Early Fall?

Take a peek at this picture.  It was taken over by Buena Vista and the tree was almost completely yellow - even though it looks slightly green in this picture!!  I decided then we could have an early fall!!

We camped in one of our favorite spots - Buffalo Peaks!  It's always fun to ATV that area time and time again!  After we set up, we headed out for a drive - and of course we always head back to see the old bus on one trail and the cabin on another trail!!  The cabin picture always reminds me of Bob, Glenn's hunting partner!!

Unfortunately it did start to rain so we had to head back to the 5th wheel - never a problem for me as I LOVE to just read in there but Glenn tends to get a little bored if he's not outside!  We had a nice spot for views!

The next day was pretty dreary in the morning but it burned off so we headed out on the ATV, dressed warmly as it was cool out with the sun mostly under the clouds!

This was a neat campsite and you can sure tell this rock has been used many times for campfires!  What a perfect spot for one!!

Right after lunchtime it started to sprinkle so we headed back to camp again - and it rained and rained and rained................luckily we'd had a campfire the night before as we sure didn't get to have one this night!

It's always nice to sleep when it rains  but sure makes for a mess outside when everything gets wet!  We had plans to trailer the ATV to the next town and check out some new trails and camping spots but when we got up the next morning, it was still very dreary out and looked like rain for most of the day - so we just packed up a day early and came on home!  We don't get rained out very many times so we can't complain and we'll always take the rain!

Denver Babysitting

It's been on my calendar for almost 10 months - babysitting the Keppy kids while Gary worked and Jessi had a 2 1/2 day seminar!  I headed up Thursday after rush hour for my 3 night stay!

Kenzie had a ride to school the next morning and Evan rides his bike to middle school so after getting them off, Gwyn and I ran a couple of errands (donuts for her, coffee for me!!) and then headed back to the house to play!!

Although she had picked out the donut with the sprinkles on it, she really didn't like it!!

 We had a fun day together and it went well!!  A little panicked when Evan didn't arrive when he was supposed to but he finally showed up - because it was raining hard at his school, him and his friend waited a while to ride their bikes home!!

Saturday we all went to the park - relaxed - and I taught the kids a new game to play (courtesy of Jill) with their Mexican Train dominoes and they loved it!!  We played a LONG time!!

 Jessi would get home late each night but on Saturday, 8/18 she was home in time so we could document our FAVORITE number at the exact time!!  Pretty neat!!

I headed home early Sunday as Jaime and her 2 kids and I had tickets for the Marvelous Wonderettes over in Cripple Creek!!  Gosh was it good!!  4 gals who sang many many songs from the 50's and 60's with cute actions and sayings during those years and we all laughed and enjoyed it immensely!!

Boys Will Be Boys

The boys were so excited to go swimming - Evan hadn't been to the new swimming pool yet and he was impressed!  I took my book and enjoyed reading (somewhat) while they swam!

Parker and Evan are excellent swimmers so they went to the other side of the pool and jumped off the diving board!

I guess I didn't realize how high Evan would jump because out of 3 pictures, this one was the best - I completely missed him one time!

After a couple hours of swimming, the boys showered and changed and we headed home!  I was tired by this time and told the boys I needed an hour to MYSELF to make a cup of coffee and relax!  Ha - of course that didn't happen - minutes after the boys went out to play, Parker came running in saying Evan had fell and hurt his leg!  Yup - he sure did!!  It had rained and the grass was wet - he was trying to put the lizard they had caught the day before on a rock and he slipped and gashed his knee pretty good!!

We got it cleaned up and bandaged and it was rest and relax for Evan after that!!

Later when he felt better, I got Glenn's hats down and told them I was doing a photo shoot!!  The boys had fun posing and would switch hats every so often!!

This is my favorite picture!!  What a crew!

 Tuesday morning it was time to say goodbye to the mountains!!  I dropped Kylan off in Woodland Park and then headed to Denver to drop Evan off - had lunch with Jessi and then drove to Ft. Collins to spend a couple nights!!

It was an awesome time with the boys - until next boys weekend.................

Outdoor Activities With The Boys

I figured I would have to get the boys up on Monday morning as we had to leave by 8:15 but they were up shortly after I got up!  This is what happens when I turn on the TV.

Because there hadn't been a chance for me to take Evan and Kylan on their birthday excursion, it needed to be done during boys weekend.  So I headed out to Cave of the Winds with the 2 older boys and Glenn took Parker fishing.

Luckily I had gotten tickets online for the first tour of the day so it wasn't busy at all - only 8 in our group!

Both boys loved the tour - informative and fun walking through the different rooms!

I also had told them they could do the ropes course - but looking online found if we went early, I could get a discount pass for the boys to do 5 different things - SCORE!!!  They were thrilled!  First up was the ropes course and all I can say is that they really enjoyed it and I would not!!

Next was the climbing wall - how cool is that to see right through it!!

And they they did Geronimo's Leap!!  Here again, just the thought of climbing up these tall green spokes was intimidating!!

They also got to ride the BatOPull - which is basically a zip line across the canyon!  Because they did that first and there was no line, they did it 3 times in a row!!  See, it pays to get up early!!

And lastly, they went into a virtual realty theatre for 3 shows - I chose to just sit outside and wait for them and was glad I did as they said all 3 times were roller coasters!!

Parker had a fun time fishing with Papa and of course caught fish!!

We all met at Subway for lunch!

And then we were off to the pool!!

Celebrating A Legend

While Glenn took care of the boys, I headed over to Cripple Creek to attend the surprise celebration for Hildred Davis.  Hildred has been involved in the 4-H program for 50 years - and I've been blessed to know her since our girls were in 4-H, many years ago!

Through the years, Hildred was not only a club leader and project leader, but she was in charge of the Junior Leaders Club - this club was active when the 3 girls were in jr high and high school and taught them so many outstanding skills that they all still use today!

The "indoor" exhibit hall was dedicated to Hildred at this special celebration! 

The 4-H Foundation (of which I've been a part of for many, many years) also honored Hildred with a beautiful plaque to hang in the hall and one to take home!  We've all been on this board for years and have a great time when we get together!

It was a wonderful time seeing 4-Her's that I hadn't seen in years and catching up with them! 

Boys Weekend

Girls in June - boys in August!!  2 girls - 3 boys!   Would I survive the 3 boys???  ABSOLUTELY!!

Since Jessi's had a picnic to attend in Co. Springs, they ended up bringing the 2 boys from up that way and I met them in the Springs early Saturday evening!

Don't they look cute playing on their electronics?

Kylan was attending a 4-H fund raiser so he didn't get out to the house till mid-afternoon on Sunday!

The deer came around Sunday morning so we were out there with feed for them!  Check out those antlers all in velvet!!

I rode with friends to Cripple Creek to attend a presentation (next blog) so Glenn watched the boys for a couple of hours - they enjoyed knocking down small trees and reinforcing their fort, along with catching a lizard they found!

When I arrived home, Kylan was there so the trio was complete!!  They spent a long time checking out their lizard and making sure it was comfortable in its' habitat!!

They're all required to pick up pine cones for Glenn's wood stove - but it was hit and miss between the rain that day!  They only ended up getting one bag done.............

Then it was off to the kitchen where they all helped make their favorite fruit salad!

They decided they needed back rubs so were all standing in a line when I snapped this picture!

Pool playing with Papa is always fun - Parker didn't know all the ins and outs of it so the boys and Glenn taught him!

And it finally cleared off enough so the boys could get in the hot tub!

They were only allowed so much time on electronics each day so opted to use the hour before their bedtime for most of it!  I had bought Coloradopoly (Monopoly based on Colorado places) and we all played that and had a ball - they love that game!!  And the day went great!!!!

Pitkin ATVing

Excitement was in the air - it was FINALLY time for the two of us to take the 5th wheel and head out camping!!  We'd had enough rain so we weren't worried about fires and the burn ban was down to a Stage One!

I told Glenn he could choose where we were going as long as it was west bound!  But I was secretly excited when he didn't do the turn off for Snow Blind camping but kept going - I knew then we were heading to Pitkin!

As we were driving, Glenn proceeded to tell me that he had forgot to pack the grill...................and when we camp, ALL of our meat gets grilled outside, not in the camper! How he forgot to pack that when the list was right on the counter was beyond me.  So he said he would have to cook over an open fire - which meant IF there was still a stage one fire ban in the county we were headed to, we would have to camp in the campground vs wilderness camping as stage one means no open fires UNLESS you're in a campground.

I was just fine trying out the campground - we had discovered it the year before and it was a heavily wooded campground with lots of pull through campsites.  Sure enough, when we got to Pitkin there was a sign saying it was a stage one fire ban so no choice but to use the campground so we could cook outside!  We found a great pull through spot which makes it easy to set up camp!

It was so much fun to get on that ATV and ride for 2 1/2 days!!  Because of the rain, everything was nice and green - beautiful country!

Unfortunately 2 of the days were rather hazy from all the smoke coming in from Calif.  And still one larger fire in Colorado!  But it didn't take away from the ride!

Tomichi Pass was closed due to a rock slide - that didn't bother me as it's a steep trail that I'm not fond of anyway!!  One day we went to Tin Cup and had pie and coffee in their only restaurant and that was fun!

Glenn did a great job of cooking over the open fire and it was fun to roast marshmallows!  He also enjoys just walking around the campground - met the neighbors on one side of us who are from Tx. and after talking to them for a while, found out friends of theirs used to be our neighbors!!  Small world!

He also met a couple from Pueblo West who were driving a 4 x 4 razor (a 2 seater OHV).  Glenn has talked about going to that type of vehicle instead of an ATV - mainly because our ATV doesn't have power steering and he thinks the ride is a lot smoother in a razor.   The couple was kind enough to let us borrow it for a while and take it for a spin - I agree that it's a smoother ride and found it just as fun as the ATV so we may be going with something like that in the future.............

Here's the bridge and stream we walked across every evening on our walk!  It was a wonderful 3 night camping trip and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Fondue Time

Since our neighbors ( Peggy and Al) and I all share July birthdays (Al's is on the same day as mine!!) I suggested we go eat fondue in Manitou Springs!  Peggy said they had never been to a restaurant that served it so I made reservations and we headed to the Mona Lisa on a Sunday evening along with their friend Mitch who was visiting from Ohio!

The food was outstanding as usual and we had a fun time visiting while we "cooked" our food!  Of course dessert was best as I ordered the dark chocolate!  YUMMY!!

We took some pictures outside before heading home!

Glenn being his usual crazy self!

It's so fun to have wonderful neighbors!

LVR

This year we had 4 grand kids go to LVR (Lutheran Valley Retreat) which is a bible camp about 45 minutes from here - way out in the wilderness!  I already had Kylan here at the house since Jaime's were at a concert in Denver - and Saturday afternoon Jessi's arrived with their 3 kids plus Aleah and Maisy, a friend of Kenzie's.  So we slept 6 kids and 2 adults that night!!

The girls enjoyed the hot tub - the boys enjoyed sleeping in the 5th wheel!

Sunday morning the guys and Gwyn went fishing - Glenn had fixed up a tackle box for Gwyn and she was so excited about it!

The house sure got quiet when Jessi's and Jaime's took the 5 of them to camp!   I kept Gwyn here so I got the better end of the deal!!

Jessi and Gary spent another night and then headed on home!  And on Thursday night, Jill came down and we picked up Aleah and Kylan on Friday evening.  Maisy's parents picked up the rest of them.  We enjoyed watching a skit that they were all in and then ate hot dogs and brownies before we headed back to our place!!  All of the kids had a fantastic time!!