August Photo Dump

 WOW - August is gone which makes me pretty darn excited since September is my ALL TIME FAVORITE MONTH!!  The fall decorations are going up today!  Time to make some apple cider to drink in front of the fireplace and start watching for the aspens to turn!

Just to give you an idea of how we know fall is arriving, it's been in the 40's every morning for the last week!!  This morning I was planning on walking for my exercise but when I saw the 40 degrees on the thermometer  and the wind blowing, I decided to stay in!  The sun is peeking out now but it's still only 44 at 9:00am!!

Anyway, here is the August photo dump!

Rayna and Matias out for dinner - such a cute couple!

We had some heavy hail a couple weeks ago!

It hailed so hard it knocked the bottom off of my humming bird feeder!!

The girls went out to celebrate Jill's 40th birthday!

We don't eat out on the patio very often but it was a perfect night for it!

Yes, the bucks are once again sporting their huge antlers!!!

I don't take many pictures of sunsets but this one was too pretty to NOT take!

Gwyn lost her FIRST tooth!

We get to see this set of twins pretty often - kind of a weird angle as I was up on the deck looking down!  

And that's a wrap for August!!!

Back To School

 The grand kids have all headed back to school - yes, it will look a lot different this fall than the normal school year but let's face it, things haven't been normal since last March!  And who knows how long it will be before "normal" ever comes back, if at all!

Gwyn was the first one to head back - kindergarten for her (OH MY!!) and she is actually going on a daily basis!

Kenzie started middle school and is in the 6th grade - she goes in person twice a week and the rest of the time is remote!

Evan heads into the 8th grade - last year of middle school - and he goes 2 days a week in person with the rest of the time remote.

Aleah is starting middle school and in the 6th grade - she is doing remote learning at this time

Parker is starting 4th grade and will be doing remote learning for a while.

Rayna and Matias are off to college!!!  

Kylan is now in the 7th grade and going to school - he had a choice and chose to attend!

SO that's the kiddos that have headed to school this fall - we shall see how long the "in school" lasts with the virus!

Veggies and Flowers

 This is what the back end of our car looked like when we headed home from Iowa!!!

100 ears of corn and around 100 tomatoes!!  Along with assorted cucumbers, potatoes and squash!  A few of the items Glenn dropped off at Mountain Naturals to sell (that's the place he sells lettuce in the summer) but the rest he brought home!

Glenn decided he wanted to put up the corn - I was busy that day so he shucked it all and cooked it and bagged it - I believe he ended up with 45 bags of corn so good for him!

We have been eating BLT's every other night and enjoying every single bite!!  We've passed a lot of the delicious tomatoes to friends and family and still have a tray full in the refrigerator!  Also is a bag full of cherry tomatoes - oh my gosh they are good!!!

Glenn ended up making 2 batches of salsa - below is a picture of one batch!

The day after we came home from Iowa, Jaime and Brad came over with this gorgeous tropical arrangement which was from them, the Keppys and the Savages!!  Not sure I have ever seen some of the plants before!

It looks beautiful on our little table - now to just keep it alive!!!

A Tribute To Lolly

 Both of our sets of parents are now gone - it's kind of a strange feeling knowing that Glenn and I are now the oldest in our immediate families.  But time marches on as we all well know!

Because Glenn and I have from the beginning not lived in Iowa together as a family, we only got back to see the Iowa relatives once a year or so.  But lots of memories arise as I think of the times we used to see her out on the farm!

Lolly taught me the card game "Eight" which I play almost every time I see the Denver and Ft. Collin grand kids!  And now every time we play it, you can be sure that I will think of her!

I remember looking for 4 leaf clovers with her - looking at her "ledger" which listed all of her grandkids names and birthdates and then on to include the great grand kids and their birthdates - sleeping in her "purple" guestroom and the lumpy double mattress that we never got a good nights' sleep on - admiring her huge aluminum collection that she so enjoyed collecting over the years - looking at her extremely large corkboard along one entire wall which had her kids' graduation pictures at the top and under each one were pictures that had been given to her of grandkids and great grandkids - sitting at the kitchen table for hours with her telling story after story and drinking coffee - wearing "red hats" when the family had professional pictures taken one year at Blue Lake - introducing me to my now favorite salad which is called veggie salad - admiring her coupon organization when she and one of her daughters did "coupon clipping" and would sometimes go shopping for huge amounts of food and end up only paying a few dollars - listening to stories she would recount when she was Postmaster in town.

Lolly - you will be missed - but you're out of pain now with a clear mind!

Rest in peace for your time on earth has come to an end.

Iowa Bound

 It was with heavy hearts when Glenn received the phone call that his mom had passed away on the 12th of August.  We were expecting it but not quite this soon.  Between her dementia and the newly found lung cancer that was recently discovered, it was a blessing to find out she had passed.

We headed to Iowa that Saturday, knowing that Patty and Leonard were taking off Monday morning for vacation and we wanted to spend some time with them before they left!  No matter how fast and hard we drive, it always seems to take about 11 hours!  And the older we get, the harder it is to make it in one day!

It was great to see Patty and Leonard and both of our nephews who live close by!  Patty and I talked a mile a minute to get everything said before they would take off Monday morning!  

I always enjoy going out to the South Church and walking through the cemetery.  I snapped a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Gran's grave just so I would have a copy in my blog.  I'm always amazed that even though Grandpa lived to be 76, Grandma lived an ADDITIONAL 30 years after he died - that's a long time!!

And I can never take enough pictures of this beautiful church that holds so many memories for me!

After our church stop, we went to a friends house who makes the gnomes.  If you recall, I bought a couple of them last year and absolutely LOVE not only the one who sits in my kitchen but also my 4th of July one!   This time I wanted a Christmas one and a fall one - unfortunately she didn't have any fall ones made up but I snagged this darling Christmas gnome!

Patty and Leonard took off Monday morning - Glenn headed out to the farm to pick some sweet corn (to the tune of 100 ears!!!!!) and was also gathering tomatoes from the locals!  We headed to Onawa around lunchtime and had a nice lunch at the cafe with Geri and Carl and Deanna.

Tuesday was the funeral - it was held at the Christian Church in Onawa with a nice attendance.  It's always great to see all of the extended family and catch up with people you haven't seen in a while.  After the burial at the cemetery in Blencoe, we headed back to the Country Club for lunch and then back to Geri's to open cards.  

That evening we went out to eat with Jim and Brenda - a great Mexican meal and fun to catch up with them.  Early Wednesday morning Glenn loaded all the vegetables into the back end of the car and once again we were on the road home!

Our Ballplayer

 Parker was running out of baseball games to play so it was time to head to Ft. Collins to see him play!  We left the house EARLY so we could stop and see the Keppy's and get adjustments!  Jessi was kind enough to even fix us breakfast and I brought some cinnamon rolls up to cook!

It was exciting to see Jill and Robby's new concrete out back for their patio - wow does it look different back there!!  They have plans for a fire pit, more chairs and tubs of flowers - it will look so great when they have it all completely finished!

Parker's last regular game was Tuesday early evening - we ate an early dinner and although it was pretty darn hot out, it was just fine sitting at the game as there was shade!  

After the game we went out for ice cream!  The line was out the door at Dairy Queen as they were only allowing 2 sets of people in at a time - but it was worth the wait!

Jill started back to school on Wednesday!  I headed out and got a cup of coffee and then played cards and games with the kids during the day! (and had more cinnamon rolls!!)

Glenn and Parker had fun chopping at a stump in their back yard!  Boys will be boys!

Dinner on their new patio - how fun!!

Wednesday night started the league's tournament - because Parker's team won their first game, they went right into playing a second game!  Poor Parker was getting pretty tired due to the heat and getting up and down a lot as he was catching!  They lost their second game so were done for the year!  It was sure fun seeing him play!

We headed out for home the next morning after Jill left for school - and soon it will be time for Parker and Aleah to start their remote learning until mid-October when the school will make a decision about heading back in person or keeping the remote learning going!   Thanks Jill for a wonderful time!

Nedelle Comes to Visit

 How wonderful that 16 year old grand daughter Nedelle (Todd's daughter) came to visit us for a couple of days!  A friend of her mom's was heading out to Colorado and offered to bring her for a few days stay!

Nedelle stayed with other family for a couple of nights and then came to our place on Sunday!  Glenn enjoyed showing her all of his projects and gave her a couple of mechanic lessons as she has her own car!

We had a camping trip with the Smiths' lined up for the next couple of nights so it was nice to have Nedelle join us!  Even though the wilderness camping spots are impossible to find on the weekends, we really didn't think we would have a problem finding one during the week - WRONG!!  We headed to the back side of Marshall Pass and parked in the packed ATV drop off spot and went looking but there were none to be found - DARN!  So we headed back out to the highway and headed further up Poncha Pass and went in that way!  Luckily we found a very nice spot that both of us could camp in!

The kids made Nedelle feel right at home and played lots of games!

Laser tag was a big hit, especially in the evenings!

We only had Ned for one night of camping but they did get to ride in the razor for quite a while!  Unfortunately, the razor had problems and I ended up meeting them with the pickup to get Ned over to her ride home back to Iowa!  

Glenn and Matias went to load up the razor where they had left it and bring it back to camp - on the way here, they could see there was a grass fire just around the corner from our campers!!  They grabbed shovels and headed right back over there to help with the fire!  Brad and the kids went over to help too and a couple of hours later, the fire trucks finally got there to put it out!!  Pretty scary!!

Jaime and I enjoyed just relaxing, reading and taking walks!

Glenn and I had plans to stay an extra night but with the razor not running well, we decided we would just head back home with the Smiths.

An interesting camping expedition but I guess they all can't be perfect!

Covid 19 - It's Still Here

 I haven't really written much about the virus - it's still here - masks are required in most cases - lots more testing is being done.

School will be starting throughout the state in the next couple of weeks and each school district seems to be doing something different!  There are lots of pros and cons about kids going full time to school - and the debate goes on and on and on.....   I guess my feeling is that kids are going to get sick anyway when they go back to school, after being away from their friends for the last 6 months in many cases, so why not send them back now and start the process!  More than likely, schools will be shut back down sometime during the fall if this virus gets worse.

Our county received a variance so everything could open up - it was nice to go in and get a haircut and I've done that twice!  None of our fast food places are open to eat inside so it's all drive thru and eat in your car - which I don't enjoy!  We did eat breakfast out in Co. Springs one morning when we were down and that was enjoyable - all the necessary precautions were taken and it was fun to eat out!  But we really haven't ventured out for a "nice" evening meal yet!  So I'm still waiting on my birthday dinner with Glenn!

Unfortunately our Christian College in Woodland Park (Charis) hosted an event in early July and quite a few cases of the virus have arisen from that!  So many in fact that our county has received a letter from the health department stating that we are OVER the number of cases allowed to have everything opened!  But there hasn't been any cases that are coming from the local casinos and our commissioners are doing all they can to keep all the businesses open.

Our Teller County Fair was of course entirely different from what it usually is!  4-H is very active in our county and they still got to exhibit but it looked a whole lot different than it usually does and the public was not invited!  

In fact, everything in Colorado has been cancelled!  As I'm sure it has in other states too!  I can't imagine how many thousands of dollars have been lost in the tourism business this summer - Colorado is full of summer events and not a one of them have taken place!

So what is everybody doing?  They are ALL camping, ATVing, hiking and boating!  You would think the entire county is out camping from all the trailers and ATV's and boats that constantly go through Woodland Park - it's a NORMAL summer in that aspect!  But it's to be expected because there is basically nothing else to do!  We are hoping the camping will slow down a little bit once school starts!  It's even hard to find a wilderness camping spot nowadays!

I miss seeing new movies at Gold Hill Theaters - I miss the freedom of even walking into a bank (an appt. has to be made) - I'm tired of all the debates on Facebook - I miss seeing the smiling faces of people in public because of the mask wearing - I'm just tired of it all!  You don't realize how blessed you are and what privileges you have until something like this happens.

July Photo Dump

 July is gone - August is already on a roll!    Time to post the misc. July photos!

Jill's and Jessi's always "dress for the occasion" on the 4th of July!

Parker is doing baseball this summer!  We'll be headed up next week to see him play!

Yes, that's snow on Pikes Peak!!  We have seen snow every month of the year EXCEPT August!

Joleen hadn't been out to Colorado for many months so I enjoyed her for 5 nights this time!  We always love having coffee on the deck!

I usually see a lot of fawns late June but this year it was July before I saw any!  I love seeing twins!

And that's a wrap for July!

Boys Will Be Boys

 After we camped over at Taylor Park, Glenn decided it would be fun to do a "boys" trip with the grandsons and son-in-laws!  I thought it was an excellent idea since I wasn't doing "boys week" this year and told him to get it planned!

Everybody met over at Johnson Village and they caravanned over Cottonwood Pass together and found the site where Glenn wanted to camp!  They all just brought tents to rough it and we all hoped it didn't rain too much!!

Glenn didn't take ANY pictures so I had to borrow from Gary, Robby and Brad!!  From the looks of the pictures, it does look like they had a great time!

There are small ponds right where they were camping so all the guys and boys did a lot of fishing!

Glenn took his old motorcycle over and Evan had fun riding it!

He also took the canoe over!

Everyone said they really enjoyed their time together!  Let's hope this becomes an annual event!