Invite Only

Well this is a catch-up session. I'll probably not post again until we get back from Michigan. We head there on July 23rd and we will be taking the Amtrak train to get there. I'm sure that will be an adventure worth reading about. So stay tuned.

Business first . . . Bo googled our names the other day and of course the blog popped right up, so in light of Bo's job (sometimes meeting some disgruntled lawbreakers) we decided to make the transition to being an invite only blog. However, I know I don't have everyone's email addresses that we would want to be able to view the blog. So if you who are reading this know of someone who may not be invited to view the blog, please tell them to PLEASE request a password to gain access.

Now to the fun stuff . . . No not the kids yet. But stuff that will certainly impact the children. My parents watched our three older children while Bo, William, and I went to Denver in the middle of June for the CHEC conference (Christian Home Educators of Colorado). It was WONDERFUL! It really is more than a homeschooling conference, it is a family-life/marriage/parenting conference with some excellent speakers. This year our favourite speaker was Voddie Baucham. He is a black preacher with an incredible clarity on the issues of government schools, Biblical disciplship/education and a Christian worldview. You can order his (or any other) sessions from the conference at bestchristianconferences.com. We would HIGHLY reccomend it, even to those who have been homeschooling for some time. It really brought to light for us some of our thinking that had inadvertently slipped towards a humanistic worldview. Also, not that you all are curious, but if you are . . . after 5 years of perusing the vendor hall and researching educational models and learning styles, etc. I know what curriculum I will be using. If you have a desire to see it you can click on this picture:
This actually allows you to get some free material (I like that, I am a pen and paper girl and like to spread real documents on a real desktop). Or it will at least get you to the site and you can peruse it from there.
So then after CHEC we had our dear friends Terry and Cindy Healey out to visit us. We had a great time going to a living history farm and taking in an outdoor movie at an fundraiser. At the living history farm the docent was explaining to children how laundry was done in the "old days" and was finishing up by telling them all about this wild contraption called a clothes line. Katherine and Jacob were a bit puzzled by this as we had just been hanging laundry on the line that week. Here are some of the pics from the Healey's visit.
The children all ready for the movie. It gets cold in the high desert once the sun is down.
William being cute and content.
Me and Cindy settleing in for the movie.
Cindy and Jane in the apple packing shed at the living history museum
Katherine and Jacob listening to the docent, Miss Nita.
I do believe the rope swing was the biggest hit of the museum. I am trying to talk Bo into putting one up at our house.

The week following we went to Denver for a very good reason . . . my aunt and uncle stepped foot on Colorado soil for the first time in 20 YEARS! Captain (my grandfather) also came, but it has ONLY been 7 years since his last visit. (Tongue in cheek.) We were very glad to see them and made lots of great memories. Lloyd and Liz stayed for 5 days and Captain went back to Norwood with Mom and Dad after the Denver rendevouz.

Aunt Liz and Jacoboy
Such good friends! Megan, Addy and Katherine.
Captain and all the great-grandkids at the Butterfly Pavilion
G-pa lifting up Jane to see an exhibit.
Mom and her big brother and Emily.
Jacob holding a tarantuala

HHhmm. Maybe there is something in the genetics theory.
Wine in the backyard with Zha-zha.
Chilling and talking was the favourite past-time of the trip . . . Other than bowling with the Wii . . . but all those picture ended up on Mom's camera, so I don't have them available yet.

The children and I stayed in Denver til the following weekend. Katherine got to play with her best friend Blythe Brown (BFFBB)and Jeannette and I packed alot of talk in between keeping track of the children. The Hengsts and I took the children to Lakeside Amusement Park, very fun, a little dirty, but well worth it. And then we were in Denver for the 4th of July celebration put on by the church (GCC). It was also the church's 10th Anniversary celebration and it was a joy to be there for that. And now we are home again and I am up to my eyeballs trying to get projects knocked out before I need to turn my attention to packing for MI. So, the blog is now invite only and I have it caught up . . . two more things off the list. I'll write later, thanks for reading.
P.S. - A little reward for having made it all the way through this huge post . . . William started pulling himself up on furniture all by himself today.