Bob's relatives were able to show us the farm Bonnie's maternal grandparents owned when they first settled in Yuma (1912'ish)...and where she lived for a while. As a history buff, I was in seventh heaven!
Move over, John Fielder... Carpenter Farm, 1936
2012
Grandpa Carpenter and Bonnie's mother, Helen (maybe?) sitting on the porch ledge c. 1912
steps & ledge with house foundation behind
top part of photo is outline of barn (so the fence piece would actually be behind where the horses are standing in the above photo--it's not the one in front of them)
windmill, 1938
The windmill fell towards the direction of the pile of hay (it would be laying in front of the hay pile today)
We just got back from a lovely weekend getaway to colorful...er...exciting...um...really cool Yuma, Colorado. Why Yuma, you ask? Well, Bob's side of the family is celebrating the 100th anniversary of their first ancestors settling there...and many of them are still making a good living farming there. That's why.
Truth be told, Yuma is not a place I'd like to live, but it is a place I'd often like to be. If that makes any sense. It's a small town, church on Sunday, pray before you eat, wave to your neighbor kind of place. It's filled with kind, generous folks, steeped in family values, tradition, and just plain hard work. That's especially true of the ones I'm lucky enough to be remotely related to.
They invited all their city kin out for the weekend & provided tours of and/or information about Yuma's ground-breaking Irrigation Research Foundation, feed lot, dairy farm, ethanol plant, and museum. We got to see the very successful current-day working family farm, as well as family farm sites of days gone by.
My personal favorite was when they showed us the farm where Bob's mom lived before they moved to Denver. The house's foundation is still there, as is the pump house and windmill (though it toppled over years ago). The current land owner just planted his wheat around the homestead...rather than bulldozing over it. Love that. In fact, we had to walk through the wheat field to get to it (yes, my inner-archaeologist was drooling steadily the entire time)...our hosts assured us the owner wouldn't mind a bit (the trampling on the wheat...not the drooling). It was fantastic, and I could have stayed there all day, sitting on the porch steps, listening to the wheat in the wind and sifting through the dirt for treasures but, folks were waiting, the agenda was calling, and eventually we had to head home.
We all learned something new and interesting and it was a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend! Thanks, Carpenters & Newbanks!
Ofoto is closing and supposedly migrating all the photos I have stored there onto Shutterfly. I tend not to trust, "trust us with your photo migration" statements so I'm downloading some of my favorites I'd rather not have migrated into cyberspace...never to be seen again. Though not our most glamorous look, this one's a keeper! S'mores, anyone?
And one more keeper...
talk about saying cheese...
that's the dude in Emma's violin post on her blog...
Julia's reading group just finished reading the book, Fablehaven. Since they only have 2 days left in school, they didn't have time for the usual post-book reviews or projects but she liked the book so much she assigned herself a project! She's been working on this 3-D diorama in all her spare time these last couple of days. She gave herself a due date of tomorrow. She's a little work horse, bursting with creativity!
I know this may look crazy gaudy but it catches the light so wonderfully...and I love all things sparkly so when I saw it at the greenhouse today, it had, had, had to be mine! It's mesmerizing!!!
But no such luck. Sophie, Julia, and Karen ran...in the rain...and the cold...in the Cottonwood Classic 5K this morning. They did great...although they were soaked to the skin by the time they were done...as were their cheering fans.
Before:
The starting gun weather...yipes!
Finish Line!
The group of kids from their school who ran the race.
Emma let me play around with her hair tonight. Did I mention she's 13? And she let me play around with her hair. This involved her being close to me...and me touching her hair...which is attached to her head. And she's 13. Just kidding--luckily she's always up for some mother-daughter time. It was fun & we came up with this fabulous Guinevere look. She said I have mad hair-doing skills. Glorious!
One of my very favorite memories of Sophie as a baby is washing her hair. That seems weird, but it was always so nice. I would turn on the sink water and let it run down her little head and she would close her eyes and smile. My babies didn't usually smile on purpose unless they were dreaming...or working on a little diaper project, but she would actually smile for smiling's sake. It was great!! Sometimes even now when she lets me give her a little conditioning treatment, and her hair is all wet, she still closes her eyes and smiles and I'm taken right back to those easy breezy baby days.
Anyway, that is a long way of saying that she's always been a water baby. She's always the first one in and the last one out of the swimming pool...and the bathtub...and the shower. So she decided that she'd like to try out for our city swim team this summer. Try-outs were tonight, and she and about 30 other kids waited by the side of the pool to hear their name called, jump in the pool, and give it their all. The most stressful 25M freestyle of their lives.
Okay...that's a little dramatic. She knew we were going to get a McDonald's strawberry lemonade afterwards whether she made the team or not...and I think she was thinking of that more than anything. But when they called her name, she jumped in and swam the fastest, and most beautiful freestyle lap I've ever seen her swim. She turned it on, and she made the team!! She was over the moon (and so were her parents, obviously!!)
I'm really happy for her, but I'm super happy I'll have a job this summer so I don't have to take her to practice every morning at 6:30 am. That will be a fun adventure...for her and her dad. teehee.
Swim, SuperSoph, swim!!
(p.s. that pool is not our city pool--don't I wish it were! That pool is in Vail)
My peeps really know how to make a gal feel special! I woke up & was showered with gifts...a sweet homemade strawberry card, a custom, hand-embroidered "#1 Mother" pillow, a cool personalized CD with a few of my favorite sounds...The Civil Wars and a southern gospel mix, an Abbott's gift card (yum!), and a family sized George Foreman grill so I don't have to eat after everyone else is done (our old George only fit 4 hamburgers...so I always cooked mine in the second round...but no more!!). Whew--I am one lucky mother!!!
To top it all off, we drove up to my favorite restaurant for lunch...The Happy Cooker in Georgetown. Double-yum!
While we were there it started to gropple, and then it started to snow. But did we run away back to Denver? Heck no! We turned our van due West and headed straight into the oncoming storm to get to the outlet stores in Silverthorne. A plan is a plan. We're not going to let a little May snow slow us down.
Good thing we didn't let it stop us because once we got to our final destination, the clouds cleared and it was a lovely day for some walking & shopping! Happy Mother's Day to me! Thanks, Gang!!
It was a cold and dreary day today. A perfect day for some crock-pot comfort food. So...for the first time in my life, I made a pot roast. It was weird for me. Bob and I have a running "joke" wherein I say "Listen, I'm not your 1950's housewife" whenever things start to get a little...shall we say...domestically out-of-balance around here for me.
When I approached the meat aisle at the store today, there was practically a sunbeam shining down on the majestic slab of beef. So I went for it. I totally felt like Laura Petrie buying the thing, June Cleaver making it, and Lucille Ball eating it. But oh well, it was delicious...and only about $12 to make a meal for a family of 5. Those 1950's housewives knew what they were doing...and they did it without the joy of a crock pot! They had way more domestic gumption than I ever will...but they can keep their aprons & pearls--that's where I draw the line!!
One of my favorite childhood memories is my dad taking me...and only me...fishing at Calypso Cascades. With six kids in the family, I'm not sure how I scored a solo invitation to that fun father-daughter outing...and I'm sure that snagging my fishing hook on just about every tree there made him regret his decision, but I had a wonderful time.
When I woke up this morning, I had a hankering for hiking so my first thought was...Calypso Cascades. I googled it to find out where it might be located...because back when I was twelve, I only remember being there...not actually getting there. So we took our directions, geared up, and headed out. Here's where we ended up:
Nice, right? Nice, but unfortunately, not Calypso Cascades. This is actually Boulder Falls. Apparently, I should have printed a little more detailed directions before attempting to find the old Cascades. We drove and drove and drove and finally gave up & stopped there. But...whatever. It was a lovely drive up Boulder Canyon & watching rock climbers and taking the short hike to eat granola bars by the falls satisfied my mountain-yearning. But excuse me, now I must go google Calypso Cascades...again!!!
