Jumpin' June

Well, after all of the fun of having the relatives over for Penny's birthday party, we enjoyed some more fun by heading up to Frisco and Breckenridge for our  11th anniversary.

 We enjoyed a huge outdoor BBQ festival on the streets of Frisco the first night.  Then we stayed in a ski lodge resort that we wouldn't normally be able to afford, but Jay had a special deal.  The next day we enjoyed touring the town, riding a gondola to the top of one of the ski slopes

and playing miniature golf up there,

as well as a nice outdoor hot tub while viewing the mountain peaks.  Well, perhaps I shouldn't say that we all enjoyed the gondola ride.  It was a little bumpy and my stomach was doing somersaults at the beginning.  Penny started feeling sick towards the end.  She went from exhilarated at the beginning to begging to get off by the end.

  The last day we were there, we celebrated Father's Day.

 It's been so nice to have Jay off this summer and not searching for a job.  There's been some nice bonding time happening between him and Penny.  Our last day in Breckenridge we enjoyed a couple of hikes in the area.

On the way back, the traffic to Denver was so thick that Jay decided to take back roads over the mountains.  He even took us on this one windy, narrow, steep, unpaved road, with no barriers that the old miners used to call OMG Road.  Penny didn't enjoy that one.  But, the scenery was breath-taking.

This summer we've still kept up with some homeschooling, but not quite as intense.  It's been nice and relaxed, by even enjoying a little schoolwork outdoors, with laundry hanging to dry nearby.

Penny has also helped me some with my painting project downstairs, but you'll have to wait until later to see those photos.  She's also had a couple of summer jobs of watering gardens and flowers for a couple of neighbors.  We've really been enjoying all of our flowers here at our house.

 And we've been thankful that our home has not been hit hard by any of the storms that have hit Colorado this summer.  We saw photos on FB of our former next-door neighbors in Fort Collins, whose siding had holes in it from the recent hailstorm there.  So, it's likely that our old home took quite a beating, as well.  Everything was looking beautiful at the CSU flower garden back up in FC, when we recently went up for a visit.

Another fun thing Penny and I (Chandra) did was to volunteer one day to help out at Royal Family Kids Camp at Covenant Heights Camp.  No photos of that, because the kids need their identities protected.  But, we had a wonderful time setting up for a giant birthday party for these kids who are foster children.  The kids had a great week up at camp, learning that in God's eyes they are special, unique, one-of-a-kind royal kids!  We also enjoyed helping out with one of the outdoor activities and then an outdoor BBQ.  But, it was COLD!  It was rainy and windy and the temp was probably in the 40's.  So, afterwards, we went inside to drink hot chocolate and warm up!

Last weekend we were able to take in a Rockies game and it was all a gift from our realtor!

 We had a lot of fun riding the light rail into downtown and walking to the game,

where they happened to be handing out free shirts to the first 15,000 fans.  Although we didn't win, we enjoyed the game.

 But, there was a long stretch when the sun was hitting us directly and making us wilt.

 Thus, you'll notice Penny not looking too spry in the photo with mom.

This past Monday we celebrated exactly five years since Penny first became a Regan in a Denver court.  We celebrated by going out to eat at a Thai restaurant and enjoyed watching the DVD's that Jay created about our trip to Thailand to first become a family.  So thankful for our lovely daughter who is growing into such a lovely young lady! 

The other fun activity that has kept us busy was our church's Kids Camp (a.k.a., VBS).  The church was quite a hopping place with 450 volunteers, plus all of the volunteers.  They, too, were learning all about how Jesus loves them beyond what they could ever imagine.  They even managed to raise over $25,000 to help save a home in Kenya for orphaned  Sudanese refugee children whom a Sudanese man at our church rescued and sent to a school in Kenya.  Penny's job at our Kids Camp was to help all of the lower elementary kids with their craft activities.

 I worked in the office for the first two days and then volunteered with the Upper Crafts for the last three days.  Another thing that we did this week was to take a bike ride around Lake Arbor with a new Taiwanese friend, Laura, whom we met at church.  It was really fun getting to know her!

Hope you're all having a great summer, too, and remembering that God loves you, too!