O, Give Me A Home...

...where the buffalo roam.
So, these are cows, not buffalo, but it was still interesting to have them in our backyard this evening. We should look into this as an option to keep the grass cut.

Modern day, mini cattle drive...thanks to our neighbor, on a four-wheeler, who drove the cows back where they belong.
(They aren't even John's cows, so he went way over and above his neighborly duties today!)

Silly Sock Day

Crazy Hair Day

The school year is winding down. Jamie has one week remaining and it has been deemed "Spirit Week".
Today was "Crazy Hair Day" so Jamie wore this wig. He thought it was so funny!

Spring Program

Jamie's kindergarten class had their Spring Program on Monday. His partner was Emily. They sang eight songs plus a medley of Nursery Rhyme songs.


They will be taking their show on tour this Friday when they perform for Boyd Elementary School (2nd-3rd grade) and Evans Elementary School (4th-5th grade).

Happy Mother's Day - Geocaching 101

Some friends went geocaching last week and had so much fun that I decided that I would like to try it on Mother's Day. Geocaching is an adventure game for GPS users. Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once a cache is found, you sign the log book and can take items in the cache and leave items for future treasure hunters. Click here to get more information about geocaching.





Jamie was excited about going treasure hunting. Our first cache was an easy one near a potato field southwest of Center. The coordinates were right on and Jamie took a tennis ball from the cache. We left a hacky sack and signed the log book.

We had to do a bit more exploring to find the second one, a multi-cache, but we had fun climbing on the rocks. We saw three deer and a lizard. Jamie took a toy jet plane and we left an alien eraser and an American Idol toy.






The third cache took us to La Garita Arch where we happened to run into our friends, the Hollands.










We climbed up to the arch and "threaded the needle" before looking for the treasure.




Bill & Jamie climbing to the arch------------------------->
































<------------------Julie & Jamie sitting in the arch














Cactus in bloom
















the hidden cache















opening the treasure...
Jamie took a United Airlines barf bag that contained a dollar bill. We left a candle and a pink mini clip.









Our day of adventure ended with dinner at Chili's. It was the best Mother's Day ever!

Amish Community

A little known fact about Alamosa and the San Luis Valley is that, not only do we have an Alligator Farm and a UFO Watchtower, we also have a fairly large Amish population. We were driving to Monte Vista last Sunday and passed by this small house where the Amish community was holding their Sunday worship. It was quite a sight to see all of the buggies and horses parked outside of the house and quite amazing to think that all of those people were stuffed into the small house.

Boys & Cars

The Alltell race car came to Alamosa last weekend. It was worth backtracking so that Jamie & Parker could investigate. Parker says that he is going to drive it one day and Jamie says that he will drive the truck and trailer. Sounds like they have it figured out.

What is it they say about the difference between men and boys? I guess some guys (and gals) never stop playing with cars!

It's a girl!

This afternoon we took a drive to our pastor's house in San Luis to see the new baby. Rachel was born on Wednesday and mama and baby are doing well.

Soccer Video

I finally got some video of Jamie playing soccer.



Jamie was a little upset that the defender took the ball away from him!

Tae Kwon Do

Jamie is still doing Taekwondo and this week they learned grappling. I was glad that I remembered to bring my camera because it truly was entertaining!

This video shows Jamie & Parker grappling...be sure to have your sound turned up, the sound effects are priceless.

All is "well"

The salmonella contamination didn't affect our water supply but we were victim to our own private water crisis. We actually discovered the problem when a friend from Alamosa came out to take a shower during the water restrictions and we had no water pressure in the guest bathroom.








We did notice a stream of water out by the well but thought that it was from the snow melt. The snow is now gone and we still had running water. So, a call to the plumber informed us that the problem was much deeper.









The well service people came out with a backhoe and dug to the root of the problem, repaired it and, all is "well".


Turns out that the deep freeze we had last winter (the one that caused the hot tub to freeze and drain out) took its toll on the water pipe that goes from the well to the house. We HOPE that this is the end of the deep freeze casualties.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Jamie invited eight friends to his birthday party. He chose the motorcycle cake but the theme of the party was sports.





Back row: Matthew, Jamie, Zachary, Justin, Parker Front row: Emily, Taylor, Ashley, Ryan

Soccer - Week Two

Another week of soccer and, still, amazing to see how much Jamie has progressed in just one year! We had several people comment on Jamie's skills today...we're SO proud! He scored three goals in todays game.

He dribbles...

He shoots...

He scores!!!

Surfing at High Speed...finally!

I recently learned about a high speed internet option that is available to those of us who are isolated from DSL and cable...Canopy Wireless through Blanca Telephone Company. My friend was searching for alternate internet providers (she lives 5 miles EAST of Alamosa) and actually had the satellite installer at her house to install Wild Blue. It was the satellite installer who told her about Canopy. She knew that I've been desperately seeking an alternative to dial-up so she asked about service in my area. She told me about this on Wednesday, I called on Thursday, and it was installed this morning (Friday). It does cost more than my dial-up service but I can now cancel the additional phone line I used for internet, making it more comparable and affordable. I am so excited to finally be able to view photos & videos that friends send me. Woo hoo!!

SIX YEARS OLD!!!

Jamie turned six years old today...wow, it's amazing how fast the years speed by.










Grandma came to visit for a couple of days and we took cupcakes and juice to share the big day with his kindergarten classmates. He will have a small birthday party on Saturday, so the celebration goes on...

Soccer

GOAL!!!!

This is Jamie's 4th soccer season and it is fun to watch him become more aggressive and more confident in his skills. The transformation from last year to this year is amazing!!! Instead of following the pack, he is right there in the middle of the action, taking the ball away from opponents and scoring goals. He scored three goals in todays game!

Bonus Spring Break

The salmonella outbreak brought an unexpected surprise...another week off from school! We're still not sure of the reasoning behind this, other than the inconvenience of not being able to use city water while at school, but it was nice to have Bill & Jamie home for another week. (The chlorination flushing started on Tuesday and the effects could linger for up to three weeks.)










Tuesday was Parker's usual day to come over and since I knew that Tiffany was in a pinch trying to find childcare, we invited Ashley over also. Ashley was a little put out that we didn't have any "girl" toys, but they had fun playing croquet and swinging on the playset.

























On Friday, playgroup decided to meet at the Hooper Pool. We invited Ashley & Jessica to join us for a fun day of swimming.

We enjoyed our Spring Break in Arizona but it sure was nice to get this bonus week to enjoy time together at home with friends.