Christmas 2009: Look at the intensity -- Caleb playing Wii and Callie on her DS

Callie and Angie with matching bags from Aunt Sheryle

Caleb and Callie opening Wii game from Uncle Dave

Caleb with his new Chucks

Callie and Webkinz

Caleb and his Avatar t-shirts

Sammy's new laptop

Callie and Sammy, Christmas 2009

Thanks a bunch Sheryle, for the t-shirt!

Sammy and Mimi studying the Christmas Catalogue

Sammy at the park

Isn't he just the cutest?

'See the Ducks'

Sammy and the pumpkins

'Man, this wheelbarrow is heavy!'

Pa and Sammy

"Check me out in my new boots!"

Poor Pa

Poor Pa is sick with a cold. And it is cold outside! We walked a bit this morning and now I am about to go into Lake City while he stays behind reading. Tomorrow we begin the trip home and we are both ready.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

It has been a long time since I talked about a movie. Tonight Ted and I saw one of the best movies we have ever seen. It is called "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". I had read about it in the Chronicle a few months ago and knew I wanted to see it. Here in this resort we are staying in they have lots of DVDs for free. They happened to have this one. It was amazing.

It is a Nazi era film, but told from a completely different perspective than any other Nazi movie you have ever seen. It is the friendship of two young 8 year old boys. I won't say too much, I would rather you have the experience we had in watching it. We were at times holding hands, at times very tense, and absolutely blown away by the ending. It was so very well done. It is intense and is not for the squeamish. But it is worth it and I encourage everyone to check it out whenever you can and see this one. Don't miss this one.

Saturday, September 5

Today was not the most fun of the trip. I woke up with an altitude problem. I was very short of breath and a major headache brewing. We went for breakfast to a not so good kind of place and then went and bought a container of oxygen to breathe. Came back to the room, which is very nice, and sucked on oxygen, drank lots of water, took a pill for a migraine and had a nice nap. It also rained today, but now the sun is coming back out. And for criminy sakes, this small town, very small, it is only about 10 blocks from one end to the other, is completely packed. There are more motorcycles than anything else. I guess maybe because it is Labor Day Weekend is why it is so crowded. Tonight we are going to play some card games. We bought a new deck of cards and a book with more games than we could ever play in the rest of our lifetime, and Pa has his instructions to read and explain the rules. LOL. We have a movie to watch also.

Since Sammy is now learning to say people's names, I hope that by the time I get back someone has taught him to say Mimi. (please.........). I enjoyed my chat with Callie last night as well.

That's it for now. Oh, by the way, we are in long sleeves and sweats. It's really chilly outside. We see people in flannel shirts everywhere.

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009

Today was another beautiful day in Colorado. I decided to try something different today. I have never used the camera to make a video and it just came to me that it would be nice to try and show you guys what it looked like driving in the mountains. The first video is a bit long, and if Caleb were here and could show me how to edit these things, I would cut it down a bit, but it is interesting.

We made it to Ouray today, and we are staying in the best place we have been in yet. We have been staying in some really nice places, but this one is nestled in this mountain valley, completely surrounded by mountains. The room is very nice.

Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking and tomorrow night we are going to the hot springs here in town. It is a huge area, probably about the size of Barton Springs. Then on Sunday, there is a rodeo and we are planning to go there. The weather here is a lot cooler than what we expected. The highs are due to be in the low 60's and the lows in the upper 40's.

Love and hugs to everyone!