Colorado 2011

We had two wonderful times with family and friends in Colorado this summer. The mountains with all the melting snows from the winter and all the spring rains were absolutely gorgeous this time.

The first was a week with Drew and Carrie and Greg and Kim and Nathanael in Winter Park, just relaxing together. This was in mid-June, and we actually had a couple of inches of snow the first day we were there! The mountains were unbelievably lush and beautiful; just couldn't get enough of them.

Greg, Nathanael, and Kim at one of our family meals in the condo.

Nathanael and his Auntie Carrie!

Drew and Carrie at the condo.

Nathanael and his grandpa taking a walk/wagon ride around Winter Park.

And we had a terrific time connecting with our dear friends, the Millers, for a bit of time in Estes before heading back home. This was the first time we had been all together since we had Drew, Greg, and Claire join the family as spouses and Evie and Nathanael join as first grandchildren! (Drat! Just realized I haven't yet received the group picture from the Miller camera of this.)

Then, after a couple of weeks in warm, humid, heating-up Kansas, Dick and I returned to Colorado for our annual get-away to Rainbow Lake with Daddy and Lois and Larry and Galena. This time we started our trip in Grand Junction to meet up with the Shumard cousins so we could go up above Paonia to the West Muddy area where Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Grant and Nellie Shumard and Grandpa and Grandma Art and Dora Shumard along with Aunt Rene and Uncle Wes (at that time both under about four years of age) homesteaded for a couple of years. Thanks to some invaluable preparation and legwork by Gary and Dorie, we were able to drive up to the location of the homestead, tramp around the area, and see a few meager remains of equipment and perhaps pieces of the old barn and see the spring/creek that had been dammed up for their water use. What a very hard life that must have been -- but beautiful mountains surrounding and gorgeous old quakies! Truly a special time with the cousins.

Julie's prolific flowers at her home in Grand Junction -- absolutely beautiful!

The cousins up on the Shumard homestead site. Rita, Julie, Joann, Larry, and Dora.A large grove of quakies near the homestead site. Dick and Gary went out close to them so we could get a picture of their size in perspective. They truly were big, old quakies!

Then it was on to Rainbow Lake for a few days of fishing and just enjoying that lovely, restful area together as family.

It sure was tough to return to Kansas in the midst of the hottest summer in lots of years. After the 60s of Colorado, we were hit really hard