Merry Christmas from the Raymonds!

**PAUSE MUSIC BEFORE PLAYING**

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Putting Up the Christmas Tree 2009

The finished product.

(Sorry - the picture is a little fuzzy)

Finally found our pathetic, little, Charlie Brown Christmas Tree - everything was picked over, ... they shop early for trees here in the Springs. Although it's small, it turned out really cute and we were so happy to have Daddy home this year to help us! Thank God for small miracles and Merry Christmas to all!

You know Colvin is tired when....

... it's time to brush teeth and he tries to go to sleep on the bathroom floor.

Best Christmas Swap Gift

My friend, Judy, invited me to a Christmas decoration 'swap' at a home of one of the ladies at her church. We had a lot of fun, everyone was super nice and best of all, I got this lighted 'present' at the swap - kind of like a yankee swap, but it was all Christmas decor and ornaments. The limit was $15 and this was my favorite! Such a neat idea!

Snow, snow and more snow.....

Today school was canceled here in the Springs because of snow. Sucks too because it's SUPER cold outside - like 5 degrees! I thought we left this behind in Maine .... wishful thinking. And again, Gary escapes the shovel - he's enjoying his own hotel room in DC (at a conference). Plus, the AF guys are such sallies, they have people to come shovel the driveway, but unfortunately, I can't wait that long. Guess I should get my butt outside......

Happy Thanksgiving!

SOOOO Glad to have Gary home this year.....hoping for an uneventful and relaxing day. Don't even care that much about the turkey. :)

Trip to the Dino Museum

We decided to drive up the mountain to Woodland Park - about 2,000 feet higher than we are here in the Springs. It's a small museum but they had some neat exhibits. We took a tour with Alan, who taught us a lot of interesting tidbits about dinosaurs - like the Velociraptor in Jurassic Park is really a Utahraptor and 'raptor' means thief. Also, the Brontosaurus never really existed - it was a apatosaurus with camarosaurus head - pretty interesting stuff! We learned about their structures, how much they weighed, etc. etc. etc. and the fact that whomever discovers the fossils also gets to nickname the creatures - hence, T-Rex in their museum was named "Stan" (see pic at bottom). At the end, we ran into the curator and he took us into the lab where they build all kinds of replicas for other museums around the world. It was super cool!

Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park, Co.

Our little Paleontologist

Grrrrrr!

Face Painting at the Craft Fair in the Museum

T-Rex a.k.a. Stan

Munchkin-o-sauruses

Distant Relative??

Daddy and Olivia in front of the Albertosaurus a.k.a. Pebbles

Happy First Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday to our niece and nephew, Luci and Eli!! We haven't even met them yet and they are getting SO big! Eat some messy cake, little ones! And Carrie - take LOTS of pictures! We love you all!

Gary's New Grill Light

Snow that Sticks - Sat. Nov. 14th

Disconnected

We finally are reconnected with the world - we spent the past 6 days without phone, cable or internet. Luckily I had my iPhone, which I had to take to Apple to get fixed the second day we were without services. You don't realize how much we rely on phone and internet to stay connected with the world or how difficult it can be NOT to have television. Although the latter is a luxury, I still hated missing my shows! But all is well now and we are back up and running - Hallelujah!

The Fat Squirrel Who Ate My Pumpkin

Happy Trails!

Memaw had to leave today and what a sad day it was. :( We will really miss her! We had such a great time while she was here! Happy flying! We love you!

Time Change kicks butt...

This time change is really kicking Colvin's butt - he's been SO tired lately and here, he fell asleep right on the table during lunch. Poor little guy. I know how he feels. :)

Trip on the Royal Gorge Train

Today we took a ride on the Royal Gorge Train, which travels through the gorge over a thousand feet beneath the Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City, Colorado. It was a perfect fall day, warm enough that we could stand outside in the open car to take pictures and enjoy the brisk fresh air. All of us really enjoyed our trip, the culmination of Memaw's visit here. Definitely something to do again! What a great day! Take a look at the pictures.