Balch Family Blog

Wow! How can the first semester of this school year almost be finished? Just 4 more days and we are done with school for 2014. The year has been going well for both boys. Their grades have been good and they both earned awards for grades after the first quarter. I anticipate there will be awards for second quarter too.

Cam has been playing in band and just had his winter concert last week. He is still in the percussion line and he has found his passion. It was very exciting to watch him play the piece Ancient Hunters. Each time he hit the symbol he did it with gusto!

Carsten continues with Cub Scouts, and while he probably would say it isn’t his favorite thing, he does enjoy it once we are there.

We spent Thanksgiving in Tucson this year. It was quiet with just the four of us and mom and Ken. The best part of the weekend was watching U of A BEAT ASWho!

Christmas is just 10 short days away. Mark and I are trying our best to instill in the boys the true meaning of Christmas.

From our family to yours….Merry Christmas!

We flew to Richmond, VA on Oct 1st bright and early in the morning. At the airport we rented a car and drove to Williamsburg. The resort was lovely and we were greeted by a toad at the front door and a frog on our patio. We spent the next few days milling around Williamsburg and Yorktown. The Colonial Passway was beautiful. We watched a reenactment of the civil war and ate at a quaint little cheese shop. One afternoon Andrea met up with us and we headed over to the Jamestowne Settlement. It was rich with history and truly great to see Andrea. We drove back to Richmond to check out her house and have dinner.
On Oct 5th we left Williamsburg and headed on to Pittsburgh. To break up the drive we stopped at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport. The Space Shuttle Discovery was our favorite! The drive was filled with rolling hills and changing leaves. We met Karen at the Westend Overlook for our first view of downtown. Our stay was filled with fun including a tour of Heinz Field and a ride on the Just Ducky Tour Boat. We enjoyed visiting with Karen, Noah, Damon and of course their cats as well!

It was Tuesday when we headed to Hamburg to meet up with Heather’s mom and Ken at Traci & Lee’s house. We spent many of our free moments going on walks to the barn to visit the horses or getting in a few extra steps after a good meal, with some possum sliding and furniture moving thrown in to keep things exciting! Our family dinners were spent laughing and celebrating with Kristine, Hank, Addy, Griffin, Gma Pat, Ryan, Lyn, Leah and many friends we met too!
We took a day trip over to Niagara Falls and boy were we cold! We watched a guy make huge bubbles and ate under an ultra-sonic bird repellent. The Sky Wheel provided views we had never seen. A stop by the wax museum let us bump into the Obama’s! The animal park was a lot of fun! The animals followed us around in the tram and opened their mouths to let us pour in the food! Ken might have kissed a camel!
To celebrate Wanda’s 60th and Ken’s 75th birthdays we enjoyed a dinner cruise down the river. The Grand Lady fed us a wonderful meal and we danced the night away!
This Burg Trip was a HUGE success and will never be forgotten!

It sure took me long enough to finish off this vacation.

On Tuesday (6/17) we stayed at the resort, played sports, had lunch at a cafe we could walk to and had dinner at home. We took part in resort activities including painting butterflies.

On Wednesday (6/18) we got up early and drove to Durango to catch the train to Silverton. The 3 hour and 45 min train ride was just about 45 min too long. After lunch and some shopping in Silverton, we took the bus ride home, which was only an hour and 45 min. It actually snowed while we were on the bus. We enjoyed the beautiful sites ob our whole trip!

On Thursday (6/19) we drove to and hiked Piedra Falls. The waterfall was gorgeous, and while it was quite a drive out there, we had the place to ourselves! When we got home we played Monopoly, went to Bogey Q’s for dinner. It is a neat little restaurant with mini-golf, a playground for the boys, and corn hole! Lots of fin, and the BBQ wasn’t bad either.

On Friday (6/20) we went to Wild Animal Rescue Park. They had a big grizzly bear there that they tempted out of his den with a Reese’s and some grapes. Really surprised us how big he was. It was a nice little place and we had some cats to acts as tour guides. The we went souvenir shopping in downtown Pagosa Springs, grabbed lunch at Subway,and started to drive home. We stopped in Farmington and then headed on to dinner at Virges Mexican Restaurant in Gallup.

We drove the rest of the way home on Saturday.