Annual Aspen watching trip

This past week, the kids were out of school on Friday, so we borrowed a friends Mustang GT convertible and went for a picnic in the mountains and a ride along the Peak to Peak highway to watch the changing aspen leaves of the Colorado Rockies. I go up to the mountains every year in the fall to look at the gorgeous colors, and this year I was fortunate enough to take the whole family since the kids were out of school. We stopped off at my Mom and Dad's on the way up, and Mom was available for an impromptu picnic too, so that was really nice. We had a great time sitting at a picnic table at a roadside site that my family has visited for 25 years. You'll see the picture of the mountain stream that runs beside the campsite in the pictures at the bottom of the blog. Monk and Jami caught snakes the whole time, and afterward the two of them went with me to ride the Peak to Peak highway in the convertible and look at the colors. We stopped off at a mountain cafe and got root beer floats too! Ivy had to get back early to go and watch the CU women's soccer team so she, Noel, Mom and Dennae went back in the van. CU was hosting Stanford, the #1 team in the nation. Stanford won 1-0. Ivy got to go out for dinner with the rest of her soccer team; they all attended the game together.

Early on Saturday morning, Ivy and I went out for coffee and watched the US Women's National Soccer team beat England in the semi-finals of the World Cup being hosted by China. It was fun to see some of Ivy's heroes win the match 3-0. Ivy's team tied their game today, and Dennae and Jami's softball team won their game 7-6. Dennae pitched again, and Jami pinch ran a few times. Monk's team has a bye this week.

Noel is gone selling houses, and I'm running the kids around to all their responsibilities. This is a fun time of life for me. I'm having a blast! Hope you are too!

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Ho hum and deja vu!

We have settled back into the routine of a normal school year, if by normal you mean running around like a chicken with your head cut off. With soccer, softball, football, music lessons, yearbook, work and other school and church activities, we are very busy. But while we like being busy, we try very hard to have definite family times each week so that we protect ourselves from getting too busy. We have breakfast and family devotions together each morning. On Tuesday, we got out to eat as a family (somewhere exceedingly cheap!). On Friday nights, it's "pizza and a movie" night. On Saturday night, we barbecue. And on Sundays, we have sweet rolls and coffee drinks in the morning and ice cream after church at night. These weekly observances keep us all looking forward to being together and protect us from being too busy for each other. It's been a blessing for all of us.

This past week, we came to the conclusion that it would be in Dennae's best interest if we home schooled her once again; thus, deja vu! So starting this Monday the 16th, we will start that again. We are definitely looking forward to it. This past week, Noel also got her first paycheck as a real estate agent. Jami was home from school sick all week. Dennae got her name in the paper for pitching a 1-hitter in a softball game, Michael's team won their football game, and Ivy's soccer team tied. Monk and I got to go to a Rockies game on Saturday night. Our neighbors treated us and we sat 12 rows up from the Rockies dugout. It was fun to see all those players we watch each night on TV. You'll notice in the picture that our neighbor, Jonathan, is quite the prankster. Hope you enjoy the other pictures at the bottom of the blog.

Hope you have a good week for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Games and Celebrations

This week saw the beginning of the sports season in full swing. Dennae and Jami are playing on their high school girls' softball team. Dennae is the starting pitcher. Jami pinch hits and plays some outfield. I've been helping out during practices; lots of fun. Michael had his first game of football. they got beat, but big #62 is starting to get a name for himself. At left offensive tackle, he opened some pretty big holes. Ivy's soccer team had the week off.

We had a birthday celebration for the DeVries family; I don't know how many people had birthdays, but we all got together and celebrated a bunch of birthdays at once. We also went to the White Fence Farm, a very popular family restaurant in South Denver. We met Peter and Marsha Landry, the other elder in our church plant. They have five young children, and we really enjoyed the fellowship.

Hope you had a great week for Christ's sake. Don't forget the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

MJD,Sr.