Sunny Skies - Smiling Grandkids

I was a bad Nana this weekend - my camera didn't find its' way out of its' case very many times and I am disappointed I didn't get more pics of Parker - he changes every time I see him and is not only cute as a button, but is now talking a mile a minute and it's so much fun to hear him talk!!

 

Jill, Robby, Aleah and Parker arrived late Friday night but of course the kids woke up when they came into the house so I served all of us dessert ( a new fantastic recipe that is definitely going into the cookbook) before we hit the sack - it was a great nights' sleep with that full moon shining in the windows!!

 

Saturday dawned sunny and warm - it was great to be able to open the front door and spill onto the deck - it's been a long time since I've had my coffee out there so I didn't hesitate to drink it while enjoying the sunshine!  A new recipe for breakfast also turned out wonderful!!  It's a keeper!!

 

Glenn went into work for awhile and Robby started in on my list of "technical" issues which didn't take him long at all!!  And then he headed into work to take care of the computer there!  We had a tea party on the deck!!

 Robbys' folks came in the afternoon and we had a nice visit along with some Miami vices (yum yum) and crackers, veggies and a new dip recipe -yes, this was the weekend to try new recipes and the dip was a keeper too!!!

Then it was off to the playpark!!  No sweatshirts needed!!

 I love this cement turtle at the playground and finally got a cute pic of the kids!!

 Jill and Robby met friends in Divide for dinner so we kept Aleah and Parker - they ate their pizza pretty well but gobbled the dessert like it was candy!!  Parker whimpered when I put him to bed but didn't cry again for me - although he did cry later when Jill got home!!  Robby left with his guy friends to head to C. Crk so Glenn, Jill and I watched a movie!

Aleah was a big help the next morning as we put together a recipe to put in the crockpot and a fruit salad - she loves "dumping" the things in the bowl!!

 WOW - sunlight was streaming in the house when I took this picture!!

 And as much fun as Parker was this weekend and all the different times I could have snapped him smiling, I didn't!!!  He is just a changed little boy it seems and is a delight to be around!!  I love it when he yells for Papa or Nana - and I mostly understood him all weekend too!!

Robby and Glenn worked on the stereo system in the boat for a while on Sunday and after lunch, it was time for them to head back to Ft. Collins!  What a fun weekend and we're already planning our zoo trip in June!!

NO More Turtle Mochas.................

Jessi  did NOT start my day out good - first thing this morning she texted me that Caribou Coffee was CLOSED in Southlands Mall, where we ALWAYS go for coffee every time I'm up there!  I could hardly believe the text I was reading - NO MORE TURTLE MOCHAS???

I had read online that Caribou was closing some of its coffee places but Colorado was NOT on the list - so I have no idea what happened.

All I know is that I am super disappointed in the news as this was my FAVORITE place for coffee - I don't know if they closed the ones at the Denver airport - could it be that I'll have to go there for my coffee????

Jessi - it's up to you now to find another coffee place for us...........though I KNOW in my heart that nothing can compare to Caribou!!

Sunshine and Hot Springs

Saturday was template day in Buena Vista for a granite job - I had checked online for a room at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs 2 weeks earlier but everything was already booked up!  It's a VERY popular place - so I was disappointed but did call over and leave my name and number in case there was a cancellation!  Fast forward to last Friday - no phone call yet so I decided to just call over there and sure enough they had a room!!!  WOW - I was excited!!  So I booked it on the spot and we headed over that way on Saturday!

 

First was templates at a new house - a really beautiful new house and the owners were so nice - we talked and talked and I loved getting a tour of the house!  And then it was off to the hot springs!!

 

This is the view of the main part of the hot springs from the road - there are 2 main pools by this bath house and you can also crawl - and I mean literally CRAWL down to the stream and sit around the rocks in the hot water!

 

 But this time since we were staying there, we could use the new side - which is a beautiful building with a fireplace in the middle of it, couches and chairs, a super nice changing area and a juice and snack bar - here is the bridge you cross to get to that side!

 Outside are 3 small pools which are different degrees!  We started out in the lower pool!

 Here's a picture of the 3 pools - check out the white mountain to the right of the picture - I can't believe how much snow is on it!!

 This picture is inside the covered area on the new side!  Glenn got a beer and I ordered the most fantastic strawberry/banana smoothie ever!!!  It was fun to just hang out in the warm pool and swim around!

 We ate dinner in the lodge that evening - there was a wedding going on in the glassed in reception area which is across the lawn from the lodge so it was fun to be able to see the wedding party and the dancing going on!!  Glenn and I split an excellent hamburger with cottage fries and a large fruit and cheese platter - some of that we ended up taking back to our room - which I ate during the evening while Glenn proceeded to fall asleep!!!  We had a Cliff side room which we have stayed in before - in fact I even blogged about these rooms a couple of years ago as I was so impressed with all the amenities in them!!

After a buffet breakfast we headed to the pools again - it was gorgeous outside and we stayed in the outer pool the entire time - and this time I ordered a pineapple/mango/coconut smoothie which was just as good as the one the day before!!!

One last look at the view from the pools before we headed home - a nice, relaxing weekend!!!

APRIL??????

Can it really be April with below zero temps, snow, and blizzard like wind blowing the snow sideways?  I know Colorado is always a little behind on the spring weather but this is absolutely ridiculous!  It's snowing and blowing so hard out right now that I can't even see across the street!

April is not my favorite month - never has been and never will be - it always seems that Feb and March come in with warm temps and then April hits and it's back to winter again.........sigh..........

Glenn is also sick - he rarely gets the upper respiratory stuff that I usually get once a year (but haven't got yet) but the sore throat/runny nose/tight chest/cough is really wearing on him!!  I think he believed that it would only last a couple of days and then be gone - and of course that just hasn't happened!  Both of the guys here at work have passed this stuff back and forth for the last couple of months and even taken days off as they're so sick - I spend my days running around with Clorox wipes and wipe everything down I can think of!!

And what's this?  No plans last weekend and no plans this weekend?  Is this really the Raymonds we're talking about? I hardly know how to act when there is nothing planned for the weekend!  Actually we must go to Buena Vista to do a set of templates - I checked over 2 weeks ago to try and get a room at Mt. Princeton so we could do the hot springs but it was all booked up - I did make a phone call over there yesterday and put our name on a waiting list but I don't have high hopes of getting a call back!

Move right along April - I'm ready for May!

At The Zoo

We all LOVE going to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!!  So after grabbing coffee to go and Subway sandwiches to go (3 foot longs and 6 cookies for $11.56 - can't beat that!!!) we all headed to the zoo except for Glenn who worked!!  I drove down separately as the Keppy's would be heading back to Denver after the zoo!!

 

It was pretty cool out - in fact I had a fleece sweater on and opted to run back to the car to get a coat to put over that!!  It was overcast out BUT the zoo was basically empty - with the cooler weather and kids in school, we only shared the zoo with a few moms and some pre-schoolers!!!

 

The first stop of course is the giraffe complex which is MY favorite!!!  It's always fun to feed the giraffes their lettuce leaves (even though crackers used to be the item)!

It always amazes me how LONG their tongues are!!!  It's quite comical of course and Evan thought the tongues were pretty disgusting looking - Kenzie would hardly feed the giraffe after that long tongue came out!!!

The bird pavilion is always a favorite too and since it was early morning, they were flying around like crazy and couldn't wait to eat!!!  With one on Evan's shoulder and another one about to land on his head, he jumped pretty fast when that 2nd one landed!!

Blogger conveniently mixes all the pictures up so we're back to the giraffe complex - I love this picture of most of them standing around!

The birds even started pecking at my shoestrings!!

The zoo has a new elephant complex and it's wonderful!!!  They were building it when we were there at Christmas time with the Smiths and now it's almost complete!! 

A favorite spot to take a picture and we always take pics of the grand kids here!!

A group picture that a man was nice enough to take of us!!  Notice NO LINES to get in!!

This is the playground where the kids played awhile - we ate lunch nearby in the sunshine - those subs sure tasted good!!!

One of the great things about going to the zoo in the morning when it's cool out is that all the animals are out!!  We saw animals we had never seen before because they're usually hiding but most all of them were out in the open!!  It was fun to see the mountain lions up close!!

The other nice thing about this zoo is that it's not a huge zoo - you can easily cover it in 1/2 day, even taking your time so it's a great place to take small kids who usually only last that long anyway!!

After the zoo, we drove up to the Will Rogers Shrine as your ticket to the zoo includes this also - I hadn't been up there in years and it's a pretty drive up!!  We went to the memorial and marveled at how far you could see!!!

What a jam packed wonderful couple of days we had with Gary, Jessi and the kids!!  Now don't forget to come back!!!

Cripple Creek Visitor Center

Jessi and Gary went to the Crags for a morning hike on Sunday - Glenn gave the kids rides on the ATV which is always a hit with them!

 

Next on the agenda was the play park - it's so early in the season that the swings weren't even out so Kenzie was disappointed about that - but they still had fun!!!

We all met back at the house for a quick lunch and then headed over to Cripple Creek to walk through the visitor center - the kids loved riding the "mine" elevator to the 3rd floor to see this display!

Glenn even posed for us in this hat that of course he didn't buy!!

The lower level has a wonderful town display complete with a running train so the kids loved that!!  One last pose with the bear before leaving this fantastic building with all the mining info!

Even though it was windy and cold out, we needed ice cream!!  We found a nice relaxing place and just vegged out for a while!!

Back at the house, Glenn and Gary and Evan left to go hunt gems at a friends place - Kenzie was exhausted so she easily laid down for a nap and Jessi and I got to play a few games together before the guys came back for grilled hamburgers that tasted great!!!  And after getting the kids to bed that evening, we even got in one more game of Upwords!!!  To Be Con'd.....

The Keppys' Come To Visit!

We haven't had company at the house for a long time so were excited to have Jessi, Gary and the kids come down during Evan's spring break - it still seems strange to me that Evan has "spring break" because to me he should still be in pre-school!!

 

I spent Saturday morning preparing dishes to eat during the weekend so I wouldn't have to spend so much time in the kitchen - in fact, I tried 4 new recipes!!  I'm not usually one to try new ones on family or friends but all the ingredients sounded OK so I knew I couldn't go wrong!!  All 4 were listed on Facebook and they all come out just great!!  But only 2 are going in my recipe book because the Lemon Dessert was good but it's basically the same as my pistachio recipe except for the flavored pudding, and the Foil Potato recipe is what we always do when we camp except this recipe had more flavorings on it which I can remember without writing it down!

 

The two that are going in my cookbook are Strawberry Cheesecake Salad which is SO AMAZINGLY good that it shouldn't be categorized as a salad but a dessert and the Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Bake - this casserole was a pain to make because of all the pans you have to use AND the time it takes to make it but it was really good!!  I did make it ahead of time and stuck it in the frig and I believe doing it this way caused it to be "drier" than usual - so when I make it again, I will add some more liquid if I refrigerate it first!!

 

The Keppys arrived around 1:00pm on Saturday and after a quick lunch we headed over to Mueller State Park!

The kids enjoyed showing their folks the nature trail as Gary and Jessi hadn't been on it and we also took an "adult" hike which was close to a mile!!

It was chilly out but the brisk walk kept us warm - there was even snow on part of the trail which slowed us down!

We also hit the Visitor Center which is a cool place to walk around!!  There was a guy there with quite a gem collection and the guys and kids really enjoyed listening to him talk about rocks!!  I opted to just sit and relax during that!!

After an early dinner, everyone but Glenn went to W. Pk to see the movie "The Croods" - I owed Evan a movie and popcorn for part of his birthday present so this was the perfect time to take care of that!!  Everyone enjoyed the movie - it was REALLY a good one - and then it was back home for dessert and a game of Mexican Train!!

Evan chose to sleep upstairs with us which is his usual request and Kenzie took over the toy room for the night - even Gary who was fighting the tail end of a cold slept great!!  To be Cont'd........

He Has Risen - He Has Risen Indeed!

BRRR - after that nice rain we had the day before, I was expecting warmer temps in the morning but the ground was nice and wet and crispy from the rain!!  But soon the sun came out in all its' glory and the day was gorgeous!!

 

It was chilly at our first attempt at pictures but we managed!!

 

Off to church for a wonderful service where Gary met us - the church was packed but luckily we did get seats in the main sanctuary!  I really enjoy singing those wonderful Easter songs!

The ham cooked while we were at church and soon the hash brown casserole was done and we were eating a great lunch!!  Of course the kids were very excited about their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny!!

We missed having Rayna here to hide the eggs!!  So the guys hid them in the yard while we cleaned the kitchen - we offered to switch jobs with them but they didn't take us up on that!!

The kids had fun doing the hunt and it's so neat to watch them run around the yard, picking up the eggs!!

This picture was taken at church in the bright bright sun and somehow we never got another one taken back at Jill's house!!

Don't they look cute with their full Easter baskets?

But I think they had just as much fun emptying the eggs!!  We made a list of things for "next year" and one of the things written down was NOT to put chocolate in the eggs - it had already started to melt in the sun!

Jessi had fixed a yummy dessert that we all ate in the afternoon - I don't remember the name of it but it was rich and decadent!!!

All good things come to an end though and soon it was time to pack up and hit the road for the 3 hour drive home - the traffic wasn't bad so there was time to even unpack when we got home and do a couple loads of laundry!  Another wonderful Easter with family - and next year we'll make sure Jaime isn't working!!

Easter Fun!

This is pretty sad that I haven't had anything exciting to blog about since St. Patrick's Day!!  But on the other hand, no news is usually good news!!

 

We have been SUPER busy at work - and have spent the last 3 weekends working - or I should say Glenn and the guys worked - I chose to stay home and work! (and relax)

 

I do believe it has slowed down to a fast crawl now so hopefully we won't have to work weekends for a while - although my list at home for Glenn is getting longer and longer!!  I always feel bad when he's worked 6 days straight and don't feel he should HAVE to work on his only day off at the house.............

 

BUT everyone took Easter weekend off!!  We left W. Pk about 12:30 as had an appt. in Monument on the way up to Jessi's - that evening while Glenn babysat Evan and Kenzie, Jessi and I headed to The Thorn with a couple of her friends.  We hadn't been to the production since 2007 and of course had only seen it at New Life Church in Co. Springs so it was an entire new experience seeing it at The University of Denver!!

 

The production was fantastic - it has been changed a little bit but of course the story line is the same and we enjoyed it immensely!

 

Early Saturday morning we packed up the car, grabbed some coffee for the road and headed up to Jill's for the weekend!  We met Brad, Rayna and Kylan at Jill's church for the Easter Egg Hunt!!  First was a "show" inside the church and the guest comedian was awesome!!  And then it was outside in the beautiful sunshine for the hunt!

 

 

Blogger has once again mixed up the pictures so bear with them!!

Each adult took a child with them and I had Aleah - when it was time to hunt the eggs, she would pick one up and shake it and if it didn't rattle, she would put it back on the ground - smart kid - she KNEW which ones had candy!!

And then it was back to the house to color Easter eggs!!  The guys took off to fish and left the 6 kids to us - but we all had a great time!!

Jill decided to try the shaving cream method this year!!  Rayna loved doing the eggs this way and even Parker got in on it!!

Here's a peek at the eggs while they were "setting up".

The kids also loved painting the eggs!  And yes, they all had old t-shirts on!

Rayna and Jessi's eggs turned out AWESOME!!!

After the coloring of all the eggs (1 dozen per kid) we cleaned up the mess and let them play with regular shaving cream - even Jill got in on the action!!

I gave the kids their Easter gifts on Saturday since the Smiths were heading back home (Jaime had to work all weekend - boo hoo - we missed them!!!)  They boys look thrilled with their new t-shirts, huh?

But the little girls were all smiles when I handed them matching dresses and scarves!!  Are they not just the cutest little girls ever??????

One more picture with all their Easter candy !

A storm came up late afternoon and it rained!!  Gosh, did it smell good out!!  We had a great dinner of baked spaghetti, salad and garlic bread and for dessert, Oreo fluff - it was all SO GOOD!!

The Smiths left, we got the kids to bed (finally) and us girls watched The Lucky One  and then it was off to bed to get a good nights sleep for Easter Sunday!