New Mexico summer vacation...

In June, Glenn and I spent a week in New Mexico. We had a great time and the place was wonderful. I agree with whoever posted the blog that it is nearing time for another winter vacation trip. That was fun. This cabin is available during Thanksgiving and the ski lifts open the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe we can all start planning now and in a couple of years who knows. By then all the kids would be ready for skis. :-) Vickie

Ally modeling Pops' clothes

Getting our clothes ready for Chalk Bluff Ally decided to try on some of my clothes.
Nana caught her in the act.....

Daddy/Grandpa and his Studebaker

This is Daddy and his 1953 Studebaker Champion. He got this car for the kids - it lasted through Cindy, Russell, and partway through me (Glenn). It set in the backyard for years - even got hit by a large cottonwoood tree limb. After he retired he started the restoration and this is what it looks like now.

puppies for the boys...

Glenn and I fell in love with a couple of chocolate lab/??? at the pound. They had been just dropped off one night there. They were about 9 weeks old little girl puppies and weighed 11 pounds each when we took them in for their needed services. We took them to Graham last sunday afternoon...They traveled in the back seat of my car in a cardboard box. They really were good travelers. The boys were excited. Since then Colton has named his Peach and Lane at first wanted to name his Prairie Dog, but has since chosen Rusty.

A trip to the park...

On Monday we all got loaded in the vehicle and headed for the park. Ally wouldn't stay up on the picnic table and the other three wouldn't get down. Ally wanted to chase and get nose to nose. Emma and Colton actually fed straight from their hand and Lane has a good arm from throwing the bread pieces...

A couple more...

I thought this was a great picture of Ally and Jason, and I thought this was a very flattering picture of Ally and me....! Actually, it doesn't look quite as funny here-I guess it's too small...I was swinging Ally up in the air, and dunking her feet/legs in the water. She would squeal!! She was in a regular diaper, and that thing weighed 10 pounds by the time we were done. I think I threw my back!

first evening with the kids

Russell will kill me for putting this on the blog, but he looked so funny. He's having a 72 hour neurological test run to see if they can figure out why he has his "spells". So far he hasn't had any. That's the way it always goes. He'll wear this apparatus until Saturday morning. He'll probably start up with his spells again on Saturday afternoon. Anyway, last night after he put on his sleep machine he looked so funny I just had to take a couple of pictures.

Chalk Bluff, part two!

Well, this is as far as I got tonight. The kids are hanging out on the tail gate, finishing their freeze pops, waiting for a ride to the river. And then little Lane, posing with his snorkel!

I hear that this is the view from cabin 3 at the campground, right, Mom??

Cody

Our Chalk Bluff Reunion, part one

Well, it seems my computer has had enough uploading for now....I'll try the rest later. Yes, there's more!! You guys are getting off easy. I had almost 250 pictures to go through!
Colton tried so hard to walk in those huge flippers. Poor thing, he kept saying, "I need heeeelp!"
I took Emma and Ally down to the river Monday morning and Emma snorkled all over the place-Ally thought it was so neat. We had a blast, we always do-I'll post a few more later.
love you all!
jenni

Three Mountain Retreat #6

I'm so frustrated. These were all in order and now for some reason they're not!!!!! I hate computers!!!!!

Three Mountain Camp #5

These few pictures are just views around the camp. Like I said, it's pretty hot and dry. There's a lot of gravel, but some areas of grass. There's a really nice area for softball. There is a volleyball net set up and basketball goals. They have all the balls for these games. Jamie just bought a soccer goal for Grace, so they could bring that. Russell has horse shoes he plans to bring. I also thought we'd bring card and board games to play in the dining hall or wherever. I have us signed up for trail rides for the adults that want to do that. They have 16 horses, so if more of us than that want to do it they will do one at 8:00 one morning and the 2nd at 9:00. They like to do those in the early mornings before it gets too hot. They have pony rides for the little ones. I also signed us up for a hayride one evening. All of these activities are included in the price. I asked if it would be OK if we brought water toys (swimming pools, slip & slide, etc) for the kids and they said that's fine. That is the one drawback of this camp. They don't have a swimming pool. There is a nice pool in Clifton which is about 7 miles down the road from the camp if any of the adults wanted to go swimming. They also have lots of hiking trails and the kids will probably enjoy that.
The total cost for the 3 nights if all of us come is $1875. That's $375 per family unit. I paid our $375 as the down payment. I asked when they needed the rest and they said we could just bring it when we came or send it a little early if we wanted to. We'll talk about that later.
I also thought that as far as a meal Thursday night, since we'll all be getting there at different times it would be easiest if we just stopped at one of the fast food places in Clifton and brought dinner out for our family. There is a Dairy Queen, a chicken place and a Sonic. That leaves 4 meals to prepare. That's lunch and supper Friday and lunch and supper Saturday. I also asked if they have a grill we can use and they do. I figure we'll do it like we did year before last and have our family responsible for one meal, Glenn and Vickie's family responsible for one meal, Cindy and Mike's family responsible for one meal and Debbie Sue, Julie and David responsible for one meal.
I realize that a lot of us can't plan this far in advance, but also thought knowing about it this far in advance might help to plan to be there. Anyway, whether or not everyone is able to be there I told the owners we will pay as if everyone is going to be there. That was really the only way to do it. I hope everyone is OK with what I've done. I can't believe I took control and just did it. That's so unlike me!!!
Hope everyone can plan to be there with this much notice. It should be fun (and hot! ha).

Three Mountain Retreat #4

This is the last lodge. It's Trails' End Lodge. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The master has a full bed and 2 twins with a private bath. One bedroom has a double bed and the other bedroom has a double bed with a twin. I had thought our family could stay in this one. I know I'm type A personality and don't have to have all of this planned this far ahead, but in order to know which lodges (and the fewest) would house us I kind of had to do it. If anyone has any other suggestions as to housing you're certainly free to let me know.

Three Mountain Retreat #3

These Pictures are of The Woods Lodge. It's the biggest of the three. It has 7 bedrooms with 2 baths. Six bedrooms have a double bed and one bedroom has 3 sets of bunk beds. I had thought that Blanch & Leroy, Debbie & Kelly, Julie, David and Brian, Cindy & Mike & Mandy and Brek & Alissa could stay in this one. That would mean some of the singles would need to stay in the room with the bunk beds. I thought maybe Megan might want to stay over here, too. We have to bring our own sheets and towels. They have pillows and blankets, but I know I'll want to bring my own pillow. I know one of the lodges had 2 living areas that looked like plenty of room for most of us to sit around in. I'm thinking it was this one.

Three Mountain Retreat #2

These pictures are of Cedar Break Lodge. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Each bedroom has a double bed with the master bedroom having a private bath. Two of the rooms also have a bunk bed. It sleeps 10 plus it has 3 sofas. I had thought Glenn and Vickie and their family could use this one. Megan would probably have to sleep on a couch, but if she didn't want to do that she can stay in The Woods Lodge which has a bedroom with 3 sets of bunk beds. All of the lodges have full kitchens with coffee pots. I had thought that instead of assigning breakfasts to families we could all bring whatever our family likes for breakfast and just eat in our lodges. Or we could bring our breakfast to the dining hall. Either way, I think that's easier than having a big deal breakfast each morning. I've put a deposit down for us for next June 28 (Thursday) - July 1st (Sunday). I told them we'd be gone after breakfast and a short church service.
I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the bedrooms in this one. Oh yeah, Russell was in charge of pictures!

Three Mountain Retreat

We went to visit the Three Mountain Camp yesterday. I took lots of pictures so you'd know what it's like. These 1st pictures are of the Bluebonnet Room which is the dining hall and kitchen. The kitchen has 2 refrigerators and all the pots and pans are furnished. It looked really nice. The dining part is a good size. It's plenty big for all of us, but not too big. It will also be good for playing games, etc. All of the facilities are air-conditioned. The camp itself was really hot and dry, but there's lots of room for the kids to run and play. I've tried to post some more pictures, but I may have to do this in several postings. We'll see how this one turned out.

Debbie