Let Summer Begin

While Brian & Julie had a date night - we had fun with the kids in pool.


Abby likes to criss-cross the pool by herself


Grant likes to jump ... and jump ... and jump.


K likes to watch.


Hope you have a great weekend!

Our French Connection

We just spent a wonderful, relaxing time in the Loire Valley of France with Jeff & Terri. Thanks to the French connection - our friend, Nell recommended the chateau where she lived in high school and where she and Charlie return every year.



Chateau de la Vauguyon is just outside of the quaint town of Chinon in the valley known to be the playground of kings and queens. The chateau was magnificent and ridiculously reasonable.

Celian, the owner was friendly as were all the French people we met. And they were all gracious with my fractured French.


We spent the days exploring the castles and abbys ...




meandering through mustard fields and vineyards to picnic ...





or just enjoying the view from our own front yard ...



a daily trip to the boulanger and wandering our own quaint Chinon.



I get to celebrate my birthday in Paris!



We used the Bateau(boat)Bus to get around to the highlights.



Notre Dame


The Louvre - it was a warm day.



And wandering the streets around St. Germain de Pres.


For the whole slide show of our France trip that includes more pictures, just click on the picture below to use controls and see the captions. (Double click on the slide show to see the pictures individually.)

Goodbye, Beau

Marty’s horse, Beau died last night. We are so very sad. He’d been acting strange the past couple of days and the vet thought it was edema because of a heart murmur and we could only wait and see. Then they found him gone this morning. He was such a good horse; spunky and sweet. His lively spirit was perfect for Marty. Beau and Toby (my horse) were inseparable. The four of us had some great rides.



We are thankful for the good horse people in Crested Butte; friends who watch out for each other and our horses. Raye took the time to be with the ranch manager to call Marty this morning. She took this photo a couple of weeks ago when Beau was following her around.



She told me what happened after she found Beau and said her goodbyes, "Toby was lying down, but not next to Beau. I went over and hugged him, and he made some strange noises I had never heard before, like "huh, huh, huh". I do know they grieve, as I saw it this winter myself."

I am sad for Toby too – he always took care of Beau in the herd and is grieving too. And I'm thankful Raye will give Toby some extra hugs until we get up there to see him.

Uprising

We had a great shoot in Los Angeles with Erwin McManus, leader of the Mosaic Community in LA. Our crew was there to work with on a project based on his book Uprising. We are producing a 6-session video series based on the themes from the book. Erwin is a such great communicator and teacher.

Our crew did an awesome job. For the first part of the day we were Griffith Park just below the famous Hollywood sign above the Hollywood reservoir, with skyscrapers in the distance.



Later in the afternoon, we shot some other pieces for small groups on Venice beach. Beautiful!



It's always a pleasure and inspiration to work with Erwin. We'll finish these projects later this fall. Next time we'll see Erwin will be at Leadnow/Fusion in Orlando ... can't wait!

All Gone

The neighborhood has been buzzing with chainsaws since dawn Thursday. Friday, the guys came to take away our trees. But it's been beautiful and sunny since the storm ... that's Texas!


Thursday


Friday

The Storm

Marty & I woke around 3:30am to pounding rain, and violent wind. After several near window-breaking blasts to our bedroom windows, we grabbed our flashlights and headed closer to our "safe room," which is really the pantry under the stairs. The weather report warned of probable tornadoes in our area plus a lot of upper rotation. After the first blasts, it just settled into very heavy rain and wind. The storm traveled through at 65 miles per hour and wind gusts of 90 miles per hour. It was all over in less than an hour.

This is our back yard before.


This is the view after.


We lost the live oak tree that was in the back corner of our yard. Amazingly, it fell diagonally in the only space that could miss our house, our neighbor's house and our fences. We also lost another large oak on the other side of the house.

As we look in our little area of 3 streets, there are over a dozen other large trees down, neighbors with windows blown out and parts of their roofs gone. The surrounding neighborhoods are just as bad.

As the morning came and people wandered out of their homes to survey the damage, several went house to house to check on neighbors. We all agreed that we are ultimately and thoroughly thankful that no one was hurt and material damage really is minimal.

It's Good to be Home!