We are back from our trip to Colorado! We had a wonderful vacation, and enjoyed spending time with Grandma Bergen, her sister Maxine, our cousin Miranda, and Justin and Laura's family. I took quite a few pictures :-) and I'm enjoying the chance to share them with you.

We drove through Colby, Kansas, and had to stop for pictures, of course. 

As we were driving toward Colorado Springs, I took pictures of the beautiful sunset. 

We spent Saturday night with some friends, and the next day we visited Justin and Laura. After that we headed on up to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. We stayed in a cabin that has a beautiful view of Pike's Peak from the back deck! Here are some of my favorite pictures. 

 

 The inside of our cabin.

Colby, walking up the wrong side of the stairs!

The loft where us kids sleep.

 Oh, look, there's Riley's precious bear. I wonder how he got up there. [smile]

Thanks for looking at our blog! I'll be putting on pictures 

of rappelling, unicycling, wildlife, and more beautiful scenery shortly.

 I hope you've enjoyed it so far!

We had a wonderful time at Buck and Miriam's on Sunday! We ate lunch there, and of course, stayed half the day! Here are some of the best pictures. = O )

Basketball unicycle!

Is he going to make it in? :-)

Slam dunk!

 Here are some pictures of  Dad jumping on the trampoline...with his unicycle.

All the guys bring their guns whenever we eat at Buck and Miriam's. Aunt Stacie brought some watermelons! And Buck, the plumber, got out an old toilet and a junk dishwasher as targets. 

Here is a slow motion video of one of the watermelons blowing up. 

Here are a few pictures of the guys shooting. 

Um, Riley? You don't have to plug your ears!

::Apples on top of the dishwasher::

Hmm, are you sure that's the right ammo? 

The guys all got out their guns and on the count of three blasted away!

Yes, we had lots of fun, but that isn't the end! We were on our way home, and stopped to look at the Razor Jeff just bought. Naturally, we had to try it out! 

::Uncle Jeff driving::

::Dad driving::

::Either Dad or Jeff is driving in those last two::

::Jeff::

We got at least fourteen people in here! Dad was driving, and everyone wanted a ride, so all the kids and Aunt Miriam piled in. 

Katie, Brady and I each drove it, too. It was pretty easy, and lots of fun!

We didn't end up getting home till 8:45pm!

We went to Miriam's this morning at 10:15 and went through the process of making apple cider! I did not get pictures of people picking the apples, as it was raining and I didn't want to get my camera out. But I can tell you, we were soaked and muddy!

First is the picking. Then comes cutting all the apples in half and cutting out the bad spots. And, as usual, when you get this many people together, it's always a good time of chatting and making memories...making the work a lot more fun! Our operation was set up in Buck and Miriam's garage, as it was raining most of the time.

After the apples are cut in half, they are dumped into the grinder, which grinds them up into much smaller pieces.

Once the apples are ground up, they are put into the cider press. Somebody turns the bar around and around, making the wooden plate press the juice out of the apples. Then the juice is emptied from the tubs into coolers, from which other containers can be filled. Many of the containers will be frozen for future use! Hot apple cider on crisp fall days, or snowy winter days...Mm-m-m! It even tastes good icy cold!

The remains of the pressed apples are dumped into the wheel-barrow for compost.

We ate a good lunch, too, and all the kids had time to play on the trampoline, the swing, and in the trees.

Well, that's the end of our apple cider day! But now we get to enjoy the fruit of our labor...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,

gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: 

against such there is no law.

Galatians 5: 22-23