Let it Snow!

Telluride Trip

Val and the kids on mainstreet in Uray
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The Youngs

Girls and kids

It snowed on our last day! Emily and Drew

The trout pond on the mesa




Drew took this one of me.

For us, a trip to Telluride is like many vacations wrapped into one. We are visiting family, coming back to a beloved place and picture-taking tourists all at once(we also re minis about being college spring breakers). We just got back from a week long trip and had a great time. Thanks to the exceptional nannying skills of our sister Emily, Val and I got away many times by ourselves. Two fat hikes, a nice dinner, a night out and an afternoon beer. That may be the most time away we have had in a year! The kids got to spend lots of quality time with their aunt. Drew rode the Galloping Goose (the local bus) all over town and Nora walked town at least twice. We also rode the gondola twice just for the views and a peaceful cup of coffee. Drew and I played at a beautiful river all afternoon one day (well, Drew played,I sunbathed), while Nora and Val shopped in town. (if you know Nora and Val, this is a funny thought, the two of them shopping).

We spent an afternoon at the house on the mesa complete with a stocked trout pond and hot tub with the best views on earth (at least in colorado) In a word, amazing.

We ended the week with a lovely Thanksgiving day. We had Emily's friends over at the big house in town (she is a caretaker for some very wealthy east coasters). We have known Chad, Heather and Mike since college so it was great to hang out with them and the new additions, Tate and Wesley.

All and all, it was a great trip. Now we are back to life, back to reality. Sure is hard to leave Emily and the mountains!
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Val and I up on Tom Boy Road

Emily and Nora "cooking" in her cozy alley house.


Drew looks right at home up at this multi million dollar mesa house.

Zoo Boo

Here are a couple shots of the zoo. We went with our friends Matt, Jen, Willow and Autumn. Despite the rain, we had a good time!

Little Autumn Witch

Hey all four backs is better than nothing!

Sir Tigger and Madame Witch

Introducing Boaz David Dresslar

My new nephew Bo was born September 21. We were finally able to meet him last weekend. Drew and I went up for a quick night to Ann Arbor to meet Bo. He is so sweet and Toby is doing great with him. Drew and Toby had a great time. They are like brothers too.

Sweet Bo

The happy family, Toby, Emily,Bo and Peter

I didn't get to hold Bo much, wonder why?

One more from the patch

This is about 2:30. Nora is so tired she can hardly keep her eyes open. Still, I like the picture.

Home Schooling

We just got back from the pumpkin patch. We went with our home school group called Roots and Wings. We has a great day and Drew is really starting to get to know the kids. The great thing about the group is we get to know the whole family and many of the families share similar values. We have made the big decision to home school next year and I couldn't be happier. Val and I are completely on the same page about this which makes it seem like a simple decision. We seem to really agree when it comes to the important stuff...(don't get me started on how high to turn up the heat in the winter).

We will take the schooling thing year by year, and of course if we are in a different place that will impact our decision. I just look forward to spending time with the kids as they get a bit older and continuing on the learning path with them. As a teacher, it just makes no sense to me to go and work with other children when I can teach my own. There are a lot of opportunities right here in Indy such as museums and farms, and as they get older we can do some more day trips. They also will be able to participate in things like sports and music with out our schedules getting too crazy. In short, I believe homeschooling will allow us to slow down and enable Drew and Nora to relish their time as children. Kind of like the slow food movement, only kids:)

In the corn maze

Drew loved feeding the goats, he was running with them and hugging them, I surprised he didn't get kicked.


Nora right in there with the big girls.

Remission! What a beautiful word.

So Pop got his test results back after completing his final round of chemo. He is in remission, and it seems to be a full remission. You may have heard the collective sigh of relief, it stretches from the mid west to the Rocky Mountains! He still is having trouble with his lung filling up and will have to undergo a intensive surgery for that. His blood counts are also low and we hope to see those go up quickly. There are still a lot of unknowns but what we know for today is that there is no cancer present in Pop's body. I think we are all getting more sleep.

Nora has the chicken pox now, this has been a long affair. But at least we are getting it over with. It will be another week or so and then we will be back to normal. She is not nearly as sick as Drew was but is COVERED with the pox...poor thing has them from head to knee. The first night of itching kept her up all night, from 11-3:30 I think it was. It solidified our thoughts on a third baby, not now!! (that is about as definite as we get)

Fall is here and the Drew is so excited for Halloween. We have been busy making ghosts and pumkins and plan to make some cookies for a party Sat night. (Val will have to stay home with pox girl) Drew has a tigger costume ready to go, Nora wants to be Pooh (at Drew's urgings) and I really need to figure that one out. Maybe Drew's old monkey costume with a pot of huny? Stay tunned....

Smile of the Day

Pox update

Drew is feeling much better today and actually would pose for a few pictures. We are starting to get used to him looking this way. We are well on our way to recovery and am really hoping Nora gets them when she is a bit older. I know that is wishful thinking.

Chicken Pox!

Drew woke up with a little blister Wednesday morning. I thought nothing of it and headed off to home school group where we fraternized with lots of our friends for many hours. That night, Val felt something on his head and then another, that is we we figured it was chicken pox. He only had a few the next day and a high fever. So we went to consult with Dr. Park who assured us this is a classic case of the bawk- bawk pox. I don't mess with rash and high fever...poor Drew is my little guinea pig. So now he's got the pox. His leg is hurting a lot so I actually took him to the hospital today. I started reading on line and felt that this was an abnormal symptom. He's really limping and we are carrying him everywhere. But the Dr. assured me it was normal and that maybe I should have vaccinated him, hrrumph.

Anyway, he is doing fine and is quite the trooper. He feels lousy and has watched more tv than ever but is still trying hard not to scratch and being sweet. He is a model patient.

Now we are just watching Nora, although it would be nice to get it out of the way, it really will be hard because she is so little, warm baths and Sesame Street won't quite cut it.

We have decided to not take pictures right now, he really feels punky.

Fall is here? Wait it's 90 degrees today!

Nora on her first pony, she didn't last long but enjoyed it all the same.

The Copelands are my dad's cousins. They used to own a working farm complete with corn and cows. Now, it is a smaller scale (just like all family farms these days) with vegetables. They have a farm stand and Pop and the kids and I enjoying picking out green beans, peppers, apples, mums and other treats. We also enjoyed seeing Elane(pictured) and Donna.




Fall is here, and baseball is heating up.


This is a picture of our homeschool group. Lots of nice people and fun.


At the stables...

Trying to get just one

Uncle Peter and Aunt Emily's new digs

A couple of weekends ago, we went to visit my bother, Peter and Emily and Toby in Ann Arbor. They live in a new home, a co-housing develpment which is really pretty cool. There is a main building that houses a kitchen, dining room, play room, tv room, reading room and a guest bedroom (where Val and Drew slept.) Emily usually has meals here on busy weeknights (someone cooks four nights a week) and says they have been wonderful (lots of ethnicities). The people were all very nice, Val played basketball with a few while Drew and Nora played with kids (but mainly their favorite kid, Toby) There was even a concert one night that the kids loved. We spent a lot of time here, there is a play structure, kids toys everywhere and trails that lead through wildflowers to ponds. Perfect for young ones. I think they made a great decision to move there, Emily is already very involved and Peter, well, he deals well (he is very busy starting a new tech business).



You can see the condo's in the background. They are environ friendly.

Peter gave us a tour of the Ann Arbor campus. This was Drew on the stairs of the library, funny huh?


Toby being silly.

Lake Lemon

I think Val and I spent almost every day one summer at Lake Lemon near Bloomingtion. We went down a couple weeks ago and nothing had changed, besides the company which made it even more fun. We went on one of the prettiest days of the summer and found our old secret spot undisturbed. We had the place to ourselves.





Yes, Nora is on a big girl swing at 20 months. She had the coordination and determination of a three year old!

Drew and I jumped in and swam way out. The bottom was full of slimy plants and a dead fish floated by. Now that is real swimming.