the LORD’s day

’strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

’say to those with fearful hearts,

“be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”

isaiah 35:3-4

we love daddy.

ps -
guess where we worship next week?
home.
home-ity-home-home.

leader board

there’s a fine line between
‘enjoyment’
and
‘obsession’, no?

spy cam pics from
nyc last night:

conrad, michael + cory
run the numbers.

savoring her moment of
world domination.

ps -
jacob,
you’re at our house +
we’re so sad we’re missing you.
we love you.
boston or bust, buddy.

oh, no she didn’t

oh, yes, she did.

charis got us hooked on the
‘power song’
as the girls beg for it.

(commence knee-slapping
on beat, please.)

LORD, send the old-time power,
the pentecostal power;
thy flood-gates of blessing
on us throw open wide.

LORD, send the old-time power,
the pentecostal power,
that sinners be converted
and thy name be glorified.

-charles h gabriel, 1856-1932

but you really need to hear
charis’s exaggerated-but-surely-not-impious
swoop and twang
to complete the effect.

and we
can’t
get it out of our
collective heads.

thanks, babe.

our gracious hosts,
the pictureperfect smith family.

thanks for letting the five of us
descend upon you + your fabulous house.

design*sponge, here you come.

ps -
that’s p. 400 in your red
‘worship and service’ hymnal
if you’re looking for it.

no joke.

a milky prayer

so, we were on quite a roll this week
when we hit 4:4 meals with
a mid-meal glass of milk spilled.

(unfortunately for her,
the same child had spilled
all four times.)

and by the third meal,
i was oh-so-quick with my
words of reprimand
and
with the fourth,
i was flat out
harsh.

gulp.

my conscience knew i was wrong,
my gut knew i was wrong,
and
my kids knew i was wrong.

so when we were sitting at the library
and everyone was doing their thing
and i came upon these turansky/miller words,
well,

i knew it.

‘often parents have a poor repertoire
of discipline techniques
so they do what comes naturally.

they use anger as a consequence for offenses
and as a motivation to get things done right.

anger becomes the punishment that
children learn to fear,
and it results in distant relationships.

in honor-based parenting,
anger is
not
an appropriate consequence.’

-s. turansky + j. miller,
’say goodbye to whining, complaining…’

Lord,
sometimes i feel helpless
against my anger.

only in your power
can i hold my tongue
and instead
administer words of
grace and patience,
(and in this case,
helpfulness and clean-y-up-y teamwork)
instead of
shame and disappointment.

i’m so glad i’ll have a chance
to practice this prayer in, oh,
in 10 minutes
and then again in 4 hrs
and then again in…

ps -
i’m also considering,
in addition to prayer,
making milk-ice-cubes
for a few days of
drinking-peace.

pps -
i was the first (and loudest)
one to laugh when
my dad accidentally tipped
caroline’s glass of milk,
spilling it everywhere during breakfast.

hey, at least she got a break
from being the
spill-er.

on prayer

‘if you are not praying,
then you are quietly confident that
time, money, and talent
are all you need in life.

you’ll always be a little too tired,
a little too busy.

but if, like Jesus, you realize
you can’t do life on your own,
then no matter how busy,
no matter how tired you are,
you will find the time to pray.’

-paul miller,
‘a praying life’

Lord,
in your kindness,
let me realize my
true helplessness.

help me bring
my wandering mind,
my overwhelmed heart,
my self-reliant attitudes
to you.

ps -
way to go, gretchen!

her shout out in business week
(2nd page)

spy cam

my sources have sent me iphone proof
that my beloved + friends are
leaving the city on the ferry
to hit the s.i. yankees game.

uh ho.

my sources got carried away
with posing-for-photos
and have inadvertantly
blown their cover.

my boyfriend is spotted,
my heart is racing.

and he’s sending me some
kind of coded message of longing;
i can barely make it out.

funny, i didn’t know he even knew
what ‘xoxo’ meant.

and his handwriting
has vastly improved.

covert sources have apparently been discovered.

hi, conrad + whitney.

cobra’s growing a beard?

man, everything changes
when i leave the city.

ps -
these clowns were at the yankees game last night,
the staten island yankees tonight,
what’s tomorrow night?

pps -
i’m kidding.
i know what tomorrow night is.

settlers.
duh.

ppps -
love you guys.
beards and all.

blind date

a few days ago
it dawned on karen
that two people she loves
were (at least temporarily)
living just minutes apart,

so, after email introductions,

we had a
blind date, of sorts.

and it was so lovely to get to know
new friends.

especially new friends
who like to laugh + swim +
waterslide + eat ice cream bars.

ps -
i’m totally with caroline on this one:

if i am expecting someone,
i’d much rather be
waiting on the curb
to catch the veryfirstglimpse
of them
rather than putzing inside
twiddling my thumbs.

it’s much easier to do this
here in colorado
than it is in new york.

though at home my kids beg beg beg,
‘can we please wait out front?
can we please wait in the monkey cage?’
(you know, the gated area
in front of the boys’ windows)

but on the street in new york,
it’s just a bit, well,
more involved
than curbside-waiting in colorado is.

easy peasy,
livin’ easy.

full disclosure:
i told her it would be about 20 minutes
before the henderson’s arrived.

to which she replied,
‘oh, that’s just fine.’

and took nathan’s walking stick
out front
to
wait.

very contentedly.

pps -
you should’ve heard her
excited little voice ring out,
‘they’re here!’

we brought friends

you know how fond we are
of our local-while-on-vacation library.

well,
you can imagine how
doubly-delightful
it was to share our
favorite spot
with friends.

escorting little miss ahna.

we love you two;
see you tomorrow.

ps -
does betsyboo
ever
have her shoes on
the right feet?

maybe her ‘right’
is different from
my ‘right’.

horsetooth reservoir

6 canvases +
6 brushes +
36 colors of paint =
a gentle day of painting + hiking

while the rest of us attempted
the landscape at hand,
betsy painted ‘butterflies’.

‘five butterflies.’

caroline finds a private moment.

seven ladybugs were found,
delightfully so.

(n just reminded me that there
was a small ‘ladybug war’
that ensued,
each bug-keeper demanding
that the final bug was hers.

enter: nathan as king solomon
and he managed to obtain
a happy-ish ending for both parties.)

the way out was a bit
steep at points.

i wish i had noticed her
shoes were on the wrong feet
earlier as it might’ve helped
her trail-stability, eh?

julie, our artist in residence,
took her landscape seriously.

farmer’s market on the way home;
we made off with
two crusty loaves of
asiago
and
walnut-cranberry bread
and
some rocky mountain salsa.

bovine infatuation

we’re so taken with this big guy
that we make sure to drive, oh,
2-ish miles out of our way
each time to admire him.

rookie car-girl

betsy keeps calling the car locks
‘buttoned’ and ‘unbuttoned’

as in,
‘mom, the car is buttoned;
i can’t open my door.’

a month in the suburbs
should enhance
her car-fluency, no?

ps -
i’m still working on my own car fluency.

please don’t tell my dad
that i almost put
regular
in his truck
yesterday.

almost.

thanksbetoGod that nathan was
paying attention.

the green nozzle, mom;
you need the green nozzle!

pps -
overheard: betsy chatting aloud
to herself in the backseat.

‘where’s daddy?
i want daddy.
oh, he’s in new york at work playing golf.’

+ +

i always wondered why he
needed his clubs @ the ‘office’.

brownie points awarded

lisa earned 1m brownie points tonight
by sending me photos of my beloved.

in the cookie room after church.

which, as she pointed out in her text,
is a rare sight for this dad-of-four.

(the cookie room is uber-crowded
so we corral our kiddos outside the south
door of church + wait for generous friends
to deliver cookies to us;
what a treat for him to actually
go there.)

[redeemer 5pm service,
which meets @ first baptist church,
79th st + broadway
nyc]

mouth-full-o’-scrumptous-cookie
and lookin’ fine, baby.
lookin’ divine.

oh, i’m loving lisa’s spy cam!

seeing cory + clemente/sauls/whitford
(and one behind-scott’s-back keller)
loved ones makes my heart sing.

miss you guys.
love you guys.

ps -
yes, additional brownie points
will be awarded for future
photos emailed to me.

start stalking the boy.

on sibling counsel

cue audio:
gut-wracking 3 yr old sobs.

approx. 3 min before we need to
leave for church.

cue monologue:
i.need.caroline’s.shoes.
why.is.she.wearing.those.shoes?
i.have.to.have.those.shoes.
(repeat, loudly, ad nauseum)

enter, stage left, compassionate brother no. 1

what shoes, bee?
show me the shoes.
oh, those shoes?
the silver shoes on caroline’s feet?
hmmmm…

brother continues in
full counseling mode.

(he’s so good at this)

ta da;
suitable footware is found.

(and caroline gets to keep hers)

nevermind that they’re lime green/blue tennis shoes;
she totally rocks the look.

a shiny happy person emerges,
stronger, through personal struggle.

(made for tv, no?)

ps -
these are for corylove.
we miss you.

en route to church this morning,
your four adoring, squirrley children.

i was ashynasty

i love the sabbath.

the day we remind ourselves
and eachother
that we are not our own,
that we belong, body + soul,
to the LORD,

that we are His people and
He is our maker.

that my identity does not come
from the roles + responsibilities
i perform
(or fail to perform
or perform poorly)
but
we remember corporately that
He is our life,

that our life is hid with Christ in God
and
therefore we live and move and
have our being.

oh, hooray for this Lord’s day.

.     .      .      .      .     .

‘who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

he raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.

he settles the barren woman in her home
as the happy mother of children.

praise the LORD.’

psalm 113:5-9

.     .     .     .     .      .

Almighty God,

unto whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hid,

cleanse the thought of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name,
through Jesus Christ our LORD.

amen.

mrs. smith comes to greeley

oh,
happy
day!

photo credit: betsyboo

ahna couldn’t get a moment to herself today,
caroline + betsy were all.over.her.

even in the swimming pool,
it was ‘ahna!ahna!ahna!’

couldn’t get enough of that sweet angel.
(i totally see their point)

betsy strikes again.
up close.

and again.

we love you, a + c;
can’t wait to see you next week.

ps -
notice caroline’s goofy fabulous
red bridesmaid’s dress?

the lady who sold it to us yesterday
(think: garage sale)
actually wore it in a wedding last year.

mom tucked it in a little bit
via sewing machinery
and
c has barely taken it off since.

her red dress + betsy’s quinceanera dress
(with elbow-length matching gloves,
are you dying with envy?)
were 50 cents each.

ooohhh la la, the glamour.

forms of grace

our stay in colorado
refreshes my soul
and prepares me to re-enter
my real life.

(i love my real life
and
it wears me down.
i’m sure you know the feeling.)

the main reason for the refreshment
is not
the beauty of the mountains
(though spectacular)
or the proximity of the
farr regional branch library
(though delightful for our entire brood),

but is my parents’ ministry to me
of ‘God’s grace in its various forms.’

the minute we arrive,
my burden, or specifically,
the role of motherhood
that defines the majority of my life,
becomes a corporate burden.

mom and dad help shoulder
my daily responsibilities
in tangible, audible, practical ways
and
my soul is
refreshed.

they play with, care for,
counsel, encourage, bandage,
and altogether delight my four children.

and me.

yesterday when i rounded the corner
and saw all of the previous day’s laundry
folded + tidy + ready to go,
i choked back grateful laughing tears.

someone’s on my team;
the Lord reminds me of his care
thru them specifically.

i am very grateful.
and already
so rested.

by the last week we’re here,
our outdoor-adventure-tanks are full and
we’re dying dying dying to get
back
home.

where we spend all year saying,
‘i can’t wait for colorado!’

whew.
and
thank you, mom + dad.

9:31am this morning

ps -
singwithmenow,

there’s no ‘i’ in teamosil,
at least not where you think…

bachelor cory

okay,
an eensieweensie part of me
wishes my lover was feeling a
wee bit lonely
+ missing us terribly
+ it was possibly affecting his appetite.

and that i could cheer him up
with the mere sound of my voice,
willing him to eat,
willing him to live
without us
for two more short weeks.

but i can hear it in his voice,

that boy is having a
Big Time
in his bachelor-y month at home.

team new york
in apt 1
looks like this:

cory (duh)
conrad (boys’ room)
whitney (boys’ room)
amy (downstairs)
emily (downstairs)

and occasional overnight guests who
find one last spot on the upstairs couch.
(but i’m not sure if there were any
pillows left. sorry.)

team colorado
rolls like this:

dad (master bedroom)
mom (master bedroom)
kj (the girls’ room.
yes, i have a huge comfy bedroom
at my disposal, but i
Just Can’t Sleep Alone.
what a ninny i am.)
nathan (the boys’ room)
henry (the boys’ room)
caroline (the girls’ room)
betsy (the girls’ room)

sure, sure, c’s busy at work,
but every other phone call
includes
‘basketball,
biking,
settlers,
church,
cards,
settlers,
movies,
settlers,
friends,
settlers…’

luckybugger.
(not that we’re lacking on
any fun here, i’m just saying,
no one needs to worry about that boy.)

ps -
don’t forget about the list you wrote
in your own hand, sweets,
remember,
the house projects list?

maybe you can get some of them done
while
playing settlers.

team colorado
sends its love to
team new york.

in an alternate universe

a colorado taxi

the electric hatchet
is popular.

her first time;
awwwww.

of saws + vintage paper dolls,
camping is an all-around adventure.

ps -
did i mention the local store
ran out of eggs
yesterday morning?

when we popped in,
she sweetly let us know
the last carton had sold
a half-an hour ago.

so close,
so close.

they expect another delivery
tomorrow
afternoon.

pps -
it’s called
‘red feather super market’
and it’s half the size
of the bodega @ 72/west end.

i wonder what size
a just plain ‘market’
would be?

. mr. & mrs. david keller .

missing  j + d’s wedding
last friday night
turned my stomach.

at 5pm my time (7pm in nyc)
i was snuggilybutsadly
ensconced with a little girl
on either side of me +
a boy on the arm of the couch,
reading a silly little kid’s book

and

i had to stop
because
i got all choked up.

(wishing i could’ve snapped my
fingers + hopped on a magical
jet back from vacation+children-land
and flown into the brooklyn naval yards
just in time  for the perfect celebration)

oh, you two,
we’re so excited for you.

the only redemptive part was when i
pressured cory into describing
all of the dresses and
fancy evening wear
(starting with jen +
moving on)
and then
made him list off every last person
that was there and
what tim’s homily was
and everything else he
could think of.

and i’m so glad to hear
(not from him,
from a spy)
that c pulled out his best
bill cosby/elaine benes-esque 1980’s
dance moves to party into the night
with the happy couple.

oh, we love you
and
i’m desperate for pictures.

congrats, lovebirds.
happy greek islands.

ps -
remind me to post a scan
of the invites sometime;
it was the most fun
collaboration as
j has exquisite taste +
design sensibilities.

d’s mentioned the word
‘pop-up’ at one point
and my mental picture of
j’s face can keep me
warm with laughter on
a cold mountain night.

you say, ‘morning’

they say, ‘boat ride!’

morning
boat ride
morning
boat ride

i say, ‘ffffrrrreeeezing.’

but i keep that to myself.

ps -
we’re running out of
warm clothes.

recycling smokycampy clothes
is, um, less than desirable.

pps -
i turned to mom yesterday
and asked her how we were
going to get n’s
favorite stripey hoodie clean
after this trip,
as it’s been his constant companion
(think: soot + ashes + dirt + water).

she sheepishly suggested tossing
it in the fire pit as we leave.

but knowing my mom’s
triple-A cleaning rating,
it’ll look better than when
we started.

i’m taking notes,
the dutiful apprentice.

phone a friend

it just wouldn’t be right of us
to keep the four-wheeling-heaven
to ourselves.

so we phoned julie.
who hopped in her car.
and got in on another afternoon’s
dusty windy happiness.

ahoy

we passed between the two
protruding rock formations
and circled around the one
on the right.

rowing into the wind.
in a kayak.
with two little girls.
and my amenable (but water-susceptible) camera.

i might’ve had second thoughts
half way out into the lake.

this is what the boys boat
looked like from where
we were:

on the return trip
around the lake,
the girls and i were
repeating to eachother,

‘the earth is the Lord’s,
and everything in it;
the world
and all who live in it.’
psalm 24:1

sometimes life seems crystal clear.

(gently remind me of that
in a few months, eh?)

cheaters coterie

all i know is:
it involves hand-picking your
own cards from the uno deck
and then some sort
of game-ish howling-laughter-fest
ensues for longer
than you would think
it could possibly go on.

(these two guys are so on
the same level;
no offense, dad.)

they moved to dominos
at some point after uno,
but trust me,
it’s not ‘dominos’
like you and i know
dominos.

mom and i, unable to make
heads or tails of it,
shruggingly went inside
the camper at some point and
enjoyed ourselves.
without cheating.

prairie-ish mountain top

i wish i could bring you here.

the beauty is
devastating.

you can actually see
our lake/campsite
just behind her,
down in the valley.

it’s like we could
reach up and
tickle God.

(don’t you dare
challenge my
bad theology there.
thankyouverymuch.)

he fashioned the tripod
and then cut tree slats
to go around it.

henry’s project involved collecting
similarly-sized twisted wood pieces
and burying+stacking them,
sort of.

the weathered tree stumps
were so soft,
deliciously soft.

jimney cricket would feel
like paul bunyan here;
the wood willingly collapses under
the weight of even a dull-ish hatchet.

a satisfying feeling for this
eager six-year-old lumberjack.

betsy and henry conference
on top of the world.

i’m paralyzed with the beauty +
they’re traipsing about
just drinking in the adventure.

this afternoon’s leisurelypleasure is
similar to when margaret and i
take the kids and just head into
central park without a
proper agenda,
just to enjoy the day,
the adventure +
each other.

only without any other similarity
to central park besides
land + sky.

getting to carnegie hall

one of the biggest advantages
summertime-with-children brings
is the extended time we have
to offend + be offended by eachother.

trust me, it’s a good thing.

this way,
the things that we’re working on
(esp emotionally + spiritually)
don’t come up once a day or
once a week,
but usually they pop up their
weasely little heads
several times a day.

several.

allowing for much-needed
practice,
practice,
practice.

for ex:
if child A and i are focusing on
their giving gentle answers,
we’re going to have 25 chances
to practice that today.
and fail.
and regroup.
and have another go.

or if child B and i are focusing on
asking for help when they’re frustrated
instead of
a. blowing their top
b. slugging the offending sibling
c. bursting into disappointed tears
d. all of the above,

we’re guaranteed at least a handful
of prime practicing situations
in the course of a day.

i am acutely thankful
for the Lord’s patience
with me,
with us,
and for the chance to really
work some things out.

for His glory +
with His help.

whew.

and bring on tomorrow.

our love affair with road 300

so, we found a spectacular
four-wheeling spot:
at the top of deadman road,
where it meets road 300.

jeepers.

i thought we were on top
of the known world.

it sure feels like it.
so we keep going back.

we also keep meaning to try other
roads, but we can’t escape the lure
of this particular route.

and we see deer.
deer.

right in front of us on our treks.

why would we try road 308
when, at 9K ft elev +
panoramic mountain-top views,
road 300 is this
satisfying?

we might be addicted.

(and it’s only 8 short mi.
from our campsite)

we don’t even want to get off
for lunch.
table for three?
no problem.

hint:
when people dress like this
for their next ride,
it means they don’t plan
on coming back for a
good.
long.
while.

happy trails.

8,012 ft of mtn bliss

a private fishing spot
for daddy.

our new living room.

nothing says ‘vacation’
like eatin’ yer fried chickin dinner
on the four-wheeler.

oh, it will be so sad
when we have to
descend back into
reality.

we’re in heaven.

oh, and the chipmunks love us here.
crumb city.

betsy dropped a green apple core
and before you can say,
dodgytastinglondonmeatpie,
chippy grabbed it up
in his teeth +
scampered away with it.

?

festivus feats of strength,
right there.

crawdad 101

1. choose a submerged rock.
(or semi-submerged)

2. using your lightning-quick reflexes,
overturn + prepare to surprise
your new little friend.

3. repeat,
repeat,
repeat.

at meals, my mom would gently
ask nathan to move the
(scritching scratching)
tub o’ critters
off of the picnic table
so we could enjoy our meal
sans crustaceans.

crawfish claws as mountain jewelry.

he wore that huge one
for the better part of an
afternoon.

(i was close to grossing out.
nathan w/ an earring–
faux or otherwise–
isn’t in my comfort zone.
yet.)

disclaimer:
no crawdads were harmed in
the retrieval of jewelry;
we found it on the beach.

heaven

i’m leaving my heart
in northern colorado.

someplace just like this.

(en route to red feather)

yes, three weeks in to our
coloardo holiday,
betsy still yells
‘h.o.r.s.e!’
every time.

every time.

you might think she’s
nodding off,
but she’ll still
deafen your sweet ears with her
shout out.

let’s tell the truth:
they are so beautiful
that if she didn’t yell,
i just might.

embarassingly so.

that’s how we roll

12:01pm sunday afternoon

the girls lounge

while the sherpas
everyone else brings
load after load
of camping supplies.

nice work if you can find it.
the leisure, i mean.

the Lord’s day

we love worshipping @
greeley wesleyan;
thanks for having us.

ps -
henry made a new friend named michael
and
betsy has asked to go back
every day this week.

more.sunday.school.please.

heli-cool

my one-and-only sibling
made his first
amp-cay avid-day
landing
yesterday.

in his dress blues.

dude.
my stomach had butterflies on his behalf.

so cool, buddy.
so cool.

hmx marine one

loved-one swap

we miss you, love.
happy august-in-new-york.

it took the sting out of
cory’s departure to swing right out
of the ‘departures’ section of dia +
into the ‘arrivals’ section and
pick up some fresh-from-texas
bebe.

three days of non-stop talking;
oh, i love you two.

bebe + charis;
see the mountain sunset behind us?
i didn’t think so.

caroline + ahna

annie oakley wannabe

you know i cried several times yesterday.
others [read: the children] might be less aware,
but my countdown-until-cory-flies-back-home
internal time clock
was ticking loudly
in the pit of my stomach.

so, while i was teary in a few private moments,
it really was one of the most
perfect
vacation
days
ever.

daddy took us to the pawnee grasslands
to shoot + to ride.

the 4-wheeler and
the guns, that is.

spectacular views of land + sky,
no buildings or humans in sight.

i shot the .22 revolver.
nathan + cory shot the .22 rifle,
henry, caroline + betsy shot the daisy, of course.

and
daddy blew the dirt off the mountain
with a .410 pistol;
jeepers,
that thing is loud.

and we raced back and forth
to the tops of the grassy hills
with cory + i taking turns being
sandwiched btwn 2 eager riders.

at dinner
nathan summed it up for us,
‘being on the 4-wheeler made us forget the
meanings of certain words;
caroline didn’t know the word, ‘slow‘,
henry didn’t know the word, ‘straight‘,
and i didn’t know the word, ‘dry.’ ‘

we came home and
jumped in the pool
in our [muddy] clothes.

top that off with the church swim night
(buckingham girls – we missed you),
perfection..

post-swim ice cream w/ grammy + papa,
the sweetest.

(it was 9pm and we were sitting outside,
in wet swimsuits eating ice cream
and retelling the swim stories
when betsy told my dad,
‘i need a lid’ and she covered up her
unfinished ice cream, and
hightailed it for the car to
rest.)

a girl knows when she’s done.

caroline + nathan were slidemonsters.

betsy went up with caroline at one point,
walked all of the way back down,
jumped back in the pool and said,
’she [lifeguard] said i’m not too big.’

maybenextyear.

henry’s a spinner + a flipper.

farthest-away-from-the-diving-board competition;
you mark your spot with your body.

nathan walked away with the gold.

henry took a bronze for the ‘craziest dive’
and nancy had run out of bronze medals,
so she upgraded him to a gold,
which he mentioned to us
no fewer than four times in the
next two hours.

supercool.
thanks, nancylove.

shivers be darned,
we must keep diving.

(zoinks,
it was 66 degrees when we
left the pool just before 9pm)

victorious faces after
swimming all the way out to cory.

which they’d been doing for
a solid hour.

photo credit: aunt marilyn

old dan + little ann

so, cory has brought
‘where the red fern grows’
on every car trip this week,
keeping the boys
(and my parents, i must say;
i’m always driving the other car
since mom+dad plus the 6 of us =
two cars)
on pins and needles,
anxious for the next installment.

bummer that it was
right before bed time last night
that my mom + the boys were
cuddled in bed listening
attentively to cory’s reading
the final chapter.

we’re not talking a tear or two here,
cory had to go and get the
actual tissues.

poor old dan.
poor little ann.

maybe we could choose a more
upbeat story next?

a wet+bumpy Lord’s day

henry only uses one
hand signal while tubing.

thumbs up,
faster.

faster.faster.faster.

henry’s cheering section:
corbin, caroline, rhea + betsy

nathan’s desperate to lose the wake;
he’s all about the big turns, baby.

c + c

mr. subdued

the main thing we were looking
forward to today:
gus’s baptism

cory + dad represent backcourt.

we’re excited at what the Lord
is doing in colorado;
it was a privilege spending sunday
with a church plant in denver
who was celebrating a baptism
and
having a bunch of fun
in the meantime.

my parents are lucky;
they get to see this good stuff
first hand all year long.

corny

local crops:
corn
wheat
alfalfa
onions
barley
carrots
cabbage
milo
soybeans
and
sugar beets.

tasty.

we politely share the trail.

my dashing trail guide;
i’ll follow this guy
anywhere.

yesterday: sheep draw trail, 7 mi. roundtrip.
(caroline, nathan + henry, too)
today: poudre river trail, 12 mi.
tomorrow: to infinity + beyond.

12,020 ft

three cheers for my mom + dad.

photocredit: njc

driving on top of the world.

i love mountain driving

and

i always have a headache at
the end of the trip as
my heart is pounding thru
every turn and acceleration,
literally breathtaking.

esp the places where the edge
of the road is just feet from
my wheels.

meanwhile,
my mom and the girls
happily chatted away,
enjoying the breathtaking view.

(the boys are in
daddy’s truck just ahead of us)

ps -
cheers to amy + john
who are running in the
wild west relay
today
(and tonight
and tomorrow morning;
it’s a 200 mi stretch.)

here’s my mental picture:
amy (smiling) + head lamp + the middle of the night +
her first 4.8mi stretch straight up the mtn =
jeepers, mama.

it was lovely to be with you guys yesterday;
thanks for hosting the eight of us
so graciously.

next year, megan, next year.
love you guys.

just like peter

first,
can you hear my laughter
from there?

second,
can you see what i see?

right to left:
a sailboat in full sail,
a pontoon boat at a nice clip
and
cory,
walking on the water
in the middle of the lake.

pulling nathan + caroline in the boat.

two speeding,
one walking.

sorry about the sandbar, love.
thanks for the bellybuster.

betsy’s ducks.

c, c + n

don’t let anyone tell you an
ittybittykiddie life vest
isn’t manly.

you wear it well, dr. cates.

lake estes, colorado

7,522 ft

henry, caroline + cory
and a
little bit o’ white water.

a very little bit.

the perfect ‘adventure’ amount
for a 4 yr old girl.

i’ll email cory one of these photos
next week when he’s back in
the office
to remind him
how relaxed
he was.

advantage: suburbia

new york can’t touch this:

1. $12 for 9 holes of golf
if you tee off before 7am.

we will never see
cory + my dad for breakfast.

2. starbucks drive-thru.

3. audio books in the car.

beatrix potter is playing in the girls’ car,
‘kidnapped’ by robert louis stevenson is playing
in the boys’.

4. the farr regional branch library,
our second home.

5. wal-mart prices.

caroline and i did a pre-dawn grocery run.
cantaloupes, cherries, grapes,
pears, apples, bomb pops,
lots + lots of good and delicious things,
(and 500 water balloons)
$62 flat.

kindly advise me:

how do you keep the car seats
from getting boiling hot in
the sunny parking lot?

do you put a towel over them?

the girls were crying yesterday
as their black booster seats
were 1K degrees on their little legs.

ps -
right on red
is killing me.

it’s illegal in nyc
(and even though we don’t have a car,
it’s apparently drilled in to my head).

yes,
i’m the dork
sitting at the red light
and you’re behind me
desperate for me
to blow this joint.

i’m working on it.

pps -
i can’t believe no one’s honked
at me yet.

tres polite.

colorado or bust

ta da.

the world is flat, day 2

our annual I-70 trek from kc to co;
two days of driving through
beautiful+mesmerizing kansas.

the fredbeck boys have their own exit.
(i’ll pencil in ‘daniel’)

this is what ‘new york street’ looks like.
the similarities to nyc are uncanny.

amber waves of grain.

the world is flat, day 1

our stay in salina
is the main hilight in our kansas drive-a-thon
as it brings a sappyhappy reunion with
aunt kat, my grandma +
my great aunt letha.

caroline belle’s namesake,
maxine belle woodhams freiheit.

no fluff here:
they were talking foreign currency +
market stability,
seriously.

memo to n + b:
cheese.

we love you.

the other, much smaller, hilight
is that the car ride is perfect for
an extended read-aloud.

this year cory chose:
mrs. frisby + the rats of nimh.

without fail,
in the course of reading
when cory or i would mention one
of the main characters,
a courageous and dashing rat
named justin,

betsy would squeal from the
back-back seat,
‘justin!!!!justin!!!’

every.time.

loveyou,j.

leisure time

frog hunting in grandma/pa’s backyard

worlds of fun bound.

caroline caught this eensybeensy toad
All By Herself
and promptly named him
mr. jeremy fisher,
of course.

waterslide fever.

that awesome
vacation-has-worn-me-out
feeling.

we’d let b sleep in the driveway
for 30 extra min or so
at the end of our drives home,
poor happy tired girl.

caroline picked the mint, chives + dill,
henry helped cook the couscous,
betsy peeled the cucumbers +
combined with grandma’s tomatoes,
the salad was
summer.spec.tac.ular.

cooking w/ grandma + grandpa

setting up the tent

goody bags from aunt stacy.

fire prep;
think smores, baby, smores.

i lost the bet.

caroline, henry, nathan + jacob
slept all night in the tent,
rousing at a leisurely 7am.

a beautiful morning’s worship
with dick + barb, grandpa + marjorie,
jacob, danny + stacy.

of course i teared up at several points.

worshipping with family?
my heart is full.

enjoying the extended cates fam.

playful auntie taylor feels the need
for betsy’s blankie.

another day,
another fire.

we don’t discriminate:
daytime, nighttime, it’s all good.

i can’t explain what happened,
but in the blink of an eye
i had won 2 settlers games
in.a.row.

a rematch was suggested.
a third round for the night?

i politely
let jacob win.

really,
it’s the least i could do.

a million thanks to
dick + barb + jacob,
danny + stacy,
grandpa + marjorie,
cates family’s at large,
for a delightful
time in kansas city.

ps -
did i mention the golfing?
see cory’s smile?

that’s what two days of golfing
will do to a guy.