Settled

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who helped us move! It went much more quickly and more smoothly than we could have imagined. It actually was a lot of fun!

First a big thanks the Abby, my mom and Avery for coming to help pack. Avery helped a lot as you can see....

Some moving day, we were all packed and just needed the muscles to get everything down our three flights of stairs, into the uhaul and then into the new house.

The Uhaul almost full

Another big helper, Nehemiah, listening with bated breath to Becka's story

Thank you to the Pyle's for feeding our movers these delicious cupcakes

The moving crew taking a lunch break

Now that we are settled in our new home.... here are some pictures of it all put together!

We are undecided if we want to paint our living room, but I think we;ll keep it as is for a few months. Not the beautiful ceiling fan that Jesse installed:)

To paint the kitchen orange or to not.... that is the questions

Thanks to my mom and Jesse's mom for helping me paint our bedroom! It's a kind of grayish blue with one wall darker

An Jesse's office! A smokey greenish color? I don't know how to describe these colors....

R&N romping around the back yard. It's their favorite thing to do...

Our summer project, we'll hopefully turn this bonus room into a guest room and a loft.

Thank you again for everyone's help! We are so thankful for amazing friends and family. We feel God's blessings every day and are extremely excited to use our new home to fellowship with everyone we know. 

Our first home!

First I must dedicate this post to my sister Becka, who casually told me that she checks my blog every day.... Of course, since my last post was in October, I felt she deserved a little something. So I thought I'd start with the biggest update in our lives which is our new house! Well, we don't own it yet, we should know our closing date by the end of the week. Here are a few pics (first pic requested by Becka as her favorite picture ever).

Just a little excited that they put the sold sign in the yard:)

Here is the living room as you walk in the house.

Pretty kitchen, we can't wait to have our friends and family over for some delicious meals.

Biggest selling feature for us was the big back yard with no neighbor right behind us!! Rosy and Nelly will have more space than they know what to do with.

Upstairs is this "bonus room" which we are still deciding what to do with.... Kinda fun to be able to create whatever space we'd like.

And since it's been awhile since I've posted, I think I'll kill two birds with one stone. Or in other words, tell you about Avery's dedication! This Sunday my WHOLE family was able to attend my parent's church for Avery Anne Isaacson's dedication. It was so special to have our whole family and some close friends to pray and dedicate Avery. We are so excited to be a part of her life and to help raise her to be an amazing and Godly woman. 

Avery and her daddy just chillin' before the big dedication

Avery wore the same dedication dress that Abby wore as a baby. My mom made it!

The whole gang...

We all joined for lunch after church. It was wonderful to spend time with our family and friends. Avery is one blessed baby.

Getting dedicated is hard work...

This one is dedicated to the one and only Becka Leigh, I love you!

Pagosa Springs

The unusual occurrence of a 4 day weekend is reason enough to celebrate. And boy did Jesse and I celebrate. We drove down to Pagosa Springs Friday night to enjoy the amazing hot springs and to relax a bit. The drive was absolutely breathtaking and we were surprised to find the colors of the aspens still lingering. I do have to say that 5-6 hours of driving for only one night away is a lot with 2 large dogs in the back whining, but totally worth it! Not to mention that we needed to be back for a very special event to which I will address later. First, here are a few pics of the drive!

One of our many stops to let the dogs get some air

Playing fetch with the dogs. Lesson of this trip: don't hit Nelly in the eye.

My hunk :)

The hot springs we went to. There were some 18 springs to try, all different temperatures. The hottest we tried was 110 degrees, and I was a meltin'.

Nelly Bird enjoying a game of chess :)

More colors on our way back. Absolutely beautiful!

And now... to the event I mentioned before :) Beautiful Avery Anne Isaacson was born on Sunday morning, October 17th at 8:03am weighing 6lbs 12oz. Avery is our first Niece and the first grandbaby on the Ormsbee side! She is as sweet as ever and has already found a way to win all of our hearts. Congratulations Abby, Tim and Avery!!

Incline

One of Jesse's and my favorite parts of living in Manitou was our weekly trips up the incline during the summer. This summer has been quite the opposite and we realized recently that we better make our way up the incline before it starts snowing! So we made our way down to Manitou with the dogs for the first time this summer and it was perfect. Not only because I kept the dogs on the leash in the beginning to let them drag me up the first section:), but also because we hiked in the evening and were able to use the last light of the day to hike the barr trail down. 

The pups loving the ride down to Manitou

The colors were just beginning to change. It's hard to see in the picture, but it was beautiful!

These black dogs make me look so white...

Beautiful time of night to hike down. The city looked amazing!

We ended the hike with some amazing Thai food in Manitou. One of the things we miss most about living there are all of the unique restaurants that you can find nowhere else. If you're ever planning a trip there, let us know and we can recommend some great restaurants!

Pooch Plunge

There is nothing more chaotic or exciting at the end of the summer than the Pooch Plunge. It's exactly what it sounds like...a bunch of dogs, plunging into a pool. Pure mayhem. And Rosy and Nelly loved it.

Notice all the labs...

This is shortly after Rosy jumped in for the first and last time. She couldn't figure out how to exit the pool without stairs nearby and become a little "bottom heavy". Needless to say, Jesse had to pull her out by her collar and she now thinks swimming is life threatening. She still had fun running around meeting the other pooches though.

Nelly jumping in with no hesitancy... She swam more than any other dog there.

Never been happier...

Family Reunion

This Labor Day was an especially meaningful holiday for my family. My Mom's Mom turned 90! My Grandma Tina is an amazing woman who we celebrated with a family reunion this last weekend.  It was the first time in who knows how many years that Grandma Tina's 3 children, 16 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren were all together! It was an amazing time to catch up with all of our cousins and become reacquainted.

We all celebrated together at the Freeport County Club the first night. 

This is my mom, Alison, her sister, Lesley, and her brother, Tim.

Here are the 16 grandchildren around Grandma Tina. She looks amazing for 90!

The second day we all met at Krape Park. I have amazing memories as a little kid feeding the ducks, riding the carousal, and climbing the old fire engine at Krape park.

After we said our goodbyes, us Ormsbees headed to the Union Diary for some ice cream. Right next to the ice cream shop was the site of the Lincoln Douglas debates. Becka and I found Lincoln quite charming :)

After ice cream, my parents, Paul and Jaya hit the road back to CO. Abby, Becka, Tristan, Jesse and I made our way to chicago where we stayed the night before our flight the next morning. We first met at our cousin Dan's and his fiance Meg's condo. Dan then took us into downtown chicago where we visited a few touristy sites and then had a drink before we said our goodbyes.

Jesse snapped this amazing picture of the downtown skyline and the shiny bean

Here is the last picture of myself, Jesse, Becka and Tristan before they went to Taiwan. They, along with their friend Dusty, will be in Taiwan teaching english for about a year. I already miss Becka tons, but I am happy to say they made it safely and once they start a blog, I will post it here so you can see what she's up to.

Manitou

Jesse and I have been really missing Manitou. Especially the summertime in Manitou. If you ever have time to stop by with your family, it's a must visit. We can recommend quite a few amazing restaurants! Since Jesse and I moved to Castle Rock in April, we haven't had many opportunities to visit our old home. Fortunately, Jesse and I both had Wednesday off so we took a trip down with the dogs!!

Our first stop, of course, we the Colorado Custard Company (our favorite ice cream shop ever). If you are ever in Manitou, you must stop by and visit the owner, Vick, who is the wonderful owner.  He's even treated to free custard in the past for our anniversary :)

Here are Rosy and Nelly enjoying a little entertainment from the street performer

A little cool down in the fountain :) Yes, we let them jump in.... nobody was looking

Here's a video that Jesse took of Nelly playing fetch in the lake. We hiked around the Stratton open space near Cheyenne Mountain. Nelly would fetch in water for hours if we let her. She starts drowning after awhile, poor puppy!