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.