"May I have this Dance...?" -posted by katie

YES!! On my very day of birth (21 years ago of course), our dear friends the Schwisows hosted a fantastic country dance in a nearby church. Thank you, Schwisows! I have seldom had such a fun birthday :)

Mr Schwisow giving direction.
While waiting for lunch to be served (before the actual dancing), we played some bean bag game--attempting to get the bags into the wooden holes pictured above. Patricia was decently good actually!
Ellie was, uh, decently bad *wink*
The onlookers wonder their own private thoughts of the spectacle...
Robert in mid=throw.
The wide open room where the dancing was soon to take place! Excitement is mounting... :)
Pretty girls! Melissa, a friend, Mary, Mercy, Patricia.
Chili is served! The Sorteberg family kindly ate with us. Andrew, Mary, Amy, FeMei.
YAY! This was the elegant dance of Ring Around the Rosy... JUST KIDDING!
Doing the illustrious chicken dance. What possessed me I know not :)
There were TWO katies there whose BD is March 27th! Here we both are. I was turning 21 and she was turning like 37 or something like that...
During a breather, Robert attempts the stilts.
Ellie and Robert dancing it up!
Smiles!
The hosts of the dance themselves. I tried to get a face shot but to no avail... Sweet :)
Unlikely partners.
Mr Schwisow and Melissa lead the line dance.
Two cute little girls dressed alike! Darling.
Mary and James!
Robert and Patricia--check out that air!
Down the line...
A funny skit the caller organized all about "Uncle Zeke." :)
Ellie was in it! She did quite a great job.
MORE dancing! I love how dear Robert is kicking the opposite leg of everyone else :) He is such a sport.
Ellie and my turn to lead the dance!
Doing the fast kicking dance!
We all have a different expression in this picture: Mary-Mischievous, Katie-Ill, Robert-Clueless, Patricia-Happy!
Ellie and FuMei having a ball :)
dance dance DANCE!


I think the lads are tired out.
Robert loved the chicken dance just a little too much... *wink*
What a fun time. Can't wait until we do it again sometime!

March Snow Storm!

The last couple years God has given me the pleasure of snow either falling on my birthday in March, or a lot of snow being on the ground! What a joy :) The girls went out and played in it one day--I will mainly let the pictures speak for their lovely selves.

Six inches, baby! This is the freshly shoveled sidewalk (by Robert and yours truly--good thing I happen to love shoveling snow!).
Fun with the girls. Here Mom and Ell kiss Mr Snowman :)
And here's the lovely Mrs Snowman. The snow was, for once, GREAT for molding (Colorado snow is usually too dry and powdery to even get a descent snowball!).

Fun with snow!!

Mary and SKY.



Patricia, uh, LEAPS the fence! *cough*
Sweet Mary.
There is really nothing at all like running across an unsullied field of six inch snow...
They were caught and put behind bars for ruining the loveliness of the snow :) They actually all look disturbingly convincing...
My beautiful sisters...
Check THAT out! That is our poor Honda, by the by.
Snow covered EVERYTHING because first it started to melt since it had been 75 degrees only the day before, so then the wetness made the snow stick to EVERYTHING!! Absolutely gorgeous...
Part of our new backyard.
A fine old tree, no doubt.
I think this is our neighbor's tree.
Our backyard which came with a lovely little bench...
New pics of the snow melting! (which it does very quickly here in CO).
Slowly fading from the trees...
And the roads/driveways. This the front of our new house...
Our house with some crazy strangers in front. I soon ran them off... *wink*
But they came BACK for more! :)
Patricia's lovely art...

Snow melting on our side steps.
And on the bushes and trees... There is just SOMETHING about snow. Something pure and lovely and unsullied by anything dark... I guess that's why Jesus used snow to describe how we'd look once he was through washing our sins away... Praise God for the double beauty of physical snow, and the Lord of the universe who washed us every bit as white a the whitest snow imaginable...!