Ruby

Ruby was born on Christmas Day in 2003. When we brought her home at a couple months old she looked like this:

As many of our friends and family were aware, she was always way too happy when guests visited. She tolerated 3 babies/toddlers/children crawling all over her.

Ruby's best friend growing up was Goblin the Cat.

When Ruby got older Draper and Lilly came into her life. Much like the children she tolerated them with grace.

                                              \

Ruby passed away peacefully on May 10, 2017 with Carrie and I at her side. She is missed by her entire family and will be an always lasting presence in our home. 

Summer Adventures

School is back in session and life is getting busy again so before we have even less time here are some random pictures from this summer.

Another camping weekend

Camping

We camped in an amazing spot last night. We could see the entire valley surrounding the town of Red Feather and watched several storms role through (and miss us!). Finally, one did hit us and we got a little soaked but the fire was nice and warm. I also managed to forget hot dogs so the kids roasted buns. We are terrible at taking pictures and our two main cameras have zero battery life. These were taken with a not so smart flip phone.

Geocaching Adventure

Today we went hunting for treasure in the woods. 

 Due to spring run off we found our path under water a couple times.

 Luckily we eventually made our way to some high ground that wasn't so soggy.

 Then the storms began to roll in and we needed to return to the car.

 How in the name of Holy Pokemon do we get back across this stream?

Thank goodness these planks could hold 250 lbs or those kids would be driving home by themselves.

Snow and Cold

Yes it's been very cold and snowy but the nice thing about having older children is the slave labor.

Geocaching

When last this blog was updated we had returned from our California trip. That was almost two months ago and the summer has flown by.

The kids have had a video game ban for the summer. They have enjoyed a lot of swimming, bike riding, playing soccer in the yard, and using their imaginations. However, the big revelation of the summer has been geocaching. Yes that is right we have been looking for mystery containers in the woods, parks, and alleys of Fort Collins and Larimer County. I purchased a new GPS in June for this specific purpose. The kids have really taken to it and we are getting outside more than usual. Most of the caches contain dollar store level prizes but the kids are also excited to find ones that only have a log as well.