Granddaughter Grace's First Birthday - Jan. 2nd

Check out this video of Grace, our grandaughter, opening her birthday presents! That's Mommy (Beth) sitting with her.

Rodeo!

Dwight, Sharon and granddaughter Kyra (age 9) went to the National Western Rodeo yesterday and had a great time! This is an annual tradition for the Blackstocks, and Kyra has been going with us since she was 3 or 4 years old. Kyra came home with a new cowboy hat!

An Afternoon at the Dog Park

Even though it's winter in Colorado, we take Kirk to Chatfield State Park whenever it's warm enough to visit the huge off-leash area dedicated to dog enjoyment. Last Saturday was a beautiful day and as you will see here, Kirk doesn't pose well for pictures or videos when there are other dogs to play with!

Happy New Year!

Steve, Beth and Grace pose for a picture at their church on December 30th. Dwight and Sharon visited their home in Belen, New Mexico, for a few days after Christmas.

Grace and Dwight share a special moment. Grace celebrated her first birthday on January 2nd.

All of us enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Genevieve and Kaelan's house on Sunday, December 30th, in Albuquerque. Genevieve wanted a picture of Kaelan and his two Grandmas, plus Grace and Granddad.

Kaelan loves sitting on top of the dog house! He is 3-1/2 years old.

Merry Christmas from Kirk!

Kirk enjoys playing with his Christmas gift, "Dino". Merry Christmas from the world's greatest dog!

Christmas with the Grandchildren

We enjoyed the Denver Zoolights with Kyra on Friday night. We have taken Kyra to Zoolights every year since she was born.

Kyra spent the night (seen here with her new friend, "Penner", purchased at the Denver Zoo gift shop). On Saturday we met up with Kyra's mom and exchanged Christmas gifts.

On Sunday we visited with Trae and his mom and exchanged Christmas gifts. We enjoyed seeing a recording of his preschool's Christmas program. Trae LOVES reindeers!

Earlier in the week we met up with Hannah and her mom at a Starbucks and enjoyed an evening of visiting and gift exchange. Hannah was wearing a beautiful Christmas dress!

Jordan spends the night with Grandma & Granddad!

Jordan and her Mom & Dad and brother Jaden visited yesterday to celebrate Christmas with us. After lunch we decided Jordan could stay the night so she and Grandma could go spend her Christmas gift certificate (see purchases above). Jordan attended two worship services with us this morning. It was a wonderful visit; we parted with tears this afternoon. Jordan will turn 7 on her next birthday, January 3rd.

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Steve, Beth and Grace visit for Thanksgiving

Steve, Beth and Grace flew from Albuquerque on Thanksgiving morning and stayed until Saturday morning. We hosted a total of 15 for Thanksgiving dinner (5 of us plus 10 from the Young family, Kyra's other grandparents) and had a wonderful time!

Grace was very interested in playing with Kirk, but Kirk was a little skittish!

"Ga Ga" is Sharon's new Grandma name for Grace. We were thrilled that she was able to accept being held by us.

Grace, Steve and Beth with Grace's new hat (yes, we went shopping while they were here; temp's were in the 20's!)

Mexican Riviera Cruise - 36th Anniversary!

We spent a wonderful week cruising with friends Tom and Carmen Kruschke, November 11-18, from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We were celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary that week and Tom and Carmen celebrated their 2nd! Coming home was a rude awakening - no one made our bed, fixed our meals or greeted us with warm deference any longer, sigh ...

Sunset from the ship at Cabo San Lucas. We only left the ship for a couple of hours in two of the three ports to do a little shopping. The cruise experience is wonderful, but it's not a great way to tour the countryside.

Grace - 10 months old!

Granddaughter Grace and her parents, Steve and Beth, traveled to the Bay Area last week and met Jordan (daughter of Steve's cousin, Dawn), age 2.

Looks like the girls enjoyed themselves!

Sharon's Dad would have loved the World Series!

Going to a World Series baseball game last night was a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience - Dwight and I were able to participate with a little help from my Dad. He was a great baseball fan and would have loved being there! What a blast! Even though the Rockies struggled through the series and lost to an obviously better team (Red Sox), it was so much fun. The energy was wild! Rockies 2008!!

We're Going to the World Series!!!

Yes, we have tickets for Game 4 of the World Series: Rockies vs. the Red Sox! Yahoo!! Watch your TV screens for this sign and you'll know it's us! Go Rockies!! My brother-in-law wants me to remind everyone that we wouldn't be going to the World Series if the Brewers hadn't finished off the Padres at the end of the season, so our thanks go to all you Milwaukee fans for cheering on your team. Sure hope you'll be cheering for us this week!!

Go Rockies!!

Who would have believed it! We were at the final game of the season on September 30th that got the Rockies to the game that got them in the playoffs. Denver has gone absolutely nuts with Rockies fever!! We're in a group with several others that owns one set of season tickets, and as a result -- if there is a game 5 in the National League Championship series, we'll be there! Look closely at the reflection in Dwight's sunglasses and you'll see the baseball diamond at Coors Field.

Grace is 9 months old!

Grace and Beth try out a new backpack that was purchased for planned trips to Hawaii and Alaska next year!

Jordan has a new name!

We enjoyed dinner with the Hensley family and friends yesterday to celebrate Granddaughter Jordan's adoption by Mom Kristi's husband, Will. Jordan's new name is Jordan Rae Hensley. Congratulations!

Busy Busy Busy!

Granddaughter Jordan (6) and Sharon at Snow Mountain Ranch, August 2007, for Genesis Presbyterian Church's annual retreat. This is the 2nd year Jordan and Sharon have attended together.

Granddaughter Kyra (9) enjoys her birthday ice cream at PF Chang's, following a couple of games bowling at Lucky Strike in Lakewood last Saturday with Mom, Grandma and Granddad.

Dwight and Sharon at the Rockies game on Labor Day 2007. We won! Until this game, we were seriously considering asking the Rockies to pay us NOT to attend games, as it seemed they lost every time we went to one!

Dwight and Kirk getting ready to head home from Starbucks, September 15. We took Kirk for his weekly romp to the dog park, followed by a visit to Starbucks - adults and children alike love to stop and meet Kirk.

Ghost Ranch 2007

Dwight, Sharon and granddaughter Kyra traveled to New Mexico last week to visit with family in Belen (Steve, Beth, Grace, plus Dwight's sister Marcia and husband Calvin), followed by a week at Ghost Ranch. Sharon went to a seminar on "Understanding the Israel/Palestine Conflict", Dwight did R&R, and Kyra made a new friend, Jennifer (granddaughter of a friend of ours) from Corvallis, Oregon. It was a wonderful week in a magic place. The pictures above show us relaxing on our porch, standing in the chow line with Steve, Beth and Grace, and Kyra with Jennifer.

Pictures of Grace - 6 months old!

Just wanted to share some new pictures of Grace Elizabeth Blackstock, who turned 6 months old on July 2nd! She's thinking about crawling and when that doesn't work, there's always Mommy!

Visiting Family in Wisconsin - July 2007

Sharon and Dwight were in Wisconsin last weekend and got to see the "fam". Took some flowers to Mom & Dad (Columbarium at Luther Memorial Church, Madison); went to a Rockies game with Kathy & Tom in Milwaukee (oh ya, the Brewers were there, too, and yes, they won, drat!) Got to see niece Catherine for a few minutes and meet her beautiful puppy, Lola (St. Bernard/Collie mix), and have dinner with Richard, Ann, Kathy & Tom. The last picture above is of the three "Gallaghers" - Richard, Kathleen (Joynt) and Sharon (Blackstock).