Down to Denver we drove - luckily the traffic wasn't bad at all and we made good time! It was fun to see the Keppys and spend just a little bit of time with them!
We celebrated Evan's upcoming birthday which is Feb. 18th - this teenager turns 15! HOW CAN THAT BE?? Evan's favorite snack is blueberry muffins so between them and Hostess cupcakes, we all had a treat!
Rayna turns 20 on March 2nd and Matias turns 21 on March 16th! What a fun and busy day!
We headed north to Ft. Collins Saturday morning on icy roads for quite a while - we did have some snow the day before - in fact it snowed most of the day but it was the little stuff coming down and didn't accumulate much, just a couple of inches but with ice underneath! Coffee from Human Bean always makes the drive go faster!
The Keppys were to meet us up at Jill's for the afternoon and dinner together but Jessi texted that Gwyn had a bad cold so they weren't comfortable bringing her up - darn! We spent the afternoon playing cards and games and even had the guys join us so we could all play Bunco together!
By early afternoon it was time to say our goodbyes for the next 3 months and head to Denver to see the other crew - Gwyn was feeling a little better by then. Thanks Savages for a great time!
He's back - all in one piece - with some fish! A week to the day he walked in the house about 5 hours earlier that I expected him!! He had stopped for the night but couldn't sleep much so actually got up and drove IN THE DARK to get home - and Glenn doesn't drive at night anymore (not much at least!) I think he just missed me! HA!
Glenn did have a great time - Maggie stayed with him in the ice shack and she is quite the fisherman! Not sure how all the "housekeeping" and "cooking" went in that little place but Glenn didn't look like he lost any weight so they must have eaten good!!
Glenn's glad to be home and now will switch his thoughts to "ocean" fishing for a while - at least until we head to New Mexico to go ice fishing down there!
What better time to get together with the girls than when Glenn is ice fishing!! Unfortunately Jaime had to work (her and Jessi are on opposite working weekends now) but Jaime did get to join us one evening after work!
The weather sounded fine - just a 40% chance of snow starting late afternoon - yea, that didn't happen! It started snowing lightly and got windy about 11:00am on Friday. And it kept up! The snow was barely covering the ground by afternoon but the forecast at that point didn't look great - a much higher percentage of snowfall throughout the rest of the evening.
Jill drove down to Jessi's place in Denver and they headed out together - I25 was already backed up so they took the back way to Co Springs - and didn't realize till later that they were right in the midst of the storm the entire way! They had bad icy roads to drive on and the normal 2 hour drive to our place turned into a 4 hour drive! I was SO GLAD when they finally arrived as I was worried the entire time!
They were both exhausted and after unloading the car, I fed them soup and fruit and we sure didn't stay up too long that evening!
Saturday was a bright and sunny day - we only got a couple of inches of snow on the ground so the roads weren't bad and we headed over to The Wild Horse cafe (only a couple miles from our house) and enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate in front of the fireplace! I LOVE that this place is so close and has such great coffee!
After breakfast on Sunday we got in the hot tub and relaxed a while - and then it was back to reading until the girls had to pack up and head back out! At least the roads were all clear by then and they had a fast trip back to Denver!
How special to get together with my daughters!! We definitely should do it more often!!
After what seems like 2 months of planning and 1 month of packing (it probably wasn't all that long!) Glenn has headed to South Dakota to go ice fishing with Neal and granddaughter Maggie! I'm sure he looked pretty huge driving down the highway pulling his trailer loaded with the ice shack and the razor!! I decided I better go check it out and take some pics before he took off!
It's 2022 - gosh it seems weird typing that!! I haven't wrote out any checks yet so really haven't written out the year!
Did we celebrate on Dec. 31st? Of course not! We actually did get invited to a party but it was in Divide with a younger crowd AND we did get enough snow that night to make the roads pretty darn slippery so I'm glad we just stayed home! Unfortunately we couldn't see any of the fireworks as the peak was all snowy and cloudy!
Denver started getting snow - and Gary, Jessi and Gwyn went to the park to play in the snow!! HOW FUN!!!
Jill's celebrated up in Ft. Collins at their house as they were getting a LOT of snow! Hooray for them!! The kids even got inspired to go out in the dark and play in the snow after seeing the Keppys' photo!
And January continues.....
Going - Going - GONE! 2021 that is! And what a year it's been! Happy memories and sad memories - great trips - awesome family time - a not so fun nose surgery - good times spent with friends - political craziness - and of course dealing with COVID! Here's hoping 2022 is even BETTER than 2021!
And the final photo dump pictures!
Jaime came over one day to make jam! We ended up making 3 batches and found that the lower sugar jam tastes just as good as the excessive sugar jam! Just for reference, did you know that 1 batch of strawberry jam (which makes 8 of those cute little jelly jars) takes 7 cups of sugar??????
And that's a wrap for 2021!
Company from Iowa visiting us in the wintertime is pretty rare! But Neal and his family had decided to come out skiing for a few days and stopped to stay at our place on their way home! Also joining them was granddaughter Nedelle and one of Neals employees, Matt.
They arrived on a Wed. late morning with sore muscles from skiing and a little bit of sunburn! It was fun to listen to their accounts of skiing and the condo they stayed in and the fun of trying to get a Uber from Frisco to Breckenridge so Jenn and Nedelle could get massages!
The pool table got LOTS of use that afternoon and evening!
It's fun to be in a house where there's still a child that believes in Santa Claus! I fondly remember Christmas mornings when our 3 girls were little - the anticipation and the excitement wondering what Santa Claus brought you!
With homemade cinnamon rolls baking in the oven, the kids came down and were all excited what Santa Claus brought them!
Kenzie had asked me to bring up our stockings - they haven't been used in many years so it was fun to bring them and find them full of little gifts! The kids had picked out some hilarious items for Papa at the Dollar Store!
What a wonderful Christmas!
My friend Carrie came in on Amtrak Christmas week - she was here to see a couple of friends and spend Christmas with her son Boone and his girlfriend in Castle Rock. After spending a couple of days with another friend, I picked her up in Co Springs on Thursday. We headed to a wonderful lunch at Carraba's and it was during that time that she got the phone call from Boone - both him and his girlfriend had COVID!
He hadn't felt well the day before and neither had she - yes, they were both vaccinated and both had gotten the booster also - but they still got it! We talked over lunch about what to do as her return ticket home wasn't until Sunday night and of course her other friend and I both had plans for Christmas!
We headed to the Broadmoor after lunch to walk around inside and see the huge gingerbread house and all the beautiful decorations - but as we drove up to the parking garage, the gal in the booth stopped us and said everything was closed to the public, only hotel guests were allowed in the area. Darn - we were looking forward to that!
We decided to walk around Old Colorado City or Manitou but both places were crazy busy with people walking around and traffic was awful, so we just got the heck out of there and drove back up the mountain! We stopped at one of the new coffee places and enjoyed visiting there with coffees in hand!
After arriving at our house, Carrie decided to call and see if she could get her ticket changed - after 1 1/2 hours on hold, she got on the computer and managed to switch the ticket to Friday night for only a $20 fee! Hooray - she of course was so sad not to be spending time with her son but at least she could get home early!
We headed up to Jessi's on Christmas Eve morning and stopped at her son's place which was basically on the way - she put their presents on the doorstep and they both came out and visited for a minute with her!
Gary and Evan had both bought these motorcycles (?) - strangest contraptions I'd seen in a while! But they run well and Evan and Kenzie had a ball driving them around!
The kids opened one present that night and we relaxed and hit the sack early!
