Color Colorado

Come visit Colorado with Grandma Joy, Grandpappy Happy and the grandchildren.

Denver is the capital of Colorado.
It is called the " mile high city".
If you climb thirteen steps up the capital building you will be able to see exactly one mile above sea level.

The National Western Stock Show is the world's largest rodeo which is hosted in Denver. Here the cowboys drive cattle down the street.

Colorado has lots of natural beauty.
The well known Pikes Peak mountain is one of them. It is 14,115 feet tall.
Some say from the top you can see
four states.

Today you can take a Cog Train to the top of Pikes Peak. A cog train uses a gear, "cog wheel" to power the train.
It can climb much steeper grades than is possible with a standard locomotive with friction type power in most trains.

In 1893 an English Professor from Wellesley College, Katherine Lee Bates took a horse drawn wagon to the top of Pikes Peak and was so impressed with the beauty of our country, she wrote the song
" America the Beautiful ".

Can you sing " America the Beautiful "?

It is a beautiful song about how beautiful our country is.

Zebulon Pike was an Army officer and explorer.
Pikes Peak was named for him after an 1806 expedition he led up the mountain.

The Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park has the steepest mountain descents in North America.
The drops average 43 feet per mile through the entire canyon.

Garden of God has beautifully formed red rocks.
Among them are Balanced Rock, which teeters on top of another rock, and steamboat rock which resembles a steamboat.
The minerals in the soil is what makes the pretty colors in the rocks.

Mt. Evans Highway is the highest paved highway to drive, from 8,700 feet to 14,240 feet at the summit.
In Denver the temperature can be 90 degrees, while at the top of the drive it can be 40 degrees.

The city of Boulder owns Arapahoe Glacier. It may be the only city to own a glacier.
A glacier is a river of ice. The ice melts and Boulder City uses the water.

Royal Gorge Bridge was the highest suspension bridge in the world until 2003 when China built the Beipanjiang River Bridge.
Royal Gorge Bridge is still the highest one in North America. It is 955 feet over the Arkansas River.

The Colorado mountains are known to have some of the best skiing in the world.
John and Jeffri love to ski.

Grandpappy Happy likes to take Leslie and Evan on a sled ride and build snowmen.

The gold rush of the 1850s brought lots of people to Colorado.

After the gold and silver mines were gone, the towns that sprang up as a result of them, became ghost towns.
There are many ghost towns in the mountains of Colorado.

The U.S. Mint in Denver produces half of the coins distributed in the U.S.
First an engraver has to engrave what is on each coin before it is printed.

The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, is an accredited college for the education of officer candidates for the U.S. Air Force.

The Colorado state flower is the Rocky Mountain Columbine.
It comes in different colors, but Colorado adopted the color blue-violet with a white cup and yellow center.

The state tree is the Blue Spruce.
Colorado school children voted to name it the state tree in 1892. But it did not became the official tree until 1939.

The state bird is the Lark Bunting.
The males are black with white wing markings during the summer but in winter they are grey-brown like the females.
They migrate into Colorado in April and fly south in the fall .

Colorado state insect is the Hairstreak Butterfly. It is small, only 2 inches in width. It has purple wings with black borders, orange accents in the corners and blue on the underside.

The state reptile is the Western Painted Turtle. It looks like it has been painted,
especially it's under-shell, feet, neck, head and tail. The colors are yellow, orange, red and gray.
It lives in ponds, lakes and calm water with muddy soft bottoms.
It hibernates in the winter.

The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is the state animal.
They are named for the big curved horns that the males have, and for their agility and perfect balance.
They live very high in the mountains.
They are a grayish-brown color.

Grandma Joy and Grandpappy Happy always stand and place their hand over their heart when the American flag passes to shoe respect and love for what the flag represents.

The Colorado flag has a blue background.
The stripe in the center is white with a red c with a golden circle.

The Barbie doll was created in Denver by Ruth Handler in 1959.
Just about every little girl in America wanted a Barbie doll.

The Eisenhower Tunnel is 11,000 feet high and is the highest auto tunnel in the world.

It is fun to visit the Dinosaur Beds in Colorado and see all the old dinosaurs and plant and insect fossils.
Colorado has 26 species of dinosaurs .

Native Americans were the first residents in Colorado.
At Mesa Verde National Park you can see homes which the Indians built from
1 AD. to 1300 AD.

You can visit the ancient Anasazi Indian Cliff Dwellings.
Many had to use ladders to enter their homes.

Four Corners Monument marks the only spot in the United States where four states come together in one place. The marker is the exact spot where you can stand in all four states at the same time.

Visiting other places is always fun, but there's no place like home.




If you would like to buy this or any book in their series, each book is $ 4.95 plus shipping & handling

Thank you

I want to thank all of you for your comments on my blog and website.
I really enjoy reading them and appreciate hearing from you.

Since I last posted my computer got a terrible virus which wiped everything out of it.

I now have a new computer but I have to scan all the books I have finished into the new one ( thankfully, I printed each book as I finished it) which hopefully won't take too long.
Then I can add new books to the site. And now I can answer or reply to your comments personally. So as they used to say " keep those cards and letters coming folks" :-).

New Years Resolution

Most of us have started out the new year with our " New Years Resolutions" and I hope we can keep at least most of them.

On behalf of the children in our country and every country I ask you to add one more resolution, and that is to spend some or more time with a small child.

Our children, perhaps unknowingly crave the same things we do, attention, recognition, praise and love. And yet we "adults" are so busy seeking what we feel we need that we sometimes forget that the little ones need those things too.

It is a proven fact that young children learn quicker and better from birth to age 6 or 8 years of age than any other age. They develop " life habits" during those formative years and it's up to us to teach them "good" life habits, like the desire to want to read and learn helpful and beneficial things, and to treat others the way they want to be treated.

Some say "oh, they are too young to learn". Well I'm here to tell you that is just not true. If you don't believe it just watch how fast a little one learns that if they throw their toy on the floor while sitting on your lap you will pick it up, and they have learned a new game.

I recently saw a You Tube of several small Asian children playing guitars in concert, they were so small the guitars looked enormous in their little laps. And the music and harmony that came from those little ones was astounding ! Someone may say how did they do that ? I'll tell you how, someone took the time to teach them. And they were incredible.

Unfortunately we give children electronic and mechanical games and toys and they learn perhaps more from them (and not always good things) than from us.I'm not opposed to those kind of toys, I just think the children need more human relationship.

So please resolve to spend some time with a little one, playing a game or reading to them orperhaps teaching them art or music or just taking a walk and enjoying nature.

Our little ones truly are gifts, so lets show our appreciation for them by giving them a bit of ourselves and letting them know we care.

Next time I will give you a couple of hints on how to teach a child while spending time with them.

Keep in mind, I am just an old grandma who loves children and what I give you is what I call " horse sense" or just old fashioned common sense. I do not claim to be an educator.

Until next time show kindness,
Grandma Joy

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Hello Everyone,
First I must apologize for not being more attentive to my site this year.
My reason is that I have been so deeply involved in creating new coloring books that the time escapes me.
I will really try to be better in the new year about posting more often.

I am happy to say I now have 22 1/2 books completed. When I finish Kansas
( which is about 1/2 complete) and do Oklahoma I will have all of the states west of the Mississippi River finished and 5 eastern states. My goal is to have all 50 states in coloring books completed by the end of the new year.

I decided to not promote the books until I have  all  50 states finished. however if you wish to buy a book before I start "promoting" them, you may get one directly from me. Refer to the list on my blog.

One of my other goals for the new year is to learn how to respond to the wonderful comments you send about my site. I enjoy reading your comments and appreciate getting them , but I have to learn how to respond to them. So much to do and so little time.

Keep coming back to visit ,as I will be posting new books and more comments.

I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR

Visit the U.S.A.

Come on along and learn about Oregon as we have fun .

Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859.
  The Oregon state Capital is Salem.

In the early 1800s, thousands took the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon. Today you can still see ruts in the roads from the wagons that were heavy with their belongings.

The famous Explorers, Lewis and Clark, stayed at Fort Clatsop, named for the local Indian tribe Clatsop.
You can visit there today.

Portland is the largest city in Oregon. It is called the " City of Roses" because the international rose test garden is there.
The whole city has lots of beautiful roses.

Portland lies near the joining of the Williamette and the Columbia rivers. It is a leading international port, with lots of big ships that dock there.
It has lots of bridges for cars and trucks too.

Fishing is a big industry in Oregon. They catch lots of seafood. Some crab, shrimp, clams,salmon, halibut and other kinds of fish

Oregon gets thousands of migrating birds.
In the spring you can see geese, mallards, pelicans and others.

The largest collection of wintering Bald Eagles in the lower forty eight states are found in Oregon.
The Bald Eagle is the American symbol of freedom.

The Oregon state bird is the Western Meadowlark.
They have a yellow breast with dark brown and white stripes on their head, wings and back.

The Oregon state tree is the Douglas Fir.
They make beautiful Christmas trees.

The state flower is the Oregon grape.
The plant gets dainty yellow flowere in the summer, and a dark blue berry that ripens in the fall. the fruit can be used for cooking.

The Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is the Oregon state insect.
It is a beautiful bright yellow with black stripes and a black edge on their wings.

The North American Beaver is the Oregon state animal.
It has very sharp teeth to cut down trees to build its home.
Their fur is dark brown with a lighter brown belly.

There was once so many beaver in Oregon that thousands of their pelts were used to make men's hats.
There were lots of different styles of hats.

Near Florence, Oregon you can see hundreds of Sea Lions. They sun themselves and play in the water.

Every summer in June, Cannon Beach has a Sand Castle building championship contest.

The world's largest collection of Carousel Horses is in Hood River International Museum of Carousel Art.

Eugene is the second largest city in Oregon.
It is known for its good walking paths and bike trails.

The Yaquina Lighthouse near Newport is one of many lighthouses along Oregon's rocky coast.

The windsurfing capital of the world is the Columbia Gorge in Oregon.

Mt. Hood in Oregon, is one of several volcanos in the northwestern United States.
It erupted in 1907 and again in 1980.
It is the second most climbed mountain in the world.
Can you color a hole in the top where it erupted ?

Crater Lake is the opening of a volcano that collasped over 6,500 years ago. It is the deepest lake in the U.S. and the seventh deepest in the world.

Hell's Canyon in Oregon, on the Snake river, is the deepest canyon in the U.S.A.

Great forests cover more than half the state.
It harvests more timber than any other state.

There are 77 waterfalls on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge.
Multnomah Falls is called the " grandaddy" of them all because of it's height and beauty.

The John Day Fossil Beds are well known for it's well preserved and remarkably complete record of plants and animal fossils from millions of years ago.

Oregon has fifty historic covered bridges.
It has some of the largest number in the U.S.A.
Most of the covered bridges in Oregon were built between 1905 and 1925.

Pendleton Woolen Mills began making Native American Blankets for local tribes. They made un-fringed "robes" for the men and shawls for the women.
Today they make beautiful woolen fabrics, blankets and more, all made in Oregon.

Oregon wineries are generally small and family owned.
Weather conditions in the wine country is good for growing grapes for wine.

Oregon grows 99 % of all the Hazelnuts (or Filberts) grown in the United States.
They grow on trees and when they are ready to be harvested they drop to the ground. The farmer uses a sweeper to move them to a center row, and a lifter seperates them from debris. A forklift puts them in carts and stacks them to be shipped later.

Grandma Joy and Grandpappy Happy always stand and place their hand over their heart when the American flag passes to show respect and love for what the flag represents. We should all do that too.

Visiting other places is always fun.
But there is no place like home.














If you enjoyed this and would like to purchase this or any other state coloring book, go to books and order. They are all the same price  $ 4.95.
I hope you learned some things about the geography of Oregon and will share it with a little one.
Hugs, Grandma Joy

Visit Idaho

I have just posted a copy of the coloring book, Idaho. I hope you will enjoy looking at it and learning about the state while you share it with a child.