Black Friday

Black Friday was definitely a change from last year!  Since Thanksgiving was at our house, of course the closest shopping was Co. Springs - close to an hour from our house!  Usually the 4 of us went out on Thanksgiving night to Target and maybe to Kohl's - but not this time!

We did decide to sleep in and then head to Co Springs for a little bit of shopping and then lunch!  I wasn't much into the shopping since I was DONE!!  But it's always fun to go with the girls and of course I ALWAYS find something at Kohl's to buy - this year was no exception - a couple of nice flannel shirts for Glenn (hey, you can't beat the price on Black Friday), a rain jacket for me (something I had been looking for in a long time - a nice Columbia one to take when we travel) and a couple of cute tops!

Wines of Colorado was on the agenda for lunch - and can you believe it, the weather was warm enough to sit outside!!!!  Although soon after we sat down, the sun went below the mountain and it was pretty cool out!!

I have to say I was disappointed in our meal - they have taken the "wine burger" off the menu so Jill and I just split a regular hamburger - it was too well done and just not much flavor..........Guess I'll stick to Russ's in Divide for my hamburger from now on!

Glenn was kind enough to watch the 3 girls for us and later Brad, Robby and the boys came out!  We had a taco bar for dinner which is always good and while we prepared it, the girls watched Mamma Mia - one of our favorite movies!!  An awesome evening with a wonderful family!!

Thanksgiving 2017

What a gorgeous day!  The weather didn't disappoint and it was so nice out that the kids could play outside!  The Smiths and the Savages arrived, along with Robby's mom Bev so we had a houseful!

Decorating the turkey before Glenn goes out to deep fry it!

Rayna filled the "favor" name boxes - and Jessi and I learned that FALL M and M's are discontinued after Halloween!!  So buy them early!!

Jill provided crafts for the kids to do!

And we all enjoyed a little snack before our main meal!

Glenn did an awesome job frying the turkey!!

3 cuties!!

After our main meal (which was delicious as usual) another puzzle was started - this one of candy bars!

WHAT?????  Eating again?????  Of course, it's Happy Hour Time!

Glenn kept Rayna and the boys busy with pool tournaments!

Gwyn looking cute as can be!

And after a couple of failed attempts, we finally got a great picture of all of us!!  Rayna was our photographer of the day and these last 2 pictures are hers!  She has a very nice camera and took lots of pictures of our day together!

Once again an AWESOME Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Eve

About time I get busy and blog about Thanksgiving!!  Since I was hosting this year (and I haven't had Thanksgiving at my house for many, many years!) it took a lot of prep work to get the house ready for a total of 16 people! 

The Keppys came down on Wednesday - Jessi helped me in the kitchen and I think I spent a total of 5 hours in there that day!  In between making stuff, friends Brandi and Brad from Iowa (who bought our Indian Creek property) stopped in for a couple hours so we visited with them!

Of course we had our little helper helping us!

Gwyn made this at her babysitters' house!

Robby and Jill stopped out later that evening to drop off Aleah and take Evan back to Jaime's (where they were staying!)

Gwyn wanted to sleep in our room again - she did great, although she did get up a couple of times!  And before we knew it, Thanksgiving had arrived!!  To be cont'd................

WOW! WHAT A CONCERT!

I can't even begin to remember the last time we went to a concert!  Seems like we just got out of the habit, even though we both enjoy music!  Part of it is the "drive" to wherever you have to go which would be Colorado Springs or Denver - part of it is the late night (which now doesn't matter since we're retired!)

When Groupon had tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra for $50 a ticket, I texted Jaime and asked her if she wanted to go!!  We ended up getting tickets for her whole family plus Glenn and I - and Sunday night was the event!

We picked up Brad and the kids as Jaime had to work so she was already down there!!  Our seats were pretty high (but Rayna rocked them going up on her crutches!!) but you could still see very well!

And once the concert began - WOW!!!  I love their music but had no idea they would have all the lights and fire and backdrops!!  I was in awe!!

Can you believe they played for 2 1/2 hours?  Their music is amazing - and I just couldn't get over those crazy lights!!  My recordings even came out great!

They did slow it down some and the last few songs weren't Christmas ones - but they sure showed off their talent - they're excellent on their instruments!!  So if you ever have a chance, go see this group - worth every penny!!!!

Neighbors

One of our favorite things about living in this house is our great neighbors!!  When we first moved up here, we enjoyed both of our neighbors that lived on each side of us!  But unfortunately both of them moved away!  We wondered what kind of people would be moving in but we needn't have worried - both sets are fantastic neighbors!!

On one side are a younger couple - we've almost worn a path out to their house!  They're super people and we love getting together with them and seeing them quite often!  On the other side are a couple about our age - Jim has been SO helpful working on the shop with Glenn and always being there if Glenn needs an extra hand!

Across the road are a couple more sets of neighbors whom we know well and can always count on if need be!  It's not uncommon at all to have at least a couple of neighbors or other guys stop in during the day to talk to Glenn or help him!  Recently a younger guy up the road has been helping Glenn in exchange for him working on his car - love those barters!!

Here's to WONDERFUL neighbors!!

Hooray For Concrete!!

One of our goals this last summer was to concrete the garage!!  But of course the new shop took all of Glenn's spare time so as winter draws near, we both wondered if this project was going to get done or not!  But Glenn took a day to get the garage cleaned out of all of his stuff - and then took another couple of days to prepare the ground for the concrete!

And luckily, the weather has held up - even though it's mid-November - and the concrete guys arrived yesterday to pour!

 Glenn enlisted the help of a couple of neighbors and the job went pretty smoothly!!

And the finished project looks awesome!!!!  Although Glenn still had a few hours work in smoothing it all out!

Here he is "surfing" to move the piece of styrofoam around the area!!  Always finding humor in his work!!

He is pretty sore today so after borrowing a finishing contraption from the concrete guy and working a few hours on that, he's returned it and is ready for a nap to rest his aching shoulders!

I'm excited that in a couple of days I'll be able to park in the garage!!  We've had several mornings where the car has been icy on the windshield so the garage will be a godsend this winter!!  AWESOME JOB!!  And one more major thing off the list!!

Kylan's Concert

It's pretty cool to have kids in the local school system - I have to say that driving 20 minutes to see a music concert sure beats the heck out of driving to Denver or Ft. Collins!!  Unfortunately, we miss a lot of those things for our other grand kids!

But Kylan had a music concert the other night and it was fun to hear the 4th graders sing - they were all dressed in some type of food or condiment costume and Kylan was the ketchup bottle!  He even had a small speaking part during one of the songs which was so cute!!  Since we were in the back (with Rayna still on crutches it's easier to stay towards the back of any room) my pictures didn't turn out great but they'll do!!

Before Kylan's picture (since Blogger isn't cooperating today) is one of our gorgeous sunrises that we are having this time of year - I just can't stop snapping pictures of them!!

Here's our ketchup bottle Kylan!!  He sure did a great job!!

Since Jaime had to work Sunday and Brad is in Iowa hunting, I decided to bring the kids out for the day!!  We had a great time hanging out and playing games - one of my favorite things to do!!  Even though the kids have the "new" Monopoly with the credit card, they love playing the "old" one!

Then we decided to start on a jigsaw puzzle that I had ordered - it was addictive to say the least and the kids worked hours on it (along with Glenn and I) and actually finished it before Jaime took them home that night!

Here's the puzzle!!

There are actually a couple more cute ones like this from the place I order from so I may just have to order them since the kids enjoyed this one so much!!  I know one is candy bars which would be a fun one but can't think of the other one.................anyway it was a fun day and hopefully we can do this more often!!