It was still snowing when we woke up, so that changed my plans a little. We went to church where we had an awesome service. We’ve started a new session called’ Let it be Christmas, a story from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, George, Paul and Ringo.’ We’re using Beatles songs to get a fresh look at Christmas and maybe see it from a different perspective. So, today we talked about ‘Nothing’s gonna change my world’. About how the Jews had been waiting in captivity and hadn’t heard from God in over 400 years, about how they were scattered, a remnant and were waiting to hear about the Messiah. We talked about how Jesus coming as a baby in a ratty old manger rocked everyone’s world and boy, did it change. I hope our pastor didn’t think I wasn’t taking notes because as I thought about the waiting and the wondering of the Jews so long ago, I wrote a poem. I’ll have to post it later though, it’s in the car and James has the car.

After church and a shopping spree from Grandma at Wal-Mart we went home and played games and watched the snow fall. I had planned to go to the Fort for the farolitos lighting ceremony tonight, but it was still snowing at 4pm when we would have had to leave, so we missed it. I guess we’ll do it next year. We played scrabble and I beat my mom by 1 point, not bad. I made turkey noodle soup for dinner and some fresh bread, then after dinner we made gingerbread cookies.

This is the easiest recipe ever and they are sooooo good.

Easy gingerbread men

18 ½ oz pkg. spice cake mix
1 C flour
2 t. ginger
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
1/2 C molasses

Mix together cake mix, flour and ginger. Mix in remaining ingredients, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Cover dough and refrigerate for 2 hours. Place dough on a floured (or powered sugar) surface, roll out to 1/4” thick. Cut out shapes and bake on a greased sheet at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (8 minutes for chewy, 10 for crispy.)
Makes 1 ½ dz.

Tomorrow is rehearsal and recital, so wish us luck that we will dance with happy feet, hearts and souls!

After playing scrabble and making gingerbread houses (warning they are smaller than the box leads you to believe) and a quick nap, we headed over to the Winter wonderlights at the Wildlife experience. Don’t our gingerbread houses look cute up close?

(Grandma’s house, the best one.)

Hannah helped too.

While we waited in line for ticket we saw elves playing violins and this soldier who was juggling.

All the kids were asking to see his juggling clubs and balls so when Joel asked (and said he could juggle) the guy let him have the juggling balls first. Joel did a few tricks with them and then the soldier let him try the clubs.

I don’t think the guy actually expected Joel to able to juggle the clubs. But, he did and everyone waiting in line clapped for Joel until the soldier guy decided that Joel was stealing his thunder (plus we had to move up in line.) We walked along the trail around the museum gazing at the lights.

The kids had those 3-d glasses too.

After the light trail we ended up in the museum in the discovery den and then went outside to the elf village. Lastly we watched ’How the Grinch stole Christmas’ on the extreme screen. I was a little mad that we didn’t get to go into the museum (private party), but after the movie I thought the kids had fun and it was something different to do. Plus with the snow on the ground, it felt like the start of the Christmas season.

Have a holly jolly…snow day! Maisy thought the snow was the perfect birthday present. How cool is that? My mom comes in and we get snow! I’m not going to count the snow we had a few weeks ago that lasted a few hours. This is our first real snow this season, quite late too, but at least it’s here. So, after a breakfast of gingerbread eggnog French toast we geared up and headed over to the sledding hill.

Grandma was having a lot of fun (and wearing her newly knitted scarf and hat.) We sledded, snowboarded and ate snow.

Coming back up the hill is work.

Making snow angels.

We made monster snowballs (just like in the cartoons, start at the top of the hill and let it roll down.)

Here’s Joel with his, it was so big we eventually couldn’t roll it anymore.

Here’s Grace’s expression when she saw the snowball!

Here is Joel after he let a snowball fly and its recipient Grace just as it hit her (she wasn’t too happy.)

But, in general, it is my theory that snow makes people happy…see?

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Denver!

June 1858, GOLD! Gold is discovered in the South Platte River near Cherry creek. It is said that gold nuggets line the streets and waters and are just waiting to be picked up to make a man a fortune!

November 22, 1858 Denver City Town Company is founded by the William H. Larimer party from Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. Wanting to be Grand Pooba of the New Denver City, Larimer laid out street plats. Miners beware: grub stakes and land tracts are being offered up in Poker games. Be careful or you may end up with no stake and no home! Larimer was instrumental in the formation of the Colorado territory and making Denver the Capitol of that seat. He was expected to be Gov., but President Lincoln gave the seat to William Gilpin of Missouri. Larimer’s city was across the creek from the Auraria settlement (founded earlier) and when the two rivals merged, Denver City dropped its name to just Denver.

1861 Colorado territory created.

1870 The train’s a-coming! The Denver Pacific, Kansas Pacific and Colorado Central Railroads reach Denver, ending the town’s isolation and stagnation. Before this people arrived via wagon, or in some cases walking form the last train stop outside Denver (quite a ways off.)

1871 Clang, clang, clang goes the trolley! Ding, ding, ding goes the bell! First Denver street car line built from Auraria to five points.

1876 Colorado becomes the 38th state.

State Motto - Nil Sine Numine - Nothing Without the Deity
State Name and Nickname - Colorado / Centennial State
State Animal - Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
State Bird - Lark Bunting
State Fish - Greenback Cutthroat Trout
State Flower - White and Lavender Columbine
State Folk Dance - Square Dance
State Fossil - Stegosaurus
State Gemstone - Aquamarine
State Grass - Blue Grama Grass
State Insect - Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly
State Song - “Where the Columbines Grow” and “Rocky Mountain High”
State Tree - Colorado Blue Spruce
State Mineral - Rhodochrosite
State Rock - Yule Marble
State Reptile - Western Painted Turtle

1904-1918: Mayor Robert W. Speer transforms Denver into a “City Beautiful.”

1929 Fly to Denver! Stapleton airport opens. Although air travel wasn’t new to Denver, back in 1919 you could fly from Denver to Colorado Springs for $12.50 in an open-air cockpit.

1930’s Denver develops its mountain parks system, including Red rocks outdoor amphitheater and Winter park ski area.

1947-1955: Mayor Quigg Newton modernizes Denver, installing Dr. Florence Sabin as head of Health and Hospitals; Hank Barnes sets up one-way streets and “The Barnes Dance” (diagonal pedestrian crossings downtown, we were the first city to have those – drivers hate them!)

1995: Denver International Airport opens; Denver builds a grand, new public library, incorporating the original 1955 landmark building, and restores historic branch libraries.

27 Denver landmarks:

1. Tivoli Brewery
2. Byers Branch Library
3. Speer Boulevard
4. Lincoln Hall
5. Oxford Hotel
6. Denver Gas and Electric Company
7. Baker-Plested Cottage
8. Corona School/Dora Moore School
9. Cheesman Park Memorial Pavilion
10. Baerresen-Freeman House
11. Bluebird Theater
12. Zang Mansion
13. Harman Town Hall/Greenleaf Masonic Temple
14. Douglass Undertaking Parlor
15. Clements Row House
16. Annunciation Catholic Church
17. Romeo Block
18. Queree House
19. Smith House
20. First Ave. Hotel
21. Washington Park Boathouse and Pavilion
22. Cory Elementary School
23. Four Mile House
24. Lowry-Eisenhower Memorial Chapel No. 1
25. Richthofen Castle
26. St. Thomas Episcopal Church
27. Civic Center Park

Today we headed over to the Colorado History museum to see Mayor Hickenlooper cut the ribbon to the new Denver exhibit.

It’s called Denver 150, imagine a great city. People gave a few speeches and we sang a verse of ‘Happy birthday to you’ to Denver.

In the new exhibit they have everything from the Rockies home base and dirt from the 2007 National league championship games to the money bag and gun from the Boettcher kidnapping. They have John Elways’ t-shirt, old printing press, wagon carts, historic pictures and a film about Denver stories. It was pretty neat and I’m guessing it will be a permanent exhibit even when the museum moves into their new quarters. The museum had a passport trip set up for the kids where they got a stamp at every site.

We got to pan for gold, lasso a steer, spark a fire, see an old schoolhouse, grind corn meal, see several touch carts and the mining cart exhibit was actually on (that’s the first time we’ve seen it working.) We saw a ski soldier reenactor, a square dance group, an Indian tribe dance and got a free Denver postcard at the end of it. If you haven’t been, go on Saturdays. They have cool family events and kids under 12 are free.

Next stop was the Denver Botanic gardens, also free today. They are tearing up the place for winter so most of it was closed off, but we did see what was left of the outdoor gardens. Inside the giant glass and steel structure is a rainforest cornucopia of plants, flowers and trees.

It’s very humid in there (reminds us of Houston.) Today it wasn’t so bad because it was only 60 outside. The new exhibit at the gardens was graffiti or urban garden art. We sat down and wrote our names graffiti style on paper and looked at this plywood art up close.

There were panels of graffiti art all over the gardens, and I must admit – they look like art to me. After rolling down the hill and playing tag we went to the last stop of the day.

Four mile historic park gets it name because it is 4 miles from Denver. Four Mile House once served as a stage stop, wayside inn, and tavern for travelers on the Cherokee Trail on their way to Denver City. We haven’t been here in 5 years. We’ve been back here 3 years, but we just haven’t made it by for anything. Half of what we saw I don’t remember from our last visit. We went in the visitor center, which I think is new, and headed out to the houses. We passed up the quilting bee house where some ladies sat quilting and we pounced on a cat that was lounging nearby (to pet him.) We went by the outdoor bakery where oatmeal-cranberry cookies and Christmas cookies were being cooked in an old Franklin stove. They were good! We saw the root cellar, tipi, miner’s camp, miner’s cabin and the blacksmith shop.

He was actually in there working on a piece. We went by the barn and saw the horses (the girl’s had them named in 2 seconds; Brownie, Snowflake and Rainbow.)

After petting the horses and looking at the goats we wandered back to the center and found dress up clothes to put on.

It would have been much more pioneery if there had been 5 feet of snow on the ground, but we still had fun in the sun.

That was the way we spent Denver’s Birthday.

Happy 150th!

I still have 2 days until Joel is really 14, but we had his party today. Can you tell that the theme was camo/army/gun?

I found a camo tablecloth, camo plates, cups, napkins and helmets over at US toy. I got dog tags, camo wristbands and grenades as favors (and those of you who left without them, I saved you some.) I was going to make a camo cake, but we bought a chocolate one instead. We put chips in the helmets and when the kids arrived they went outside for an air soft war. As you can see they were well prepared (some more than others) for a plastic bb onslaught.

Joel made 2 bunkers in the back and the teams hid out behind them trying to entice people out to get shot.

They had fun!

After a brief intermission for pizza and drinks it was time to open presents. Almost everything was air soft related. He got a few new guns, holder, WWII ammo box, glasses, ammo, a laser tag chess game and money. Then came James’s present, as you can see it caused quite a stir.

All of a sudden everyone said, ‘I’m on Joel’s team!’ After cake they went back out to war (really they were just waiting for the battery to charge up to the new gun.) Then they went up the street and played in the open space. Don’t worry we’re using biodegradable pellets. I have about a cups worth of them lying around the house right now too.

So, nobody got hurt, Joel got what he wanted, with a few surprises and he had fun. An excellent party indeed!

Church was great. We talked about how we can be like museum curators to show people Jesus. We can tell them a little about His life or what He has done in ours, show them around and then step back and let God do His thing. We also talked about how miracles still happen, though sometimes they are what we would call common so we miss them. Not every miracle has to have a blind man seeing or a lame man leaping for joy, there are smaller miracles happening around every day, sometimes we just miss them.

We ate lunch at Pho and had steaming bowls of soup. We haven’t been there in forever and it was good. Back at home we watched a disc of Lost; we’re 2 discs away from being done with season 2. I’m pretty sure there’s no soccer tomorrow, but we’ll have a nice leisurely school day and then it’s observation day at dance. Pics to come!

Because of a low ceiling James couldn’t fly today. So, he had a later ground school session which meant I wasn’t able to get to WOTR for my volunteer training. So, we took fall pictures in the 40 degree cloudy weather and waited for James.

These are pretty good, not great.

Hannah was crying towards the end and everyone was complaining about the cold. How am I supposed to take a fall picture and see your clothes if you have a coat on? It’s not my fault it’s 40 outside. We almost got snow, but we never made it past 34 degrees at night. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

After James’ flight lesson and church we went up to St. Mary’s glacier to see the aspen leaves changing.

This was the view on the way up.

As we got closer you could really see the orange, red and yellow popping off the mountain.

We drove up the switchbacks slowly and soaked up the sight of the dancing leaves. Some were still green, but the yellow and orange outweighed them. There were also red and even some purple on the aspens. Some of the other trees were changing too; it was a symphony of color for our eyes. We tooled around in Alice just checking out lots for sale and then it started to snow. We would have still hiked up to the glacier in the snow, but it was also lightning and there weren’t any trees up there to cover us.

So we drove back into St. Mary’s and saw the lake, see the little ripples?

The snow was dropping pretty fast at this point. We drove around the back and you can see a patch of snow that is on the glacier, there were people up there skiing down (not a good thing to do, it ends in a patch of giant boulders.)

The snow started to taper off as we passed the parking lot for the glacier, but the lightning was still crackling across the sky, so we headed down to go home. Just as in going up, we had the colorful foliage to gaze at on the way down.

Beautiful.

James had his glider flight this morning, that would be James not Joel. Senior members in CAP are required to take their glider flights too. He said it was a lot different than a plane. They did extra steep bank turns and then plummeted to the ground straight down. James said when they pulled up they had so much force they were only 100 feet lower than when they started the dive. When he got back in the car he kept trying to press the rudder instead of the brake. That’s my worry with Joel learning to drive after he’s learned how to fly. I’m afraid he’ll try to step on the rudder in the car where there’s no rudder!

James didn’t make it home in time for our library Picasso class, so we did it here instead. We used Mr.Picassohead on the computer to make a design. Then we printed it out and enlarged it on our papers, like this:

We went upstairs and painted them with water color; except for Joel (he used markers.) He wasn’t happy with the first one so he made another one too. I think they all came out pretty good.

Bethany:

Joel:

Grace:

Me:

Hannah:

We finished up the Picasso lap book, here’s a slide show of that.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Liesec4/Picasso2#slideshow

Grandma Carberry’s house is fine; they finally made it through to Seabrook Saturday. But there’s still no power there so she’s staying with her sister-in-law. My mom is still without power, but judging from her ability to get on the computer and comment on this blog, her generator is working fine! My Grandparents got power back Saturday and had someone come out and saw up some downed trees. I haven’t heard from my dad, but I assume since others are still powerless he is too.

Soccer starts tomorrow and we have a whirlwind week which I know will fly by and then it will be almost October. The seasons are changing so rapidly I can’t keep up. And I don’t just mean the weather seasons, but the seasons of my life. Joel is almost 14 and I’m going from a total teacher mode with him into a guidance mode. I’m starting to no longer be the potter, but hands that hold the potter’s hands and guide them along the clay. I can still sense the shape of the object, but I have less direct effect on its outcome. Scary.

I told a friend that as I was watching an episode of Lost the other day (yeah, we just found about that show, 4 years later – don’t spoil it for me we’re on episode 4) and Kate was asking Jack how he handled being scared. He said, “I give fear 5 seconds and then I get back to work.” So I came up with: fear it, face it, and finish it, sounds like a good approach to a lot of things. I guess I can fear for a little while the fact that I have a boy about to be 14. Then I can face it and go on with my work. Lots of stuff needs to be done and though I’m closer to the finish line, it’s still a black and white checkered flag in the distance. It’s just a lot closer than it was 13 years ago!