Audra's 39th

Today we celebrated Audra's 39th!!!! I am sure that this will not only be the first 39th Birthday, but there will be many more to come! We started off the day with dentist and eye appointments and then I took Audra to Biaggi's for lunch, while the kiddos hit a movie at the theater. After lunch, Audra and I headed up to Antler Creek for some golf, before heading home to a great dinner and the birthday celebration.



Audra and the kiddos.



The kids bought Audra a series of gag gifts, including stringer poppers. We really had a great time.

Sunday Ride

After spending a week in Orlando at a company meeting, I was eager to get home to the family. We had plenty of fun over the weekend, but the highlight was the motorcycle ride Audra and I enjoyed on Sunday after church. We rode through Black Forect, through Garden of the Gods, up through Woodland Park, over to Cripple Creek....and then back home, some 140 miles later. Here are some pics.



Audra in Garden of the Gods.



A nice little buck we saw in Black Forest.



A pic of John, overlooking Cripple Creek.

Insulation in the Basement.....

One more step completed in finishing the basement. As you can see from the pics, Bryce and Tyler completely insulated all the exterior walls and my office (for sound proofing).

After it was all said and done, Bryce stated......"I hate fiberglass!"

While Dad was working away on his computer and on conference calls, the boys installed 40 bags of insulation.....that is 1,400 linear feet. They have been offically initiated to fiberglass....just as they were with the jackhammer a few days ago.



Tyler



Bryce looking a little worn out.

This weekend was all about construction. We invested..... mucho time into the Backyard Deck and the Basement.



The boys were initiated into hard labor with jack hammering, hole digging and cement mixing and pouring. As you can see in the pic... we had to tear up the back yard steps and rip through the slab to find a place to pour the cement piers for the ...... soon and coming, back yard deck. In this pic we have dug the holes and poured the cement for the deck foundations. By the way, it took 4 hours, solid on the Jackhammer, rented from HomeDepot to tear this dude up. Also, we had to pour 45 bags of cement to complete the piers for the deck..... 45 sacks x 80 lbs = over 2.5 tons of concrete. When we finish, the deck will be 24' x 16' for backyard, party fun.



Friday found us welcoming the the Pikes Peak Building Inspectors to approve the Building, Plumbing, Mechanical and Electrical.....allowing us to start on the sheetrock, etc. Yes, this project has taken us a while, but we are sooooo excited to begin nailing up sheetrock.... taping and bedding..... texturing.... and painting.... We have set the goal to have all this done prior to school starting in the Fall.



The Boys Bedroom.... This is going to be a HUGE bedrooom with two closets with living space of 14 x 26.



The bath downstairs... this pic is actually the shower. As you can imagine, the girls are more excited about the finish of this particular room than the boys...... giving them their own bath!!!

4th of July

This celebration of the 4th has been pretty darn good. We started off last night with a full, blown fireworks show by our Golf Course, Antler Creek. The show lasted about 30 minutes and was pretty spectacular, touted as the best in El Paso county.

This morning, the kids wanted to sleep in late, so Audra and I jumped on the bike and rode up to Woodland Park for their Old Fashion 4th of July Celebration. They had a great turn out and there was a lot of fun to be had. We both enjoyed the Irish/Celtic, live musicians the best. Here are a couple of pics.....
























This afternoon all four kiddos went to a Youth Function that our church hosted up at Fox Run Park in Black Forest. They are on their way home at this minute, but they said they had a blast with all the games and activities.

This evening we are simply going to BBQ and wait to watch all the fireworks displays from our front porch.

Happy Fourth Everyone!!!!!

The Sammie Lane Family Reunion

The first and offical Lane Family Reunion was a smashing success. We held the event at the Lazy Day Cabins in Cloud Croft New Mexico at about 8,000 feet elevation. The days, evenings and nights were just awesome. We had the right mix of cool air, rain showers and fabulous sleeping weather. Everyone enjoyed each other's company and the games and food were outstanding!!!!!! Please enjoy the pics and the comments and feel free to add comments at the end of each entry.

Click on this link....

http://jslfamilyreunion.blogspot.com/