Kyra joins Sharon for Take Your Kids to Work Day!

Granddaughter Kyra (age 11, 6th grade) spent the day with Sharon for City of Lakewood's Take Your Kids to Work Day. She participated in a mock trial, mock city council meeting, toured the city's KLTV studio, then headed outside (in the rain/mist) for Earth Day displays on the plaza, walked a couple of blocks to visit the Lakewood Heritage Center, ate lunch and climbed all over big public works trucks, then returned to Civic Center for a K9 police dog demo!

Kyra's in the middle - photo taken early in the day as groups were forming.

Kyra played the role of City Clerk during the Mock City Council Meeting!

Kyra and Grandma during the lunch break at the Lakewood Heritage Center. The sun came out for the 2 hours they were outside - a perfect day!

Kyra and her group. There were nearly 80 kids who participated in today's event - all kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews of city employees.

Sharon receives 2010 City of Lakewood Eco-Employee Sustainability Award

Sharon received an award last night at the Lakewood City Council meeting, along with several other employees, youth and local businesses during the city's 2010 Sustainability Awards ceremony. Sharon's "Eco-Employee Award" was in recognition of 13 years of being "responsible for the single-stream recycling awareness and collection for the Civic Center, Public Safety Center, four recreation centers and three other city facilities, and coordination and oversight of the shredding of confidential documents and media throughout the Civic Center. The positive impact to sustainability at Lakewood facilities resulting from these programs includes the recycling of an estimated 100 tons of materials each year through single-stream recycling and saving 196 trees through the shredding program. Sharon is currently an active member of the Employees' Committee for a Sustainable Lakewood and is actively planning for future expansion of the recycling program, including ways to increase employee participation."

And if you're REALLY interested, you can see a video of the presentation by clicking on this link to the city's website, then click on Item 6 for all the awards, or move the timer to minute 33 just to see Sharon.


Sharon's co-workers in the City Clerk's Office (who nominated her for the award) came to the reception and City Council meeting to cheer her on.

The award was presented by Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy

And Dwight came, too, to take pictures!

Zoo Day with Jordan and Jaden

We took granddaughter Jordan (9) and her brother Jaden (almost 5) to the Denver Zoo on Saturday. It was our first adventure with the two of them together with just the two of us. It was a gorgeous day! We packed a lunch and rented a wheel chair for Dwight. The kids rode the train and the carousel and we got to see the afternoon sea lion show. It was a great day and we're looking forward to the next time. Oh, and congratulations to Jordan, who exceeded her goal by selling 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies!! (We bought 3 of them)

Caleb comes to Denver for a hockey tournament!

Grandson Caleb (age 7) came to Colorado for a 3-day hockey tournament at Westminster's Ice Centre February 12-14 and we loved seeing him play. A large contingency of parents and grandparents traveled from Kearney NE with the team, including Caleb's mom, grandma, great aunt and uncles and cousin Jillian, who all came down to Littleton for dinner at our house on Saturday night. We spent the evening watching the Winter Olympics and thoroughly enjoyed the visit! Here's a picture of Caleb on the ice:

Rodeo!

We went to the National Western Stock Show and rodeo on Saturday with granddaughter Kyra (age 11). We've been taking her since she was 4 or 5 so we think it's the 7th or 8th year she's gone with us and we hope she never tires of it! Now that Kyra has her own mobile phone, with camera, she's taking pictures all the time. The rodeo was exciting and fun. Afterwards, we visited the barns and met some of the animals.

Road Trip!

A few days after Christmas, son Steve, Beth and their girls arrived our house from New Mexico with a 26' van packed to the gills, on their way moving to Michigan City, Indiana. They stayed with us in Littleton for a couple of days, we celebrated Grace's third birthday, and a friend flew in from Wisconsin to help with the drive east. On January 2nd, we took Beth and the girls to the Denver airport, they flew to Chicago where Beth's parents picked them up, and the other four adults (Steve and friend Jim, Sharon and Dwight) started the drive east in two vehicles. Sharon and Dwight drove Steve and Beth's family van (accompanied by Mello, a gentle and sweet Chocolate Lab, who kept asking where we were taking her!) Steve and Jim drove the truck hauling Steve's other car on a trailer. Steve and family now live near Beth's parents while Steve completes a master's degree in social work at Indiana University NW. They will probably be there 2-3 years.

The following are pictures of Grace (3) and Ava (1) with Dwight and Sharon, also one of Grace with granddaughter Kyra (age 11) who came down from Boulder with her mom, Angela, for Grace's birthday party. Our first night on the road was spent in Kearney, Nebraska, so we got to have dinner with grandson Caleb (age 7) and his mom, Dawn. On our second day, we stopped for lunch in Omaha so Steve could visit with friend Howard. We spent our second night in Iowa City and it was so cold that the rental truck wouldn't start the next morning so we spent half of day 3 waiting for mechanics to get it going. By the time we arrived Chicago, it was rush hour, but fortunately we were skirting the southern edge of the metro area and had no problem.

We arrived Michigan City, Indiana in the early evening of day 3 and the unpacking and moving in process started the following morning with help from Beth's sister, Mary, their father, and some friends that work for Beth's parents. Dwight and I flew home on January 6th. It was nice to discover that after 38 years of marriage we could still enjoy 3 days in a car with each other!

Thanksgiving in New Mexico

Since it's almost Christmas, we decided we needed to post a few of our Thanksgiving pictures! We spent the weekend in Belen, New Mexico, with son Steve, Beth and their girls, Grace and Ava. We did a day trip to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge and enjoyed a visit with grandson Kaelan and his mom, Genevieve. The highlight of the weekend (besides the turkey!) was Granddad and Grace making sopapillas!

Dwight, Grace, Ava and Beth bird watching at Bosque del Apache.

Ava, Steve, Sharon at Bosque del Apache.

Genevieve (Kaelan's mom), enjoying a break from her studies (she'll graduate in May as a Nurse Practitioner)

Granddad and Kaelan - Kaelan and his mom came down from Albuquerque for a visit.

Granddad and Grace make sopapillas! The recipe is one that Dwight collected from his friend, Mrs. Lopez, in the 1960's in Truchas, New Mexico.

Visited sisters in California, cruised Baja with friends!

In November we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary with a trip to Southern California to visit Donna and Annie in their new home, and spend a couple of days with Marcia, who was in town for a conference. Following the weekend visit, we cruised for 4 days to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico with friends Tom and Carmen, who were celebrating their 4th anniversary. The weather was so-so, but that didn't stop us from having a relaxing and wonderful time! The following pictures show visits to the Blackstock and Kruschke parental gravesites, Tom's miracle packing job that got us all to the port, and our first full day of the cruise - Catalina Island.