Fall Break

 Even though we had been up to Jill's the weekend before, it was their fall break just a few days later and since they hadn't been to our house in a long time, Jill and the kids decided to head south and spend a few days in the mountains!

We had some cold weather while they were here AND a little bit of snow so the peak was beautiful!  But sunny days usually find us on the front porch!

Papa and Parker had fun shooting the BB gun - Papa kept asking Parker questions about shooting safety and I was amazed at how much Parker actually knew!  They set up a target and had fun shooting at it - and since the BB gun was actually Robby's, (Glenn had borrowed it), it was sent back home with Parker!

Check out that white peak in the distance!  Rides on the razor are always fun - even though they only go up the road and turn around!  And this time, Glenn let Aleah drive and she sure enjoyed it!  Parker also got a ride but didn't get to drive yet!

Do we all remember what these are?  Ah yes, the dreaded recorders from 5th grade!  Luckily Parker was pretty good at it, even though he seemed to practice a LOT during their time here!  He serenaded us with several songs but I can't say I was unhappy to see it go home - ha!

Boys will be boys and Parker had fun over at the old fort at the edge of our property!  All the boys love to play on those rocks, no matter how old they are!

Pancakes for breakfast!  

Jaime came over one day - she's been on a crocheting crusade and made this darling penguin for Parker - the look on his face when he opened it was priceless!!  He's been into penguins for years now so it's always fun to buy him something "penguin" but to have something homemade is wonderful!  She also made crocheted pumpkins for Jessi, Jill and I.

We spent a lot of time playing cards - the kids have their favorite ones and we played many, many games!  Jill and I spent some time reading too and believe it or not, we never left the house!  Sometimes just hanging out is all they want to do which is fine by me!

I also gave Parker a quarter book - the girls had done them one year when they were down for girls' weekend and I had a couple of books myself so emptied one and put the quarters in our huge change bottle - he had fun looking for the different states and filling up the book!

We ate lots of good food, enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate on the front porch and did a little planning for upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Won't be long till that time will be here!

Ft Collins Weekend

 When I checked the calendar, we hadn't been up to Jill's since our birthdays in July so it was time to head north, especially to see Parker play flag football!

Did we get left on time? Nope - Glenn was selling a large tractor for a friend (for a 10% commission) and the guy who wanted it was coming that morning to see it for the first time and (hopefully) load it up on the trailer he was bringing!!  He did arrive with cash in hand and bought it - they got it loaded up and Glenn was $930 richer!

But Glenn wanted to stop at Bass Pro to get some hunting boots - he had a pair all picked out from a catalog but of course they didn't have them when we stopped so he spent a LONG time trying to find a pair he liked.  And then decided he needed a new hunting jacket AND a new pair of hunting gloves.  Many dollars later we FINALLY left the store - and I thought women took a long time shopping!

Needless to say the traffic was bad so we opted to take the Parker route and take E470 around Denver - it's tolls so it's pricey but to us it's worth it to avoid the stop and go traffic that seems to be in Denver at most hours!

Penny was SUPER excited to see us of course - still a puppy she loves to jump at first but as soon as you pet her and she calms down, all is fine!  We had a great dinner and ended up watching "The Hunger Games" that evening - Aleah had just finished the book and was anxious to watch the movie!

Parker's game was late morning so we had plenty of time to relax and pack a lunch before the game - plans were made to go the pumpkin patch afterwards so we took 2 vehicles as the guys didn't want to go.

But when we got to the game, we realized how awful the wind was - it was blowing like crazy which didn't make for a real enjoyable game!!  But Parker played awesome - grabbed a lot of flags and even made a touchdown - go Parker!!!!

We nixed going to the pumpkin patch due to the wind - made a stop at Walmart for a few things and then took the kids out for ice cream - yum!!

Jill and I dropped the kids off at home and then went to Sam's - even though I belong to Costco we rarely go there so it's always fun to hit Sam's.  I found a fleece lined pair of pants and a cool fall shirt so I was happy!

We played cards in the afternoon - once again Aleah rules!!  I was at the bottom most of the time!

After dinner, we headed outside to have a fire in Jill's cool firepit and the kids had hot chocolate!  What fun!!

And what did the guys do all day Saturday and part of Sunday - yup, football was on and Robby slept a lot!  They did make a couple of runs to Home Depot after Glenn bought a used heater and they worked on it!

Sunday morning we stopped at Ziggy's for coffee and smoothies before we headed to church!  And after lunch, we headed on home as Jill had a book club meeting and Robby needed to work!  What a fun weekend with the Savages!!

Day 2 of Fall Trip #2

 We both slept pretty good in that king sized bed at the hotel!  Of course we're early people and since breakfast wasn't going to be served until 8:30, we had plenty of time to get packed up and relax!  Glenn headed down to get coffee (which you could get early) while I packed up and took stuff to the car!

At 8:30 we headed into the dining area for breakfast - fresh fruit with homemade donuts and their holes were served and that was delicious!!  But the main course was a little strange!!  It probably SOUNDS delicious to anybody else but when it was brought out and I saw 2 sunny side eggs on the top of what looked like a fat pancake, I had my doubts since I am a hard egg person!

There was pesto across the top to give it some color and I dug in, trying to get those raw looking eggs mixed in with whatever was underneath!  I decided it was some type of a pancake with some type of potato inside!!  If the eggs would have been harder or scrambled, I would really have enjoyed it.  Oh well, I ate almost the entire thing!

One thing the hotel had which I thought was SO GREAT was an actual HUGE refrigerator in the dining room that was for the guests!  We always carry food along so that frig really worked out great!

I had scouted out a couple of coffee places so we had a nice walk to get to the first one - I ordered my usual mocha with a shot of caramel, skim milk but with whipped cream.  The gal was so nice when she said she was sorry but they did not have any flavors but she could just do the mocha.  OK.  But then she said they had no skim milk (just whole which sometimes upsets my stomach) and no whip cream!  HMMMM..... I thanked her but said I would go elsewhere!

The next place I gave the guy my order and he DID have the caramel - but again no skim milk and no whipped cream (what is it about Paonia that they don't have whipped cream - ha!).    I thought I better just cut my losses and go with the caramel mocha he was willing to make!

We saw a lot of countryside on our drive - and soon drove to Marble (which is where the Crystal Mill is) and McClure Pass which is beautiful!!  Glenn checked out a couple of campgrounds for hunting in that area and the drive was gorgeous!

Next we headed to Kebler Pass - one of the best places in Colorado to see the leaves - I love that there was snow on the mountain!

We decided to take Cottonwood Pass home which comes out in Buena Vista eventually!  There was a large herd of goats on the highway and this guy passed right by my window as we were almost at a stop!

We always watch for moose on this pass - and Glenn is ALWAYS the one to spot one!!  Sure enough, he spotted a cow moose and her little one!  It was at a distance so the picture didn't really turn out but it was sure fun to see one!

Another trip in the memory book!

Fall Trip #2

 I was pretty darn excited when Glenn asked me if I wanted to see more fall colors - of course!!  I would never turn that down!  I knew that he had an ulterior motive in checking out another area to hunt but that's OK - we could accomplish both items!

We decided we would just take the car this time - 3 of the passes we wanted to see were not ATV friendly anyway - so we took off on a Monday morning - got our coffee in Johnson Village - and headed to Marshall Pass via Poncha Springs.  The gravel road is in pretty good shape and the road eventually takes you to Sargents.

Our first stop was overlooking O'Haver Lake - it's a beautiful lake even when it's not autumn!

The colors didn't disappoint at all!  This has always been one of my favorite spots to see the leaves!

So we're riding along and all of a sudden we hear a pop and the car registers a tire going flat - there happened to be a large pull off right about there so we pulled over and sure enough, Glenn had hit something and there was a nice hole in the sidewall!!  He informed me a hole in the sidewall basically ruins the tire - and we had just put 4 new tires on 3 weeks ago - oh gosh!!

Glenn gets the donut tire on while we discuss what we do - go back home or head on into Gunnison and try to find a tire - since we had already contacted friends in Gunnison to meet us for lunch, we decided to go ahead and head to Gunnison!

There was a tire shop right at the edge of town so we pulled in and they said it was a rare tire (how can that be - it's a Ford Explorer!!) but they had one!  So leave the tire and come back in an hour and it should be ready!

We headed to our friends' house and we all went out for lunch and a lot of visiting!  Afterwards we headed back to the tire shop, only to find out their tire did NOT work.  So they suggested another place and we went there.  Yes, they had one that would work - $120 cash or a whole lot more if it had to go on a credit card - YIKES!!  Luckily I always keep money hidden in my billfold for emergencies and we just barely had enough!

Again, it was an hour wait so we headed to a park and just relaxed - still had to wait another 1/2 hour when we returned but at least we got it taken care of!  By this time, it's getting to be mid-afternoon and we decided to head to our destination for the night, Paonia, instead of doing Keebler Pass - we could do it on the way home!

Paonia was an interesting town - it seemed a lot of the "shops" weren't on Main Street but on side streets!  We found our place for the night - a B and B Glenn had found online which of course served breakfast which is always a plus!  I warned him there wouldn't be a TV but he was OK with that.

The place was an old hotel from the late 1800's and it was darling inside!  Completely renovated of course and we had chosen to be on the top floor in the Honeysuckle Room - all of the rooms had fruit and flower names!

I had researched restaurants and found only ONE that was open in town on a Monday night - but the owner of the hotel said there was another one just out of town - it was an orchard and had outside seating so we chose to go there.  It was a lovely setting with beautiful views outside - after a quick dinner we headed back to the hotel as we were both tired from our stressful day!

Our room was cute as could be - very old fashioned looking and small but a modern bathroom so it was all great!

Hopefully day 2 was going to be fantastic!

It's FINALLY Done!

 I'm behind again in blogging but life is busy!!  However, a short blog can be done and I'm SO excited that our cement and rock out front is FINALLY done!!

I love the way it looks at night!  And it's certainly a nice addition to the front of our house!

I'm thinking one of those small propane fire pits are in in order now!!  

A great job to be finished and a big thank you to Glenn for all his hard work!

September Photo Dump

 Sept. has went by WAY TOO FAST!  It's my all time favorite month with the aspens turning and I'm always sad when the month is gone.....Luckily we still have a lot of gold leaves around!

We hosted "Coffee and Muffins" at our house for the homeowners association - not a great turnout but we enjoyed the people that did stop in!

I was over at Jaime's to see Rayna and she's always cold, just like her mom!!

This guy will be a real beauty once he gets a little bigger!

The moon was almost full when I took this!

Friends from Mexico have purchased a "camping spot" with a trailer on it over by Buena Vista - they had an extra shed on their property that they needed out of there - of course Glenn jumped right on that and went over the day I flew out to Iowa - it was quite the process getting it loaded!!  He's going to convert it to an ice shack - yup, one more project on the list!

Glenn has been working hard pouring cement out front and it's looking SO NICE!

It looks wonderful at night with all the solar lights that he's inserting as he pours!  More pics to come when it's all done!

And that's a wrap for September!!

50 Year Class Reunion - WHAT????

 It just can't be that I've been out of school for 50 years!!!!  Where has the time gone?  I have always thought in the past when I saw pictures of people celebrating this that they looked SO OLD!!  Can it really be that I'M in that group now?  WOW - JUST WOW!

Our date for the reunion was set for Sept. 25th - I had asked if they would have it in the late spring when I KNEW that we were having our sisters get together but that didn't happen - sigh.....  So I found myself flying to Iowa by myself as Glenn and I had already been back TWICE to Iowa this year!

I flew into Omaha on Friday early evening.  Headed to Denver early afternoon and was shocked when I drove to our usual parking area and saw a sign that it was FULL except for online reservations!!!!!  Luckily I had made a reservation online, only because it's 1/2 price to do it but I had NEVER made a reservation there before!!  Sure glad I did!!  Patty picked me up (with yummy Mexican food in the car for me to eat) and we headed to Soldier, watching intently for the deer!  And yes, we saw 3 deer along the way right by the highway and hit a racoon outside of Pisgah!

Saturday we enjoyed coffee together - Jim and Brenda came in and we walked up to their new house that is being built and got the grand tour - sure is going to be nice!  It was a beautiful day in Soldier and we enjoyed our time together!

My friend Sandy (from down the street) picked me up close to 5:00 and a bunch of us met at our old high school in Moorhead - a couple has bought it and are actually living in part of it!  We enjoyed meeting in the gym and listening to the gal tell us their plans for the school!

The grade above us, Class of 1970, had their reunion with us - theirs was cancelled the previous year due to COVID so the committee decided to have the 2 class reunions together - when you have graduating classes of 36 (class of 1970) and 40 (our class of 1971), of course you know everybody!

Our name tags were our senior class pictures which made it easy to recognize people!  The lighting in the gym was not great as you can see!

And when you hand your phone to someone to take pics, I've found you have to accept what you get - so a lot of mine were quite blurry!

We then went back to Soldier and met at the Community Building for social hour and dinner which was catered by AJ's in Ute.  I was SO disappointed that we had such a poor turnout - a lot of the locals within 50 miles did NOT come and that always makes me sad because there are some people I have not seen since we graduated!

One of the BEST things my senior year was the music!!  We had a fantastic music teacher (who drove us crazy of course but she was an awesome instructor) and since we had so many good singers in our class, we formed a group called Establishment 71 - the girls bought matching outfits in green and brown and we sang popular music!  We described ourselves as a "swing choir" and our audiences just loved the songs we sang and played - great times together that I will NEVER forget!!

Since we were only missing 2 people (and one was our foreign exchange student) we decided to recreate the picture from our 1971 annual!

Do you think we have changed?

Here's the class of 1970.

And here's our class of 1971!

It was a fun time to be together -we've lost 5 out of our class and I'm sure by the time we meet again, we will lose more.....

Sunday morning was coffee on Patty's porch before we headed back to Omaha for my flight home!  It's a short flight so that makes it really nice!  I enjoyed stopping at Jessi's to visit for an hour before I headed home, which took an hour longer due to an accident!  But at least I made it back home before dark!

Day 3 - Silverton Fall Trip

 I had already scouted out breakfast places and the only other place open was a coffee place - YES, my type of place!!!  And they made breakfast burritos so I figured it would be the perfect place to go!  It was a balmy 27 degrees again when we got up - and we did sleep in a little bit!  We headed down the street to the coffee place and it was cute as can be!

The coffee was excellent and we split a burrito and it was great!  Next it was on to the ATV place to rent a side by side!  It was busy as you can imagine and since we didn't have reservations we did have to wait a little while!  Finally it was our turn and we rented a really sporty looking 2 seater (no choice - that's all they had).  Of course there wasn't a windshield and heater so let me tell you, it was pretty darn cold that first hour we were out!

We had already decided to do trails we hadn't done before and would wait till next year to do the Alpine Loop - although parts of where we went were part of the Loop!

Here's a picture of our ride!

This isn't a good picture because of the sun but it's a house that is actually being built on top of this mountain!!  Yes, we went up there - yes, it was twisty and narrow and a cliff on one side - no, I would NEVER want to live up that high!!  Glenn was pretty intrigued with it once we finally got up there - you couldn't see great because it was over a hill that was private property but it was unique!

We took a wrong trail - I told Glenn to turn right at this one spot but he insisted that we needed to go up higher to get down the other side - NOT!!  We went up and up and up and I finally said ENOUGH - turn around and go back down - we met some other riders and they told us the road went nowhere - just to a dead end so I'm glad we turned around when we did!!

And I did forget to mention that once we got back down the trail that led up to that house, we met 2 huge wide trucks that were hauling building materials up to that house - I can't imagine what they did when they met someone - there is no way 2 vehicles could meet side by side, let alone a huge truck - I'm just glad we were already down!!!!

The colors were pretty everywhere we went!

Once we were back in town, we had to wash the side by side and fill it with gas - there's only a 1 bay car wash in town - luckily it was open but you had to have tokens to use it - of course the machine for the tokens wouldn't work - nothing surprised me any more - so the sign said to go over to the motel and get them.  I ran over there (which happened to be the gas station too so at least we knew where to fill up at) and soon we had it washed and turned back in!

After showers and a quick nap for Glenn, we walked to Handlebars to eat dinner - it's a crowded, busy restaurant and bar but definitely has the best food in town!!  We didn't have to wait long for a table but unfortunately it was right by the bar where an extremely loud mouthed guy was talking!!  Oh well - we enjoyed our food and looking around at all the stuffed heads and mounts!!  I noticed they had peach cobbler for dessert with ice cream - I asked for it to go with whip cream instead of ice cream but the guy talked us into eating it there!  I was surprised when it came out in its' own crock (it was baked in it) and there was ice cream AND whipped cream on it - gosh it was good!

Once the sun came up I snapped a picture of the hillside from our window where we stayed!

We decided to take the southern route home - no way were we going to hit those detour times again!!  The road from Silverton to Durango is one of the most beautiful roads I've been on - there were loads of aspens but it's really hard to stop when you're pulling something!!  I did snap this picture right outside of town!

We stopped in Durango for breakfast - delicious omelettes with special coffee served right there also so that was a win!!  And after you pay, they bring you 2 donuts in a sack for the road!!  Super nice place!

It was a long drive home but the leaves were all changing - it's amazing what a couple of days can do!