Welcome Daphne!

Our campsite at the Family Campout.

Holli shooting shotgun.

Chris shooting .22 rifle.

I can't believe it has been so long since I last blogged -- well really, yes I can. I am just not very good at it, I guess. I've never really kept a journal, so it takes some getting used to. Plus, we don't take a whole lot of photos, so our blog might be kinda boring -- just reading.

I guess I'll start with the most recent -- for the next week or so, we are hosting an exchange student from Greece. Her name is Daphne Prassa and she is from Greece. She is 17 years old and is here on the International 4-H Youth Exchange (IFYE) program. She is one of 4 IFYE students here in Colorado. She is here for about 3 months. We picked her up on Thursday night and will take her to meet her next family on the 20th. We hope to give her several "Colorado" and "American" experiences while she is with us. We went bowling last night and will go to a Drum & Bugle Corps Competition tonight. Tomorrow, we are going to go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Forest. Although Chris and I have to work this week, I might take a day off to take her shopping. We also have tickets to sit in the Rockpile (cheap seats) for a Rockies Baseball game this week, and then next weekend, we have plans to go rafting on the Arkansas. We might go camping too, but haven't decided yet.

Over the 4th, we had our friends DaNell and Keegan and their 5-week old son Ethan over for a cookout and watching the fireworks. We saw some great fireworks on TV, and then went out on the deck and were able to watch the Westminster fireworks right from our deck. Although I love going to the park, it is also nice to just stay home too. We ended up re-arranging the furniture in our family room on Saturday -- moving the recliner to the corner closer to the fireplace and putting our computer desk between the basement stairs and the bathroom. I've suggested that we build-in a desk and cabinet there, but we are trying it our for a bit before we make a final decision.

The weekend of June 27/28/29 we spent time with our friends Brenda & Andrew and Lauren & Truett. We went to dinner Friday night and then went shooting skeet and .22 with them on Saturday.

Over Father's Day weekend, we went to the Colorado 4-H Shooting Sports Family Campout. There were over 200 people at the campout, which was held on a private ranch outside of Victor, Colorado. It sure was beautiful there. We borrowed Phil & Ellen's pop-up and actually went camping for two nights. This was highly out of my comfort zone, as I really like to have a bathroom, but there were port-o-potties and we bought a little solar shower, so could at least wash my hair. We also did the "sponge-bath" thing each morning. It wasn't so bad, but the first thing I did when we got home was take a shower. I could probably handle a weekend trip every once in a while, but probably not much longer than that without a shower available.

That's about it. Not too much excitement, but a few things here and there.