BRRRRR - Is It EVER Going To Be Spring???

My heating bill tells the story - yes, we're still running a furnace every morning to stay warm!!  The weather has just been darn cool the past few weeks - the flowers are all behind schedule - and I can't tell you how many plants Glenn has lost due to frost and cold weather!

And such was the case when the Keppys came down for the weekend - cool and cold!!

The Keppys stopped and hiked on their way down from Denver so arrived early afternoon!  (It's only a week later and I'm struggling to even remember what we did!!!)  I KNOW Gary helped Glenn in the green house and I'm sure Jessi and I sat and talked a mile a minute!!  The Smiths' came over that evening to pick up Evan for the night AND to enjoy strawberry shortcake with us - YUM!!

I think everyone was in need of adjustments and massages!!

Friday night it rained some and we woke up to a sheet of ice on the back deck as it was SO COLD!!  Needless to say, Jessi and I had to drink our coffee inside! It seems like we spent hours planning the 4th of July with all the meals involved!!  Our whole crew will be together for 3 to 4 days to celebrate and take family pictures!

We enjoyed our day together (inside) while the guys worked outside!!  The kids of course had to have their hot chocolate with LOTS of whipped cream and marshmallows!!

The Smiths came back over for dinner on Saturday night and we all ate together and then played games!  Kylan spent the night so fed the crew pancakes before they had to head out!

At least the sun was shining when they headed back to Denver!!!

Razor Time At Saguache

3 nights of camping over at Saguache - too bad it takes almost 4 hours to get there..........oh well, we left early on Tuesday morning and had a nice ride over!  The mountains over that way are still covered in a lot of snow and it was gorgeous!  And the streams were overflowing with water!  Not sure I'd want to be a white water rafter this summer!

We set up in my favorite spot over there - and yes, we forgot what a long hill it is to just get up there!  But camping in the aspens is always a favorite for me and the views were beautiful!!  We even got to have a fire each night!

There are lots of open valleys which isn't usual in our ATV travels but we do enjoy riding in the open.  Unfortunately, there hadn't been rain for a while over there and the trails were extremely dusty!  And I mean EXTREMELY!!!!  We're not sure if we're just used to being in the "open" on our ATV or what but in this new Razor, you are more enclosed (we didn't have the doors on and only 1/2 windshield) and the dust comes in and just swirls around!!  Luckily we had scarves to put over our noses and mouth but it was still pretty bad!!

Other than the dust, we LOVED riding in the razor!!  It's a lot less bumpy and the seats are really comfortable - since there are 3 zippered bags hanging in different areas inside so I had everything I needed right within reach!

This is the view from our 5th wheel - it was gorgeous!

We even came upon a cattle drive!!  I could tell there were a lot of cows crossing so told Glenn to just stop a ways back and we did - sure enough there were many, many cows being herded by 3 people on horseback!!  We have met the couple that oversees the cattle during the summer, a couple of years ago when we camped here with Dick and Jane.  The lady helped us out as that was the year that Glenn forgot to put DEF fluid in the truck and we ran out - she was going into Gunnison the next day so brought some back for Glenn!  We took muffins down to them the day before so it was fun to see them on the cattle drive!

So except for the dust, it was a successful camping trip with the new Razor - we'll be anxious to try it out in one of our regular spots and see if the dust is as bad!

Boys' Birthday Celebration

Evan had a great time at our house -unfortunately it was cold and rainy when we arrived home from Denver so we just hung out for a while.  Finally the sun came out a little bit so Glenn and Evan took the new Razor over to the burn area for a ride and some gem hunting!

After dinner, Evan (who was still battling a cough) got in the hot tub for a LONG time - I think he just enjoyed being by himself out there!

Monday morning we were up bright and early to pick up Kylan and head to the Cliff Dwellings!  Glenn and I had never been there either  - we arrived right after it opened so it wasn't very busy!

These Anasazi ruins date back 800 to 1000 years ago - they were originally located in McElmo Canyon near Mesa Verde and were relocated here in the early 1900's.

There were about 40 different rooms and it was very interesting to walk through many of them!

We ended up at the museum and gift shop (of course!)  Lots of really nice things in the gift shop and it was so huge, you could easily lose track of where you were at!!

Next on the list was the Ghost Town Museum!  Glenn and I had been here many years ago but Glenn didn't remember it!  It's a replica inside of an old western town!!  The boys immediately found the guns and went through a lot of quarters hitting the different items!

What a cool stagecoach!

Even Glenn and I got in on the action riding these broncos - ha!

Lots of interesting information and it was fun to read about this stagecoach and its' travels!

We watched a movie about the early settlers in Colorado and ended up out back so the boys could pan for gold!  Glenn even found a flake of gold!

There was an old player piano in the "bar" and for a quarter, it played an old time song - the boys entertained us with their dancing which I captured on video!  (it'll be great to use in the future - maybe graduation??)

We headed back up the pass and ate at Subway before taking both boys to Kylan's place - a great celebration of the boys' birthdays!!

Kenzie's Dance Recital

Friday evening after rush hour we headed up to Denver!  Traffic was light which made for an enjoyable trip!  First on the agenda was giving Gwyn her birthday presents -  she loved both of them!

Jessi had to work that morning so took Evan with her to help man the front desk!  I made breakfast and soon Jill arrived to pick up Aleah - she brought her Mary Kay makeup and did an excellent job of getting Kenzie all made up for the recital - doesn't she look cute?

The recital was AWESOME!!!  Very long but very good!!  At the beginning there were a few instructors out front along with about 6 girls that were in the recital - Kenzie was up there but she looked so different with her hat on that we didn't even recognize her until they called her name as one of the kids that received an award!!!  We were so proud of her for getting "Top Dog in Tap".

What a great looking crew!!  Gwyn was still half asleep so was in Papa's arms !!

Saturday evening we had a great dinner and then went out for ice cream to celebrate Kenzie!  YUM!

Aleah and Kenzie - Day 3

I think I wore the girls out as they both slept in!!  Aleah is usually up very early but not today!!  We had no plans but to hang out at the house all day before we had to deliver them to Denver that night!

Papa took them for a ride in our new Razor - gosh, I haven't even ridden in it yet!!

The girls helped me with a little project I wanted to do - Glenn and I both picked up a LOT of sea glass while we were in Mexico and I wanted to display it in little bottles!  When I went to Hobby Lobby, I picked up 2 small glass bottles and 1 very small one!  I then strung tiny lights attached to a cork type stopper in the 2 bigger bottles.  The girls' job was to pick out the small glass and put them in the bottles.

We had a lot more larger pieces than smaller so then took several out and the girls got to hammer on the glass to shatter it into smaller pieces.  The bottles turned out cute as ever!!  (but I forgot to take a picture of them!)

Glenn was out working in his garden when the girls went out to pick up pine cones!

The girls picked up 2 garbage sacks full - hooray for great work ethics!!

Hot tub time - one of their favorite things to do - and they stay in FOREVER!!

The other project I had lined up was hot gluing shells to shadow boxes I had also bought at Hobby Lobby!  I had quite a few shells from this year in Mexico and another small container from prior years there.  The girls had fun picking out their shells and gluing them on!

And since it was nice out, the girls spent a lot of time outside!  Freddy the Frog was hidden a couple of more times and the girls spent more time on the swing!

We had a an early dinner and then packed the car and headed to Denver!  It was an awesome time with the girls - they're SO easy to care for and we really did some fun things this year!

Day 2 With The Grand Daughters

Except for Aleahs' cough, the girls slept great!!  (I thought I heard footsteps in the kitchen about 10:30pm but then it was silent - only to be scared out of my wits when Aleah is standing right beside my bed and says she needs something for her cough!!!)

Pancakes were on the agenda for breakfast and then they were out the door looking for Freddy!!  It was nice and sunny so it was coffee for me on the deck - hot chocolate with LOTS of whip cream and marshmallows for the girls!

Did I mention I also picked up cookie dough at Papa Murphy's?  Apparently the girls love it just as much as I do - we ate the entire carton in 2 days!!

After an early lunch, we headed into a new business in town called Heavenly Slime - both girls LOVE slime and Kenzie is somewhat a master at making it - when I told them I was taking them here they were both extremely excited!!  It's a really cool place with so many other crafts that you can do!  

The girls decided to make "cloud slime" and picked out their color, glitter and fragrance and proceeded to stir away!

It was really fun to sit and watch the process of making it - after awhile, it was processed enough to handle it!

They loved the "cloud" effect and played and played with it!  I'm not sure I quite understand the handling of the slime but they both just love to sit and knead it and play with it!!  As you can see, they were all smiles!

Next up was swimming at the pool - I brought my Kindle and relaxed in a lounge chair while they swam - they are both great swimmers so I never have to worry about them, even though there are lifeguards!

They both passed the swimming test so they could jump off the high dive board and of course they enjoyed using the slide!

Back home, the girls played outside and we played our favorite card game, Skyjo!

It was pizza for dinner that evening and I think we were ALL pretty tired at the end of the day!!

Day 2 - A SUPER Success!

Aleah and Kenzie

It must be summer - the grand kids are arriving!!  For some reason it's always easy to schedule the 2 girls but getting the 3 boys together is a little more challenging - I guess that's why the girls always get to come to our house first!

Jill delivered Aleah to Jessi's house and Jessi met me at Caribou Coffee to deliver the girls - I'm always assured of getting coffee that way!! 

Soon we were headed up the pass and ready for some "Nana and Papa" time!

I had packed a picnic lunch to eat at the park and as we were driving, it started to rain!  And get colder..........it was darn chilly when we got to the park and the girls ended up crawling back in the car to put pants on!

As you can see, we were the only ones around - and soon it was just too miserable to sit out there so we finished our lunch in the car!

After a quick stop at the Dollar Store (where the electricity went off for a few seconds which meant the computer system had to be rebooted which took forever!!) we headed to the theater to see Aladdin!  They must had had the same problem as the Dollar Store as the show started about 15 minutes late!!  We almost had our popcorn eaten by that time!  But we all enjoyed seeing Aladdin - I think I loved it as much as the girls did!

Kenzie and Aleah were excited to get to our place and get unpacked!  We had stopped and gotten a Papa Murphy's pizza just in case it was too wet to have a wiener roast but it hadn't rained as much at our house so we were able to get a fire going!

While the fire took hold, the girls played around and did some swinging!

And they also found Freddy the Frog!  When we were up at Teri's camp on our Sisters Trip, Teri had showed us a cute fairy statue which they hide on their property for a little girl that often comes up with her mom!  I thought it was such a good idea that I found a cute little frog and decided to do the same thing!  The girls were pretty excited they found it right by the rocks that they play on!

Check out our new sign we got from the neighbors!!!

We all roasted hot dogs and then did marshmallows!!  YUM!!!

Before we knew it, it was getting dark out and it was quiet time - the girls love that as they get to go on their technology!!

Day 1 - A Success!!!