The Outdoor Lab girl!

I am back- I just remembered that I forgot to take the photos of Chloe from the other day off of the cameras.

Chloe left for Outdoor Lab Monday morning and she was SOOOOO excited! (Well, you can see that in the photos).

They spend the whole school week up there, studying the stars and all kinds of outdoor stuff, staying in cabins with their friends, and doing team building stuff. The teachers have really been hyping it up and you could feel the excitement and anticipation while we all waited for the buses to arrive.

They are due back tomorrow afternoon and I imagine the house will be filled with chatter non-stop all weekend. What a change that will be, the house has been so quiet this week. I didn't think I would miss hearing Chloe's stories as much as I do. Just goes to show you, eh? lol

Playing with the camera

I have to say, playing with a good lens is great fun! 

I went outside to take some scenery photos in our neighborhood and discovered that I need a LOT of practice before I am any good at this! lol

I do enjoy taking and looking at photographs though and I am sure that I will love every moment of the learning process.

I will be taking more garden photos as I progress there- I am trying to do a little landscaping and some final fall planting- before it is time to plant tulips!

Thanks to a tip from my neighbor, I have found the perfect garden store nearby. They have the biggest selection of tulip bulbs I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Of course, the problem will be narrowing it down to just a few...

New Camera!

We went up to Fort Collins yesterday to watch Heidi compete at the stadium at CSU. The stadium was pretty impressive and Heidi said it was fun to compete there.

The band came in fifth out of six bands in their level, but their score improved from the last competition, and they competed against bands who won and placed in State Finals last year. So their band leader was really pleased overall. They played really well, and now that we have heard the songs over and over, they are familiar and we like them better. And every competition they add a little something extra to it, so we always wonder what we will see next! lol

As Ben lives in Fort Collins, we met up with him and his girlfriend Jessica for lunch. We also got a tour of a bit of the city and Ben & Jessica's apartment, which is bright and sunny and very nice.

Rich surprised me with a new camera on Friday. It has a huge lens on it and I was able to take so many cool photos of Heidi at the competition. I read the manual in the car on the way to Fort Collins and it apparently takes video too. I am going to have to play with this baby- and I am thinking of taking a photography class to learn how to use it to its full capacity.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE taking photos, how much I love scrapbooking with them, how much I love hanging them all over my walls! Rich is definitely the master of surprises! What a sweetie.

Another competition

Heidi had another competition last night, the Jefferson County Marching Invitational.

I can't say that I am very fond of school night competitions... she wasn't ready for me to pick her up until after 11 pm!!! The poor girl hardly had time to get any homework done and was really worn out this morning. I don't know why they couldn't do it on a Wednesday night, when most kids have a late day on Thursday...

Anyway, this time the bands were competing in their own class. The Rebels are a 4A band. 

We watched 4 out of the seven bands in their level. Columbine was so great! They came in second place out of the seven. 

One thing I have noticed here is that the kids (and the parents!) take their school pride very seriously, much more so than back in Canada. They are fiercely proud of where they go to school, and are very vocal about it!

Another thing I have noticed is that I often hear kids talking about politics. Politics is a BIG thing here, much more so than in Canada. I watched a lot of the Democratic Convention from here in Denver, and we did listen to some of the Republican stuff after it was done. I have my opinions, of course, but I am not allowed to vote in this election. Next time, though...

The start of fall colour

We outdid ourselves on the weekend, going for a 20 mile/32 kilometre bike ride.  

We stopped at the 8.75 mile mark, intending to turn around, then thought, why not go the extra measley 1.25 miles and make it an even 20? Did we even remember that we had to go ALL the way back to where we parked???? I think not. lol

Boy howdy, were we exhausted! However, we did it, and that is something.

We had been so busy with going to Boulder and band stuff, we hadn't gotten out on our bikes at all on the weekend yet. The trees are turning and it is just so beautiful now, we wanted to enjoy the nice weather and take some photos.

So here are a few photos we took on the South Platte trail. I thought I was going to miss the Ontario colours, but it turns out we have the full palette here too. YAY!

Happy Autumn everyone!