Christmas Newsletter, 2008

Greetings to all!

Thanks for checking our family blog. The past year is written up in short posts, some with slide shows. Just click on the category in the side bar or scroll down this blog and you can read about us or our children's family as well as link to their business websites. We have several entrepreneurs.

Also there is a link to our church, Bryce Avenue Presbyterian. We are very happy with the teaching and worship service and are involved in two Bible study groups and we help and serve where we can.
I hope you don’t find this an impersonal way to communicate and that you will send a quick comment or two. I can reply back, and then we are in contact!

Have a happy and joyous Christmas.

We send our love,

Kathy and Milt

June 2008 Family Reunion Milt, Kathy, Jeanne, Shauna, Lanelle, Doug, Janet, Parker, Milton, Joanna, Ken, Jordan, Aven Sam was asleep after a big day. Hollis, Andrea and Jared were unable to come.

Sam and Hollis
Andrea and Jared

Active and involved

Milt has been active at the ski area this summer. He helped bulldoze the new terrain park on Easy Mother, he helps keep the grounds of Bryce Avenue Church free of weeds and dead trees, reads voraciously, and works out at the YMCA every other day.

Kathy has been busy with her quilting group, hiking group, leads a Bible study group with Community Bible Study (CBS). Each Thursday she helps the Good News Club at Chamisa School in White Rock. She explores new trails with a friend in the burnt and now recovering forest in the Jemez mountains.

These are a few of our activities throughout the year. We don't seem to want to travel far, we are enjoying the Rocky Mountain west and visits with family right now.

September trip to California

Life was quiet for us in August and early September. We stayed at home and did the usual things, hiking, working at the ski area, church and activities with family and friends.

Our big trip this year, besides our numerous trips to Vail Colorado, was a drive to California to visit Ken and Gerd, see the new Getty Museum, a doctor appointment in Ventura and then a mini vacation with Jeanne and David in Cambria, with a tour of the Hearst Castle and visits to nearby beaches. The details are in the pictures so please watch the slide show.

What the pictures won't tell you is anything about the doctor appointment. Milt was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 2007. He was told that all indications said watch and wait. It was recommended that he have a test to determine the location of the cancer. The test was done by a clinic in Ventura that had the best technique. It was a minimally invasive test using ultrasound, and it showed that the cancer is not in a dangerous place and that watch and wait is the best protocol. Good news!

Autumn is here, the aspens are glorious, the nights are cool and we are getting our ski clothes and equipment ready for SNOW, we hope.

What has been happening in July?

Well, July 3 was a blowout! Great family fireworks with the Gillespie boys lighting some big ones. Loud and high they flew! We thought we had invited enough neighbors but maybe not. Our sound and celebration brought us to the attention of the fire department. But the reasoned talk and grey hairs on the head Gillespie saved us. We celebrated our countries freedom with joy and laughter and a big bucket of water for safety.

July 4, after a traditional barbecue in the backyard, we all trouped off to Overlook Park to watch the Kiwanis show. It was another fireworks celebration. Ken, Parker, Crista and John joined us, Joanna had to work that day, but we met her at Overlook to join us in the fun.

The next morning Milt and I drove up to Vail for a relaxing week of concerts, hikes, dinners out, and a visit from Lanelle and Bobby. This doesn't sound relaxing, but it was. The weather was very good, the flowers and music very beautiful and we enjoyed meeting Bobby, a nice young man. Lanelle was looking very pretty and they had an enjoyable few days with us, as did we with them.

We bought a new HDTV, Milt set it up and the Direct TV guy got us connected to satellite. The rest of the month has just been nice summer days, me hiking with my group, Milt bulldozing at the ski area, time with friends at church and quilting. We look forward to a quiet August at home. Here are some pictures of July, home, hikes etc.

Order direct from Hollis

http://www.morningsideproducts.com/


Just click on one of the products and you will be able to chose just what you want. Her products are really great, I especially like the pomegranate and white tea ginger scents.



The Morningside family of quality bath and body care products includes Originals, Lumière, Morningside and a new line of natural products called Simple Originals. You can treat yourself to a specialty item or a coordinated line of products that includes some of these fragrances: Lavender, Lemon Verbena, Warm Vanilla, white tea ginger and Pomegranate. Or add some fresh new scents to your list of favorites: Apple Pear, Mandarin Orange, Cranberry or Tomato Blossom.

2008 Family Reunion

Here is our family reunion in pictures, check the slide show.

Check out the Ponderosa Campground on the web at:

www.coloradodirectory.com/ponderosacampcabins

Big Toys for Big Boys

Komatsu D275AX-5, 410 HP, 109,900 lb, crawler dozer, for more details check online at http://www.komatsuamerica.com/

This machine was too heavy to make it up the first steep hill on the Camp May road. So it was moved off the trailer and Mike Green drove it up the old road, over rocks and fallen trees to a flatter area. Then it was brought up to the ski area by the truck.
The ski area is renting it for a month to create a terrain park at the top of Easy Mother.
Milt has been working dismantling the old terrain park at the bottom of Lumber Yard. Today he was able to do in three hours what would have taken him over a day with the ski area's small D-4 bulldozer. Needless to say he was having fun, big time.
And we skiers will enjoy having that great lower Lumberyard to make tracks on next winter, the snowboarders can jump and flip at the top of Big Mother, big improvement!
Mike Green and friend.

Comments from Family and Friends

Family Reunion comment:
Thanks for posting these! I really enjoyed seeing you all and the place. It looks like a great time was had by all.
xhollis

Hi Mom,
I signed up as a Google Reader via the instructions from the website. I actually was able to place a comment on the Gillespie Bunch website so check it out. This reader thing is interesting. I learned something new today. Who knows, it could become very useful.
Love Janet

Dear Kathy,
You have done such a wonderful job on the blog! It is really fun to see and read about everyone. I am sure sorry I won't be able to join in the fun, but hopefully afterward everyone will send you their photos so that I can see them on the Gillespie Family blog!
xhollis

Hi mom,
Yes, the picture of the fox was hard to see until I enlarged it, what a beautiful little creature. Knowing me I would be encouraging it to come around so I could watch it. I am disappointed that Hollis is not coming and of course feel the same about Andrea and David. None the less I am looking forward to spending time with everyone else.
Love, Jeanne

Kathy,
I am impressed. Thank you for sharing the wonderful picture of Pedernal. Pedernal is one of my favorite places. It was also nice seeing pictures of your family and the Thursday quilt ladies. Fran, your quilt is great.
Jan

Hi there,
I just wanted to applaud you on your website, it is a great idea and a nice way to keep informed on family activities. Maybe we could use this for news of our upcoming family reunion. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Love Janet
(My thoughts: this may be too new to really work as a communication device, probably emails and phone calls will work best, we'll see, THE MOM)

An exciting moment at the water dish!

This is the first fox we've seen in our immediate backyard. With the dry weather there have been lots of different birds, chipmunks, and probably wandering dogs who come by to take a drink from our robins water dish.
I was so excited when I saw the fox I almost didn't get my camera out. But as you can see I did. I just didn't engage the telephoto lens. Oh well, you can click on the picture and enlarge it.

It was a beautiful animal, dainty, with a huge tail, ringed and tipped in black. He/she left after a minute or two and didn't see me at the window. Great view for me!

Nambe Lake, almost

June 4, the goal of the hike was Nambe Lake, at around 11,000 elevation. Annette and I forged on ahead of the group of hikers to see if it was possible to make it that high. Early in the hike we were postholing through drifts of snow, walking on wet mud and soggy bogs, but we soldiered on. Till finally it was wall to wall deep snow. The only way to go forward was on a steep talus slope. We decided that with just two of us, we would not try anything risky. But there were a couple of lovely meadows, with flowers, rushing streams of water everywhere. Summer will arrive, maybe next month we'll try for Nambe lake again.

Alert from Jeanne!

Jeanne had a scare today. She awoke with one eye dilated, it had started on Sunday but was worse this morning. She was able to get an appointment with her ophthalmologist in the afternoon. By then it was beginning to get smaller, but she was still worried, didn't know what was happening. Of course when you Google it you find out about all sorts terrible things that it could be. The doctor was smart and questioned her about her activities and whether she had a belladonna plant at her house. She rhapsodized and described the beautiful trumpet plant that hung over their hot tub and how she had cleaned out the pods and trimmed it on Sunday.
The cause and culprit was found. Belladonna is a vaso dilator. Above are the pictures she took on Sunday of the plant, Snowy and Andrea. Needless to say Milt and I were happy that this was the outcome, as was Jeanne.
Here are some more pictures of the Hawaii trip to Maui she sent late last night.

Pictures from Milton and Hollis

Here are some pictures Milton sent from their trip to Hawaii earlier this year as well as bicycle racing at home. Looks like Hawaii was fun and relaxing, but the bicycle racing can tire you out. I think that Sam is being encouraged to join in the fun as a bicyclist.

Check this out for more pictures in a short slide show.

Quilting and friends

It was a celebration of Fran's birthday today. Only three of us, but between us three, with our creative and exceptional design sense we helped Fran work out a "first step" design for her new quilt. It was circles and pie shapes that needed to dance and move the eye about. A project from a class they took last week.
Sue had made a good first start on hers
but Fran was frustrated and discouraged. After working for awhile she left with a smile and an idea of how to begin.

UPDATE 11-08
Fran got tired of working on this quilt and gave it to me to complete the design, sew and quilt. I had fun doing it and I thank Pandy and Fran for the gift of this quilt. It hangs in our bedroom and is a bright addition to our room.

Valle Canyon to Cerro Grande

May 28, Annette and I led the hiking group to the top of Cerro Grande on a rather mixed weather day. In the early morning it was foggy and cloudy, cool and breezy. This made for a nice cool hike. Then the clouds broke as we arrived on the high ridge. During lunch the clouds raced overhead, seemingly within reach of our hands.

The red columbines were all throughout the forest as we climbed up to the ridge along the fence line. Bunches of them, spaced about every 20 or 30 feet. The violets were still in bloom and the iris were beginning to pop out in the lower meadows. Valle Canyon is showing recovery from the fire. Aspens are beginning to take over, the stream is pretty with ferns and grasses growing along the banks. The burnt trees are slowly falling down and will soon be covered with bushes and new trees. The mountain bikers are keeping the trail clear of dead fall!

We had a momentous event, a first ascent for two of our hikers, Mahlon and his grandson, Eamonn. Plus, we planned just right, we could fit all of the peak baggers in the one car we had left at the end of the trail at St. Rd 4 and 289. And the rain didn't begin until the drive home.

Pictures from Jeanne

Jeanne took some pictures of the sunset along the coast in Santa Cruz. The clouds are the fire that was burning to the south and east of them. The Santa Cruz Sentinel used them for their write up of the fire.

She also sent me a picture of her, enjoying Loch Lomand in California a few months ago, as well as a picture of her on the beach in Hawaii. And I'll add a picture of Janet's family visit to Santa Cruz last year as well as a picture of Jeanne and Andrea on the drive home from Arizona.