Happy Birthday to Me!

Thanks Mom Morrison and Grandma Berg! I got a gift of money from Dirk's mother and grandmother... so I took a RARE Friday mid-day to check out the mall and Kohls. I really hit the bargins... so I must have been shopping on the RIGHT day! I got a dress at Herbies for $12; the fall table runner at Kohl's for $9.99 and the Yankee Candle, Pumpkin Spice scent for $12! I was so excited I couldn't wait to get home and set out a few of our fall decorations!

A late summer bouquet with the aspen log candle holder....

My pheasant feather balls (actually Christmas tree ornaments... I just couldn't resist the great fall colors!

And my new "favorite thing"... LED tea lights. They run on a very small battery... because they are LED the little "light bulb" lasts forever... It says 6000 hours?? How long in days is that anyway??


I need to back-track a little in our family current events... I missed sharing the activities of our Labor Day camp out... It was a lovely weekend up at Mystic Hills, near Custer Peak. We took the kids over to the Boondocks to let them have 1 ride each and 1 carnival game each. This is Anika going on her first roller coaster ride!

This picture of Thor is "mid-ride"... might explain the funny face of his friend John, sitting next to him!

Here is Anika's attempt at modern photography... a close-up of dad/Dirk...


Liv just after her bath/shower (not her favorite part of camping) all dressed in her first footie pajamas... ready for bed!

Last but not least, I have to remember our last ATV ride into the Hills, We headed out just after an early-ish supper, for a sunset ride to the top of Custer Peak, hoping to see the sun set as we rode back down the hill. About 1/2 hour into the ride, we came across a heard of black angus cattle grazing. Just after we passed the last few stray cows/calves I noticed a brown body, just on the other side of a tree, about 20 yards off the path we were driving on. I thought... "hmm, that isn't a cow... it's too big to be a deer... could it be an elk?"

It certainly WAS!! and there we at least 2 more elk with him. It was incredible!! Words could almost not express our joy and surprise... we've tried to be in the right places at the right times... and finally, we saw them ... in the wild! I wish I could say these photos were of those elk... but these are the elk we saw the next weekend out at Bear Country (thanks to our season pass, we go regularly, just for fun!).

This week we are looking forward to the 2nd half of Thor's braces being put in (oh joy!) ... more shopping for me to find a dress appropriate for Bethany's wedding!