Fawns and Frog Eggs

One Sunday in town recently on our way to Grandma and pa's place, we passed this mama deer feeding twin fawns.

Oops! Where did our meal disappear?

Okay! I guess we'll have to fill up on grass for dessert!

Oh! There goes Mama across the street! We better get going!

After the wonderful three inches or so of rain that we got a couple weeks ago, Timmy found a plant covered with frog eggs. He placed them in a big jar of water and we watched them hatch within a day or two and turn into tadpoles. 

This picture was while Elon's family was here. Ezra and Pearl are playing together as they enjoyed doing--Ezra filling in a low part while Pearl played a song.

July 4th Picture with Firetruck

After the never-to-be-forgotten Fourth of July experience pictured in the last post, Elon's family, ours and Iva's went to a park to visit for a few minutes. Iva had brought strawberries, blueberries, and star-chaped cuts of rice crispy cookies to make edible sparklers for the children--the kind that is not outlawed this year!

Amaris is holding three "sparklers" against her cute patriotic jumper--a goodwill treasure. It says, "God Bless America" on the front. 

No sooner did we take this picture than a green fire truck pulled into our street and slowed right by our vehicles. On impulse, not having any cookies left, Amaris quickly handed her three edible sparklers, intended for the children, to the firemen! Then, much to our surprise, the three firemen inside climbed out!

"Do the children want a picture with the firetruck?" the driver asked. Did they!



So we got some pictures, and the firemen asked about the nearest Pizza Hut. "My men have been eating dried chicken and other such things for days," the driver said. "We wanted to go to Pizza Hut tonight!" Jonathan told him where to find Pizza Hut, and Anita started to sing, "God Bless America." The firemen drove off waving, to the strains of our three families singing.

Now Elon is doing what he likes to do--trying to help out. Something was wrong with Iva's van lights, so Elon and Jonathan are trying to figure out what is wrong. 

Cookies for the Firefighters

After seeing the firefighters coming home from shift change Sunday evening, greeted by crowds of people cheering for them, the girl cousins decided that they wanted to make lots of cookies to take to give to the firefighters some evening. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to manage letting them do this and getting them in to town, but we mothers let them bake.

The girls spent hours baking. They made peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal/coconut/raisin, and chocolate with white chip cookies. 

Here they are bagging two or three cookies into little baggies.

The girls put together pages of cardstock paper with Bible verses or a verse of hymn printed on them. Timmy helped cut the Bible verses into strips.

Here is an example of one bag, with "O God Our Help in Ages Past" printed on the card. A red, white and blue bow gives a finishing touch.

The children filled a box with these goodies. It was decided that we would join the crowd waiting for the firemen on the evening of July 4th on our way home from taking Elon's family to Royal Gorge.

Now the boys are in on the project. "Cookies for Firefighters" is what this big poster says.

The girls put finishing touches on.

If only you could have seen the thousand or many more people lining both sides of the streets along a few blocks and corners where the firefighters were coming back to their tent camp up the street. Here our two families have joined others. Elon and Anita are holding the big flag. The children are getting ready to hand cookies into the fire truck window.

You can see some of the crowd further down the street. The largest crowds were at the corners down there, waving posters and flags, screaming and cheering. With no fireworks allowed at all, this was a way to vent pent up energy on July 4th!

Getting those cookies to the firemen! One fire truck drove through spraying water everywhere!

Some of the crowds again.

In the median of the road were some of our relatives and other people.

The children are giving cookies to the firemen.

The crowd cheering. In the center, you can barely see Crystal holding up our "Cookies for Firefighters" sign.

Dusk is settling as more and more trucks go by. Iva's family joined us by now.

Grandma found a child's cute poster on the ground and held it up.

Danny and Hannah and Sarah watching from the sidelines.

You wouldn't know what holiday it was, would you?

Elon's Family Here!

It has been so fun having my brother Elon's family here. The trampoline is a favorite spot, for not only jumping but even for husking corn!

Jonathan called me over to see these two merry cousins holding hands and jumping together. This photo caught them in midair!

The boys and Elon helped Jonathan anytime they could--tearing off roofing on hot days at his work, working around the house, or unloading scrap metal. In the background of this picture is a truck we kept for a friend during the fire when he was afraid he might have to evacuate.

The older girls washed windows...

Cousin Amaris washing window frames.

The girls are eagerly freezing three cases of corn while making plans for making big batches of cookies to take to firefighters.

The corn the girls froze.

Elon's wife Anita helped with several mending jobs.

Danny having a private picnic on top of a step ladder!

We will leave you to guess how many hours are being spent in the kitchen cooking meals for fifteen!

Or how many hours the younger ones amuse themselves! (Two are napping right now, and I probably should be, but it's so fun to share our experiences with family and friends who hardly ever get to see us. )

More Photos of the Fire

This is what the sun looked like at our house one of the worst days of the fire.

The smoke was clear to the ground here in Falcon the worst day of the fire.  We took this picture in early evening.

In town, Jonathan took the next several pictures from a house where he was remodeling near Woodmen Road. This is what he saw as the fire began to sweep over the ridge toward homes in its path.



A few minutes later.



Still later. Jonathan quit work shortly and came home. He burst into tears when he came in the house, something I rarely see him do. "It's my home!" he said. He has grown up here, and to see the beauty of his hometown going up in smoke was more than he could take.

By God's grace, writing from a week later. we are thankful to report that the fire stopped before or at a major street in town, thanks to God's grace and the tremendous work of firefighters, by ground and by air. The fire is still burning in the mountains, but as of now is 90% contained. About 345 homes burned, and many others were damaged, but it could have been so much worse.



Reunion Pictures Ezra Took

Here are a few more pictures from the reunion that I got from Ezra Morley. Below are the "five born in '95"! Five cousins:Annette, Candace, Joseph, Crystal and Annette with their grandma. The girls all made matching dresses for this special occasion.

Here are the nine siblings with spouses and Grandma and pa. By couples left to right, Laurie and Hoshea, Iva (sitting, Kenn and children were the only ones missing from the reunion), Jonathan and Anna, Elon and Anita, Craig and Joella right in the middle, Fain and Regina, Ben and Dorcas, Chris and Kezia, Gabriel and Elizabeth.

 Some of the families that gathered for morning worship time outdoors.



Boys enjoying the pond

Forty of the forty-six grandchildren with Grandma and Grandpa Morley

Elon's Ezra took this photo from our house last week during the fire at Waldo Canyon west of Colorado Springs. That night we could see this orange glow.

Our church folk were thankful Sunday to share that none of them lost any homes in the fire. Some of our relatives evacuated, some mandatory and some because they did not want to have to go in the middle of the night! Glen Eyrie Castle and retreat center was graciously spared, though the fire burned to the top of the canyon wall above it. One of our church men who work at the Navigators which is next to Glen Eyrie grounds said that it seemed that God's hand had been laid over this place that had been given to God and to the refreshment of Christians. The Navigators had to evacuate to Focus on the Family.