Wild West Relay

As you think about it over the next few days please pray for Todd. He is going to be joining a relay team in the 5th annual 'Wild West Relay'. It is a 195 mile run where teams of 12 take 36 hours to run... actually, I copied and pasted a few bits of info from the website.

This Colorado relay race begins by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Fort Collins, and finishes in the beautiful ski and summer resort town of Steamboat Springs. Held on open public roads, much of this very scenic and remote course runs through National Forests or on dirt roads. The route winds through Roosevelt, Medicine Bow, and Routt National Forests, and through small, mountain and ranching communities.

Please be aware that the WWR is is held on public roads - there are no road closures, traffic control, or aid stations. All participants must understand that there will be vehicle traffic at all times and several of the Exchange Points are along busy roads. Also be warned that any road hazards along the course are NOT marked, the route goes through National Forests and other unpopulated areas where wildlife lives, and that there are cattle guards and areas of open range (livestock not fenced in) so caution is required from all runners and drivers.

As you can see there will be dangers of all types from busy roads to wildlife. Please pray for his safety as he has calculated that one of his routes is going to be around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Also, as you know the forecast is to be 102 tomorrow and 101 the next day. For those of you who know, Kolby Lathrop and Dusty Anderson will also be running.

The children and I will head to Ft. Collins in the morning to see them off then come home for the night. Then we'll head up to Steamboat early Sat. morning to meet them at the finish line.

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

For he has fortified the bars of your gates

and blessed your children within you.

He sends peace across your nation

and satisfies you with plenty of the finest wheat."

Psalm 147:12-14

Today, July 25, Todd and I celebrate our tenth anniversary! I am brought to complete humility when I reflect on the years we've spent together. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure, He has protected us, guided us, gifted us and counseled us countless times - 'he has fortified the bars of our gates.'

In this world where marriages are disposable, temporary and victimized I feel that Todd and I have conquered many a battle that would have otherwise destroyed our union. We are resolved that our marriage has a lifetime guarantee since it was formed by God and is sustained by our threefold cord.

We praise God for he has 'blessed our children within us,' 'sent peace to our nation (family),' and continuously 'satisfies us with the finest wheat (basic needs).'

I love you Todd! Here's to the rest of our lives!

It has been well over a week since I last posted... I've been waiting for the next event to take place so I'd have something to write, pictures to upload. There hasn't been anything monumental happen in our home in over a week, whew. Hard to believe considering how this summer has gone.

These last weeks of summer vacation we are spending our days doing summery stuff, the zoo, parks, concerts in the park, swimming at the pool. It is wonderful. While all the birthdays are parties are super fun, wouldn't do life without them, this probably more enjoyable for me, cruisin' along to the beat of summer.

Traeton and Addison have only two weeks left before school begins. I am not looking forward to their return, I am actually feeling much as I did when I was a kid, mourning the last few days/weeks of the break. There is a part of me that longs for the return of routine. But I am learning that as time flies on my days with Traeton and Addison and Elias are flying away as well.

We have some friends who recently considered packing up the family and moving away for a year. Just to get away from the hectic pace we all keep. They planned to do nothing, no sports, no camps, no extra-curriculars, nothing but one another. I thought this was a fabulous idea. I would do the same thing without taking a breath if Todd's career was conducive to it. Unfortunately Todd does not have that type of career. Our friends decided to stay, God spoke clearly with confirmation and they've listened and obeyed.

Lord, please let these days of empty schedules last... I will always treasure the days when we have no where to go, no schedule to keep, no practice to attend. In my world, that is one of my most favorite things.

We call it Birthday Season!

As I sit here I am beginning the process of re-establishing balance, re-engaging in the normal routine of our lives here in our little home. This is because we are rapidly nearing the end of birthday season. Birthday season here is a short, yet very long, three weeks or so where the majority of our family, immediate and extended has their birthday. Here is the list:

Tony and Lindsey anniversary - 6/14

Mom B. - 6/16

cousin Brigg - 6/18

cousin Trevor - 6/21

Addison - 6/22

Burmeister anniversary - 6/22

Dad R. - 7/2

Traeton - 7/8

Brandon - 7/10

Todd - 7/11

cousin Tisha - 7/11

Kaylene - 7/16
our anniversary - 7/25

Grandma B. - 7/26

Okay, so I threw in a few anniversaries. But, as you can see that is a lot of birthday dinners and birthday cake! As of right now Trae and Addie get full-on birthday parties. I am thinking they may have to alternate years between parties and a small, yet special, celebration. This way there'd only be one party per season. Our neighbor a few houses down has this policy in place for their three children and I think it is a good one.

I love birthday season! The excitement in our home is just electric! The children are at such a great age for birthdays. They love the count down, seeing the presents wrapped and waiting for the big day to arrive and of course writing all those thank you notes - haha!

Have a fabulous week!

All my love...

A few more pictures from Jan's Birthday Party.

This is our backyard filled with dear family and friends of Glen and Jan. All here to celebrate her 60th birthday.

Todd shares a thing or two about his mama.

The children performed an impromptu circus for all the guests. Bebee was the guest of honor chosen to come on stage for a special trick!

The Big 60th Birthday Party

The birthday girl!

A few short days after the fabulous wedding Todd and I hosted a birthday party for his mom, Jan. It was her 60th birthday party and we were thrilled to be able to throw her a bash to celebrate this most special occasion. She is a treasure to many and we wanted to honor her as she deserves.

The guest list included 80 or so people from various parts of her life. The most special part was that her extended family, aunts, sister, brother, nieces, her in-laws (mother, brothers, sisters, etc.) were all in town for the party. It is not often that one's whole family from around the country is in town at once on a special day like a 60th birthday!

Wedding Day!!

The pictures are chronologically backwards, sorry. I now know that when adding images they're put in front of the existing pics, not behind them.

Enjoy!

Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

So here is a handful of pics showing how beautiful the day and the place was. Tony and Lindsey got married at the Sanctuary in Castle Pines North. It is a private golf club off Daniel's Park Road. It is quite impressive.

I see I need to work on my picture layout as all the pics are clumped together. Because of this I won't be able to write captions for each one but I think you can figure them out.

The first picture of the five children are T, A & E with their cousins, Brendan and Brianna. Todd's older brother and his wife, Tracey now live in San Francisco. All the children have so much fun together. Addison cries when Brianna leaves for home, she absolutely adores her.

There are various pictures of rehearsing the isle walk. You can see the girls getting their flower girl baskets from BeBee. They were adorable flower girls. It was perfect they had one another to walk the isle, I don't know if Add would have been able to do it by herself as she gets pretty shy in front of strangers.

I'll post the wedding day pics later as Eli is wide awake wanting to be retrieved.

Seek Him today, he has big plans for you.

I'm Back!

Can it truly be July 1st??? Happy Birthday dear Jennifer M!!

Thank you Lord for a fabulous June! It was filled with blessings left and right. The wedding week was a blast! Then immediately following we dove into VBS. This year we chose to attend St. Luke's Methodist Church's VBS as that is where my parents call home. I was the lead teacher for one of the four-year-old classes. It was tons of work but as it goes when there is a lot of work there is just as much blessing, so tons of blessings as well. My heart just melted the last day when the children put on their show. Traeton performed four or five songs complete with sign language or motions. He was so into it, his heart flowing with knowledge and understanding of what he was singing - thank you Lord!

I know many of you have been waiting patiently for wedding pictures. This is my plan..I am going to produce a new post for each event. Today I'll start with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. For archiving purposes I am going to close out this post and start a new one. This will make it much easier to retrieve if I ever need to.

Blessed!