Black Bears and Mountain Lions in Parker

http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/bears/image_e27f2232-bfa1-11e1-ac4d-001a4bcf887a.html


http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/parker/news/mountain-lion-found-under-porch-is-removed-by-dow/article_1cb1b569-4c9f-58ea-8a73-4310b6f56624.html

Waldo Canyon Feuer

Colorado brennt seit Wochen. Es sind Temperaturen von 38 Grad C taeglich, alles ist voellig ausgetrocknet. Erst hat es angefangen, im Norden Naehe Fort Collins zu brennen, dann im Sued Westen Naehe Colorado Springs. Am Dienstag nachmittag gab es schwere Windboen,die brennende Aststuecke ueber eine Schlucht auf die andere Talseite wehten, dort, wo Haeuser stehen. Die akute Zahl ist, dass 346 Haeuser zerstoert wurden, und eine Person ist ums Leben gekommen. Und es brennt weiter.

Es sind 1000 Feuerwehrleute nur fuer dieses Feuer im Einsatz, heute besucht Praesident Obama das Feuer. Es war so schrecklich, auf dem TV zu sehen, wie ein noch bestehendes Haus auf einmal Flammen auf dem Dach hatte, und es langsam von dem Feuer gefressen wurde. Zum Heulen!

Wir leben in Parker, das ist suedlich von Denver und sind hier sicher. Im Sueden von Parker haben Freunde von uns Asche auf ihren Autos von diesem Feuer gehabt. Es regnet hier nachmittags ab und zu, aber nie in Co Springs und sowieso zu wenig, um so ein Feuer, was schon ueber 25 Quadratmeilen weggebrannt hat, zu loeschen.

Parker is pretty

Downtown Parker is really pretty.  You can find these old victorian style houses in one street.  You really think that you are brought back to the Wild West...

Tree swing

My kids love the tree swing I brought back from Germany.  There is almost not one day when they do not jump onto the swings! I am so happy that I bought them for Euro 9.99 instead of paying here $29.99 for the same plastic swing!

Field Day

Last  week of school had a field day, a fun sporting competition between classes of the same grade. Jonah, Peanut and I hung out and watched Olivia.

Magazines are CHEAP

To prescribe to a yearly subscription for magazines is really not expensive at all her in the USA! Just check out the price! I pay for a yearly (means 12 magazines) subscription to 'Better Homes and Gardens' just $5.99! And of course I subscribed as well to 'Horse & Rider' where I even get free address stickers!!

What a bargain compared to Germany!

Swimming lessons

Olivia took just a couple of swimming lessons last year and now she got enrolled in a two weeks class. Today was the last day and she did do awesome! I enrolled her again for another  two week class starting Monday and Jonah will join swimming lessons, too!

This video is from last week. You can see her freestyle pretty good.

This video is from today. She does the back stroke pretty awesome already!

Preschool is done

Jonah is done with preschool! He got a little certificate and he is now going to be a Kindergarten boy!

And here he presents his trophy he got from baseball!

Four presidents

Back in school Olivia needs to fill in a book log each day. That week the class read about the four presidents who have their heads carved on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.

For the ones who can't read 1st grade, Olivia wrote:

Fore presedents heds got carvd in Soth Decoda.

Just look at Roosevelts mustache! Hilarious!

more Baseball

Some more shots from Jonah's baseball practice.

The first weekend of June we were in a mountain cabin together with all of Chris' family and their dogs. All together we were like 14  humans and 9 dogs. The cabin and the view were just gorgeous and we had great weather!

Jonah being cute!

Olivia, Jonah and Cousin Isbella goofin' around.

Climbing down the hill

The view out of the family room window

We were at almost timberline! (Timberline is where trees stop growing on a mountain because of altitude)

Hanging in there...

When Jonah falls asleep in the car, it can surely look like this:

Peanut and Popcorn

Just one quick picture of Peanut and Popcorn on a walk a while ago...

oh - and Peanut helps wonderfully with my laundry!

Popcorn got stung in the mouth one day and his eyelids and bridge of the nose were swelling up. I called the vet and he said that I should get the dog some Bendadryl (allergy medicine) and should wait what happened. We gave Popcorn the meds and the eyelids got better after a few  hours and the next day his nose was back to normal, too. Popcorn looked really weird with this face but had no problems with eating or drinking luckily.

Squirrel alarm!

We do have some 'house squirrels'...This naughty guy sits 3 feet away from Tobi's nose in the tree that faces our front window...this of course makes Tobi SO MAD!