This video was produced in celebration of Tom’s sister Celeste’s recent birthday. Click the link below to watch the video.

Happy Birthday Celeste

On Saturday, December 5, 2009, we headed for Garden of the Gods on the west side of Colorado Springs to take family pictures. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve had everyone one in a picture like this. With Beth and Spencer getting on in years 😉 we never know if the whole gang will be around every year. We just can’t take that for granted any more. So, we snapped a few pictures.

I recently set up a new microblogging site for the family to use. It is open to any member of our extended family.

What is microblogging? A fair question. If you’ve heard of Twitter, then you know something about it. Essentially, microblogging allows users to post short (140 characters or less) messages. Typically, these messages take the form of status updates similar to Facebook. You can ask questions, post news, etc.

The tool I selected allows users to attach pictures and other files. You can even cheat death and taxes by exceeding the sacred 140 character limit of Twitter.

The tool also allows users to create groups. So, if you want to send a message only to a specific set of people, you can do so. You can also send private messages to individual users. And because only family members can join, you don’t have to feel like you’re being stalked.

Some ideas we have floating around for the site are 1) sharing family pics. 2) sharing links to interesting information on other sites. 3) a German study group 4) and general keeping-in-touch chat.

If you’d like to join the site, visit:

http://obenchain.presentlyapp.com

You’ll need a passcode to join. Just contact by phone or email and I’ll give you that. (Check your email. You may already have an invite.)

Hope to talk with you soon on the Family Chat site!

A few weeks ago Julie and I and our three youngest (Britta, Amelia, and Lydia) went a couple hours west of Colorado Springs to see some of the autumn colors that the Colorado Rockies display this time of year. We were excited to have Gene and Heidi Essman and their daughter Lauren along for the ride.

We headed west again from BV as some of the locals call it. (They also call the town Byoonie, as the old timers began calling the place ‘byoona vista’ long ago and the name stuck.)

We enjoyed the scenic drive to Buena Vista, CO. We headed west again from BV as some of the locals call it. (They also call the town Byoonie, as the old timers began calling the place ‘byoona vista’ long ago and the name stuck.) Cottonwood Pass is about 30 minutes west of BV. We stopped about half way up at Cottonwood Lake for a picnic (Not as nice as it sounds as it was drizzling). But we were hungry and the girls enjoyed getting out of the car by the lake. And thanks to Heidi and Julie, we ate well in spite of a bit of weather.

As you’ll see in the attached pictures we had some fun with the cameras after lunch and even got in a hike on a portion of the Colorado Trail. We finished the day with a drive up to the top of Cottonwood Pass for a few more pictures before making the drive home. Good times! Enjoy the pictures: