Up - Up - And The Basement Walls Are Set!!

 The fox block is up!!  And all those cute colored squares were my doing - my job was to tar all the seams - but it wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be!!  The tar is thick, doesn't spread on too well and pretty messy!!  Luckily I didn't have to do the garage or the back of the house where the walk out is!

 And then after I had done all of the seams and cracks, we found out we had to tar the ENTIRE THING!  So it was back into the hardware store again to get more tar!  After finding the tar frozen up at the job site the next day, we remembered to take it to the house each night!

I was supposed to have Glenn take a picture of ME doing this since I did it all except the top layer but of course I forgot!  So here's the next best thing - Glenn doing the upper level - I don't do scaffolding!

 So after tomorrow, we'll be ready for the next inspection.

Monday morning the contractor and his crew move in!!  They'll be installing the sub floor and a week from next Monday, the logs arrive!!  As the contractor said a day ago - now if this weather just holds................

House Progress

The house is FINALLY starting to move a little faster!!  Between the architect, engineer and the county, the plans are in our hands now and Glenn is moving along as fast as he can before winter strikes!

Footings are set and cement poured - his first inspection passed with flying colors!

He's also working on the septic system when he's at a standstill on the house - I had no idea it was such a procedure!!  Check out these LONG pipes from the tank to the leech field!

Glenn had over 50 tons of sand brought in for it.

Next is the fox block for the lower level of the house - Glenn calls them Lego's and is having fun putting them on - but it is taking a lot longer than he thought to do it!!  But isn't that always the case!!

This is the garage.

All in all, coming together nicely!  The weather has been super nice and the picture below is what we wake up to each morning!  Mr. Weatherman - please hold off winter for a couple of months!!

Ready - Set - Spike!!

 Saturday was Rayna's volleyball tournament in Pueblo and Glenn and I always make it a point to head south and watch her play!!  She has surpassed me in height and is one of the tallest on the team - they played great and it's such fun to watch her!!

 Rayna posed for me at a break in the action!!

 And when it was all said and done, her team took 2nd place - Congratulations!!  Now we'll look forward to competitive volleyball!!

Fall Into Winter

It was WET outside on Sunday morning and when I looked out and saw this wet car with the beautiful aspen leaves on it, I knew it would make a pretty picture.  No, it's not our car - Jaime and Brad bought it from one of Glenn's friends and we're just storing it for a little while longer.

And while I was up and about, Glenn had a couple of snugglers crawl in bed!

Jessi and I headed to Joleen's as her daughter Becca was home for the weekend and we had a great time drinking coffee and catching up!!  The guys and kids came a little later to dig for rocks and gems at Joleen's house and basically stayed there till it started snowing - yes SNOWING!!!

Evan and I made turnovers for afternoon snacks!

And Kenzie helped me make muffins for dinner!

The kids also made peanut butter coated pine cones rolled in bird seed for the birds (or should I say squirrels) at their house!

While the guys watched the Broncos game, Jessi and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon just reading and relaxing - the snow was coming down lightly so they had no trouble getting home that evening!  But we woke up to 3" of snow on the deck...................a pretty sight but not quite welcome yet!!

Almost Too Late..............

We're always excited to have the kids and grand kids visit and this last weekend the Keppy's were on the calendar!  They arrived Friday early evening and were amazed that the trees were STILL beautiful here on the property!

Did we have big plans for the weekend?  Not really - but sometimes that makes for the BEST weekends!!

Papa's pancakes were in demand on Sat. morning and Kenzie was thrilled to see her name all written out!

After packing a lunch and grabbing jackets, we headed over to Mueller State Park - the kids love stopping at the Nature Trail for kids and walking around the lake!

We had picked out the hike we wanted to take by remembering what trail we had taken a few years ago that had beautiful aspens!!  Unfortunately they were past their prime this year but there were still plenty of trees to see!  It had rained a little bit the night before and between the rain and the dew, all the aspen leaves on the ground were covered with water drops - it always amazes me how the drops stay on the leaves!!

Evan and Kenzie were troopers on the hike - we ended up going about 4 miles and they hardly complained at all!  I loved watching them walk down this sea of yellow leaves!

A pose at the same rock where we took pictures years ago when Evan was just a little guy!

And then it was time to stop for lunch!  Gary had a spot picked out but Glenn said no, we needed to picnic on the other side of the trail so that's what we did - check out our view while we ate!

Picnic lunches always taste good in the wilderness!!

After we ate, Glenn was walking around and Evan decided to scout a little too - he walked over a few feet from our blanket and guess what he found - an IPOD!!!  It was dirty and cracked on one corner but we picked it up and took it back to the house - plugged it in and it charged!!  Tried to find the owner but to no avail so Evan now has an IPOD!!!  There were pictures on this device of the same view we were looking at so we put the pictures on the computer when we got home which shows the date they were taken - and believe it or not, the park pictures were taken July of 2013 - this IPOD had been lying there for over a year and 2 months and still worked - AMAZING!!!!

Kenzie has always been Papa's girl and I love this picture of the 2 of them!! Check out those dark clouds in the background!

We had a great hike and headed back to the house to relax the afternoon away.................

Autumn At Our New Property

There are some beautiful aspens at the new property so with camera in hand, I headed up there last week to shoot some pictures - Glenn told me there were some deer down by the aspens so to be quiet and sure enough, there they were!

 I walked quietly up to them and actually got pretty close before they decided to stand up and wander off!

 The trees were gorgeous and now I'm pretty excited knowing we'll be in the new house by next fall!

Girls Have "Toys" Too!!

Not sure I would call this a toy but I was pretty excited when this arrived today!  I know, I know - a vacuum isn't very exciting but after hauling a heavy older model from the storage room in the lower level, up to the main level, then up to the loft and then back down to the storage room, believe me this WAS exciting!!

My new SHARK is a lot lighter than my old vacuum and I was impressed when I saw all the parts that came with it!!  I CAREFULLY read all the directions hoping I could put the thing together!!

 And I did put it all together!!  It wasn't hard at all - and I even got a nice black bag to put all the extra parts in!  I was also thrilled that it came with an attachment to do wood floors which I wasn't even aware of!!  Our new house will have more wood floors than I currently have so it will come in handy!

I'll have the perfect opportunity to put this new vacuum to use as Gary, Jessi and the kids are coming in for the weekend!!

Fall Colors - ATVing - AND SNOW!

Plans for our mini fall trip were sketchy as Glenn didn't know if he could get away for a couple of days or not - but since he didn't take the full week off for hunting as planned, he decided he could take off!

We decided to head over to Pitkin which is on the way to Gunnison - headed out early afternoon on a Sunday and the drive over Monarch Pass was truly AWESOME!  The aspens were in full color and the yellows, golds and oranges were just beautiful!  Since we were pulling the 5th wheel AND the ATV trailer, I didn't make Glenn pull over for pictures!

Outside of Pitkin we drove up a road and checked out the couple of campgrounds but they were both closing the next day so that wasn't an option - we did have to turn around once - that was interesting with a double behind us!!  But Glenn finally got the job done!!

We ended up pulling over and taking the ATV off to scout around for a place and found one quickly so moved the 5th wheel there and set up camp by a rushing stream in the trees - a beautiful place - but pretty chilly!!

Luckily we had a campfire that first night!  We were up bright and early to eat and to head out on the ATV - it was cold out - I believe 40 degrees!!  But we bundled up in everything we had brought to wear and headed out!

The aspens were beautiful!  We stopped by an old structure which used to be a stage stop to capture this picture !

The sun didn't peek out very often at all!!  In fact I was quite disappointed as I sure like to get my aspen pictures with the sun coming through but it wasn't to be...........

You can see in the picture below that it was pretty cloudy out and boy that makes ATVing cold out when you started out at 40 degrees!!

Most of the trees had turned and many were dropping leaves - it's always fun to find a trail where you're driving over the fallen aspen leaves!

And yes, there were lots of orange/gold aspens this year and they were breath taking!

About noon it started to sprinkle - we stopped under a tree but it kept raining so decided to get our rain gear on - that was a good choice because it didn't stop!!  We would drive a ways and then try to get under a tree for a few minutes to warm up.  It was SO COLD out with the rain coming down!  Since we were about 15 minutes from camp, we just decided to go for it!  Of course I had left my hiking boots at home so just had on tennis shoes with the webbing on the toes - my shoes were soaked of course and we were both half frozen by the time we got back to the camper!

It rained all afternoon - and the furnace turned got a workout!  I read a lot and Glenn napped a lot!!  And soon the rain turned to snow.................so much for heading out on another ride..................  Late afternoon Glenn went out to get the generator plugged in and going since we had used so much power with the furnace - he checked the propane and guess what, it showed empty!!

I wasn't a happy camper as that's Glenn's part of the packing - to make sure there is PLENTY of propane!!  We had no idea if the little town of Pitkin would have any propane and it was already 6:00 by this time - the only other option would be to drive into Gunnison which was a good 45 minutes away and would mean moving the truck and 5th wheel since the pickup was facing the creek!!  I didn't have the heart to make Glenn take the ATV in the snow to Pitkin - so I said we would just make the best of it!!

We grilled our dinner, covered up with the sleeping bag on the couch while we read and went to bed early!!  But we did stay plenty warm during the night!  It was 42 degrees in the camper when we got up and 32 outside!  Glenn headed into Pitkin with the gas tank and luckily, they DID have propane!

We dressed warmly again and headed out on the ATV, only to discover that there was snow all over and it was DARN COLD riding that thing!!

All the trees were covered in snow!  We tried to track a moose as we had seen his prints along the road and followed him for quite a ways but soon we both got so cold, there was no way we could continue to ride................

Even with long underwear and 4 layers on, I was still freezing so we headed back to camp!!

We packed up everything and decided to go to Buffalo Peaks, hoping the sun was shining on the other side of the mountain..........it wasn't..............We did have a great campsite for the last night and did go on a ride but the aspens there were already gone.........oh well, guess we can't have a perfect trip every time we go!!

Sisters' Wrap Up

The creek was amazing!!  Patty and Teri were both surprised at how the water could be cold and hot at the same time!!  We had a great little spot to sit and really enjoyed soaking in the creek!

One last smoothie before hitting the road for home!!

Saturday evening we enjoyed a great dinner - looked at some old pictures and laughed ourselves silly over the outfits we used to wear - and enjoyed a movie at home.

Sunday was gorgeous out again - breakfast on the deck!

And then it was time to head back to Denver!  We stopped at Russ's and ate some great hamburgers and then it was off to the airport to drop off Teri!  Patty was staying another day!

We went to the Keppy's house for a while and then to Jaime's - we had already decided we were going to go to the revamped movie theater at Southlands to try out the "dining" experience!  We booked our "recliners" online and gosh it was fun!!  Jaime joined us and got a seat right next to us!

After ordering our meal, a waiter brought it to us along with our wine!  We ate and drank while watching This Is Where I Leave You - the movie was great and we enjoyed ice cream afterwards!!

Jaime, Patty and I were supposed to go to The Botanical Gardens on Monday but we woke up to rain...........so we all went to coffee and enjoyed that - and then decided to see another movie - this time we went to a regular movie and saw The Maze Runner - another excellent show!

Soon it was time to take Patty to the airport so I could get to Rayna's school and watch her play volleyball - it was a FANTASTIC time with Patty and Teri and I'm so happy they were able to come to Colorado!!

Sisters ARE The Best!

What's better than going to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in the fall with the cool weather and the beautiful drive over there? Going there with your sisters!!!

After checking in, we decided to take a walk down to the springs to get some pictures so we all didn't have to bring our cameras down later............the stream was gorgeous as usual!!  I love the little bridge for pictures!

Our room was a Cliff side room which is my favorite spot to stay because of the views!  The little outside patio is a perfect place for wine and appetizers!

Then we were off to the hot springs!  We soaked in the little tubs on the adult side for a long time and the water was nice and hot - sometimes TOO hot!

We enjoyed visiting with a variety of people in the tubs!  

None of us wanted to stop soaking to get dressed and eat at The Lodge - so we ordered some panini sandwiches from the little eating area in the spa place and took them up to the room to eat - they were delicious!!  And the smoothie was awesome!!!

We soaked under the stars till we were all water logged and then went back to the room for dessert!  A perfect way to end the day - CHOCOLATE!!

Saturday was a gorgeous day!!  Breakfast was excellent at The Lodge and then we decided to do some water yoga!  I can't say I enjoyed it all that much but at least I tried it!!

Outside our room!

More pics in the next blog....................