The Journey Home (from Summer Vacation)

We had to shorten our trip so that we could go back home with Joseph; it worked out perfectly though, especially since Barb hooked us up with a night at the Worldmark at Estes Park, CO.  Which just happens to be only an hour away from Greeley.

The downtown area was a lot of fun, and the carmel apples were delicious!!

Hiking at Jenny Lake

A Family picture-hoping to motivate myself to get some real ones taken, it has shamefully been 5, nearly 6 years since we had one- it is about time!

Zach and Kaija on top of the world

The kids really loved being able to go hiking- we would love to be able to do more of that! 

This was the hike where Eli said that it was really fun but it was "retiring"! 

I think I could do some retiring there- it is so gorgeous!!

The kids couldn't pass up the opportunity!

So we were going to stay for a night at the home of the Adams family (who were the heaven sent friends that took Joe under their wing while he was in Greeley), it just so happens that our 2 day stay turned out to be closer to a week, and they wouldn't hear of us get a hotel. A family of 7 is quite a brood to take on, and we are so grateful for their kindness to our family!

I helped Joe some at the church mostly cleaning and tuning- well let me rephrase that, Joe tuned- I held keys! But during the moments that I wasn't at the church helping him the rest of us were playing... a lot!

We went bowling

And to the Cozy Cow Dairy to watch them milk cows, 

and to eat delicious ice cream, and drink yummy chocolate milk.

We went swimming at the pool (twice),

And swimming at the lake!

The organ did turn out beautifully and sounds amazing!

We had such a marvelous trip together, on the way home we stopped in Lawrence KS and watched the last Harry Potter movie- the timing didn't work out for any of the other locations along the way. 

It was really fun though to run into one of his old professors (Charles Hoag) and his family at the theater, Joe had recently been thinking about him and it was just wonderful for them to catch up briefly on all the happenings of life that had taken place during the last 10 years. 

As always, vacation was never long enough and we were certainly not ready for it to end!

Back Tracking to Summer Vacation

Wow- time is racing by and I just have to get caught up before anything else slips by!!

We were able to be there to celebrate Grandma Nielsen's 60th birthday. We went to play ultimate frisbee over at Abby and Randy's- all of the pictures were lame, but it was fun to have everyone together, and we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

I think there was a round of cards going every night.

Then we were off to Bear Lake for the 50 year Reunion...

Spencer was in heaven- he loved the sand and water combination. 

There was a lot of wave running going on and Zach really enjoyed the fact that he eventually got to drive the machine, Kaija didn't care for them much, which was surprising- though she didn't ever actually drive it. That would surely change her mind!

Zach and Eli spent some time buried in the sand- the skeleton feature cracked me up.

We were so glad that Joseph could join us on this part of the trip- he was busy, busy, busy building the organ and was ready for a break!!

We love Bear Lake, it is one of those special places full of nostalgia, 

and it was nice to relax with the family!

Sledding at Lake Creek

Another of my favorite places in the world would be Lake Creek, up above Heber Utah. This is another  place which holds fond memories of family traditions.  Every 4th of July for as long as I can remember or as often as it was possible, we would go to the stake breakfast, down to watch the balloon lift off, and the parade every once in a while, and then off to Lake Creek to go snow sledding.

My kids have been lucky enough to experience this a few times now as well and they think it is just as fantastic as I do.  The only drawback is the mosquitos up there are abundant and could carry you away.

 Spencer took right to the sledding and really enjoyed the ride, I am thinking he will be an adventurous sort, he really loves trying new things and is generally smiling from ear to ear!

The family trips down had to be my favorite.

         

Robert and Zach- they ended up way down in the cow cabbage.

Moi, my sister Annie and Eli whooping it up- Eli's face tells it all!

The wild flowers were in bloom and were exceedingly glorious, I made Papa pull over for this photo opportunity, and I am so glad we did.

My daddy with me and my gang; I am so grateful that my parents have taken the time to build memories with us and to teach us how important it is to stop and smell the roses along the way!

Goblin Valley

We stopped here briefly before entering into Goblin Valley... Oh I love Utah so much!!

We spent the day traveling from the Great Sand Dunes to Goblin Valley and yet again we arrived to the campground quite late at night. It is really fun doing it that way because it is always a surprise in the morning, and since this is the place where you verge on a fantasy land, it can't get better than to wake up and be in a dream-like place. I have so many grand memories from this place, from my youngest childhood days, all through the years, and now experiencing it with my own family. 

It is a happy place for me!

I think that my love of this place has rubbed off on my kids!

Spencer loves the sand and this trip certainly solidified that fact, as we had many sandy adventures!

Kaija on the "new(ish) turtle"

Alysha, Izzi, me, Zach, Robert and Casondra

Robert and Zachary in the horizon pose

This is the best place in the world to turn your kids loose to explore, a valley in a bowl shape that you can see from the picnic area. It is a great place to learn how to climb, there is a place for every level of skill.  It is becoming more and more popular, and according to the park ranger, the vast majority of visitors are from other countries- a wise decision on their part!

It is always hard to leave such a clever place, but alas onward we must go, 

more places and people to see and many more wonderful things to do!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

To begin our summer vacation, I picked Kaija up early from girls camp and took the kids to met up with two of my sisters (Barbara and Anne) and their families at the Oklahoma City Temple. Taking this southern route is new to us (I think we went through Albuquerque one time), but it was a nice diversion for making the trek out west and I had the added bonus of having extra people around to help with the driving and the dispersing of children! It makes a world of difference to travel together and having the awesome perk of traveling with cousins and the extra perk of having a sister in a motor home- which, yes if you were wondering makes it so everyone wanted to ride with her- thanks Anne for being so cool!

Day one took us to the beautiful Great Sand Dunes National Park, and honestly I had never even heard of it until my sisters mentioned that they had been there a couple of times. Though, in my defense it has only been a National Park since 2004 so I don't feel quite as lame for not realizing it even existed! It is very nicely situated near Alamosa CO. So there were flat lands and mountains and all sorts of diverse and wonderful things to see; one of which was the oil derricks, which Zach informed us, 

"gave him the creeps"- talk about random!!  

We made it  into the campground very late at night so we had no idea what surrounded us until the glory of the morning sunrise.  It is such a lovely place, and the juxtaposition of the sand dunes and the mountain ranges and the flat lands was truly breathtaking.

I opted to rest in the shade with Spencer and watch everyone else make the journey up the dunes, it was a perfect day to be there, the kids enjoyed it immensely and when all was said and done, they came back quite worn out!

 

So there is my brave sister Anne and her two humongous english mastiffs, Bunny and Titan. 

In the background you can see a few of the kids and Barb's dog C.C.

 Zach, Bella, Robert, Alex, Austin, Alysha and Palmer playing up on the dunes.

Master Eli tired from the trek in the sand

My crazy girls in the sand- see the shade from the shrubs, yep that is where I made my self comfy and enjoyed the cool breeze while they were dying and hiking through the sand! 

(Ha ha ha, I think I got the better deal there!)

Spencer is #1

Spencer has advanced into the big leagues now- he is ranked at #1.

This handsome guy is ranked #1 in this house hold for so many reasons:

He has a way of capturing your heart

He loves to be around his family

He makes us laugh

He has completed our family in a way we could have only dreamed about

He helps us love deeper and smile more

He reminds us what is important in life!

Joseph and the kids made his cake today (since I am still dealing with the dregs of food poisoning- that experience was my fun birthday celebration!!)- they did a great job and everything was made from scratch too! I am just counting my blessings that Joseph was actually here for the event- hey he even gets to be here tomorrow, and has the day off work- yippee!!

Spencer was not interested in diving into the cake, eventually Joseph got a spoon and fed some to him, then slowly he decided it would be OK to take over the spoon handling; alas still not a lot of action. He did however pause from time to time to scoop the cake from his belly button, a very important detail!

We love you Spencer!

Joseph's Greeley Project

Just thought I would add this link of one of the latest organ instillations.
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110801/NEWS/708019953&parentprofile=

Joseph just loves being interviewed for these things, because they will inevitably use the clips where he says something crazy.  It is kind of fun though and there are some cool pics of the instrument.

I love this pic they took for the paper!

There is a video link right above the pictures where they chat with Joe (and Dorothy who is from the church- she is a wonderful lady). We were glad to be able to see the project when we stayed there for a week at the end of our vacation. It is beautiful, and I love to see Joseph so excited about how it has turned out. Admittedly he does excellent work, and the smile on his face really shows his delight when he plays the organ and pulls out all the stops!

It is really too bad that Joseph will miss the dedication of this instrument since he will be on another job in.... well now I don't recall- somewhere between St. Paul MN and Birmingham AL!