Goodbye Summer! Win a Photo Canvas

This is a look back on some wonderful events from the summer of 2014, that I have not blogged about as yet, and a chance for you to possibly win a 16 x 20 Easy Canvas wall photo of a photo of your choice! Please remember, that all photo collages in this post will enlarge for easier viewing if clicked on.

My community had a celebration this summer to commemorate its centennial as Ken Caryl Ranch, under the ownership of John C Shaffer--a prominent newspaper owner and businessman of the time--who named the ranch after his two sons, Kent and Carroll. Shaffer built a magnificent Manor House on the highest point on the property, and President Theodore Roosevelt was a frequent visitor to his home.  Over the years the property changed owners a few times as a ranch until the homes of the Ken Caryl Ranch community were built by the Johns Manville Corporation during the 1980s and '90s. The members of the Ken Caryl Historical Society planned the 100-year celebration event that the entire community was invited to, and we all wore costumes reminiscent of the 1914 era.  My husband became Teddy Roosevelt for the day, and I became a cook in the Manor House.

As you can see the variety of costumes worn by the historical society were fabulous and put all the guests into a vintage mood!  A barbershop quartet and banjo players entertained the attendees with songs from the early 19th century, there was a car show with a 1914 Model T Ford as the star, a fashion show of period clothing, horsedrawn wagon rides and lawn games for the children, and donated ice cream, cupcakes, and hot dogs were distributed. Many descendants of the past families that lived on the ranch were in attendance, and the entire history of the community was displayed on placards within the Manor House for all to read.  The celebration was a wonderful success, and my husband and I were thrilled to be a part of it!

Our beautiful valley has quite a bit of history going beyond the 100 years it first became a ranch, and one precious part of it is an apple orchard that was planted in 1870 by another owner of the land, Robert B Bradford. I'll tell you more about him in a future post. In an effort to preserve this orchard, the Ken Caryl Historical Society takes care of the propagated trees that were grafted from the original trees and planted near them. We go out periodically to open the wire cages that protect those small trees from the deer and weed around them. Isn't it amazing that these ancient trees are still producing apples after all these years?

Another fun activity we did as a family this summer was to attend the Zoppe Italian Family Circus! This circus originated in Venice, Italy in 1842, and has been touring continuously since that time. You can read more about its history on this link.  It is a charming, one ring circus consisting mainly of clowns, acrobats, and trained dogs and ponies. My grandchildren enjoyed it very much!

We attended the 11th annual "Festival Italiano" in Bel Mar in Lakewood, Colorado. It is a fabulous two-day affair with Italian food and entertainment--including flag throwers from Florence, Italy-- bocce ball tournaments, and artisan vendors. It is a fun event we look forward to each summer!

My oldest grandson began attending kindergarten this year and is also playing soccer for the first time in a league. We have been enjoying attending the games and watching our son teach and coach the little guys about the sport. Our youngest grandson began pre-school, and he is so proud of his big brother being on a team, and he wishes he could play too!

We also had some new landscaping work done at our home this summer, both front and back,. The frequent deer visitors we get have already partially devoured two of the new shrubs, so it is a constant struggle to keep it maintained.  We watched many a thunderstorm come through almost every afternoon this summer, so I believe the drought is over for a while. I heard we will experience an El Nino weather winter, and I'm curious as to what that will bring! As you can see in the last photo in this photo collage, some of the trees here have already turned their autumn hues, and the mountain areas are at peak color.

All in all, we had a wonderful second summer in Colorado, and we now look forward to many happy events coming up this fall. I hope to capture some of the beautiful Colorado autumn foliage this weekend, so please come back soon to see those photos.

Now here is how you can win a 16 x 20 Easy Canvas wall photo, like the one I show below, including free shipping and handling.  I had my canvas made of a photo from a trip my husband and I took up to the top of 14,000+ foot Mt Evans this summer--read that post at this link if you missed that exciting event!

All you have to do is a leave one comment on this blog post telling me what was your favorite activity of this summer, and what memory you are like to preserve as a beautiful canvas photo, like this one that hangs in my husband's office!  I will use the Random Generator to chose one comment as the winner and will announce it next Sunday, September 28, 2014.  Good luck!

* In full disclosure, this is a sponsored post by Easy Canvas. I was provided with a free wall canvas print by Easy Canvas, and Easy Canvas will be providing the code for one winner to obtain a free 16 x 20 canvas from a  photo of their choice with free shipping and handling. 

Comments closed 9/28/14--announcing photo canvas winner on my next post! Thank you to all who commented!