I Miss You, My Family!!!

A couple of my room mates and me in the beautiful Colorado Mountains...

We went to the Garden of the Gods!

This is my MN/WI group...

Lots of people!!!!
The Garden of the Gods was amazing!

Downtown, Manitou Springs, CO hat shopping... ;)

An early morning hike onto Red Mountain....beautiful!

On Tuesday we went to Flying W Ranch, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and then listened to their Flying W Band.... It was Great!!! They are amazing!

and no, we have not just toured.... every day we spend hours(a lot of them!!!) in the classroom...listening to Dr. Noebel, Mark Cahil, Kevin Bywater, Chuck Edwards and lots of others.... I am learning lots!

Hope everyone is doing well, at home!!! Miss you all, and can't wait to see you!

Just So Yetta Doesn't Get Lonely...:)

Sylvia was so excited to hear your voice on the phone
the other day! She was jumping up and down...in her own
little way. :)

Remember those dresses Yetta...:) When Mom made it
for Talia (The one Sylvia is wearing) however many Easters ago...
you and I made our first dresses to match. :)

Hi Yetta!!!
(Actually, she is telling me hi...for the records) :)

Selma, what will we do without you!!!


Who's going to make our pancakes! :):)


...and read stories...and sit by the little ones at the table... :):)

Time at the Beach


There's no hiding that sunny smile! :):)



Thanks to Selma, swimming strokes have improved
lots this last week! The deal was she got teach swimming
lessons and we gave some culinary lessons. :):)

Cousin comes to Visit

Selma, Uncle Mike's daughter came for a visit this week
and spent a few days at our house. The little girls loved
getting their nails all painted and pretty. :)


Upon finding the little girls nail polish in the cupboard...and
himself all alone; Asher proceeded to very carefully paint his
toe nails with a lovely shade of pink. I'm shocked and slightly
embarrassed! I fear it is true...he did indeed paint his nails.
Joel was a faithful brother and had his first experience in removing
nail polish.

A Hike in the Park
We all took a hike in the park today, it was beautiful.

Cute little Sylvia is missing Yetta.

Seth and Danny racing, I think Seth has an advantage since he is holding the leash :)

Everyone misses you Yetta!

Day 1 of my Colorado Trip...

This morning at 4:50 I got up, with my friend Katie, and Dad, Mom, and Sylvia took us into the cities to our leader's house... from there, we said good bye to Dad, Mom and Sylvia, then we had breakfast and we were on our way. We drove all morning until lunch time when we had a picnic lunch. At about 3:30 we arrived in the Bad Lands where I wanted to take a LOT more pictures than I could...we were in a bit of a hurry.

anyways, it was beautiful!

Then at about 5:30 we arrived in Rapid City, got settled in our hotel room and then we had dinner. After dinner, we went to Mt. Rushmore!!! We saw the evening light show, which was amazing!

this is Katie and me!!

and, this is Mt. Rushmore! unfortunately, because of the lighting the pictures did not work out to well, but it was a lot of fun!


I miss you all back at home!! and am looking forward to your posts! :)

good night!

A Hike...

Yesterday, a bunch of us went for a hike....it was a beautiful walk!

Climbing trees and walking...

posing for Yetta...once or twice! :)

Behn Jeffrey!

our river...

it was a great day!

A visit to Stillwater....

On Saturday evening a few of us went to Stillwater....

to have malts at Lilly's(used to be Darla's) Malt Parlor!! It was a very nice evening!

A Day in July...

It has been a lovely summer… yesterday, thanks to Mrs. Sutton, Talia and Hannah added some fancy wall paper to our doll house – notice that the doll house is a special one - made by Mom’s Grandpa, when she was younger…

Hannah is working on sewing a fancy dress...

We have been preparing for a garage sale!!! Cleaning, sorting and all that good stuff...

And yes, naps! good things for a hot summer day!

I don't think she is really sleeping there....pretending... :)

Mom's tomatoes are growing very nicely! We are excited to have fresh tomatoes from the garden!!

and amidst all of the summer activities, there is some good learning going on! Mom is doing a science class with some of the kids... Eli, Joel and Noah just started Spanish... and I am still finishing up my chemistry book! :)


That shows a glimpse into a day in July in the Olmstead household...

Have a wonderful day!!! :)

I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!!!

As for us, we had a great day!!! We spent the day at Uncle Mike and Aunt Janice's home...with a lot of family!

All of the food was amazing!!! -and there was lots of it!

We got to see Grandma and Grandpa!!!

We went for a very nice walk!!

Some of us went for rides on Uncle Mike's bike....

Asher took good care of Dad's sun glasses!!!

We played lots of Ultimate Frisbee!!!

Then, all of the parent lined up against the fence and we were suppose to catapult the water balloons and try to get them wet!! But, it did not work quite as planned and everyone grabbed a water balloon and ran at them!!! As you can see...when they saw us coming, they ran!


We had a wonderful day!! Thanks Uncle Mike and Family for making it special!

Before Abram, Aaron and Jennifer left this morning...

...we got a family picture!!! Thanks for coming home, we enjoyed having you all here and are looking forward to next time!!

Jennifer, we really enjoyed having you in our home!!!

End of Day 4 with Abram, Aaron and Jennifer…

Fire Works in Marine on the Saint Croix

Yesterday evening we went to Marine on the St. Croix for fire works!!!
While waiting for the fire works we some of us took a walk down by the river and Abram taught Tovala how to skip rocks... :)

We saw a very pretty rainbow, sorry you can't see it in this picture...

Uncle Butch and Aunt Marni, with their kids, are here for a visit!!!

Waiting...

Some of us went and got Ice Cream Cones!!!! I think this may have been almost half of our group...there were a lot of people with us!!!!

The fireworks were great!!! We all had a lot of fun!

Day 1, 2, 3 and part of 4 with Abram, Aaron, and Jennifer...

Life is very enjoyable when the whole family is together!!!!
yes, I know this picture does not include everyone... :)

We went for a walk in our beautiful park next door!!! This is Aaron and Jennifer... Mrs. Carden, we are enjoying having your daughter with us for a couple of days!!!

Aaron and Sylvia have become good friends very quickly again!!!

On Sunday, we had a water balloon fight!!! -not sure who won... :)

Today was an adventure!!!! We went canoeing, it was a beautiful day: bright and Sunny!!! We canoed up river about 45 minutes and landed on a nice sandbar...played ultimate Frisbee and ate watermelon!! Very enjoyable!!!

and then....
We watched as the storm came over the trees, headed right for us!!! We shielded all of the little ones from the sandblasting(it really hurt!!!) and after watching one of our canoes getting picked up by the wind and carried 50 feet, we decided we better find a safer place... we all curled up in a small ditch type hole in the sand by a big hill and let the rain pour down on us.... we were all completely drenched and a little cold, but there is nothing like watching lightning and listening to thunder all around you while you sit on a beach with most of your family! :) Yes, Mrs. Carden, your daughter is home safely, and I think we all managed to make a very fun memory!!!

Eli is home also from Virginia...we are happy to have him home!!!