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.

A Very Good Dog

This one is hard to write. We always knew the day would come. Our sweet old dog Penelope made the return trip home from New Mexico with us OK but it was hard on her we could tell. She loved being back to her grass yard after having only a landscape rock yard there. We saw her make doggie “grass angels” lying on her back and wriggling about to scratch similar to when the grand kids lie on their backs in the snow and move their arms and legs to make an angel. She loped along the fence line doing her surveillance several times too. She was also exhausted and laid for hours on her bed and struggled to rise. It was a beautiful day for March in the mid seventies. After having her dinner she had a coughing spell (more and more common) and I let her out and she went out into the grass and collapsed. She lay there for awhile and finally got up. We decided to take her in to the vet and knew that it was probably time. It was and we stayed with her to the end stroking her soft head and ears.

What makes a dog a “good” dog. It wasn't her pedigree, she came from a mixed lab breed litter. She had a golden lab mother and a Chesapeake brown lab father so far as they were able to determine. There were gold pups, browns and solid blacks and Penelope with her black with brown undertones and white on chest and paws. The litter was hand raised by a family we knew and Emily saw them at three days old. We wanted a female and we picked her. We are fairly certain that she out-lived all her litter mates at 14 years and 5 months.

It wasn't her perfect obedience that made her a “good” dog either. She learned all her commands at obedience class but she never learned to walk/heel nicely on a leash. She was just too distracted by all the great smells and would either pull like a sled dog or dart from one side of the side walk to the other almost tripping you.

She wasn't dainty, she drank like a horse and dribbled water far and wide. In her puppy years she chewed up some good stuff, a bean bag chair and a wood handle on a roll top desk. She tore up the grass in the back yard with her tennis ball chasing. We always had to put fencing around and through the gardens to keep her from trampling everything.

I guess it was her doggie disposition that made her such a good dog. She really just wanted to please us most of all. She loved being with her people and doing stuff with us. The kids took her along jogging. Once she jumped out of the car window going after geese at the park. She was compliant in keeping off the furniture and did not try to dart out the door or gate. She loved going on our hikes and she is in most of my posts about hiking. She would suddenly swerve off trail if there was a stream or lake nearby. She was a master at catching food in her mouth. She LOVED popcorn.

She was our empty nest dog to keep us company after the kids all became adults and left. She was a gentle dog with the grand babies and NEVER showed any aggression even when they followed her around hanging on her tail or poked fingers in her mouth to feel her teeth. She let one year old Will lie on her bed with his head on her side. If she got nervous she would just get up and walk away from them. Up until a year or so ago she had to jump to get her evening milk bones. The toddlers thought that it was so funny to see her jump straight up in the air multiple times. She wore costumes at Halloween and enjoyed greeting all the kids who came to the door.

She was fun and sweet. There will never be another one like her. Farewell old friend you were a very good dog. The photos are all from Steve's archives spanning many years and are in no chronological order.