In the Doghouse

Here is our coffee shop on Main street in Delta. The owner's wife runs the adjacent "paint your own pottery" store called Fat Cat Pottery. Still, I would have called the coffee shop something a little more tasteful like Slim Dog Cafe or something.
Ben, Joachim & I get up before the sun, scrape the ice off our cars and go out for coffee before Ben goes to work.

Joachim and I stay and he crawls around greeting other patrons while I cram in all of my internet stuff. Ben was messing with the color-swap on the camera and turned froggie from a neon green to this work of art reminiscent of Barny.

Joachim watching the great chicken pen building escapade in his own little lawn chair

The chickens now have a winter home

Joachim turns 8 months old today and this is yesterdays celebration with his first bites of food in the form of mashed pear.These little videos show it all. He thought is was a strange, but delightful experience and he couldn't resist accepting tantalizing bite after bite.

baptisms

This post is in honor of my dear friends Eleni & Davi whose little one, Veronica, was recently baptized. It's an excuse to post a short video for them. In Orthodox tradition babies are baptized at about 40 days old.

Joachim & Mama

Benjamin & Lauren Huggins, Joachim's godparents

Orthodox babies are quite brave, huh?

Little Veronica's baptism

more grins

Joachim smiles so much I feel compelled to take a picture every time. I took him this past weekend for professional pictures and he was all grins, despite my insistence that he where a short sleeve shirt even though it was chilly.

After the Western Slope Band ParadeHot Air Balloon Launch

watching grandma & baba set up his swing set

celebrating michael's first birthday

Ben's sister Beckah has 40acres just a 15 minute walk along the ditch road and across a field from us. Joachim thoroughly enjoyed the outing, but alas no one was home when we got there.

grandma, the beekeeperin the background is our apartment/house above the garage

this is behind Joachim's grandparent's house Joa & friends

move to delta

Colorado Springs treated us well, but we are trading "big city" life for the small town of Delta CO -population 8,135. Here are some pictures of the view from our balcony. We are living in the apartment/house that Ben and his brother in law built on the Jones' 20 acres.

We are in the process of buying a house and plan to close on the 22nd, but we will be in the apartment until spring (when I post pictures of the house, you will understand).

You, my friends, are probably more interested in pictures of baby Joachim. He's 7 m.o. now and he crawls, drools and smiles, often simultaneously.

Apple Fest.

Until this weekend I took our laundry to Ben's parent's house, hence Joachim riding in the laundry basket. Just yesterday Ben hooked up our new used washing machine in the apartment, just as cold weather was making treks across the yard a nuisance.

note the silver thread of drool