Sunday, July 25, 2010

The garden update

It is still growing and the rain is helping a ton!  We finally have summer squash!  And I think some zucchini are going to start to grow any day now!  Here are some pictures of the progress.

We picked some yellow squash the other day, and we are going to have it for dinner soon!

Squash!

Basil and the other herbs have taken off in the rain!

Basil, Oregano, and Thyme

It is starting to look like a real garden!

The garden

(Editors note: Sorry for the barrage of updates, Julie has been reeeaaaalllllyyyyy excited about her new camera, and has taken a lot of pictures which she wants to share!)

My Birthday!

Well, it was my birthday and I turned the big 2-8 this last weekend, and man I feel so much older already!  Just kidding!  I don't feel much older at all, but I do know that the last five ten years have flown by.  For my birthday, my loving husband took me out for a lovely Italian dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, but since it is still the "Summer of Mikey" we did have to go the night before my birthday.  On the day of my birthday we went to Fox Run Park with Jim and Amanda and the kids to have a lovely picnic.  We spent a lot of time in the hot sun playing frisbee with Reagan, we also tried to play a little soccer, but Reagan really liked playing frisbee!   After that we just relaxed at home and ate some cake.

On Sunday morning, I got up at 4:45 am because I had volunteered to help out at the race Mikey was running.  It was a bit too early and I don't know how much more volunteering I will be doing, but it went fast and wasn't too bad.  The race was halfway up Pikes Peak and back, so I was there all  morning.  It went really fast because at the end of the race the runners got their shirts, which I helped hand out for about two hours!  And since I was volunteering I don't have any action pictures to share.  Mikey beat last years time by 32 minutes (2:59:22), which means he got his shirt this year, and Jim dropped his time by 42 minutes from last year!!

But the whole reason for writing this blog is to share my excitement of my birthday present!!  I got a new camera!!  It is a digital SLR camera, and I am very excited.  I haven't used my old (film) SLR camera since around 2004, so I am kind of captivated with my new camera!  It is a Canon Rebel T2i and it takes 18mg pixel pictures and it takes HD video!!  I hope you are ready to have your picture taken the next time I see you!!

Here are two pictures I took with it when it finally arrived in the mail!  The first one is a bug I found on one of our Lavender plants.  I called it a Denver Bronco Bug!  The second one is a flower in the garden...  there are a lot of pictures to come!

Little Bug

Flower in the garden

A Visit with Family

My cousin Allen and my Aunt and Uncle were in town a few weekend's ago, so we went to see them in Buena Vista.  My cousin's wive's parents have a house out in Buena Vista that they so kindly let us stay at.  We went for a picnic and drove the atv's around the backyard.  It was a great time seeing them and we wish we could have stayed longer but seeing how it is the "Summer of Mikey" we had to get him back to Colorado Springs for a race.  But before the race, Mikey got to drive the ATV.  He is a bit of a sissy on things like this, but he had had fun!

Mikey driving the atv

Then here I am riding the ATV, I'm not such a sissy!

Julie on the atv

Then Ashely and Allen and kiddos posed for a picture by Cottonwood Lake

Allen, Ashley and kiddos

Then Uncle Bob and Julie posed by the lake

Uncle Bob and Julie

We had a great time with the family, and wish we could have stayed longer!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

First camping trip of the summer!

Last weekend we finally had nothing planned so we made our way out to Buena Vista for some camping.  Our plan was to get out there on Saturday and try to find a camping spot.  We ended up at Iron City campground by St. Elmo.  We had been wanting to drive the Jeep up to Hancock Lake but found out that a rain storm had washed out part of the road and it was CLOSED!  Closed to even walkers and bikers...  they said that the national forest finally decided to fix it and they thought they would reopen it in late July.  What a bummer!  So we then decided we would head up Tincup pass, which is in the same area in the Collegiate Peaks and we were told we could not really make it over the whole thing because there was still a 40 foot snow drift at the top of the pass.  Seeing as how we didn't really have many other options and we really wanted to test the Jeep's 4 wheel drive, we went up as far as we could and had a picnic past treeline.  We sat and watched about five jeeps and two trucks turn around at the snow drift close to the top of the pass and were glad we knew it had been blocked off.  We also hiked around for a little while on the Contiental Divide Trail and then the thunder made us head back to the car.  We had a very relaxing weekend and even made a trip to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  They haven't started letting people in the river yet, but I told Mikey he had to come back some day when we could build our own little hot spring pool in the river!

This is where we had our picnic. Tincup Pass

Mikey was exciting about his first time 4 wheel driving in the Jeep! 

Mikey with the Jeep on Tincup Pass

Flowers by Tincup Pass.

Flowers at Tincup

The view of Mt. Princeton.     

Mt. Princeton

Hope everyone is having a Happy Fourth of July!!!  We are off to the Air Force Academy to see some Fireworks!