What we've been up to.....

Yes, it's been a while. Once your life gets into a routine, time flies by....but here is some updates on our family.

Work for me is going great. I'm bonding more with the kids every day, and can actually be my goofy self and not worry so much about doing things 'right'...(though that is important, too). I love that these teachers/parents aren't so strict about fitting everything in. If we want to just get out the instruments and dance and march our morning away...we do just that! It's great, and most days I laugh so much (mostly at myself) that I carry that into the rest of the day.

A couple weeks ago we had our first fire in our basement fireplace. Yes, it was cold enough outside for it. It hasn't been since, though, but there are a few changes we will have to make before we have ANOTHER fire downstairs. We realized that the fireplace opening is too large and the smoke from the fire flows into the room before it's able to make it to the updraft thingy. The majority of it goes up, but quite a bit enters the room. We've had the smoke smell in our house for weeks now.

Last weekend we went to Golden, where they were having a festival. It was a beautiful day...one of those you just want to bottle up and save until mid-January.

While there we enjoyed a BBQ--ribs, chicken, potato salad, beans, and homemade pie. We toured some old buildings, including a one-room schoolhouse. We were amazed that it was used as a schoolhouse until the mid-'50's. Grandpa Merril attended school in a one-room classroom like this, and we were just imagining him sitting in the corner wearing a 'DUNCE' hat. :)

Some girls were in there playing school. It was so cute..I wanted to stay and play, too.

Tanner was able to make a hook with a blacksmith that day, too. It took a long time, and really made us appreciate how hard those blacksmiths worked...and how talented they were.

Tanner pumping the fire.

Showing Tanner how it's done.

Giving it a try....

So hard to twist that metal. See how red his face is?

Here are some more pictures of the day:

We really had a great day. Golden is a beautiful city, one you must visit if in Colorado. We walked along the river watching a father and son kayaking, and further down watching a group of college boys bath themselves in the FRIGID river. I shiver just thinking about it now.

We also attended a Farmer's Market and taste-tested a lot of yummy food.

On another note....We have found a church!! I'm so excited about this. We've felt comfortable since we stepped into the building. It is smaller than any other church we've attended, and at first we thought we would rather attend a larger church..mainly for the youth involvement. But, right away I felt at home. The pastor is a younger pastor and today was the first time we've heard him preach. All I can say is, "WOW". He just knew how to connect with us. So, yeah, that's exciting news to us.

The girls celebrated their Homecoming this past week. They've had a lot of fun....from a bonfire in the school parking lot, a carnival, the game, and last night had the dance. Here are a few pictures of my beautiful daughters.

One last thing. This is what I purchased at a garage sale this past Saturday:

This dresser doesn't fit in our bedroom, so we put it in our dining room where we'll use it as a hutch for now. It matches all our furniture. Did I mention that they have great garage sales up here in the mountains??!!