Cold Characters!

WELCOME!  WELCOME!  It's the annual ice sculptures display in Cripple Creek with the theme this year being "characters".  We met up with friends Jan and Jan and headed over late Sunday morning to see the displays!!

I took this picture for Kenzie and Aleah - it's Alice In Wonderland!

It was fun seeing the guys carve and make these magnificent statues out of ice!!

Batman anyone?

And at the end of the street is a slide made out of ice for the kids!!  All of the grand kids would have loved this!  Maybe a bit cold though!

As we walked towards the vendors, this cute frog was reminding all of us that St. Patrick's Day isn't that far away!  He sure would look cute on my deck!

After I posted this pic I realized Glenn's eyes were closed - oh well, he probably slept through the meal anyway................We ate at Baja Billy's and had some great Mexican food!

What a great way to spend a Sunday!

Almost Time To Say Good-Bye

It's happening way too fast - my best friend Joleen will be moving to Kansas at the end of this week................She's been waiting a long time for her house to sell so she can move by her daughter and grandkids - I can't blame her a bit as she makes that journey to KS. about every 6 weeks to see them and it's a 7 hour drive one way!!  I'm excited that she FINALLY gets to be by her grand kids and be involved in all they do but I'm sad to think that she will be gone............

Joleen and I really became close friends when our daughters (Jessi and Becca) started clogging together!  They clogged a lot locally at events and then it was the big trip to Salt Lake City for clogging camp and before we knew it, they were clogging at Disneyland - what a trip that was!!

And that was the starting point of a lasting and wonderful friendship!!

Joleen is a nurse and also is very active in the local Farmers Market as she loves to garden so all of her friends joined her for a going away party on Saturday - check out the brunch we enjoyed!

We attempted a group picture and I guess it didn't turn out too bad!!

I saved my gift till the end and she was overjoyed with it - I did a photo book of all of our memories together!!  Usually I can put together these books in a couple of hours but because older pictures were involved, it took a whole lot longer!!  I did go digital in 2005 so the pictures after that were easy since they were on the computer - but anything before that I had to dig out of photo albums and scrapbooks, take pictures of the pictures with my camera and then download them to the computer - it was quite the task but I knew it would be appreciated!!  We laughed and laughed at many of the old pictures when we looked SO YOUNG!!!

It was a great get together and one that Joleen will never forget!!

Although we'll be 7 hours away from each other after this weekend, I know we'll still see each other often - it's easy in this age of technology to stay in touch and after talking to each other almost daily for the last few years, I can't see that changing too darn much!!

You Want WHAT?

So a guy walks into our showroom a couple of days ago (no this isn't a joke although it sounds like one) and I asked him if I could help him - he replied that he was looking for granite dust and wondered if we had any!!  My first thought was to burst out laughing - my second thought was to hand him a dust rag and tell him to go for it!!  But being the nice person that I am, I merely said, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????"


He wasn't kidding - he told me he had been all over Colorado Springs and couldn't find any.  I assured him we had PLENTY of granite dust but that it was mixed with water - and he was absolutely elated!!  I took him to the shop and showed him the concrete culvert along one side of the wall where the water and all the granite dust goes - he reached down to the bottom and brought up some of the "sludge" and said it was perfect - could he run home and get a 5 gallon bucket!!


I told him I was more than happy to give him all he wanted BUT he had to tell me what he wanted it for.  The guy explained in a very technical way (which I only understood a little bit of) that he wanted it for his soil that he gardens with - the granite dust helps hold the fungi in the soil and makes for great potting soil for vegetables. (which I wouldn't know anything about)


He returned with a 5 gallon bucket - scooped out what he needed - and was happy as a clam when he left, assuring me he would return in the fall with a bucket of veggies for us!! 


Darn, I was still hoping he was going to dust the showroom..................

Our Basketball Boys

Check out our 2 basketball grandsons!!  Evan is above and Kylan is below!!  Yes, we had ONE MORE THING to do on our jam packed weekend and that was to watch the boys practice and then play a basketball game!!

The rules are pretty lax in their game since they're just learning the rules and they both looked cute as can be running up and down that court.  They wear colored wristbands that match on the other team and that way, each child knows who they're supposed to guard!!  Evan even got to shoot a couple of free throws as one little guy proceeded to take the ball away time after time!!  He was a real scrapper!!  (Yes, that's Gary playing coach in the background!)

Evan even got the medal for the day!!  And of course the BEST part is after the game when they all get snacks and drinks!!  Evan is tall for his age, Kylan is short for his age - but they sure make for a fun time on the basketball court and I'm glad we got to see one game at least!!

Happy Birthday Parker and Evan!!

Doesn't look like Parker and Evan, does it?   But they looked so cute and are always so excited to see each other that I just had to snap a picture!!

After Rayna's games, we headed to Ft. Collins for Parker's 3rd birthday party!  We were excited to be there as we're usually in Mexico during his birthday!! 

Jill had a "monster" theme and decorated in blue and purple (Parker's favorite color!!)  I helped Jill set up while Kylan decided to build a cabin out of lincoln logs!

With lots of squiggly eyes around for decorations, Papa had to be silly!!  I think it rather enhances his looks!!

Parker is the hardest to capture when I'm taking pictures!!  I think I took a dozen of him opening presents and this was the best - I definitely need to work on my photo taking of him!!

Parker loved opening his gifts and didn't really care what was in there - he just wanted to open, open, open............  Check out these cute cupcakes that Jill made - the marshmallow has one big eye on the front and they were delicious!!

Evan turned 7 on Tuesday so Papa and I celebrated with him on Sunday afternoon!!  He has let his hair grow out longer and I STILL do a double take every time I look at him - he's SO grown up looking!!  Evan is always very appreciative of every gift so it's fun to watch him open his gifts!

Because Evan is not a cake person, Jessi always asks him what he wants for his birthday - this year it was Oreo Fluff - YUM!!!  If you haven't had this, you're definitely missing out!!

To our February boys - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Rayna's Competition Volleyball

Valentine's Day was a great day!!  We actually left the office at 4:00 (it was supposed to be at 3:30 but as usual, we were late leaving.............) to head to Denver - Jessi was making a special Valentine's meal for us and I didn't want to be late!!  Traffic on Friday's is horrible as I've written before and we were totally surprised when we got outside of Co. Springs and the construction was DONE to Monument!!  A 3 lane interstate is now open and traffic moved along at the speed limit - unheard of on a Friday!!  So we made great time getting to Denver!

Jessi made a delicious dinner of salmon miso, rice and fresh green beans - yummy!!  I brought Moscato wine and dessert to round out the evening!!

Saturday morning Glenn and I headed to Greeley where Rayna was playing in a 3 day competition volleyball tournament!  She actually was sick on Friday so we didn't know if she would be playing or not but she felt better!  It was the first time we'd seen her play with this team as last fall she was on the school team!!

Because she's only 11 but plays on the "13" age team, she doesn't play as much as she did last year but is always put in to serve - she's an awesome server and had 6 serves in a row one match!!

The team won all of their games on Saturday!!  It was great to see her play and we're hoping the next tournament is a little bit closer so we can watch her again!!

Rayna called us last night - their team got 1st Reserve Champion!!  GO RAYNA!!!

Valentine's Day 2014

Can a girl EVER have enough chocolate???  NO NO NO!!

Glenn bought me DARK chocolate (my absolute favorite!!) for Valentine's Day this year  - and I found a NEW love for the Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee!!  The box reads "dark chocolate infused with a hint of natural blackberry and grape flavor".  And they're right - it DOES taste like dark chocolate with blackberry and it's delicious!!

Thanks Glenn - I'm enjoying it every day!!

Christmas In February

 A belated Christmas present to each other - wine tasting at the new winery in Cascade!!  For some reason that escapes me just now, Joleen and I did NOT get to celebrate Christmas together - we had planned on taking each other out for dinner and it just didn't happen!!

So when a Groupon came online for wine tasting, a glass of wine apiece and a cheese tray at the new winery, I jumped on it!!!  It was also a place Glenn and I had planned on visiting since we did the granite for the bar!!  You can't see much of the bar in the above picture but it's really pretty!!

 The wine tasting was fun - the glass of wine was good and the cheese tray was excellent!!

Now to get Glenn down there...................

Suite Retreat 2013

What is the above picture of????  None other than "Becky's Espresso" now featured at the annual Suite Retreat!!!  The ONLY thing missing from our scrap booking get together is GOOD COFFEE!!  Since Jessi was coming from Denver on Friday morning, she offered to stop and get us coffee before heading to Embassy Suites - well, the closest place that I would even CONSIDER getting coffee was 3 miles up Academy, way out of the way - so Jessi suggested (since she knew I would be there 3 mornings this year) that I just bring my own and I DID!!!  Yummy coffee 3 days in a row - perfect!!

Our scrap booking coordinator offered us an extra night this year and we all jumped at the chance - by the time you haul all your scrap booking supplies, a suitcase, pillow and enough food to last a week, it's well worth it to have an extra day!!

Jaime and I headed down Thursday afternoon and set up tables and unpacked - we had a great meal at Zio's restaurant before heading to Happy Hour and then started to scrap book!!  Jill joined us later that evening and Jessi was there by 7:30am on Friday morning - the weekend had begun!!

But first - COFFEE!!!

We had a wonderful weekend talking and laughing, eating and drinking!!  It was some great GIRL TIME and we sure look forward to it every year!!  Texas Roadhouse was our catered meal for Friday night and Qdoba was our catered lunch on Saturday!!  In between times we had enough snacks to last a week plus yummy apple cider drinks to round out our evenings!!

Jessi and I ran to Hobby Lobby for a few things Saturday afternoon so picked up a bouquet of flowers for Stacey, who is not only the coordinator for this event but a close friend!!

We drank Woo Woo's at Happy Hour.

Jaime and Jill have decided to try digital scrap booking so spent a lot of time on the computer this year - Jessi and I racked up something like 100 scrap booking sides if I recall!!  I just know I finished the year 2012 and am now ready to start on 2013 - not bad just being a year behind!!

All in all, one great weekend!!  It always goes too fast but the memories we make will carry us to next year..............

Super Bowl Sorrow

The cake may look GREAT but that's certainly not how the Broncos played on Sunday................it was a really tough game to watch (even though I was busy playing games on my IPhone and reading since I'm not a real fan of watching football games).

But hey, the Broncos were STILL #1 in their division and #2 in the nation - and that's something to brag about!!  We made it to the Super Bowl and someday, we'll be there once again!!

Welcome February!!

Cold and snowy - that's what January brought us!!

 

I was supposed to be posting pictures of the snow sculptures in Breckenridge which was our Saturday outing - but it started snowing Friday late morning and basically never stopped until Saturday night - we had periods of very light snow and even a bit of sunshine but then it would start to snow again!! 

We left work a little early on Friday since the roads were getting so bad and for once, couldn't make it up the driveway - the pickup only got so far up the little hill to the garage and the car is stuck!  With the plow from the jeep broke, Glenn had to scoop a lot of it by hand!!

Maybe next year we'll make it to the snow sculptures - and then maybe again, we could be relaxing in the 5th wheel down south, out of the cold and snow!!