the Landon household

Friday, February 17, 2012

Birthday Surprise

Grandma decided that we should not miss seeing Naomi on her 18th birthday. So we packed up the van and drove 1500 miles. We arrived about 1 1/2 hours before Naomi got home from class on Wednesday. Boy was she surprised to see us.

We will be here in Colorado for about a week, and then will head back to Oregon. Hopefully the roads and weather will be just as clear as on the trip out.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Washington DC

Jonathan had a conference to attend in Washington DC this past week, so I went with him. I was able to visit Arlington Cemetary, National Catherdral, Smithsonian Muesum of American History, the memorials at Capitol Mall, and Mt Vernon. I wish I had more time.

The hotel had a shuttle to downtown and then I fairly quickly managed to figure out the Metro train system (with only one minor problem). I haven't edited the photos yet- but will post some once I do so.

Tomorrow I head back on the bus to Oregon.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas celebrations

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration. We had new family photos taken on the 23rd, there is one posted on this blog.

Christmas Eve night we attended a candlelight service of lessons and carols. Jonathan worked hard to organize this service with members of 4 or 5 different congregations. It went very well. Christmas morning was another combined worship service. We had our traditional English muffin sandwiches for breakfast and opened stockings before the service.

Gifts were opened when we returned home from church. The biggest surprises were the snowboards to Jon and Naomi. Jon also got a large gift of a mine sweeper game quilt from Naomi. She spent almost 4 whole days getting all of the blocks embroidered for it and then putting them all together.

All 3 of the children and Jonathan's parents have been here this week. So they, and my cousin Lisa and her husband David, were here for the renewal of vows for our 25th anniversary. (We were actually married on Dec 21st, but waited to do the ceremony until the family was all here.) I have to edit the video and hope to post it here sometime soon.

I hope your Christmas celebration was filled with love and joy as well.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Update

I have been in Oregon for 2 months this time, helping with my Mom's care. I arrived back in Colorado last weekend by Greyhound. This bus arrived in Denver 6 1/2 hours late due to snowy conditions on the roads. We had to have tire chains put on and off several times, and we could not travel the planned route through southern Wyoming due to the interstate being closed.

Denise and Jonathan's parents will be coming for the Christmas holidays. We will plan the renewal of our wedding vows (25 years already!) while they are here.

Denise is currently taking dental assisting classes. She was not selected for dental hygiene last year, but will apply again this spring. In the meantime, she is gaining job skills.

Jon Paul is being stationed here at Ft Carson. He will arrive once he finishes his 2 weeks of hometown recruiting in Georgia. He graduated from the EOD school on Nov 18th.

Naomi is making plans to leave for the Navy early next summer. In the meantime,

she will transfer to the local community college to continue with her college education. When she finishes the class she is enrolled in currently, she will already have 18 credits. She is enrolled for another 15 next semester. She is also taking guitar and piano lessons here on post

.

Gordon, the young man our family is sponsoring in Kenya, is working on getting his visa so that he may complete an internship here in the US. Prayers would be appreciated so that everything works out and the money for all the fees and expenses can be raised.

Early January will see Jonathan and I heading to Washington DC. He will be covering some meeting for our military chaplain's endoser and I'm going f

or a chance to see our nation's capitol.

I want to wish all of our family and friends a happy Thanksgiving. There are some many blessings we have been granted.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Back on the Road again

Late in August, I traveled once again back to Oregon. This time for a return trip of moving Naomi back to Colorado. That trip was made safely, but not without some problems (like a flat trip on the utility trailer and no spare- 68 miles from the nearest town.)

I leave today to go back to Oregon to help out with my Mom's care. I am not sure how long it will take to make arrangements before I can return to Colorado. This time I am taking the 5th wheel RV trailer with me. Hopefully, Mom and I will be traveling to Florida to see Jon graduate from his EOD school, maybe the end of October. (We have to wait to find out the date since he was set back because of having to retake a PT test because he got sick during the run.)

I am getting to the point where I can travel the 1400 miles without a map or GPS- not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

New Goldfish

Our 8 year old goldfish died last month. I realized I didn't like seeing an empty aquarium, so I went and got 2 new fish. The gold one is called "Mutt" and the white one is "Jeff". (Mutt and Jeff was a long-popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Playing Tourists

While Mom and Naomi were visiting Colorado Springs last month, we visited a number of tourist attractions. Be sure to click the link under each photo to see the entire albums of photos.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument-