May Birthdays

When our family gets together to celebrate, there are usually a couple of birthdays involved!  Because graduation fell on May 22, it was also the perfect time to celebrate the May birthdays!

Up first is Gwyn's birthday which was May 18 and she turned 5!!  OH MY GOSH - how can she already be 5???

Glenn's birthday was next, May 22nd and he turned 68!  He's excited to use his new thermos when we go camping and fishing this next week!

And Kylan celebrated his 13th birthday on Monday, the 25th!!  He joins the teenagers!!

Ice cream sundaes with all the toppings were served to celebrate the birthday buddies!

Make those wishes!!

What an awesome weekend we all had!

Graduation - Part Two

 Time for the ceremony to begin!!  Since we were watching on a large TV it was hard to do snapshots but luckily sister Patty in Iowa was watching on her phone and she took several screen shots which was awesome!!

I love this shot of the graduates with the mountain in the backdrop!

What a great ceremony and we were cheering them on from our seats at Jaime's home!!  The school district did an awesome job of putting graduation together, in spite of all the difficulties!  Many schools are not having anything so we all felt very blessed to know that Rayna and Matias were able to have a ceremony on this memorable day!

It was a great opportunity to get some family pictures with the graduates too!

Proud grandparents!!

Aren't the girls a great looking bunch? (despite the horrible lighting in front of the windows)

And check out these cousins!!  They're all getting so big and before we know it, they'll all be taking that walk too!

We had a great afternoon and evening spent with family!  In spite of the pandemic, our family came together and celebrated Rayna and Matias!!

Graduation - Part One

How exciting - our FIRST granddaughter to graduate from high school along with our "adoptive" grandson!!  We were all on pins and needles waiting for Woodland Park High School to make the final arrangements which had to get approved through 3 different agencies!  But it WAS all approved and an actual graduation was going to happen - although a unique one at best!!

Rayna and Matias will never forget this graduation during the pandemic!  And we all hope it's the LAST graduation that has to happen this way!  But regardless, we all were just glad that the kids would get to walk and we could all watch it via livestream from our homes!

Graduation took place on May 22 - yes, it was Glenn's birthday - and Jaime planned a party at her house for the relatives!  The actual party came before the graduation at 5:00 so we all met at Jaime's and started the picture taking!

The kids had each set up a table apiece with annuals and school memories - it was great to look through it all!

They donned their caps and gowns  and looked so sharp in them!

Decorating their hats seems to be a tradition now!

Cakes were displayed and boy were they good!  Glenn was thrilled when we cut into Matias' cake as he had ordered German chocolate which is Glenn's favorite!!  I had already told Glenn I wouldn't be making him a German chocolate one since we would be having graduation cake so it worked out
 perfect!

The kids opened their cards and gifts - I had started a scrapbook for Rayna of her professional pictures which she was young and then school pictures almost 18 years ago!!  I finished it up a few days before graduation and it did come out really nice!!

Rayna and Matias had to leave around 4 to get into town and up to the football field where graduation would be taking place!  There were staff around to get them where they needed to go and masks were mandatory - their seats on the football field were 6 feet apart and all in all, it worked out very nice!

We took our places at Jaime's house and all remarked on what a unique experience it was going to be to watch them on TV!!  It certainly was a lot more relaxing than sitting in an auditorium!  Here is the gang all ready to watch!

We're always blessed to have a tech guy around when we run into problems and that's exactly what happened when Jaime tried to live stream the ceremony!!  It was touch and go for a while but Robby got things straightened out just in time to start watching!!   To Be Cont'd....

Mother's Day In Ft. Collins

It was a nice drive to Ft. Collins and a whole lot less traffic!  What fun to see everyone again!!

The kids always have things to show me in their rooms and Aleah was busy choreographing a dance for her mom on Mother's Day so I helped her with that!  It was actually pretty cool outside and when I got up the next morning to walk, it was 37 degrees!!  You would have thought I was back in the mountains!

Aleah and Parker had gotten up early to decorate the downstairs and have the table ready with gifts for their mom and even me!!  I received a lovely card, a bookmark, a bracelet that Aleah had made and a little bag full of tiny notes - so sweet!!

Parker was bored I guess and wanted to set up a game - he asked his mom if he could get some plastic cups down and of course she said yes!!  Cute game but Jill had NO IDEA he was going to set up all of her cups - glad it's her washing all of them instead of me!!

I did play the game and enjoyed it!

Robby cooked us a yummy omelet for breakfast and Jill and I had some down time to get a little bit of reading in! I enjoyed a butter braid with my morning coffee - it was so good!! After lunch, Jill, Aleah and I went to Starbucks to get some frappes - yes, the line was out on the street - but it did go fast!  We enjoyed our drinks as we walked around the oval at CSU!  We were hoping all the trees would be in bloom but they're not quite there yet!  I think that last snow they got put everything a little bit behind!

It was sure nice and green though!

Robby cooked us an excellent dinner that night, along with Jill's help!  King crab and shrimp prepared 2 different ways - SO GOOD!!!  Also corn on the cob and Red Lobster biscuits!  After all of that, I sure didn't need any dessert that night!  We enjoyed some tv and relaxed!

Monday I enjoyed watching both kids do their online studies!  Parker didn't have a lot to do but Aleah was on with her teacher so that was fun to watch and to see how their different programs work!  It's certainly a lot of technology that is way beyond what I know!

After lunch it was time to head back to the mountains!  Thanks Jill for a great time !  It was so fun to celebrate Mothers Day with you!

An Escape To Denver

Gosh I was excited to head north for Mother's Day Weekend!  2 days in Denver and 2 days in Ft. Collins - I don't always get to spend Mothers Day with one of the girls so it was really great to see at least 2 of them!!  And I had seen Jaime the week before....

I stopped to get gas in W. Pk on the way - I had a .30 off my gas so the tank was filled for $13.31!!  WOW - I'm loving these gas prices!!

Traffic was not normal on the way to Denver - I always try to miss rush hour due to the amount of traffic but this time mid-morning was a breeze driving!  Jessi was working till mid-afternoon but the kids and Gary were home!  It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside and it was fun catching up with Gary before he went to work!

It was great to see Jessi when she arrived home and I don't think we stopped talking for the next few hours!!!!  Always great to catch up!

Dinner was amazing - shrimp and crab linguine!!  I never make that dish (although I don't know why!) but it was so good and I stuffed myself! (picture toward the bottom)   And THEN I find out she's bought me my favorite ice cream - chunky monkey!!  Gosh, I'm spoiled!!  (and yes it got pretty cold that evening so we were all sitting around with hot packs on!!)

After grabbing a quick bite of breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed to our favorite coffee spot - we were excited to see they were open AND that we could walk in to order!  They were super busy and we had to wait a while to even order but that was OK - it was great to know that a small business WAS open and WAS busy!!  We took our coffee back home and sat in the sun (and wind) to enjoy it!!

Present time!!  Once again my wonderful 3 daughters ordered my blog book from 2019!  What a cool cover this one had!  I'm published - hooray!!!  And it's SO MUCH FUN to read back through it and look at the pictures!!  Thank you girls - I LOVE getting this gift every year!

Gwyn has learned to ride her bike without the training wheels and does an awesome job!!

I also received cards from Kenzie and Gwyn - Kenzie made me a bracelet and a bookmark!  Yes, I was spoiled!!

Jessi and I went to Hobby Lobby after we discovered it was open!  We did have to stand in line outside and had our masks ready but they were not required!  Jessi was looking for decorations for her new bathroom but unfortunately we just didn't find what she had in mind!!  Maybe next time....

I played cards with the kids - always a fun thing!!

After an early dinner, it was time to head to Ft. Collins - Jessi sent me off with a loaf of banana bread AND a loaf of her Amish bread - both were excellent!!   It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and Gwyn was in tears - seeing her cry is so hard on me so of course tears were streaming down my face as I drove away!!!        So good to see everyone!!

Life In Colorado

Life HAS changed!  Because we live in the country and are not in town everyday, we don't see the closed stores and the minimum traffic and the theater marque with no movies posted, etc. etc. etc.

But when we DO go to town, it's a whole lot different!  Yes, we are required to wear masks in the grocery store now - I don't like it but I do it!  There is a guy posted by all of the carts who is continually cleaning each one as it's brought back in - that's great!  But I miss seeing peoples' faces and I'm sure I am seeing people I should know but I don't actually recognize because their mask is covering up most of their face!

Empty shelves - the paper products of course are the first that I notice.  But the baking goods aisle is pretty scarce too and now that we've a national meat shortage (yea, right!!!) we are limited on the amount of packages we can buy for beef and pork.  Luckily we rarely have to buy meat since we get our hamburger from our rancher friends and still have part of a hog in the freezer along with an entire shelf of fish!

Our new drive-up coffee place is closed - really????  That shocked me!  Walmart seems to have the most people, and the mask wearing is about 1/2 and 1/2 I would say.  But there are more empty shelves in Walmart than my grocery store!

People - yes, we were supposed to quarantine for probably a couple of weeks from the time we left Mexico - didn't happen for me!  After a week I needed to see Jaime and her family so went over and spent most of the day catching up!!  It was fun to sit with Kylan so he could show me what he does on the computer for studies now - wow, what technology!  Matias had a different car to show me - and Rayna is starting to look at places in Co. Springs for college this fall so it was fun to look at houses!!  (Jaime and Brad are planning on buying her and Matias a house to live in while they attend college).  And I am SO excited to head to first Denver this weekend and then up to Ft. Collins to see the rest of the family!!  Mothers' Day will be extra special this year as I don't always get to spend it with anybody!

For the most part we are just working around here!  As you can imagine, it took quite a while just to get caught up with all of the housework, laundry, mail and unpacking!  I make it a point to stop at 9:30  every day I'm home and have coffee on my front porch for an hour - I LOVE that!!  And at 3:00pm, I am done working and doing what I want to do!  Most of my "work" projects are almost done and then I can start on some "fun" projects for me!!

Glenn - I don't have to worry where to find him as he's either in the shop or the greenhouse, spending hours and hours perfecting his aquaponics and building a hydroponics system!  He just loves doing that type of stuff and it keeps him busy and out of my hair!

We're excited to get the 5th wheel out and the Razor and do some camping!  We're not sure places are quite open yet, but I do know Pueblo Reservoir is open and Glenn always likes to fish there in the spring.  But I don't think camping is open quite yet - hopefully soon!

The days have been nice although we are really dry again and already under a fire ban - that's pretty typical for spring around here!  On the bright side, the hummingbirds have arrived and I have both feeders out - I DO love watching them when I sit on the front porch!

The virus - I haven't posted any case numbers but figured I better since when I look back at this time, I will want to remember.....As of May 2nd, Colorado has 16,225 cases, 78,179 tested, 832 deaths.  Our county has 28 cases and 2 deaths - which has been the same for over 3 weeks now.  I really feel that we are on the downward side of things and hope that this summer can be somewhat normal, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen!

Our sisters "San Francisco" trip which was to be this last weekend of course got cancelled.  Time will tell whether our Europe trip next August will need to be cancelled.  It's pretty hard to imagine traveling during this time and I'm not sure next fall will be much different!

In the meantime, Glenn and I are keeping our immune systems healthy - which to me is the key to the virus!  I exercise daily, get plenty of sunshine and religiously take my vitamins and supplements!  I refuse to live in FEAR of Covid 19 and try to keep a positive attitude about it all!

It will be extremely interesting to see what the next few weeks bring - our county has started to open things back up - I'm not sure what will be open this next week (although I know the bank has opened its' lobby again) but I do have a massage this Tuesday and I'm absolutely looking forward to that!  Next on the list will be a haircut but as of yet, they haven't opened and I can't imagine how busy it will be when that happens!

In the meantime, I am enjoying each and every day in the mountains!!