Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

I'm sure that's what Glenn was saying to the fish this last weekend as we traveled to Crawford, CO so he could ice fish!!  Where the heck is Crawford?  4 1/2 hours away but a drive through some of the prettiest country!!  You head to Buena Vista and then go over Monarch Pass - go through Gunnison and then travel through the switchbacks of Black Canyon and finally to Crawford - a tiny, tiny town but luckily has this great little place to stay and a restaurant that was open!!

Because Blogger and the computer at work are not seeing eye to eye, all my pictures are attached to each other on the place where I write so unfortunately, I can't write between them so you'll just have to read and look at all of them at once!!

Glenn found the Stone House Inn online (shocker - I usually do the research!!) and it's truly a gem - an old historic building that has been converted into 2 rooms and a suite - we booked the suite so we could have the kitchen which was a good thing - the restaurant didn't open till 8:00am and Glenn was out fishing by 6:30am each morning!!

He had a great time - the weather was perfect - but no fish to bring home.................doesn't seem to bother him though - he fished for almost 11 hours that first day and I'm sure loved every minute of it!!

Our room was around the back of the inn and overlooked a stream that was still running!!  The wall behind the bed was all stone and really cool looking!!  And the massive bookcase had lots of books to read (but of course I had brought mine!!) and a great selection of DVD's to choose from!!  I even left the computer at home and there was no cell phone service either so it was truly a weekend away from the electronics!!

And what did I do?????  Ah, I read and read and read - I watched movie after movie and did some Swedish Weaving - and I just enjoyed the days!!  Cooked myself breakfast each morning and sat at their cute little table, took a leisurely bath in their huge tub, ate a LOT of snacks and then it was out for dinner with Glenn each evening.

It was a great weekend - the drive over was so pretty and I snapped a picture on the way home of the rugged territory we were driving by!!  And I sure hope we do another weekend away soon!!

Movies and Meals

January is flying by!!  I don't mind that a bit as it's not one of my favorite months - I would love for it to snow some more because all we have is one slick icy driveway!!  Getting up to the garage is a "step on the gas and slide on up" procedure which was starting to get a little scary for me so I had Glenn put some gravel on it and it is a lot better that way!  Sunshine is the forecast for the entire week but I don't dare think that the cold weather is gone for the season!!

 

Saturday was movie day - the choir girls and I headed to CS mid-morning and saw August:  Osage County - probably not one many have heard of but I love Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts!  The show was probably not one I would watch again although the acting was superb!!  Either one of those women deserve an award!  But the story was sad and a little shocking about this crazy, dysfunctional family set out on the plains of Oklahoma and it always makes me feel blessed with the type of family that I have!!

 

After the movie we ate a great lunch at The Stagecoach Inn in M. Springs and then headed back up the pass - it's always a great day when I get to spend time with friends!

 

And then it was on to my next project:  making 10 freezer crockpot meals!!  I guess I had seen a link on the computer about making these so I checked out the website and was immediately hooked!!  The recipes were all easy with regular ingredients (not those fancy recipes that require you to buy 30 different spices and items that you'll never use again) so I made my list, bought what I needed on Friday morning and I was set to go!!

 

I'm not sure my kitchen has ever looked like such a disaster!!  But it was fun to do and actually didn't take that long - I had to do it two steps as I only had time Sat. to put 8 meals together so I finished up the other 2 on Sunday morning!!  The one thing I really liked was that you could do all your slicing and dicing at one time!!  Most of the meals required diced onion and many of them had green and red peppers (which I promptly switched to red, yellow and orange peppers because I buy them when they're on sale, slice them up into baggies and freeze them!) so once you're doing that, it's sure easy to do it all at one time!!

 

The recipes were meat that we always eat and most of the meals were just the main dish that is served over rice or pasta - mix it together, put it in a Ziploc and freeze - take it out the night before and stick it in the frig and then at the appointed time, put it in the crockpot and turn it on - it's that easy!!

 

My recipes included:  Pork Chops/ Potatoes, Apple BBQ Pork Tenderloin, BBQ Cranberry Chicken, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Pork Carnitas, Savory Pepper Steak, Honey Bourbon Chicken, Teriyaki Pork Chops, Sausage and Peppers, and Southwestern Chicken Chili!!  Don't they look great???

It took approximately 15 minutes per recipe, some took more, some less so I didn't think that was bad at all - and now I have 10 crockpot meals in the freezer!!

The reason I only had time to do 8 the first afternoon is because Glenn wanted to go into town and see the movie, Lone Survivor!  We now have 4 little theaters in the movie house in W. Pk and they all run at different times it seems - this movie was running at 6:15 and 8:45 (way too late for us early to bed people) so we had to head into town by 5:40!

It's a good think we left a little early as the line was out the door when we got there!  Lone Survivor was playing in one of the "new" theaters - nice new very elevated seats and a huge screen so that was nice - we had to sit to the side as it was already packed when we got in there, but it was just fine - really no bad seats at all!!  The movie was intense - think Black Hawk Down - and although it was very bloody and the language was horrible (aren't they all nowadays?) the movie was very good!  It was sad to think it was based on a true story and at the end, they played this touching song with pictures of the real guys that were killed and the one lone survivor................

We stood in line with people I knew from my insurance days and they had both read the book and said it was excellent - I may have to read it now!

Friday night we went with friends to C. Crk to eat at the seafood buffet at the Wildwood Casino - it's one of the newest and largest casinos and the dining area is very nice!  The buffet was excellent - all the king crab and shrimp you wanted along with a prime rib bar so we all stuffed ourselves silly!

Which bring us to today - Sunday - and the game will be starting soon to determine if the Broncos will head to the Super Bowl - I'm optimistic!!  But then again, I never watch the games............. I just go down every hour and ask Glenn the score!!  GO BRONCOS!!!

Kansas Bound

What did I do last weekend?  I went to Kansas!! 

 

Joleen's daughter Becca lives in Kansas and her and her husband just purchased the business he's been working at for years - Joleen knows how organized I am and that I pretty much know how to run an office so she suggested to Becca that we both come out so I could help her set up!!  And that's just what we did!!

 

Our road trip started Thursday afternoon about 1:30pm - we both raced through our work chores and then headed out with her dog, Kino - he is a good rider at least!!  Did I mention it's a long, long ways to Kansas - to the tune of 7 1/2 hours?????  But I brought music and we talked and talked the time away!!  And of course we lost an hour when we crossed that Ks. border!!

 

The weather was great to drive in and we pulled in about 9:30 that night, Ks. time - it wasn't long before we all hit the sack!!

 

Becca and I worked for 2 days setting up the office - making a few trips to the office supply store AND drinking great coffee both days along with cinnamon rolls!!  I loved touring their new place and helping her set up the office as much as I could!!

 

After stopping at the store and purchasing a few items, I made some hot drinks!!  My sister Patty had posted a recipe online for an apple cider drink (and I LOVE apple cider) so I was anxious to try it - it was delicious - it was superb - we couldn't get enough of it!!!  And it looks pretty!!

 

We also got a little shopping in, a lunch with Joleen, a chick flick one night and lots of great food to eat!!

Of course my camera stayed in my bag all the time but I did snap this cute picture of 2 of Becca's kids on my phone.

All in all, one great time in Ks. - except for the ride home again!!  I wish I could have just wrinkled my nose and been home - it was a long drive again with some might fierce winds but we made it back to CO. by mid-afternoon on Sunday!!  How Joleen does this drive every 6 weeks is beyond me!!  But I guess if my grand kids were there, I'd be making it too!!

God's Handiwork

It may be icy cold this winter but you just can't beat the sunrises over the peak in the morning!!

And This Guy Was WHERE During Hunting Season?

Yes, this buck is at our lower level eating food, almost from Glenn's hand!!!  He IS a looker!!

Christmas Is The Time To Come Together.............

as sung in The Peace Carol - "a time to put all differences aside - and I reach out my hand - to the family of man - to share the joy I feel at Christmas time."

 

Smelling Jessi's homemade cinnamon rolls baking must mean it's Christmas morning!!  After Jaime's and Jill's arrived (and even Robby who drove down from Ft Collins that morning) we had our first breakfast of cinnamon rolls, fruit and dip and coffee!!

 

And thanks to Jessi, she lined us all up BEFORE we opened gifts to get some pictures!!

 

 And then the present opening began!!  I had all the kids sit down in front of the tree so I could hand out cute little elf booties filled with goodies!!

 The kids had a ball opening their gifts - and they TRIED to all sit in the Christmas Chair at one time but only 4 would fit!!

 Evan and Kenzie love to help their mom in the kitchen so the aprons and chefs hats will be put to good use!

 Aleah still wasn't feeling very good but she mustered up a smile here!!

 In between present opening we had our 2nd breakfast - crock pot egg bake and sausage casserole with cinnamon toast - yummy!!!

I made all of the kids Snapfish books - I always take a lot of pictures of them during the year of all of the holidays and outings so it's easy to put together their own individual books and they always love them!

 Rayna requested volleyball posters for her walls - so I had to include a poster of HER!!

 Kylan's gift was probably the most "used" gift of the day - a remote control helicopter that the kids really had fun with!!

 I also had cute "street signs" made up with their names!!

The girls did their gift exchange in the afternoon which is always fun but it's even more fun to watch the guys do theirs!!  They take it SO seriously to make sure they get the RIGHT gift and it's funny to watch them!

Gary took some of the kids to the park to play in the afternoon - Jessi and I went for a walk - 3 of the guys watched football - and Parker actually took a nap!!

Prime rib dinner with all the fixings came about 4:00 and it was all delicious!!  While we were at the table, we did our predictions!  It came right down to the last question to see who would win between Gary and Jessi and Glenn and I - but HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY - the frog is ours for the next year!!  WOW - it's ONLY the 2nd time we've won it so I was pretty excited!!!  Jill DID forget to bring him down so he hasn't taken up residence in our house yet but we'll get him soon!!

Robby headed home with Aleah and Parker that evening so the sick ones could get better and Jill stayed  -  her and Jaime went back to their house to watch The Hunger Games.  At the Keppy residence, we watched The Sound of Music - ah, I love that show!!

FINALLY Sunday morning Jessi and I got to do coffee before church!!  Glenn and Brad went ice fishing again but were back in time to watch kids so us 4 girls could go see Catching Fire - it was the second time for Jessi and I but Jill and Jaime hadn't seen it - Rayna came too so it was an all girls' outing!!

And after loading up the car, it was finally time to head home after a wonderful Christmas holiday!!