Buckley AFB

Published on by Casey Category: Salvation Army

Yesterday we skipped church to put in some EDS hours with the Salvation Army.  As you know from my previous post, it wasn’t an emergency situation, but a good way for us to break in our EDS legs and do a good deed!

We arrived at Buckley Air Force Base (Aurora, CO – 45 minutes SE from from our house) around 10:30am and proceeded to help prepare food.  Noah and I started washing veggies and fruits for platters, then I got pulled away to make fruit dip.  Once those were done, it was back to helping prepare the veggies.

There were about 10 EDS volunteers/SA employees there.  The meal was layed out buffet style and included fruit/veggie platters, sandwiches, meatballs, scallops, hot wings, spinach pastry things and of course dessert.  We served the meal for about 125 family members of the 140th Air National Guard, which is currently touring in Balad, Iraq.

Santa & Mrs. Claus also came to give all the children presents.  We also learned that the National Guard has a partnership with the Colorado Rockies, where each family that has someone overseas during the holidays gets a check for $400!  That’s awesome!  Also, an American Legion post had donated 25 turkeys to be raffled off to the families!

It’s so great to see a community pull together to support our troops and their families here at home.

Despite how tired our feet were by the time everything was cleaned up, it was a great experience that we’re both glad we had the chance to participate!

Supporting the Troops

Published on by Casey Category: Salvation Army

Noah and I are performing our first volunteer service with the Salvation Army this Sunday. We are going to one of the nearby military bases (I can’t recall which one right now) and serving a Christmas dinner to National Guard families who have a husband/wife, etc currently on deployment.

I’m looking forward to it. This is a great thing to do for our military families!

Now all we need is our base clearance. Lol!

I’ll post more on this after it happens.

Just Like in the Movies

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Weather

Yesterday we drove to a neighboring town to purchase our Christmas Tree and to top of our search for the perfect noble fir the day was cold and snowy! We didn’t chop down our own tree (Home Depot had people that took care of that) but we did stand out in lots of falling snow as we looked at several different naturally flocked Christmas Trees! I was having more fun than Noah I’m sure. He grew up with snow. We loaded the tree in the back of the truck, flipped the transmission in to 4×4 and headed back through the icy streets. Due to the natural flocking, we stood the tree up in the garage to allow the snow to melt off before bringing it in the house. Once we did, we put it in font of the window perfectly. No rotations or adjustments necessary. Yea! Now, all we have to do is start decorating. 😀

Due to the snow this weekend, we didn’t get the lights up in the trees in the front yard. Maybe next weekend…The snow totals page has been updated. Be sure to check it out!

Thanksgiving

Published on by Casey Category: Family, Travel

We had a great Thanksgiving vacation in California, thanks for asking. 😀

We left in the afternoon, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving w/ a car loaded up with food and presents (save on shipping by delivering Christmas goodies) and headed out on our 18-hour, 4-state trek. Thankfully we were able to beat the snow, so I-70 was a breeze through the Rockies…well, except for that Audi. We reported an Audi to the state troopers around Eisenhower tunnel. We had been following them since Wheatridge and watched as they almost creamed into several cars and for some reason could not stay with-in the lines on the road. Anyway, they got a ticket, Lava barked at the Trooper and we went on our merry way.

We finally made it to Ventura just before 8am the following morning. Noah crashed immediately at my parent’s house and somehow I was wide awake and didn’t crash until that night. I suppose I could put a plug in for Red Bull, I’m sure that played a part.

Everyday of our trip was spent with someone doing something. We’re always so popular when we show up in the Golden State. We visited with my aunts and uncle that came out for the holiday, several sets of friends, had 2 Thanksgiving dinners (on two days, which makes it much easier to digest), and of course, both of our respective families. We headed back for the hills (literally) Sunday night and made it into town Monday afternoon.

I think of the three of us travelers, Lava was the happiest to be out of the car and able to run around in her backyard again…although even with sleeping most of the ride she crashed, completely zonked that night. She was probably glad to be back on her own turf without little kids terrorizing her (when nephews attack).

All in all it was a busy, but great trip. Who knows when we’ll be headed back to California again, there are no plans to do so in the immediate future. Plus, I’m glad I’m back in Colorado so I don’t have to miss out on any more snow (it snowed Wednesday & Friday around Thanksgiving while we were out of the state).

I’ll post pictures when I get around to downloading them off the camera. I’ll put up another post to let y’all know when they are up.

Also – a big thanks to our wonderful neighbors that kindly collected our mail and dealt with our trash cans!

Lava

Published on by Casey Category: Family

Last night we came home from the gym to find out that Lava had managed to get my purse off the buffet in the sunroom.  She’s sneaky and it must have taken her a while to get to it.  Anyway, she got the gum and lip gloss, decimating the lip gloss and we think she ate a couple pieces of gum.  Xylitol is an ingredient found in gum that is really toxic to dogs (and can be fatal).  Worried that she might have ingested to much of it we called our friend Bernadette, who just happens to be a veterinarian.  She suggested we force feed lava 1/8 cup of peroxide to make her puke, we did.  And by we, I mean Noah because just hearing Lava gag was enough to make me want to add to her contributions on the kitchen floor.

Anyway, as much as I’m sure she didn’t enjoy upchucking, she was back to her perky self shortly thereafter.  And thanks to Bernadette we now own a turkey baster and didn’t have to speed Lava into Boulder to the after hours vet hospital!  Yea!

Books!

Published on by Casey Category: Whatever

New books added to the reading list!  One I picked up at Family Christian over the weekend, and one I ordered online last week and had delivered today.  Yea!