Colorado Adventures- Photo Overload!

I wanted to post some pictures of the fun we had in Colorado....but I couldn't pick just a few!!! We have tons of adorable pictures of fun stuff we did around the house! We played tons of games, had skit night, dance parties and enjoyed our vacation....but for this post its all about the adventures!

Colorado Sand Dunes!
This place is really cool (actually its hot..the sand at least!) Its a National Monument located in the middle of the beautiful Colorado Mountains! The sand looks fake as you drive up to it! We walked, and walked and played in the sand!

Drive In Movie!
I have never been to a drive in! Honestly I didn't think there were any left!! When we saw it was Showing Night at the Museum 2 we had to go! It was awesome! The kids loved the old fashioned playground! We bundled up and enjoyed the stars, mountains in the background and a funny movie!

Rafting!
Yes, we actually took our 7 kids white water rafting!! We took the mild course down the Rio Grande! It was awesome!!! We've got more pictures but they are on Susans camera!

Explored the Countryside!
We took lots of time to play outside and explore the mountains! These pics are from a scenic drive we took one day! MaryCate and Trey made a canoe out of this old stump! And Jim found some old jaw bone from some animal!

Pagosa Springs- Natural Hot Springs
This place is AMAZING!!! Greg grew up camping in Pagosa Springs! It has to be one of the most beautiful places in Colorado. The kids loved the natural hot springs! We got in each and every pool...even if we only put a toe in some! (Some were up to 117 degrees!)

While in Pagosa we got some fake facial hair from a toy machine!! We got more laughs out of these fun .50 items! Meet my son, Mario or Luigi!

Snow Sleding!
We heard there was still snow up on the mountain so we set out to find some!!! And waaaa la! It was at the Great Continental Divide and we had a blast playing in the snow...in JUNE!

Campfires and Cookouts!

Mining for Gold, Silver or any other shiny rock!
We were only a few minutes away from a mining town, so one day we went to the mining museum & looked for treasures of our own!

Colorado Vacation, The Beginning!

About 8 months ago we began planning our family vacation to beautiful Colorado this June! Time passed so quickly and before we knew it we were loaded up in the car and headed for the mountains! On the way we stopped in Childress to visit our good friends the Hendersons! John (sitting next to Greg) was our best man 14 years ago!

Next we met up with the Newhouse family in good ole Amarillo and decided....if you've gotta eat it might as well be at the Big Texan! That place was SO hick, it was hilarious to imagine what tourists must think of Texas when they eat their!

THE HOUSE!!!

I just have to show off this gorgeous house! It was donated by a generous and awesome family from Saturn Road to an auction we had back in November benefitting little Lia Stone. Greg was the second highest bidder and the family honored his donation to the Stones in exchange for a week at their home! The Kitchen was awesome!! It was actually fun to cook in! On a side note, the diamond fell out of my wedding ring while we were there and actually found it (thanks Jim!) on the wood floors of the kitchen! thank goodness!

Madison and her roomie for the week! (And someday at ACU we hope!) Ashton Wilburn! Ashton is Jim and Susan's niece and she and Madison have become good friends! Ashton lives in Tulsa with her family so she and Madison don't get to spend a lot of time together but they keep in touch with the greatness of cell phones and computers!

The "Bunk Room"! There are beds in this room you can't even see from the picture! But how cool is that?? The room also had a sitting area w/ tv and sofas so the kids had their own "hang spot" upstairs in their bunk room!

An arial shot of the living rom! Greg and Jim hanging out!

Jim and Susan in the GIANT Copper bathtub!! That thing was awesome!! That is a steam shower next to the tub, which was also incredible!!!

MaryCate Posing on the back porch that leads down to the stream!

Susan and Stacey, nice and relaxed just hanging out in Colorado! Where its a perfect 65-75 degrees outside!

Hot Tubbin!

Kids playing in the river! It was to chilly for them to get in but they threw a million rocks into the water!
Greg's favorite spot! Relaxing on the porch swing!

Next, I'll post some pictures of all our adventures while we were there!!! We packed our week with lots of fun!

Sports Stars!

We've wrapped up our first season of Girls Softball! McKenzie joined the Pink Panthers team this year and brought along her daddy as the pitcher! (they play coach pitch) McKenzie continues to prove to be our little athletic girl! She loved playing softball and loved having her daddy out there with her! It was great to watch her give her advice and spend lots of time throwing balls to her in the front yard! I'm sure those are memories that will last for her! Could they be any cuter in their pink shirts??? I think not!
Maddox Jay played his first ever season of soccer! This boy loves sports!! He was a maniac out on the field! He was by far the smallest, but that didn't stop him. He was aggressive and got right in the middle of things with those big ole boys! He scored a bunch of goals and each time took of running across the field to his daddy to give him a high five! That million dollar smile in the heat, and he played an entire game in the pouring rain....seriously at this age you would think they would call it, but no, we played on!

No Training Wheels!

Maddox has been asking for several weeks to remove the training wheels from his bike! We were up at the church working and had a bike that was awaiting some repair on the training wheels (preschool's riding toys). Well instead of repairing the training wheels I took them off first and let Maddox have a shot at it! And "Waa-La" he started riding on the first try!

How many kids learn to ride a bike in the halls of the church?? Fun fun!

LTC

Each year over Easter Weekend the kids participate in Leadership Training for Christ competition at the Anatole in Dallas. They spend so much time preparing and rehearsing all their skits, songs and other talents!

Madison and her Puppet Group!

Saturn Road All Girls Chorus

A couple cuties I saw hanging out in between events!
How great to train our children in church leadership! They participate in tons of activities from Bible bowl, bible class teaching, bulletin board making, song leading, scripture memorization, puppets, drama, and more!! Greg and I love it b/c we get to see tons of our old friends from ACU and our young marrieds class at Saturn Road.

Youth Retreat & Madison's Bday

This past weekend was our combined Jr High/High School Youth Retreat. Greg and I had been scheduled to go as chaperone's for months and been really looking forward to it.

Earlier in the week we had a scare with Greg's grandmother and thought his parents (our pre-arranged babysitters for the little kids) were going to make a trip to Indiana, plus McKenzie had a softball game, Maddox had a soccer game (and pictures!) and there was a girl scout campout...so we decided it would be best for Greg to stay home and tend to the flock. He did make a day trip out to retreat and was able to hang out with us for the day!

I have about 30 pictures of this exact jump shot.....they were sweating by the time we finished!

Happy Birthday to my girl!! She turned the 13...a TEENAGER!!!

We brought a HUGE cake and decorated her bunk with all kinds of fun party stuff and little presents! She was a good sport....having your mom around with 130 other teens I'm sure can get a little old...but we got along GREAT and were able to spend some good times together throughout the weekend.

Thanks to the youth ministers for letting me tag along! I think I earned my keep throughout the weekend! It was a BLAST and makes me remember how great youth retreats were as a kid! I broke out my old scrapbooks and looked up some old pictures on the old Altamesa vans, at DQ in Whitney and good ole Iron Springs! Fun times!! I'm thrilled my kids are able to experience the greatness of a big, strong youth group.

JBF Sale!

We just wrapped up our 14th Just Between Friends sale! Those of you who have known about the sale for a long time can remember the days when we had 5 strollers and a couple racks of clothes! Well....those days are behind us! This sale we had 850 registered consignors and 36,000 square feet of selling space! It was wild! All four Dallas News channels sent camra crews out to film the sale and interview us about what could be found! We also got 2 articles in different newspapers. I stand in awe myself of the magnitude of our sale! We spend so many years praying and praying for some kind of free publicity about the sale and BAM..this sale we got it all! It's because of the economy, everyone is looking for a way to save money, and make some extra money!

So....if you haven't heard of JBF check out the website: www.dallas.jbfsale.com for more info! We are planning for a Back to School Sale the end of July!