Our Weekend Away

Since we had a long weekend, we decided to go to the Fort Collins area, Ault to be more exact, to see our friends, the Holcombes. They were a part of our church before they moved out of town. They have one daughter, Claire. Let me tell you, this chick is a people person. Most little ones who are only children would be overwhelmed and frustrated by the invasion of our crew, but not Claire. She loves it and just joins in the chaos.

We arrived Friday night. Once we got everything unloaded, we settled the kids down for bed. On Saturday morning, Brent made french toast for us for breakfast. We ate in shifts at the island so that everyone could have hot, fresh food.

Here is the first shift of eaters

Our wonderful hosts

It felt like we were at a Bed and Breakfast.

They took such good care of us all weekend.

Isaiah and Claire hanging out

We totally relaxed all this weekend. The majority of the time, we had on our jammies. We watched movies, had yummy food, and lounged around. The adults got to talk a lot. The kids played a lot. We slept in and experienced a bit of the rural life.

Brent and Rick looking at the view off the deck

The colorful sunset

On Saturday night, while celebrating Brent's mom's bday, the kids had a dance party!

I am so impressed by Cathy and her skills. She taught me so much. She loves horses, makes so many things from scratch(I am not talking baking here, although she does that too. I am talking things like making her own butter, cheese, buttermilk), she gardens, cans, and is so knowledgeable about health and wellness. I have much to ponder after our time together.

On Sat., Cathy and I snuck away to run some errands. During the process, she took me to the dairy and to a neighbor's horse barn to see the cutest Shetland Pony. I saw pigs, cows, and lots of horses. You see, I am a city girl. I expect I always will be, but I love seeing these things and experiencing them.

Cathy also taught the kids a lot as well. I like to call this next segment "Adventures in Composting!" All weekend, she had her compost container under the sink. We would put our food peelings and leftovers in there. It didn't take long for it to fill up with all of us eating. Then we got see the composting process in each stage.

Cathy leading Lauren, Abby, and Sam to the compost container

Dumping in the food

Mixing it up

When it is done in that container, it goes in this fenced area

When it is all done, it becomes dirt used as fertilizer for the garden!!

Then we got to see the horses

Cathy taught us many things about the horses.

Lauren was the only one brave enough to feed Blaze a carrot

We left after dinner on Sunday night. We arrived home just in time to put everyone to bed. Getting away was so good for us. Having such a drastic change in scenery was definitely therapeutic. Thank you so much Brent, Cathy, and Claire.