Whew! What a fall this has been. On Oct. 28, we left Denver and headed north to Seattle in a Penski truck.  We picked up furniture in Idaho Falls to deliver to the McWeavers.  We had a great time in Seattle celebrating Halloween, attending football and soccer games, and celebrating Strode's retirement.  We saw so many friends and family members.  It was a great trip.

That was followed by a flight home via Des Moines to check in with the Houghtons.  We had a lovely time visiting with the grand girls -Sara and Lori.  Of course, when we can, we take a trip to the Omaha Zoo to check in with all of the animals there.  What a wonderful time we had there.

A few short days after we returned home, the Shoreline Weavers: Matt, Janelle and Camille, arrived to share Thanksgiving week with us.  We had more extended and quality time with the three of them.  We were able to take in the Denver Zoo, several parks, the Children's Museum and, of course, a meal at the Triangle Restaurant to celebrate Matt's Birthday.

As always, we feel incredibly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

We have returned from our wonderful cruise up the Rhine River.  We shared our experience with friends the Allens and Maddens.  We were able to spend a few days in Amsterdam and then cruised the Rhine visiting in Germany, France and ending in Switzerland.  There were so many highlights of the trip:  lovely ship, good tours, castles galore, great food. laughs with friends, new sights and sounds...and so much more.  We are so blessed!

The Weavers joined Mary and Dan Nelson for three days of exploring the Jackson Hole valley in Wyoming.  The weather was terrific and the trees had started to show all sorts of color.  Although the wild fires filled the valley with smoke for some of the time, it lifted just enough for us to enjoy the fabulous views of the lakes, mountains, and the wildlife (moose made several appearances, osprey were nesting, and elk, coyote and deer were sighted).  Laughter was the order of the day for our enjoyable time together.

Well here we are after another wonderful trip to Des Moines (8/12).  We had such a grand time eating lots of ice cream, celebrating Sara's 10th birthday, working in the Houghton's garden, shopping, and watching the girls doing their various activities.  We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  In addition to a great visit this was an extension to Strode's retirement from UCH.  It was a great way to continue his celebration.  Next stop....Jackson, Wyoming.

Could we have had a better time with our sons and their families.  I don't think so!  We ate together, hugged a lot, toured the zoo on a perfect day, had a fabulous barbecue in Janelle and Matt's backyard with the Allens, and had a wonderful taco salad buffet dinner at Amy and John's home.  We mostly watched our two adorable grandbabies--Camille and Oly.  We mowed lawns, washed and vacuumed cars, did laundry and stained a play house--all of it was fun!

This past weekend the Denver Units escaped to the mountains for cooler weather.  We had an absolutely grand time walking through some wonderful areas in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We got rained on a bit, which was quite refreshing.  We stopped in several spots to walk, absorb and savor our beautiful Colorado.  We followed our Park expedition with lunch and stroll through Estes Park--one of our favorite mountain communities.  A perfect place to get cool!!

The Weavers, Allens, and Maddens had a great 4th of July weekend in Flagstaff Arizona - Judy's 50th High School reunion in Winslow, memory lane tour taking pictures of the houses she lived in growing up - numerous high school friends, Bearazona, head and foot, and the Flagstaff 4th of July parade through town.  Doesn't get any better.

Our grandbabies are changing and growing so fast.  On top is Oly with his dad, John.  And then there is Matt and Grandpa Strode with our sweet Camille.  We are so blessed to have such darling grandchildren (and wonderful sons).  Great visit!

Here is the Seattle portion of our family--John, Oly, Amy and Janelle, Matt and Camille!  We had a grand visit in the Northwest in May.  Strode stayed for a long weekend and then Grandma Judy stayed for an additional 2 weeks to babysit while both Amy and John were working.  Judy was able to see many friends and old school colleagues.  As usual, it was wonderful to see our boys and their families. 

This past weekend-I (Judy) spent 5 days with our family in Des Moines.  As per usual, we had a grand time.  We didn't do anything special, but we did get lots accomplished: church, Girl Scout event, movie, ice cream, shopping, baking....and more!  The weather was very nice so we got out several times.  It is always a treat for me to spend time with our daughter Michelle and her family.  (Michelle and I were able to get in several good visits over breakfast, running errands, lunch and chillin' out!)

Last weekend Strode and Judy headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens for a perfect spring day tour.  As you can see by the photo--it was a lovely day in the "Gardens".  The structures you see in the water are made of bamboo. They were a few of the many bamboo displays through out the garden.  The gardens were full of tulips and lilacs.  It was a wonderful day to be outside and stroll through the color...very peaceful!

What a wonderful long Easter weekend we had with our family in Seattle. We got in lots of hugging and laughing with both sons and daughters-in-law. Of course, the highlights of the trip included lots of loving on our two precious grand babies--Camille and Oly! We feel so blessed to have such adorable grandchildren. We loved our meals together, our Kubb at the park, Easter brunch with the McWeavers, lunch with Matt, breakfast at Jay's, and generally just savoring family time. We are still smiling!!

We had a grand trip to Des Moines to visit the Houghtons. We filled each day with "just right" activities with our grand girls--Sara and Lori. Here they are with a couple of their creations. Sara had an extended assignment for 3rd grade and she created an amazing Statue of Liberty--we were wowed! Lori had been working on a model of the London Bridge--so she and Grandpa Strode decided to complete the project. The weather was very decent in Des Moines so we were able to be outside quite a bit. We played with Maisey and walked her several times. It was even warm enough for the girls to run through the sprinkler in the back yard! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and we are grateful that they continue to share their lives with us!

It isn't really spring yet, but the Denver Units spent this beautiful 60 degree day at Barr Lake --near Denver. The focus of our outing was to see some bald eagles nesting in the area. We had great success. We observed the female eagle in the huge nest sitting on her eggs. And then we followed with our binoculars the male eagle swooping over the area. It was amazing. Our walk around the lake was the first of many (we hope) this coming season. We live in an lovely place with so much to see and do. We look forward to more adventures in the near future!!

It was another super time with our dear friends, Allens and Maddens! We joined them in Phoenix for our somewhat annual Super Bowl weekend:-). We arrived on Friday night (from snowy Denver) and stayed through Monday morning. We were able to share wonderful meals, play games, watch the 2012 Super Bowl, take walks in the sunshine and generally enjoy each others' company. We are so blessed to have friends that we can call family.

The Denver Units have returned from a lovely trip to Seattle, Washington. Our hearts are overflowing as we welcomed a new "Weaver" to the family. Oly Strode Weaver was born on January 15th and is now flourishing under the care of Mama Amy and Daddy John.

In addition--our faces lit up with big smiles as we watched our youngest granddaughter, Camille, crawling around and investigating the world around her.

The photos are of John with his new son, Oly, and Matt with his precious daughter, Camille. We take great delight in watching our sons assume the roles of "Daddy". Life continues to be very good.

We had a grand time in Des Moines with the junior and senior Houghtons. What fun we had with our shared grand girls. We managed to eat yummy food several times (including great tacos from Tasty Taco). We played games, made puzzles, attended a local basketball game, and enjoyed our time together--laughing, telling stories and hugging!! It was wonderful to have Patty and Charlie in Des Moines to share the festivities. We are so blessed to have such good friends and family.