Colorado

Just back from a great family vacation to Colorado!  What a perfect week it was to leave Iowa as they were having a heat wave wtih heat indexes of over 110!  It was warm in Colorado, but not so humid and perfectly lovely!!  We spent our first 3 days in Colorado Springs. Day 1 we went to the Royal Gorge.

We walked across the bridge and on the other side there was a mini wildlife area.

Tony stayed on one side of the bridge and the kids and I walked to the other and he took our photo from FAR away!

Jonah and Tony took the tram down to the bottom of the canyon...

Jensen and I sat and enjoyed a cool beverage and watched the hummingbirds...

The Royal Gorge was quite the site to see and we all enjoyed it.We ended the day by meeting our nephew Michael for dinner, he lives in Colorado Springs and suggested The Elephant Bar.  It was really good , but even better was getting to spend time with Mike just visiting .  I was so mad I didn't get a group photo of us and Mike, however I am sure that the boys didn't mind having to get one less photo taken!

Hoops

Last basketball tourney of the season, always sad to see it end-- I LOVE me some basketball!  Hot day in the gym for 3 early games.  The boys played hard and ended up 1-2 for the day.  We lost the 3rd game at the buzzer, always a tough way to end a game especially after making a come back from being down by 8 at one time in the 2nd half!

Chilling in between games...

Since the games were in Pella , Grandpa and Uncle Steve and Aunt Joyce all made the trip to watch a game.  Always nice to hang with family!

Deitch Women

                                    Love these ladies that I am so blessed to have as my family!!

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES!

We spent the 3rd of July celebrating the 4th !  Steve and Joyce hosted us at their house in the country, it is the PERFECT place to spend a day.  Their place is so beautiful and you can spend forever looking out over the rolling hills.  As usual when the family gets together their was an abundance of food and fun!  The weather was a little bit drizzly but we didn't let that interfere....

The big kids and little kids all went fishing down to the pond.

Hailey and Jensen were the only 2 to catch something~way to go!!

We played a little baseball...

We played cornhole...I must say I did pretty good and told TOny I need a set at home so I can practice up and Kick Travis's butt!

We ate a few cupcakes!!

And of course enjoyed some sparklers and fireworks.

Brystol had the Deitch Classic line of the day...As he was dancing around with his sparkler, he comes running over to let us know he had burnt his arm by announcing..."I just got sparkled!!"  It ranks right up there with the other 4th of July classic "Is my ear on fire?"

The sunset was so pretty that night and then when it got dark we were able to sit around the fire, making smores and watch the fireworks in the distance over the tree line that were going on in Ottumwa...

The family (including all 5 dogs) all had such a nice day--Thanks Steve and Joyce for hosting !! 

Happy 4th of July!!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The Heart of Rock and Roll IS still beating---in Riverside!

27 years ago I went to my 1st ever concert to see Huey Lewis and the News, it was a great time and we happened to be in the front row!!!  Here are me and my friends in all of our 80's glory...

Cut to a few years later and 2 of my friends from work and I decided to go see Huey at the Riverside Casiono.  He still looks pretty dang good for almost being 60 years old!!

It was a fun night with friends, although we weren't so lucky this time and were way in the BACK!!

Here's to good friends and good concerts!!  CHEERS!