Oh, and by the way...

Last weekend we went to a concert in the park. Our friends, Ralph and Sandy Edson joined us. Friday night they had Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits. We had seen his show a few years back, and loved it, but Saturday night they were having Felix Cavaliere and the Rascals. When we lived in Nashville and Randy had his own roofing business, Randy had put a roof on Felix's house, so he knew him as an aquaintance. We decided to go on Saturday.

First on the program were the stars of Beatlemania doing a few of their songs from the show. They were actually very good and played for over an hour. They even changed their outfits several times. I don't know how many of these groups are around, but these guys were very enjoyable. It was mildly entertaining to see members of the audience dance to the music.

Then Felix Cavaliere came out with his band. The band goes by the name of "The Rascals", but they were obviously not the original "Young Rascals" that he used to play with. Those guys would be about his same age, and the band with him that night had some very young players. Plus, Ralph said that he had looked them up on the internet and the "Young Rascals" were playing in England that night! The picture in the paper of Felix must have been about 30 years old, because Randy said he is probably around 70. They did put on a good show, and played his old tunes plus a lot of music that wasn't his, but was from that era.

The evening ended with a fireworks show. It had been a long time since I had been that close to fireworks (I usually watch them out my bedroom window anymore!), and it was fun.

Oh, and I didn't take any of these pictures - I hope they're not copyrighted!!!

♫ Rocky Mountain High, Colorado ♫

We got to fly to Aurora, Colorado and join 3 of our kids for a family reunion. Tyler flew there with us and we stayed at Ingrid and Jeff’s house with them and their 1 year old son, Kalvin.  Jesse and Amanda drove over from Topeka, Kansas and met us there. Heidi stayed in Utah for work and Dylan is in Ohio on his mission, so they were not able to join us.

We got in rather late on Thursday night, so we just stayed up and talked for awhile. Then on Friday morning we decided to go up into the mountains a bit so that they could go rock climbing. Randy and I didn’t do any climbing and Ingrid is pregnant, so she didn’t climb either. But Jesse, Amanda, Tyler and Jeff did some. It was fun to watch. Randy got to feeling real bad and had to lie down. He thinks it was the combination of medicine that he took that morning. 

After the rock climbing, we went back to Ingrid’s house and relaxed while the guys went to shoot clay pigeons. They had a lot of fun doing that, also. While I was at the house I got a call from Heidi in Utah saying that there was a fire in Herriman and evacuations were taking place up near the site of the fire. I logged onto Facebook for updates from Herriman City and also onto a news website. I sent an email to my mother letting her know that I was aware of what was going on. Several structures and houses got burned.

After the guys got back, Jeff barbequed steaks and we had a great dinner. Jeff had to get up in the middle of the night to go to work, so he went to bed early. We were going to watch a movie, but just ended up sitting around and talking and eating brownies for the rest of the evening.

On Saturday we went to a reservoir that is close to Ingrid’s house. It was really sunny and hot when we arrived, but clouded over and was fairly comfortable for the time we were there. The water was too cold for me to go in past my waist, but Jesse, Amanda, and Tyler played catch out in the water for quite a while. Randy went in a bit further than I did, and Ingrid and Kalvin played close to shore. We took Kalvin up to the playground area and let him walk around there for a little while and do some climbing. He couldn’t do much, but he tried! 

 When Jeff got back from work we went to an aquarium and walked through it. It was pretty big and had some great displays. 

Then we went out to dinner for everyone’s birthday and Randy and my anniversary. When we got back to the house we played a game called “Bang!” – it has a western theme with a sheriff, renegade and outlaws. It was pretty fun. 

On Sunday we sat around and talked in the morning and then Jesse and Amanda left for her dad’s place in Gunnison, CO to visit for a few days. We went to church in the afternoon to Ingrid’s ward. After dinner, we ended up playing a game again. Jeff had to get up real early again for work, so he went to bed early. 

Karen 2000

Barb Cline - Real Estate agent in Colorado

Monday we went on a walk to a nearby park and Ingrid showed me the picture that’s up there of a real estate agent that looks a lot like me. Kinda’ freaky, actually. We also watched a movie using their wall-size projector. Then Jeff and Ingrid drove us to the airport and we had a quick flight home.

It was fun to see some of my children and their families and spend a few days with them. I am continually awed at the children that have been sent to my family – they are the best!!