Grandma Rosemary and Grandpa T Visit

The Torkelsons were driving down to visit from Montana but had to delay their trip 4 days because of the snowstorms. They finally arrived on Sunday, the 19th of April. We had beautiful weather while they were here - completely opposite of the snowstorm days, the weather warmed up to the 70s and was sunny - all of the snow melted! The boys had 2 days off from school for testing, so we were able to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo & enjoy some parks. Here is the fun we had - at the zoo, the kids got to feed giraffes. Jack fed one; Jonah said he wanted to, but then decided he didn't want to; Adam said he definitely didn't want to; Catherine though it was great and would have fed the giraffes all day!

We ate lunch at the zoo - apparently they weren't ready for a big crowd as the eating place options went as follows:

"Can I have a sandwich?" "We are out!"

"Can I have a salad?" "We are out!"

"Can I have chicken & fries" "We are out!"

"Can I have cheesy bread?" "We are out!"

"Can I have pizza?" "We're out! Hold on, let me check...We have 10 left!"

"We'll have 2 pizzas, nachos, a hot dog, and a hamburger." At least they had those! After eating, the kids played at the little play area outside where we ate:

Another day we enjoyed the beautiful weather at a park:

We had a very fun visit with them and look forward to trying to see them in Montana in June!

April Snow Day

April 17 was a snow day for us here in CO. By the afternoon, the sun came out for a couple of hours so we took advantage by going out and playing in the snow before the blizzard started again. It was nice since Tom was leaving in 10 days, that we were able to have some fun family time. Here's the fun we had:

Gotta love springtime in CO!

Jochum Visit/Easter

Right before Easter we were finally able to connect with some dear family - Tom's aunt & cousins, The Jochums. Though the visit was brief, we had a wonderful time reconnecting with them and just hanging out playing games together. Catherine was sick, so she really wasn't herself during the visit, but at least they were able to meet her and see our boys. All of our kids have grown and changed so much since we were last together! Here's a few photos:

Here we all are - all of our family and the Jochums minus Jim as he had to work and couldn't make the trip with the rest of them:

It's amazing how much their kids have grown - Jenny's now a senior in high school! Here's a Jenny comparison from when she was the flower girl in our wedding until now:

Hopefully it will not be too long before we can see them again! They left on Saturday and Easter Sunday was the next day - Catherine was still getting over being sick and wasn't quite herself that day. We went to church and the boys sang. Then we went next door with Doc Sue to the Flanegins for a big meal and Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. We didn't get any pictures of the family in our Easter Clothes, but have this short video of the singing:

Thankful Thursday

Though I have been a bit behind in my thankful Thursday posts, I am still very thankful for so many things and will combine many of the last few weeks in this post:

• Thankful for the wonderful visit with the Thomas family
• Thankful for our church family and celebrating during a surprise baby shower for one of our church family friends expecting baby #3 - it was a true surprise and very fun!
• Thankful that Tom arrived home safely after driving to and from NM for training last week - he left when it was snowing and returned right before it started snowing again!
• Thankful that my sister came to watch the kids while Tom was gone so that I could hang out with Melanie and the Prayer Posse - an AWESOME group of women pictured here:
• Thankful for Easter coming up on Sunday - the incredible gift that God gave us through Jesus dying on the cross for you & me & the whole world - the example of sacrificial love that He gave all of us through the cross: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. He loves us in spite of our failures & flaws - the gift is free, not "I'll love you if..." I am so very thankful for My Savior!