We were just going to talk with her...

The kids love the violin. They've been talking about wanting to play for quite some time (even before we saw this Kansas youth string orchestra--5th through 12th grade--in Estes Park a couple of weeks ago), so I set up a meeting with the Suzuki violin teacher just 5 houses away from us. Joe stopped home yesterday as we were all heading down to our meeting with her, and I said, "We're just going to talk with her today. I think her schedule is full, so we'll probably have to wait to start and slowly get them into lessons one at a time." So on we went.

After meeting with the teacher, feeding her bird Cheez-Its, and playing with her two kittens, all four of the kids were fitted with violins, and we returned home with one 1/16-sized, one 1/8-sized, one 1/4-sized violins, and two bows. I didn't even have a check book with me, but she had us take them so we could get them "checked over" by a shop before all of the children start lessons next Tuesday!

All the kids spent time "fiddling" with the violins yesterday. The first thing Jimmer said when he woke up this morning was not the expected, "Mom, can we go to the pool this morning?", but, "Mom, can I play my violin?"

Here he is...










Here's Mary Kate (who also had just rolled out of bed) playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star she sounded out.










Needless to say, next Tuesday can't come soon enough for them.

The Lone TadFrog

Unfortunately, our tadpole sitters (wonderfully generous neighbors) had to witness the death of 5 out of our 6 tadpoles--the first day we left on our roadie! After I cleaned the tank and walked it over to their house before we left town, I noticed some white flaky stuff floating around the water that I had never seen before and is still baffling me. This was sure to be what the poor tadpoles ingested and caused them to meet their demise later that day--just a little over a month after we "saved" them from their natural habitat.

Our neighbors called so we could inform the kids before we came back to pick them up (in case the kids may be distraught in some way). After we told the kids about the other tadpoles dying, they were pretty matter-of-fact about it when they told their cousins, and were glad we still had one left. After we got back, Jimmer asked what our neighbors did with the other tadpoles. I told him I wasn't sure...but I'm relieved he didn't outright ask our neighbor when we went to pick up the aquarium! FLUSH!

On a lighter note, we still have one very hearty tadpole left, and he's getting his legs in back. See?
We're trying to think of an appropriate name for him now that he's been through some tough times and is the lone survivor of our tadfrogs. This one was the smallest one of the bunch, is quite mellow compared to the other rambunctious critters he used to float with, and he's usually found hiding at the bottom of the tank under our little aquarium plant.

Check out how well his legs are formed in this picture. At first the legs were so small and just floated along with the rest of the body seemingly lifeless. Now our little tadfrog uses them to push himself along the tank. Doesn't he look happy...like he's getting ready to clap and dance?!

We thought of naming him Bilbo (for Bilbo Baggins, the main character in The Hobbit) since hobbits don't usually like too much adventure. Then we thought of Winnie (the Pooh) since this tadpole seems pretty gentle and soft spoken. There's gotta be an Aesop's fable about a mellow, patient, non-greedy type like this, right? We haven't given him a name quite yet as I'm not sure that any of these names fit him fully. Any suggestions out there?

Our Little Flowers

Last night was our annual awards ceremony for the Little Flowers Girls' Club. Our girls felt very special as they received their patches, service awards, and works of mercy pins. Here is a photo of the whole group. Kathleen is the first one on the left, and Mary Kate is the sixth one from the left.
Here's the group in our church Rosary Garden. Kathleen and Mary Kate are on the very right.

Dad and the boys having dinner at the event.

On the Road Again: ending our tour

On our way home after we passed all of the snow-capped mountains, we enjoyed the many different sites and features of West Texas. I've often joked about the smells around the general Lubbock area (+/- 100 miles in any direction).

Smells north of Lubbock.
We passed by about a 1/2 mile of penned and packed-in cattle along the way. NOTE: If you come across this many cattle in one place, make sure you have the air on recirculate BEFORE the aromas have a chance to enter your vehicle!

Smells south of Lubbock--oil.We passed by many of these oil rigs. The field this one is standing in is probably a newly planted cotton crop. We also passed by many co-op cotton gins.

West Texas scenery--massive wind farms. Atop mesas...
...and in fields. Thousands of these wind turbines are "planted" for miles and miles, so you can't see the beginning or end of them.
To better grasp the idea of how large the turbines are, check out the barn in this picture. The turbines are 328 feet tall. I know I'm getting very obviously nerdy here, but you can click here see how they compare in size to a Boeing 747.
This broken blade will remind you why you don't see these wind farms closer to town. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near these things if one of the blades broke or flew off!
Here's the Smiling Bridge in (yes, it's true) Happy, TX. Joe calls it Smiling Bridge since it is notoriously known for its bowing precast concrete beams that turn up at the ends--like a smile! Okay, you've gotta look pretty closely. As you can imagine, this is NOT a good thing! Just remember, you really don't want a bridge to smile at you! Frowns (or arches), in this case, are better. Even with an untrained eye, I noticed it right away. This picture really doesn't show how obvious the beam is sagging.

Hmmm...I think I better check deep into my pocket protector-covered shirt pocket to find something to measure my nerd factor here! Err...now I'm wondering why I bothered to post this picture. I guess to show what life is like being married to a structural engineer. Stopping on the side of a road to take a picture of a very plain bridge is not unusual for us! Knocking on most walls and columns of ANY kind of structure is also fairly common in our family--especially if there are any visible cracks!

Just to clarify, Joe says the bridge is structurally sound and is being monitored...so all who live in Happy, TX can stay happy, happy, happy!

Here's a comforting sign that welcomed us as we stopped for a break on our ride home! Can you read it? It says, "WARNING: Watch for Snakes".
The sign reminded me of Mikey getting his first snake bite earlier this year! See the bite marks on his hand?
Ahhh, now we're home again. Wait! What did that thermometer say? Near 100 degrees?

Impromptu Roadie--our final destination

Here is where our kids wanted to spend most of their time--in Rocky Mountain National Park on one of the highest areas of Trail Ridge Road--sledding with a great backdrop of snowy mountains. Once Jimmer saw the snow-capped mountains he exclaimed, "Snow White!" Since he's never read the story and has only heard the term, this is HIS version of Snow White! =)As you can imagine, this is not the time of year to shop for snow pants and boots. We knew we wouldn't be needing the gear back in Texas (!), so we really didn't want to go to the expensive outfitter shops. We completely lucked out by finding all the winter outerwear we needed (besides hats and gloves we bought the night before) at a thrift shop right by our hotel. Since the store was trying to clear everything out, they had a $1/bag day. We made it out of there with all our gear for $5. This trip was meant to happen! We were also Earth friendly ;^) and recycled some of our gear by giving it back to the same shop!

We warmed up a bit in the Alpine Visitor Center...up in the tundra. The part of Trail Ridge Road that is closed for the winter opened the day we arrived and the weather was beautiful when we were in the mountains. Talk about blind luck!

An unphased large elk grazing by the road.

Our traditional picture of the kids taken on the Estes Park mountain lion statue downtown.

A friendly marmot who kept peeking out at us where we were sledding. Maybe he wanted in on the fun and wanted to go sledding also.

You can click here to see more pictures of our Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park adventures.

The first stop on our "detour"

Once we left Lubbock after seeing the Albuquerque Crew, the kids noticed something a little peculiar as they were following their maps. We were on the wrong road...and going north instead of south! What?

[On the way to Lubbock (because before that time, Joe and I were just plain too busy to think further ahead), Joe asked what we had going on when we got back from our quick Memorial Day weekend get away. Since we didn't have anything major planned, we figured there wasn't any reason to come home. So, we decided to go somewhere we LOVE. Somewhere...more refreshing than the 102 degree day we were having as we were driving that day! Did it matter that I only had shorts, t-shirts and flip flops? Nope! The kids had their tennis shoes, one sweatshirt each, and a couple of them even had pants. So we had to do a little shopping...]

From Lubbock we continued northwest for another 8 hours or so! (Lubbock was a mere 6 hours--371 miles--from our home.) For about an hour after we left Lubbock, the kids guessed off and on where we were headed until they figured it out. They didn't want us to tell them!

First, we stopped at Garden of the Gods (in Colorado Springs).




Then we pushed on the next day until we reached our final destination...more on that in the next post!

Lubbock Rendezvous

We just rolled into the driveway this evening. (My last post was taken while we were still on our unexpected detour home!) It all started the Friday before Memorial Day on our roadie to Lubbock to meet up with the Albuquerque Crew.

We were all looking forward to catching up with everyone--especially since we didn't get to see the Albuquerque Crew for their usual spring break this year because Mary Kate had her surgery right before Easter. The cousins (and moms and dads) certainly made up for lost time!

The kids played...


and played...


and played.


We visited and ate...

and ate!


Our kids also wanted to impress Uncle Reinhard by speaking some German. They already knew the phrases, "Spreken ze deutch?" and "Ach nein!" Before we left home, however, they wanted me to find out how to say "uncle" in German. Turns out it's pretty much pronounced, "uncle" (the German spelling is onkel). So they cleverly asked him, "Spreken ze deutch, Onkel Reinhard?". Jimmer was unimpressed with the similarity of the word "uncle" in German, so he put his own German-Spanish accent on it when he asked the question! It sounded something like, "Ohn-KALE." with very exaggerated facial expressions!

You can click here to see more pictures of the few days we spent together.

After we said our goodbyes, we strapped in the van and headed for an unexpected adventure! I'll tell more about it tomorrow!