Babysitting The Keppys

Since the Keppy kids were on fall break for 2 weeks and Jessi didn't have child care for last Wed., I offered to watch them!  We met in Co. Springs at "you know where" - our favorite coffee spot!  After a quick cup of coffee (Papa was with us) we bid Jessi goodbye and headed to the other side of town to pick up a trencher that Glenn needed before he could lay the electrical wire to the shop!

The kids were troopers after all that driving but were glad to get to our house and play outside!!

Evan and Kenzie had fun playing in the old jeep so Gwyn and I walked down there too!

And of course she insisted on sitting in the seat after the big kids left!

Kenzie and Gwyn colored and painted and played with play dough, since we made 3 batches of it!!

Meanwhile Evan was out helping Glenn on the trencher!

Papa always asks the kids' what shape they want their pancake - and since Gwyn goes to sleep with a little blanket/elephant called Ellie, she wanted an elephant and was thrilled to eat it!

Gwyn was SUPER EXCITED when I told her she would be sleeping in Nana and Papa's room for 2 nights - we made up a bed right next to the wall and once I put her down each night, she stayed in the room and slept all  night!!  WOW - I was impressed!!

Jessi arrived mid-morning on Thursday and spent the day - we enjoyed coffee and hanging out - and even served 2 extra men lunch who were helping Glenn on the shop!!

Check out what Jessi brought down to me - I LOVE fall flowers and these were gorgeous!!

Thanks Jessi for the beautiful flowers and letting me borrow your kids for a few days - we sure had a great time together!!

We're Goin' To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

I LOVE the Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo!!  So when Jessi told me they were on fall break and would be going on Wednesday and would I like to join them, the answer was a definite YES!!!

Was the weather good?  Absolutely - it was perfect - some cloud cover so it wasn't hot and of course during the middle of the week, the visitors were few!  We had brought a picnic lunch so headed first to the picnic tables to enjoy it!

We couldn't believe all the animals that were out that day!!  Many times when you go you don't get to see all of the animals as they're inside or hidden - but they were ALL out!  Loved seeing the mountain lions!  And we loved seeing the big bear sitting in the water right in front of us!!  What a treat!

It's tradition to take a picture in the chair!

Relaxing at a neat place over by the elephant compound!

The bird pavilion is always fun - Gwyn got right into the action feeding the birds!

Family picture time!

I love this picture - it looks like this giraffe is having a conversation with Evan!

And the PICTURE OF THE DAY!  I had taken off my sunglasses so I could somewhat get them in focus but I can't see much then so I just snapped and this was the result - hilarious!!

We enjoyed some ice cream while the kids played on the playground and all in all in was one great day!!

Thanks for inviting me Keppys!

This 'N That

October is flying by - we're already on the downhill side of it and November will be here before we know it!

While Glenn was hunting, I rode with Jaime to see Kylan play soccer!  He plays with kids that are 11 and 12 so he's one of the smallest on his team but he did a great job and it was fun to watch him play goalie!!

We're at that time of year where the sunrises are absolutely gorgeous!!  Every morning that there's a thin layer of clouds, this is what we see!  What a joy to wake up to sunrises like this!

Glenn went hunting up to Walden with our neighbors Al and Peggy, and their son Cody.  Because it was supposed to be so cold up there, Glenn had to drain and winterize the 5th wheel and just take water to drink and heat up for dishes!  It did get pretty cold he said!  They had a great time and Cody took the prize for getting the elk!

Here's the crew standing by our 5th wheel!

So the elk was split between the 3 of them which meant cutting it all up!!  We headed over to their place last night with our large grinder and spent the next 4 hours cutting and grinding and weighing and wrapping!!

We have a great relationship with our neighbors so even though it was work, we all had a fun time!

Cody lives in CO. Springs so he didn't make it up to help but we figured since he got the elk, we could sure take care of the meat!

We were all pretty tired by the time we were done - I had been to the zoo that day with the Keppys (more on that in my next blog) so did a lot of walking there and a lot of standing taking care of the meat!!  It was a great job to get done!!

Shop Update

If we would ever stay home long enough, Glenn probably could get this shop finished up!!  But slowly he is working on it and I think after the hunting trip he's on right now, we'll be home for a long time!  We've decided to give up the Utah National Parks Trip till next year as the concrete needs to get poured in the garage SOON before winter hits!  And all the stuff in the garage needs to go into the shop!

The metal has started to go on though and it does goes faster than I thought it would!!

The roof will be the toughest to do - hopefully Glenn will hire some help to get it done faster!!

Sunshine For The Pumpkin Patch

NO SNOW????    NO RAIN?????   A pumpkin patch with 2 sets of kids and decent weather????  WOW - we were all totally amazed as whenever we plan for a few of us to get together to go to the pumpkin patch, the weather doesn't cooperate!  But it certainly did this time!

The sun was out in all its' glory and we had an awesome time at the patch!  There are fields of sunflowers, pumpkins, Indian corn and veggies and it's so pretty with all the colors!!

All the kids piled in the jail wagon but Gwyn stayed in for a picture!

Our two 8 year olds - not only cousins but best friends!

Now that Parker is 6, he has fun hanging out with the older boys! (Evan will soon be as tall as I am)

Family time photo!

We missed having Rayna and Kylan here for this picture!

Now how sweet is this!!  I loved walking through the rows of sunflowers!

Glenn is pretending to feed the chicken popcorn, just in case you didn't figure that out!  Always something up with that guy!!!!

We also missed having Robby with us but he had a large computer job he was working on!

We all rode the hayride which took us by this huge field of pumpkins - and yes, there was more than one of these!!  So after the ride we grabbed a couple of wagons and headed out to this field to pick our pumpkins!

This place is so reasonable for pumpkins and other things - I ended up with 3 small pumpkins, 2 miniature pumpkins, 6 gourds and 6 ears of Indian corn for $10.00!!  The kids all picked their pumpkins out too  -  I can't wait to see them after they are carved for Halloween!!  What a great day!!

Ft Collins Games

We arrived in Ft Collins with a little time to spare before heading out to Aleah's soccer game!!  She has come a long ways since last year and we enjoyed watching her play - in the COLD I should say!  It was SO windy out and the sun was down enough that it wasn't hitting us and we were darn cold watching that game!  Poor Robby hadn't even brought a coat!  I guess the team stayed warm running around!

I was up early the next morning so went for a walk - the trees are all turning in Ft. Collins and are gorgeous!!  It's fun seeing the hardwoods up here as we don't have those in the mountains!

Glenn needed to go shopping for some long underwear bottoms and some camouflage pants for hunting!  He took off and was excited when he came back as he actually found what he was looking for - well, not really - when we got home, I looked at the box of long underwear before I opened it and he had bought the top, not the pants.............so a quick look at Amazon to get some bottoms ordered and sent before he left!!

We met the Keppys at the pumpkin patch that afternoon and a separate blog will come next on that!!  But Jill and I had run out that morning also because she had called World Market and THEY DID have in Clearly Canadian - the girls (and I guess me too) used to drink that when the girls were in high school!!!  Apparently it went by the wayside in the US but has now made a comeback and Jill wanted to surprise Jessi with it!!  For some reason, it didn't excite me as much as what it did many, many years ago!!  And yes, the price has more than doubled!

WOW was the sky pretty that evening!!  We almost missed it!

 Sunday I took Aleah to her birthday movie and we saw "Leap" - and we both loved it!!  It was about dancing and both Aleah and I love to dance so it was the perfect movie!!

Late afternoon we went to Parker's ballgame - he has certainly improved since last year and hit the ball several times!!  It's fun to watch those little guys play!!

Unfortunately his game went later than expected so by the time we got back to Jill's and grabbed a quick bowl of chili, it was already getting dark and neither one of us like to drive in the dark!  But Glenn did just fine and we made it home, tired but happy from our 5 day trip!!

Scouting In Walden, CO

Glenn decided to go on one more hunt this fall with our neighbors so wanted to scout the area a little before they all headed up.  He had hunted with Robby and Brad at Walden last year so knew the area somewhat!  Since we had taken the 5th wheel on our fall trip, we decided to book a hotel for our 2 nights stay!

I found a really nice one online (not much to choose from in this very small town) and booked it as soon as I knew we were going!

We headed out on a Wednesday morning (yes, 2 days after I got home from NYC!!) with plenty of warm clothes, pulling the ATV behind us!  The drive was beautiful as they had gotten snow up north and we stopped for coffee in Fairplay! 

Lots of snow up on Hoosier Pass!!

  
I was hoping we could check into our room early before we went ATVing but it wasn't ready yet - we ate at the lodge cafe which was part of the hotel and it was excellent!!  The setting was very rustic with lots of stone and wood - my type of place!

We headed out to ATV and couldn't believe how much snow there was!! Awesome views!

There had been quite the storm up here - lots of branches and trees down and since we didn't have a chain saw along, we had to turn around on every trail we were on!  Most of the time we were going through 6" of snow!!

 I stayed plenty warm with my layers of clothes and we had a fun time!  Back to Walden and time to check in!  When we got to the room, I noticed the frig and microwave were both unplugged along with the TV so got it all plugged in and decided to try everything before I unpacked!  And the TV wouldn't hook up to Direct!  Went down and told the gal and she got the maintenance guy up to look at it and he couldn't figure it out so called a computer guy to come over.  In the meantime, the super nice owner came up and said they would need to work on the tv and would we mind moving - I said of course not - and she said they were booked solid on their rooms but would we mind a suite at no extra cost???  Uh, no not at all!!

The suite was very nice - a beautiful bathroom and huge bedroom along with this nice living room!

I loved the chandelier at the Moose Creek Cafe!!

Thursday we went out ATVing again at a different place - still lots of snow but beautiful views!!

We stopped at the Moose Overlook, hoping to see a moose but of course didn't see one!

This is the moose bull along with an elk antler chandelier - loved it!!  We had great meals both nights!

Glenn and I headed out Friday mid-morning after a good breakfast - Glenn told me to keep looking out the window for a moose so my nose was plastered to the window watching!!  And guess what - I SAW ONE!!!  It was lying down so not a great picture but it just happened to be right at a pull-off so Glenn got stopped in time and backed up so we could watch it.  Couldn't get it to stand but at least I got to see one!!!

We had stopped at the Moose Visitor Center earlier on our way out of town and it was very interesting to read all about them.  They had a life sized moose in there and wow are those things big!!

Our drive down the winding Poudre Canyon was gorgeous - the leaves were turned and it's one of the prettiest drives I've been on!!  I think I'll have to plan a fall trip over this way!!

We stopped and had a picnic at a stream and then headed on to Ft. Collins for the weekend!!