WONDERFUL TIME IN COLORADO

We left last Sunday morning after church for Colorado Springs to visit Daryl & Vicki Anderson. Daryl was Rog's roommate in college. After spending the night in Colorado Springs, we headed to the cabin where we planned to spend the week. We saw hundreds of antelope along the road as we traveled and I have 2 of them pictured racing us down the road.

Rog was planning to do some writing to take along when he goes to Ecuador and Mary had a Bible study to prepare and we were able to accomplish all of that and still had some time to hike, drive, and enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the Spanish Peaks.

The cabin we stayed in belongs to a family in our church and is located in between the Spanish Peaks. We were able to hike to the meadow one day and carve the year 06 on our tree(started that 26 years ago and have only missed 1 or 2 years since). Ten years ago, Grandpa & Grandma Tucker hiked to the meadow with us and put their date on a tree. We also had lunch sitting on a rock by the stream. We have some pictures of the beautiful mountains(several which were snow-capped) and the awesome fall colors of the aspen trees in the meadow.
We always love the beauty of the mountains but we have never been there in the fall with all the gorgeous colors of the aspens and the red, yellow, orange and green on the mountain side.

We went into the small town of LaVeta a couple of times while we were there and the cows get in the road and the deer graze in the church yard and some of the resident's yards. They are very tame so I was able to get way too many pictures.

We look forward to taking the grandkids out there someday and showing them around. We had a wonderful time!

A FUN-FILLED WEEKEND

Friday night our company started arriving. John Seaba and his 3 children arrived at our home (Elisa had to work so was unable to come). They came to see the state fair that is in town and we had a fun time with Trey, Avery, and Ethan and they had a fun time with their cousins.

Then on Saturday, Damon & June arrrived with their 5 children. They are here for the fair and just some away time as a family. They enjoyed an indoor water park on Saturday and later that day we had a birthday party for Meryn who turned 3 years old on Friday. Today was church and then some of us went to visit Grandpa & Grandma Tucker. Liz, myself, June, Maggie, and Molly spent some time with my folks and also stopped to say hi to my Uncle H. We arrived back home just in time to leave for our evening church service. Tomorrow Damon & June are planning to take their 3 oldest ones to the fair while Gramma has fun with the 2 youngest ones. They will return home on Tuesday and we will have our empty quiet nest again.

We have a great time together when our kids come home and look forward to the next time when they leave.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERYN - - 3 YRS. OLD

We started off our day by taking Meryn out for breakfast. She enjoyed being spoiled on her birthday but the main reason we had that opportunity to do that is because her Mommy is sick and Daddy is working so we wanted to help make her day special.

Then we went to the Jarrott's home and gave her a ride in their golf cart. We hoped we would see a deer but not this time. Meryn would say, "here deer", "come deer", but not today. We had a fun day and so did Meryn.

HELPING LIZ

We went to Liz's house to clean up branches and trees that have started to grow in her flower beds and into her fence-line. Rog started this job the other day and needed to finish it. While we were there, Greg & Meryn stopped by and helped with the cleanup. Then we loaded up all the branches and hauled them out to Jack's burn pile. When we arrived there and started unloading the brush, some cows approached the truck (at which time I got back into the truck) and started helping Rog by eating some of the green leaves and tugging on the branches. Though I grew up on a farm, I don't enjoy being around the animals so Rog and the cattle had to finish the job.

TIME WITH MOM & DAD

We went to Salina today which is our usual Monday schedule. But today was special because Liz was able to go and Phil & Julie and their children came to visit Grandpa & Grandma Tucker as well. We spent the time visiting and taking pictures (which Julie has and will share on her blog) and then decided to have lunch together in a dining area in the basement of the manor. Dad was able to come down there with us and we all enjoyed pizza together. It's always a special time when other members of our family stop by on our Monday together.

A HEART TO HELP

Rog was changing oil on a car today and Meryn(3 next week) was trying to help. She was jabbering the whole time and fortunately Grandpa didn't get hit with the crescent wrench she was swinging around. She loves to be right where Grandpa is and is willing to help in whatever way she can. She is full of energy and we wish she was big enough to do more.

A GREAT FAMILY TIME

We left for Kansas City on Friday morning and arrived at Phil & Julie's house by mid-afternoon where we stayed for the weekend.

We went out for dinner together, all our children and their spouses, and the grandkids were with babysitters. We ate at Jose Peppers and had a fun time together. We did have Molly and Ella with us.

Saturday was Rog's birthday and we started the day by taking most of our grandkids on a walk and ended up at the park across the street from June's house so the children could play. Grandpa left for a few minutes to buy an ice cream treat for everyone. Later that evening we had a barbeque at June and Damon's and celebrated Rog's 64th birthday.

As the evening was about over and we were going to pick up the back yard, we noticed that the trampoline enclosure net had taken some abuse so I just happened to have my nylon thread with needle along and I began repairing the net. The big hole you see was completely closed and Melanie came along to help me and we also repaired about a 4 ft. area on the other side. It was dark so we couldn't finish the last hole but we accomplished a lot in the one hour we did have.

Sunday morning we all went to church with Damon & June and of course the cousins loved that. After church we went to a pizza place and had pizza together for lunch and then it was time to head back to Julies to pack up and head for Salina.

We left about 2:30 p.m. and arrived in Salina around 5:45 p.m. We spent the night with Mom & Dad and then returned to Hutchinson on Monday afternoon.

What a wonderful time with our kids and grandkids and they treat us so special that we want to say a big THANK YOU! for the great weekend. We love you all!

LAND AUCTION IN IOWA

Last Monday we traveled to Iowa to be there for the auctioning off of all the land that was the Neir farm for years. Rog's folks bought the land in 1959. The buildings had been sold earlier after Rog's parents moved to Hutchinson but they still had approximately 150 acres of land.

We drove to Kansas City and met our sons, Roger and John, and had lunch with them in St. Joseph, MO. We then drove on to Cherokee, IA. Don and Roberta drove up from Texas for the auction. We stayed in a motel in Cherokee and had dinner that evening with the auctioneer, Mr. Jim McGuire. He filled us in on what to expect and answered any questions we had.

We then went back to our rooms and most everyone wanted to go swimming. They had a volleyball net over the pool so the guys(Don,Roger,John & Rog) had several good games of water volleyball. I think they had some sore feet, aches and pains the next day.

Tuesday morning Rog & John got up early to go out and make a prayer walk around the boundaries of the farm. There had been a wind storm several days earlier so that some of the corn was laying down and there had been rain as well so the walk was quite challenging. They spent almost 2 hours walking 2 miles and were pretty wet and skinned up from the adventure.

At 9:30 Tuesday morning, we arrived at the corner where 2 roads cross for the auction. The auctioneer was there shortly after we arrived and soon people started coming from every direction. There were probably 50-75 people in attendance. The auction was scheduled for 10:30 and was over within the hour. The buyer of the land was from Washington.

Verdell(Rog's cousin) and his wife wanted to have lunch with us so we had lunch and then went to meet with the auctioneer at his office to sign papers. After that we were on the road again to return home. We had a very enjoyable time with our boys and look forward to seeing the rest of our children and grandchildren this next weekend in Kansas City.