Vacation Bible School

Alamosa Christian Reformed Church (June 6-10)

Jamie went with his friends, Spencer and Ashley, to the Vacation Bible School held at the Alamosa Christian Reformed Church. Julie participates in a Women's Bible Study at this church and was asked to help teach the kindergarten class with Michelle. The VBS theme was "Prayer Safari" and we learned the Lord's Prayer. We also learned some cool new songs. Jamie had fun in Mrs. Sinclair's class playing with the kids and doing fun craft projects. Julie enjoyed her small, but enthusiastic, group of kindergartners.

Trinity Lutheran Church (June 13-17)

Jamie started out this week of Vacation Bible School with only his friend, Ashley. He found that he had other friends there (Hunter, Danielle and Aaron) but he really missed Spencer. So, we made some phone calls and Spencer started coming on Wednesday. The theme for this week was also safari related and they followed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Some of their cool craft projects included making soap, decorating their VBS T-shirt and decorating a safari hat. Jamie's teacher was Mrs. Gaunt and he really enjoyed himself, even knowing that mom was not across the hall in another class. Everyday we asked him what he learned that day and his response was, "learned about God". When we questioned further, he say, "and Jesus". We figure that those are good things to learn about when you're three years old and going to Vacation Bible School. On Friday, the parents were invited to a program and hot dog lunch.

Arts & Crafts

Day Out With Thomas

We spent Father's Day in Durango with Thomas. We met up with the Holland's so Jamie was able to share his Thomas enthusiasm with his friend, Ryan. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our 30 minute train ride on Thomas that went along the Animas River (the same rail that they use for the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge) and back. Once we were back at the station, the fun was just beginning. We watched Thomas videos, listened to the Conductor read a Thomas storybook and sing Thomas songs, played with the Thomas train sets, got our Thomas tattoos, took our turn in the petting zoo and met up with Sir Topham Hatt. We stayed and played all day and waited until the steam engine trains returned from their day trip to Silverton. We ended our time in Durango with a visit to Cold Stone for ice cream. It was a great way to celebrate Father's Day!

The Circus Came to Town

The Al Kaly Shrine Circus came to Monte Vista. Jamie has watched different videos that had circus stories (Dumbo & Thomas The Tank Engine) so he was excited to go to his first circus. It didn't start until 8:00p.m. (What were they thinking?) and it was outdoors. Translation: it was very cold and very late by the time it was over. Jamie was a trooper, though, and stayed awake for the entire show. We splurged and bought cotton candy but couldn't bring ourselves to spend money on the silly inflatable toys and glow light toys. Jamie didn't seem too disappointed. It was a small circus but they did have lions and tigers, camels, horses, elephants, acrobats, a tight-rope walker and a BMX stunt rider. It was too dark to take many photos but Jamie enjoyed the show.

Summerfest on the Rio

The 1st weekend in June can only mean one thing...SUMMERFEST!

Cole Park is THE place to be on the first weekend in June. It is the unofficial kick-off to summer in Alamosa. Summerfest on the Rio (formerly known as The Sunshine Festival) is an arts and crafts fair/carnival and the entire town comes out to eat, shop, listen to live bands, socialize and just hang out. Everyone goes to Summerfest, even people who have moved away from Alamosa come back every year for this big event. This year the weather was perfect! We spent a few hours at the park on Saturday and again on Sunday. The highlight for Jamie was, of course, the train. He rode it twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. On Sunday, Jamie visited the children's booth where we watched a magician/balloon artist. He made a fun dinosaur hat out of balloons that Jamie wore all day. (We convinced him to take it off to ride the train, fearing that it might blow away.) We snacked on yummy kettle corn and ate enormous crepe wraps for lunch.

A Day at the Dunes

Memorial Day 2005

Great Sand Dunes National Park

The Great Sand Dunes National Park is in the middle of the San Luis Valley in Colorado but when Medano Creek is running in the spring, it is the closest thing to the ocean and the beach that we'll ever have. We invited the Hamilton's to join us for a day at the dunes on Memorial Day. The weather was a little bit cold (we all wore jackets or sweatshirts) and breezy, and reminded us of spending a day on the Oregon coast.

We ate our picnic lunch in the parking lot and then loaded the wagon with boys and toys.. Jamie and Spencer had so much fun digging holes, building (and destroying) sandcastles and playing in the sand, mud and water. The water was cold but that didn't keep us from getting our feet wet. We did draw the line at body-surfing, however. It was fun to wiggle our toes in the sand. We saw people riding the waves on inner tubes, others were flying kites and still others carried their old snowboards across the creek to the dunes to do some sand boarding. There are lots of things to do at the Sand Dunes!
*NOTE* Our fun day was also educational as we learned that with the new "National Park" designation came a "Wilderness Area" designation A friendly ranger stopped by to tell us that our wagon (a wheeled conveyance) was prohibited. Oops!

The Many Faces of Jamie

Jamie loves to dress up & pretend to be one of his favorite characters.

Bob the Builder

Buzz Lightyear

Baseball player

Sheriff Woody

Train Table

Jamie loves his trains and has collected a variety of trains and track. We had looked at train tables at one point and figured that even though we are "handy-work" challenged, we could build one pretty easily. It had been a project on the back burner for several months as Jamie had become fairly satisfied with setting up his tracks and train on a play mat in the living room. He was satisfied until we went to Parker's house one day to play and, Parker had a train table. We told Jamie that we would build his train table someday. Well, Jamie talked non-stop about his train table until we finally decided that we couldn't NOT have a train table any longer. We found an easy pattern on-line and went to work. We all pitched in, making it a true family project. Jamie even helped with the painting.

Happy Birthday Bill!

We celebrated Bill's birthday by going out to dinner at Calvillo's.
We knew our server so I secretly told him it was Bill's birthday. After dinner, they brought out the birthday sombrero and a yummy ice cream treat. They also sang a Mexican birthday song. Jamie (dressed as Buzz Lightyear) got to blow out the candle!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Jamie turned three yesterday and we celebrated by hosting a BBQ party with friends. One of his favorite characters is Thomas the Tank Engine and he wanted a Thomas party. So glad that City Market had a Thomas themed birthday cake! I was able to find most of the Thomas party products on eBay!

L-R: Tiffany, Ashley, Parker, Aaron, Amy, Jamie, C.J., Devin, Spencer, Michelle

A good time was had by all!

This was after the party...Jamie playing in the big shoe that aunt Bev sent!