Trek Highlands Ranch 09

We called ourselves the Hard-y family. Tracy, Mark, Megan Di Di Jason Derrick Austin Doug Lindsey and ToriWearing the girls bonnets makes Austin and Derrick Thoughtful.
I won the biggest popped blister award. This was really painful and I had 6 miles to go. Austin saw me down and put his hat on my head. What a nice son.
Crossing the sweet water. A thoughtful spiritual moment as we thought about the young rescuer men who carried the company one at a time through the freezing water 100 years ago in winter.
Our family flag. The milk carton says "got trials" and the bubble says "I can do hard things."

Backpacking with Tiana and Preston

For the 4th of July, Tiana and Preston were wonderful enough to meet us in Vail where we did the 10 mile trip to Notch Mountain. This is a special hike, because you can see the Holy Cross mountain from the top of Notch and many people thought if you hiked up all 13,000 feet, you'd be healed up there. We backpacked in the first night and had fun eating freeze dried dinners over our fire.

We watched fireworks in Beaver Creek the night of the 4th. They were spectacular. Then on the 5th Mark came horseback riding with me. It was a perfect trip except Tiana pulled two muscles and Preston got a little sick from the altitude.

Aussie Back to BYU

Had a very, very fun trip to Utah to put Austin in college. My dad has grown his hair back after his chemo and radiation! Here we are at a family reunion for my ancestor Eric GM Hogan who immigrated from Norway.

On the first day, last Friday, I got to play with Sammy and Lucas and roll down a steep grassy hill in the rain while Bryce was mountain biking and trying once again to injure himself on the steep and rocky downhill of squaw peak. We saw Bryce’s new house---very nice, and ate delicious tri-tip for father’s day.

On Saturday, when we got to Provo with Aussie, he was waiting around for the office to open and an old freshman dorm buddy named Jesse jumped out of his apartment and invited Austin to stay with him. We really like this Jesse kid. He studies a lot. After talking to Austin about discontinuing his wow video game usage until we were blue in the face, Jesse sat Aussie and his friend Andrew down and asked them to remove all the games, which Aussie did.

I was so pleased when Aussie called later and said he had been to diving practice and coach asked him to do a front 1.5 full twist. Aussie thought, well, I haven't’ done that before but I have done something similar on the trampoline, so I’ll just try it. And he did it.

Back in Colorado, the house is so much more empty. I'm glad Aussie is there, it was socially, spiritually and intellectually inadequate here, and BYU will help him reach his potential.......but I can't help but miss his big goofy smile, his service projects, him admiring his butt in the mirror, his even emotions and his eating large quantities of food. Austin really enjoys food.

On Monday, Tiana did my hair and I got to hang out with her all day and shop at Tiapan trading and hobby lobby to make topiaries. Mark being his usual cultured and decorative self, called them "tapiocas"

Back at home in Denver, Danica came over to eat 2x Saturday and JJ and Lily are so cute. Lily’s running movement is straight up and down.

Yesterday Mark and I had an awesome bike ride on the Highline Canal. Mark waited for me and I went faster---until on the way home my bike came off the rack and now it’s trashed. It was scarey picking it up of c-470. It’s so sad to see my bike all bent and trashed.

Yesterday was also my last lesson with my riding teacher Crissy. She’s moving to Wyoming where feed for her 3 horses is much more reasonable. We saddled up Shadow and she rode Hazel bareback and we trotted through the long grass, trees and wild flower in the river bottoms. The sunset was ribbons of light streaming between the clouds on the mountains, Colorado can be so beautiful.

Horses and Mountains

OK. So we forgot our camera. But, I'm putting these two horse pictures to give you an idea of what a beautiful day Austin, and his friend Rebecca and I had on our trail ride.


We actually were just a few miles from home on the bluffs above Highlands Ranch. The grass was long, the wildflowers were in bloom. The sun shone after days of rain. Austin's horse, a fleabitten mare loved to eat (who does that remind us of?) and Rebecca's horse kicked me and my horse if we got too close. Never the less, the gentle rocking in the saddle drove all my stress away. I was a wonderful way to spend Austin's last Saturday at home before he goes off to BYU this week.
Then we climbed Devil's Head mountain with Mark. Oh how I love Colorado Mountains!

Preferred Care at Home goes to the Zoo

You are looking at our booth for "Preferred Care at Home" at the recent Denver Zoo Health Fair. Our Team from left to right : Jackie, Our Senior Real Estate agent, Margaret our Nutrition Therapist, Sharon our RN for the medical side, Me the Care Coordinator, Sherry Ross our Director of Mktg and Rick Roedel the Administrator.We love when Dave goes out of town for work, Danica fixes dinner and brings it over for Aussie and I. After a long day of work, two of my favorite things, food and grandchildren. But right after our first attempt at a picnic, it rained and rained. Everything is emerald green. I've never seen Colorado so green. I don't handle dark and cold and wet rainy weather well. I've been doing wierd things. I search through my bag for my phone while I am talking on it. It's as if synapses in my brain don't connect. I lock my keys in the car. It's June 2 and I'm sitting here in my ski sweater with the furnace on. Blach.

What we've been up to....

Spring semester at ACC ended and I took a photo of one of my favorite classes in Human Growth and development for the nursing students. These 16 women and 1 man were expressive, story tellers, talkative. I always wonder if they enjoy me as much as I enjoy them. One student gave me a plant and a thank you card that said "I so much enjoyed your class, I feel like I have learned so much and realize I have a lot to learn. Because of you and your wonderful teaching I feel like I have grown, you've made a difference in my life." She's the one in the jean jacket in the middle of the px.
We went to the Newport Marriot condos with Bryce, Marcia, Sammy, Lucas and Austin. They condo's were beautiful, right on the beach. Sammy is always running, talking, making us laugh. Lucas is huggy and communicates by pulling on your finger and dragging you where he wants you to go.
There were tide pools at Laguna beach. We also went to Balboa beach and body surfed and ate sushi on the way home.
Our favorite was Shamu at Sea World. We didn't mind getting splashed. Sammy did the Shamu slap and I cried.
Mark waited for 45 minutes at Legoland for this ride for Sammy. Mark was not happy. Luckily we got to the first of the line with the wheelchair passes.
This pirate boat shot water and Sammy loved it.

Maryland!

Announcing Cid Hunter Baillio. The cutest little new human on the planet.
I'm at Celeste and Brad's place in Westminster MD. My newest grandson is the coolest ever. He's so tiny and grunts and talks to us all night long.


Westminster has a big peep show competition where the locals made big diorammas and movies using peeps. There was the Rubix peeps, the Hells Kitchen Peeps, Harry Peeper (potter) Peeps Kabob and many, many others.
Brooklyn has a very very long attention span for 1) the Disney Cars movie 2) her books.

Been in Bocca Raton..... or in other words..... paradise.

Mark helped me and Rick Roedel buy a home care franchise called Preferred Care. We provide reliable affordable and compassionate caregivers for elderly folks in their homes. Some of the services might include companionship, house keeping, meal prep, medication reminders, hygiene assistance, transportation and more. Preferred Care at home put us up in their beautiful condo which doubles as their corporate office right on the beach, Pinky white sand, surfers, moonlight beaches and always a great breeze.
This last week was my training and I had this unbelievable marble bath all to myself. It was a special treat to have my morning and evening bath in this claw foot tub

Frank and Jody Guerri started this home care business 2x. So they are excellent teachers and just good Christian people.
I am still seeing about 10 clients every week in the evenings and Fridays. I had a fantastic day when I returned to Denver. The people I saw were ready to work hard, take risks and GET BETTER! It makes a huge difference when people are humble and teachable, Otherwise counseling with someone who is stuck and hard hearted is a painful and draining experience

Mark's Christmas Present Trip to Bonaire

For Christmas in 2008 I said to Mark "Your gift is a trip to Bonaire, the #2 scuba site in the world, I used your credit card to buy the tix."
After flying all night we arrived on the 14th of March and were picked up by Paulette and her new/old boyfriend Robert at the Bonaire Flamingo airport. What a great guy. It turns out that he and she went on a Caribbean cruise 17 years ago and they both really liked each other but had issues to resolve. So they were all in love and he sang the song he'd written for her. She gave me an awesome hand jeweled watch for my B-day. It was really fun to hang out with her. She is such a naturalist and gets very excited about earthy things. She's sees a weaver bird's nest and screams "Stop the car! I gotta have that nest." Or she would scream in her snorkle "Askdebn;;welkj;gklj" which translated means, 'I see an octupus!!!'











On Sunday the 15 we found the Bonaire Branch of the Church. What a lovely cultural experience. Twenty beautiful brown-skinned Bonarians sitting around on metal folding chairs, the "organist" sat at a table and pressed the buttons on a CD player when it was time to sing. The language was which was a Papiamento a a Portuguese creole, with vocabulary influences from African languages, Spanish, Dutch, English and Arawak languages. So we were given translator devices and the Elder from Kaysville Utah spoke into a mike so the 3 of us who were English speakers could understand. They were very loving and friendly and their first Convert of Dutch Ancestry who had been baptised the day before bore his testimony. There was a couple from Alaska serving there on a mission and I thought, "I can see us to serving in a beautiful humble place like this."
We rented scuba gear from a really friendly dutch place called Dive Friends Bonaire. We had been warned not to leave anything valuable in our rented truck. We put on our gear and tried to get in the water off the dock at a hotel, they wanted 15 bucks. So we walked back to the truck to drive up the road and everything was gone! Some really smelly shorts Robert had left, and Mark's glasses and our clothes all our sunblock. We were so upset. While the others were going into the hotel to call the police, I realized that everyone rented the same white Mazda truck and we went up 2 more trucks in the parking lot and there was all our stuff. We did our first two shoredives, the cliff and 1000 steps. The waves knocking me around while I was tryng to get on my flippers in all that heavy gear were difficult. I was all bloody and scratched. I should have attracted a shark, instead, I attracted this cool Moray eel.


Bobby Jeans
Monday the 15th Read Romancy Novel, Mark did Helma Hooker a wreck dive and the invinsibles.
Tuesday the 16th Paulette and I went shopping. Guy at Mimbusu dressed me. We ate at the Lions Den. Mark saved my fin at the Oil slick leap.

Wednesday the 17th we did a tour of the North Island 1500 years ago Astonomy center Pizza at captain Don's with the Sunset.
Thurs the 18th Mark went over to the Island to scuba. Paulette and I bought a bonita Tuna and we fried it up with Potatoes and ate Frozen grapes for dessert.
Friday the 19th saw the South side. These tiny buildings were used by the Colonial Dutch to house their slaves that worked in the Salt. This is the day i had most fun snorkeling.The ocean right by our hotel was a lovely aquarium teeming with fish and coral. I loved to just lay on top of the water and watch the parrot fish and trumpet fish.

Happy Birthday to Me. Austin's Homecoming.

Danica came over with my very adorable grandchildren and some blueberry muffins with candles in them. Then we sat in the sandbox and swordfought with sticks. Mark replaced the white dishwasher behind lily with a beautiful new stainless steel one. Austin gave the BEST homecoming talk today on charity. Some dear friends came to hear it....Merklings, Roedels, Baileys, Joe Rutherford

Tiana's Wedding

The bridemaids dresses were somewhat of challenge considering I had to sew a wide variety of sizes and 2 pregnant women (7 months)
Preston's sisters and Tiana's sisters supporting Preston. The view of the mountains at the Pointe was spectacular.
My sister Leslie the chocolate lover. The Van Dykes put on a catered dinner at their church building.
It's fun having a wedding in Utah when you live in CO. I got to see my cousin Jeff. His house was next to ours where I grew up and we all hung out in a gang of cousins and rode dirt bikes.
Tiana's strategy was to wear old sweats and no makeup for three days so she'd look really amazing to Preston at the wedding. She was going for the big contrast effect. Here she's just done my hair.
Aussie sees Celeste for the first time in 2 years and says "Dang Celeste, you've been busy"
There were some pretty good views at the reception center, both inside and out.
Hmmm. Isn't a chocolate fountain supposed to flow cascades of chocolate? This looks like ????