July 2007

07/30/07  Cheryl, Patty, Darrin and Luke are out to visit.  This is all of us at Buca last night

Luke and Lucy becoming great friends..

Got a letter from the Bolder Boulder people.  Looks like "beating your age" is a big thing!  Only 3.2% of all runners actually did it!  I am an 'AGELESS WONDER"!!!

07/29/07  We went to the park to share the gospel with the lost of Colorado Springs last weekend.  This is Connie with some of the locals

07/24/07 Yes, we have been busy.  Sorry about the no updates.  We have another dog.  Her name is Lucy. We rescued her from the local dog pound.  Although we are not sure how a purebred Australian Shepard was left at the shelter.  More pics and stuff later.  She is a working dog, and needs stuff to do, so we are working on it.  She is having a "stare down" with the camera here.

07/18/07 Another beautiful day in Colorado.  Need some rain, though.  A deer outside our back door.  Check out those antlers!

A Rufous Hummingbird.  This would be the male with the bright red throat.  They have a brown back which is very cool too.

Because we are originally from Illinois, these birds are fascinating to us.  This is a Magpie.  They seem to be very smart and don't like cats!  Whenever the cat is in the yard, they all gather around it and yell and make a ton of racket.

07/17/07  Well, we took the plunge and got a new camping trailer.  Should be a blast, especially in the mountains.  Now, I have to find a way to Ohio to pick it up!

We will not be roughing it too much

Even a shower!

07/14/07  We put some feeders out in the backyard, and LOTS of birds are liking it.  Hummers...check out the brown one. Very rare.  Called a"rufus" hummingbird.

Towhees..check out the red eyes

Us taking a break on our hike a couple of weeks ago.  Still lots of snow up there.

07/13/07  Happy Friday the 13th!  As most of you know, our dog Abby died a few weeks ago.  We miss her, but still have Timothy the fat cat.  Well, Timothy woke us up a few nights ago ..howling.  Looks like he has suffered a stroke or something ,and can barely walk.  We will see how he does the next few day, as he has not eaten or drank anything.  He might be getting better, but only time will tell.  It will not be any fun to lose both our animals in a month or so.

Pictures of the sunrise back in Illinois.. Mississippi river looking into Iowa

God light

07/11/07  Ben and I hiked Huron Peak (14'er) on Wednesday morning.  We camped out at the trailhead the night before.  Made a campfire and told stories late into the night.  Lots of fun, but we were pretty tired at 5AM the next day.  We got started at around 6:15 and summitted at around 8:30.  Beautiful day..lots of wildflowers and a great trail all the way up.  Huron was impressive.  This is the start of the hike.

Run for the top

Made it!  5 down...49 more to go.

07/9/07  Visit to Illinois...our granddaughter Kailey

Barn in Iowa at sunrise

Golf studs

06/29/07  Hiked up to St Louis Lake on Thursday...  Saw a moose on the way to the trailhead.

Here come the girls

Made to the lake

06/27/07  A friend of ours went to Kenya for an Advocate Tour and met our Compassion sponsored child Anthony.  This is Sandra and Anthony

This is Sandra, Anthony and Esther the Compassion Project staff

We gave Anthony some stuff.  Including our picture!

Go Broncos

06/26/07  Me and Ben hiked Quandary yesterday (a 14er)....stats  Started at 8:30  Garmin moving time was 1hr 58minutes to summit. Stopped time was 35 minutes. Summited at 11AM.   Perfect day with no clouds and just right temp. 

Made it to the top!

Snow field at the summit

The trip down was kind of slippery for a while..you don't want to fall...nothing to stop you.

Tundra flowers

06/25/07  One more shot(☺) of Connie with the 50 caliber.  Now this is not what someone wants to see after breaking in to the house. A wife with hormones packing heat........so do you feel lucky punk?  See Colorado's "Make My Day" law.

Our hike today on Pikes Peak about 12,000 feet up.  See the snow ball where the arrow is?

See the trail in the distance....awesome!

06/24/07  Connie finished her pistol class.  We did the range part of the class on Saturday.  This is wifey with a 40 caliber.  She was such a natural...I am so proud. 

This is me with a 50 caliber Desert Eagle canon....Yeah, baby!  Now this is what I'm talkin about!

Squeezing off some rounds.