vail seeing more of the extended family before returning through Loveland for Maverick's fourth birthday. It was a hot day in the upper 90's, but we had a big shade tree overhead and a portable awning and it was all good despite the heat. The kid's got to design a super hero cape of their own. They took a ride on the train in the park and played on the playground equipment. There was plenty of pizza and a special Ironman cake made by mama Erin. Willie (20 months) was a hot mess.

A Family Wedding in Livingston, Montana

Now that it is late October (cough, cough) I am finally updating the blog with some summer happenings. We were privileged to attend the delightful wedding of our nephew Joe Van Court to the lovely Erin Melsheimer in Livingston, Montana in July. Our daughters Erin (and family) and Emily (and boyfriend) were able to make the trip to the wedding as well so we had a fun time. The weather was a bit cloudy at times but still beautiful and it cleared in time for the wedding and the reception. The setting was along the Yellowstone River with a backdrop of the Absaroka Mountains. A theme of the wedding was “A river runs through it” and the love of nature and fly fishing.

My pictures do not capture the ceremony but I got a few of the setting itself and the reception. It was beautifully done with the simple yet elegant decorations and the late evening sun setting behind the mountains.We are so happy that Joe and Erin found each other. They are making their home in Texas, but their special getaway place is in Montana.

While in Montana we explored Livingston a bit. We also went to look at Chico Hot Springs with Emily and Griffin and went on a great hike to a waterfall in the Absaroka Beartooth wilderness with our whole group including our nearly four year old grandson.

Our maiden voyage and more

For our 38^th wedding anniversary in May we bought ourselves a tandem kayak! We talked about getting new bicycles but decided that a kayak might be safer at our ages. We bought the whole works (kayak, paddles, life jackets, and car top carrier) with the help of a knowlegable young man at a sporting goods store in Colorado. We had to go back a few days later to pick up our kayak because we first had to figure out how to install the carrier on top the SUV. Then the weather turned stormy for awhile and we finally were able to launch our kayak on June 8^th. We loaded it up and went to a local lake intown that mostly fishermen use.

We managed to get launched without too much trouble and had a nice hour and a half practicing our steering and paddling. The lake is dissected by I-25 so the underpasses are waterways where you can pass under to the other half. There is seaweed growing in many parts of the lake sending long tendrils up to the surface. I sure did not want to fall in and get tangled up in that but we never even came close the kayak is very stable at least in calm water. We saw a turtle sunning itself. There was one other kayak but he had a trolling motor, he was out for the fish not the exercise I guess.

The second time out with the kayak was on June 13^th.. Emily, Erin and Maverick were able to join us and take turns riding in it. Emily's work brought her to Denver so she drove up to spend a couple days with us and her sister came up from Loveland to see her. This time we chose the main lake at Lion's Park because it has a little beach area and a playground that was perfect for Maverick. He was able to take a ride sitting on the bottom of the kayak in front of his mom and he did a good job of sitting still according to grandfather Steve. He splashed around at the beach with me while Erin and Emily took turns with their dad. It was a fun day. Next time out we will go 30 miles west of Cheyenne to the reservoir where Cheyenne gets its wonderful drinking water. 

Our favorite princess turns four

At the end of April we drove to Kansas because our grand daughter had her fourth birthday which entailed a party for her friends at home and another celebration with her pre-school class a couple days later.

Grammie Urso (Gee) made a fabulous Elsa birthday cake around the torso of an Elsa doll. She also made her delicious signature sugar cookies (better than any bakery cookies you can buy.) Callie is obsessed with princesses these days especially princess Elsa and her sister Ana from the hit Disney movie “Frozen.” Callie is rarely to be found in regular clothes, she sleeps in princess nighties and then wears princess gowns around the house during the day.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. There were girls and boys at both parties. I just didn't capture any boys except Will at her home party. It takes a brave boy to attend a princess party, they hung out in the playroom after they ate their cake while the girls stayed at the table.

At the pre-school party Callie got to show pictures of her babyhood to the group with her mom narrating. Then they all went outside to the playground and got to pet a miniature donkey who came to visit that day. Will especially enjoyed getting to be a big kid at pre-school that day.

Florida for Easter 2015

I've been neglecting the blog but wanted to get some pictures up. We had a great visit to Florida for Easter this year visiting my parents. This is at the peak of the tourist season so there are more people on the roads and at the restaurants and beaches but the weather is oh so nice.

Highlights were sunset at the beach, the blooming Florida sunset hibiscus, the lovely canopy of flowers beside the pool/hot tub, jasmine in bloom around the entryway, funny sea birds, a magnificent Easter buffet, dinner with Meg and Adam, and a very cool car according to Steve.