Ft Collins Music Fest

Sunday morning we all headed out to breakfast at The Village Inn -  I DO enjoy this chain because they have strawberry crepes - my absolute favorite!!  The kids behaved well and ate ALL of their pancakes which really surprised me as they're not normally great eaters!!

 

In the middle of the meal, we heard this loud PLOP but couldn't figure out what it was till we looked at the ceiling - an entire ceiling tile had become saturated with water and fell - water was dripping out of the hole at a pretty good rate - luckily a customer was NOT walking by when it fell!!

 

The guys headed to Home Depot and we went home and packed sandwiches to take to the Ft. Collins Music Fest!!  Unfortunately the parking was not great so we had to park several blocks away and walk over but the kids were real troopers!!

 

There were some "free" booth giveaways for the kids which they enjoyed and then it was on the "music" portion!!  The kids could go into these different cabins and play different instruments!!  I think their favorite was this drum!!

 

Although Aleah doesn't look it, she was happy since they had just received balloons!

Shake Shake Shake!!  I didn't feel inclined to do the Mexican Hat Dance - maybe I should have?

We walked around for a while amidst all the eating places and carnival attractions and finally decided to head to a park for our picnic!  Don't the kids look cute?

About the time we were done eating, it started to sprinkle so we knew it was time to head back to the house!  Nap time was in order!!  And more blueberry cobbler for us!!

Glenn got his templates done for their new granite bathroom vanities and soon it was time to hit the road for the LONG drive home!!  I'll leave you with this darling picture - Aleah seems to be ecstatic!!

Thanks for a great weekend Jill and Robby!!

Double Time Up North

We were Denver AND Ft. Collins bound this last weekend!!  My friend asks me all the time if we EVER stay home and I always answer the same thing - NO!!

 

Friday night we spent the night with Jessi and Gary - it was fun to talk to Evan about being in the 1st grade and he seems to love it!!  Jessi and I talked the night away and again at coffee early the next morning - she had to work and we were heading out anyway - I'm really liking the new coffee place and now it seems like "our coffee place"!!

 

Glenn and I headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and History - I had bought Groupons for the museum, IMAX and planetarium a while back and realized they were going to expire soon so that 's part of the reason the weekend was planned!!

 

Glenn hadn't been there in many years - I had taken grand kids a year or so ago - but it was fun to have just the 2 of us as you certainly see different things when it's just adults instead of with kids!!

 

One of Glenn's favorite sections (and mine too) is the wildlife!!

That's what Glenn intends to get in a few weeks when he goes hunting.......we shall see.............

And there was a small section on mushrooms and sure enough, they had the ones that we saw ATVing the weekend before - now at least I know their name AND that they're poisonous!!

Also in the rocks and gems department, I actually READ some of the signs and many rocks and gems were actually from our area - Crystal Peak here in Florissant and several from Lake George!! 

We saw an Ice Age documentary in the IMAX portion and it was very good - but both Glenn and I were a little lost with the planetarium documentary - just too deep I guess!!  We're not space people!

After lunch at the museum, we walked around for another hour or so and then headed up to Jill and Robby's for the remainder of the weekend!!

The kids were excited to show us their new playset - it's cute as can be and they love playing on it!!

Jill and I ran to her book store as I had brought up 4 bags of used books!!  We looked around for quite a while and of course I found plenty to buy!!!  But boy was I disappointed when they told me they were only buying back 7 of my books!!!  ARE YOU KIDDING????  I must have brought it 50 or so!!  Oh well...........

We had a yummy dinner early evening - and an even more amazing dessert later on!!  It was made with fresh blueberries and I'm eating a piece as I'm writing this as she sent some home with us!!

As in any household, bedtime is always a fiasco!!  I wanted a picture of Parker in his cute pj's with a cape but he wouldn't cooperate!!!

Until................how sweet is that!!!

Both kids had new beds - Parker had Aleah's old toddler bed and she had a new white one!!  And her room was decorated with new things too and it's just darling!!

After the kiddos were in bed, Jill and I worked on our family photos!  What a job deciding which picture is best and what background - but we made progress -  now to get a 4 way phone call going between the 4 of us so we can get them ordered!!

And before we knew it, it was time for bed.............To be cont'd.........

New Trails

Camping and ATVing weekend - you just gotta take those weekends before the weather gets too cold!!  We could have easily worked all weekend at the shop as there is so much to do but........

 

Because it rained Thursday night, I did not get to pack all the stuff in the camper but I had it all ready by the door!  We had hoped to get out of work by 3:00 but that time eventually changed into 4:00 before we were headed home!!  I actually ran between the camper and the house to get everything packed up because the weather looked like it was going to start raining any minute!!  I had just taken the last load and all we had left was the ice chest when the storm broke - oh my gosh - heavy, heavy rain, thunder and lightning and hail - even though we were willing to get wet, there was no way we could even get to the truck during this storm!!

 

When it finally subsided enough to make a run for it, we left!!  And not long after we left, I got the text that HWY 24 was closed due to flooding!!

 

We headed over Monarch Pass into Black Sage Pass where we were planning on camping - and the little campground that we had thought about camping in was pretty full - so we went on past and through the little village of Whitepine - now it was dusk by this time and the road was narrow going through this small town and I just didn't get a good feeling about it for some reason!  So right past the town, Glenn decided to turn around as it was so narrow and there was a spot wide enough to do that - we went back through the town, up Black Sage Pass and NOTHING - nada - no place to camp!!

 

So we ended up driving across this pasture and parking very close to this huge, huge electrical tower!!  The grass was up to my knees and it was NOT a great spot but by this time it's totally dark out so we decided to just spend the night there!!  I really don't like eating dinner at 9:00 but that's what we did - but luckily I had gotten a chicken and a salad so we didn't have to cook!!

 

It was during the night that it started to rain.............not heavy but just a constant rain - Glenn woke me up and said he thought we should move because we were in a low spot in all this grass and yes, it could get QUITE muddy!!  But I told him he was CRAZY for wanting to pack up in the dark and the rain and move - to where?????  The next morning he told me that he was more concerned about the lightning since we were sitting RIGHT by that tower - in fact, you could hear the current running through it!!  

 

The next morning we packed up and moved to another spot over by Tomichi Pass - a much better place - and before we knew it, we were out to ATV - with 4 layers on I might add - the sun was warm but the air was COLD!!

 

We rode our ATV's into Pitkin, a cute little town that I was surprised we had never been through before - it's at the base of Tomichi Pass and hooks up with other passes that we have been on before.  I loved this little town!!  And I loved this town hall building - it's not really crooked - blame it on the photographer!!

 

Glenn needed some more coffee so we stopped at the gas station/souvenir shop/coffee place to get him some and enjoyed just relaxing on their front porch!!

Did I mention it has rained a LOT in the past few weeks?  Which means the mushrooms were in full bloom!!!  I saw these red/orange mushrooms and for some reason, immediately thought of The Wizard of Oz - Munchkinland - now were their mushrooms in the movie???  I have no idea but that's what came to mind!!

Even though Tomichi Pass was rated difficult, it wasn't bad at all on the ATV - there were a couple of spots where you had to pull to the side if you met someone but at least we didn't have to back up!!

Looking out at the countryside at the top of somewhere?

We ended up coming BACK into Whitepine as we finished the pass - and guess what - there were several camping spots just over a short hill from where we had turned around the night before!!  DARN!!  And after driving back through Whitepine in the daylight, I had an entire different feeling about it - it was cute and many places were run down but it looked SO much better in the day than at dusk!!  Later I found out it was a ghost town but people inhabit it!!

Double mushrooms - how cute is that???

We had a full day's ride and were stiff and sore when we came back to the camper - rest time - happy hour - a nice meal - reading - Glenn hit the sack at 8:30!!  I, of course, read!!

Sunday was pretty cold out again in the morning but we rode till noon and saw some beautiful country!!  I'll leave you with one last picture which is kind of neat because we're at the top of a pass, looking at another pass that we had done last summer. Kind of puts it in perspective of how steep and rugged some of the trails are!!    We'll come back over here as there are even more trails to discover!!