Pictures to go with the last update

Joel and our friend Jason getting "pinned" by the balloonist we helped.
The glow.

Hurley and Wyatt in a high speed chase at our campsite.


There are LOADS of ladybugs in the mountains (see story: http://www.gazette.com/articles/colorado-60818-heading-hills.html)


Atop San Luis Peak.

I was trying to take a picture of Kelly with Wyatt, but Hurley wanted to join in.

A view from the peak.

Hurley ready for a nap after the hike.
The sign in front of the Pikes Peak Center the night of Jerry Seinfeld!

Long overdue for an update!

For once, a lack of update means busyness as opposed to a ho-hum sort of week. Let's see...I'll try to start in chronological order.

I realize posts aren't really interesting without pictures, so pictures will be coming soon for this one when I get them off of my camera- sorry!

The balloon glow was a blast! Aunt Bev met us at our house and we packed up our picnic spread and headed to Memorial Park where we met two couples from church. We ended up helping a pilot that my dad knows, so everyone got roped into a little more than they bargained for! But we had a great night and it was a beautiful glow with lots of people out to watch.

On Sunday after church, we met up with some friends and headed to the mountains for a night of camping. They have a dog a little older than Hurley, so the two of them had a blast playing, and we all had a great time camping and then hiking the next day (Labor Day).

The next day, I finally started work! Can you believe it!? I worked partial days Tues-Thurs last week, and all day Friday before we went to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Pikes Peak Center. I found out about this show earlier in the summer before Joel saw anything about it and surprised him with tickets (with the disclaimer that it was his b'day and Christmas present). I was a little nervous about the event, hoping that his new material wouldn't be a letdown, but it was great! We ended the downtown evening with a late supper at an Irish Pub.

Work has been going well. I'll generally be working Wed morning, Thurs morning, and all day Fridays, but they called me yesterday and I ended up working all day because one of the doctors was out sick! Not much else to report here...Joel's parents are headed out here on Thursday, so we're eagerly anticipating our next guests! It should be a great weekend, and the weather looks sunny (in contrast to this past weekend which was soggy and cold). Speaking of guests, the honorable John Payne will be gracing us with his presence once again (in October).

Hurley has been doing well- she still doesn't like to be left alone, and she barked alll day when I took her to work with me Friday, but she loved playing with the other dogs in the clinic, and she is getting much better on some of her manners at the house.

And it is now officially...

Football Season!

Joel and Hurley are currently curled up in our downstairs basement which has been transformed into the "man cave" for the start of college football.

Inventory of the photo from the left: TV with rabbit ears and local channel showing US Open (hopefully this will turn to football later in the day), laptop screen showing 2 different games plus the webcam at the Junction, TV screen showing ESPN 360 games...Joel and Hurley under their respective blankets. Not a bad setup!

Later this afternoon, my aunt is coming down from Lone Tree and we're headed to the Colorado Balloon Classic balloon glow in Memorial Park. We'll be meeting 2 couples from church there for a picnic and a hopefully enjoyable evening introducing them to ballooning. Joel and I had planned to sign up to crew for the race, but were a little nervous about being assigned to someone who isn't as fun as Hileigh Kentagious, so we thought we'd just watch this time and meet some folks my dad knows. I should have lots of pictures from tonight!

Tomorrow, the plan is church and then likely heading to the mountains for some hiking and camping with the same two couples we'll be hanging out with tonight! It should be a nice Labor Day weekend, though it sounds as though everyone heads to the hills for this final weekend of summer, so hopefully it won't be too crowded! Hopefully over 1 million acres will be enough for everyone wanting to get out of Colorado Springs this weekend (and that is just the Pike Nat'l Forest).

Well, I'm going to get my picnic fair ready to go and enjoy this nice summeryfall day!

Hurley on top of her dog house that we moved.
A nice view of a semi-sunset.
An interesting sculpture (?) on the campus of Colorado College downtown.
Hurley curled up at the end of our bed on the floor when I was attempting to change the sheets.

Oh, and on another note...I got a job! I'll be working part-time at a clinic in a nearby town (about 20 minutes from our house). They just need someone 2 half days a week and then all day on Fridays so that they will always have 2 doctors in the clinic, but will likely have more hours for me in the future. Even better is that they aren't open at all on the weekends! This will be a great transition to the working world, and I'll be able to pick up relief days at other clinics once I get my feet under me! God has certainly been good to us.

August is coming to an end...

Not a whole lot to report here. We had some friends from Sunday school over for supper and games on Tuesday night and had a lot of fun getting to know them better. Our church's annual picnic is this Sunday afternoon, and our Sunday school group is in charge of it, which will be nice because we'll get to know some of them better by working hand-in-hand setting up, etc.

We're not sure what the weekend holds...could be new members' class at church, could be canning green beans (at my aunt and uncle's) and attending the SEC/MSU picnic in Denver, it could be camping, or Joel may have to work. He thought he was off the hook for this weekend, but came home a few minutes ago and said it is still up in the air.

Hurley is doing well. She got her 2nd round of vaccinations on Tuesday and weighs 42 lbs! Yikes! If she keeps it up at this pace, she won't be able to do this for much longer:


(not sure where she decided to pick up this nice habit)

We found her a dog house on Craigs List earlier this week, bleached it, and put it in her pen. I found a $3.22 comforter at Salvation Army today and it is currently drying on the line so she'll have a comfy place to sleep in her pen (though she doesn't know that yet).

Sod

Joel ran across some unused rolls of sod at work last week, so we laid them out in the backyard!

One tired puppy...

...and two tired people arrived back in Colorado Springs Saturday night after camping and hiking.

(the summary is below, and the photos with descriptions are in reverse order because blogger isn't allowing me to cut and paste right now)

At the end of the trail.

Views along the way.
A damp Hurley waiting for Joel to give her a dog treat.
We stopped to give Hurley a break and she dug a hole next to a rock and tried to take a nap.
One of the creeks we crossed along the trail...I love mountain streams!
Mining relics at the start of the Emerald Valley Ranch trail.
Campsite.


Joel enjoyed his Brickman Founder's Day on Friday. They played tug-of-war and soccer against the other branches. Unfortunately, the Colorado Springs branch didn't win anything, but a good time was had by all. When Joel got home, we packed up the car and headed into the mountains for a quick camping trip. We found one of the two free campgrounds in the Pike National Forest and really enjoyed the location. We took a gamble and took Hurley camping with us, but she did great! We just put her kennel next to the tent and she didn't make a peep until the morning! There were lots of things to smell and chew on, and I think she was on sensory overload.

Saturday morning, we tried to find two different trails, but ended up on a third because none of them were marked very well. The one we ended up taking was a nice wooded hike that was supposed to lead to some beaver ponds. It started raining when we reached what should have been the end of the trail, and we only saw one beaver puddle, so we headed back. It was a beautiful hike though, and I think it will be really nice in the fall because there were a lot of aspens along the way. Poor Hurley didn't know why we were punishing her with the rain. She kept trying to shake the rain off, but it didn't do much good!

We took a different route back to the car that was shorter, but uphill for about 2.5 miles. Hurley fell asleep immediately when we reached the car, and proceeded to sleep for the next 7 hours and all through the night!

I wish that I had my camera with me on our walk just now...a red fox ran across the road in front of Hurley and me! I'm pretty sure she saw it, but she didn't respond at all...but this did happen to be at the end of our walk when she was lying down refusing to go any farther.

On another Hurley note, if we wanted to meet people in this city, we should have found Hurley as soon as we got here! It is official: walking a really cute bloodhound mix puppy is the best way to have random people strike up conversations with you. We made two new friends at McDonald's when I was returning our RedBox movie!

Also, we think we may be nearing the end of our squirrel saga. I haven't heard it recently, but Joel has spotted it rearing his ugly head out of the hole above our garage door. Our landlord called in Animal Movers, and Mr. Mark The Professional Trapper came to scope out the situation. He found a hole that they had chewed into a plastic vent on the roof...

Evidence:
(the hole is in that thing on the right side of the picture)

...he placed two traps with peanut butter near their hole...
and a couple of hours later...

The Defendant in his trap:




And on to other news. I worked relief at a clinic on Friday as sort of a working interview. They aren't really looking to hire anyone right now, but I'm hoping I can at least get a few more days of work out of it every now and then. Joel had to work all day on Saturday, and then on Sunday afternoon, we built a pen for Hurley in the backyard (well, Joel did most of the work while I kept Hurley out of the way of the fence post driver). We haven't tried it out too much with her yet, as we're going to get a dog house, etc for it first.
(not sure how well you can see it...but this is her new pen)

Hurley playing with her tennis ball on a rope in her pen:



Not much else to report here! Some of the couples in our Sunday school class play Settlers of Catan, and one couple invited us over tonight for some friendly competition, so we're looking forward to that! Joel has his "Founder's Day" celebration on Friday...which means a picnic and soccer games for the company in Denver.

Joel and I have each made recent purchases for backpacking! I got a new pack at REI, and he has a new sleeping bag on the way! I was getting a little sore from carrying his external frame pack he has had since Scouts, and his old sleeping bag wasn't very warm (he figured if he was cold camping in August, he'll probably be cold every other month of the year!).
I loaded it up to try it out around the neighborhood, but Joel won't let me walk down our street with it on (women's Deuter packs come with the flower on a rubber band...it wasn't my special touch) .


And finally, your interesting Gazette article of the day:

2 earthquakes strike Colorado 1 day apart

August 18, 2009 9:47 AM

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CRAIG — The second earthquake to hit Colorado in two days has rattled the northwest corner of the state, but no damage has been reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.7-magnitude quake struck at 8:50 p.m. on Monday. The epicenter was 11 miles north of Craig and 150 miles west of Denver.

Jeana Weber, a dispatcher for the State Patrol who lives about seven miles northwest of Craig, says she was reading in bed when her house began shaking.

She says her dogs were spooked and pictures on the walls shook.Weber says no damage has been reported to law-enforcement agencies.A 3.9 earthquake hit southeastern Colorado at 6:22 p.m. Sunday, but no damage was reported.

And a picture of Hurley on the fireplace next to her box of toys and a bulldog...
(she is getting really big).