Kenzie's Volleyball Game

 Kenzie had a volleyball game on Sunday, another reason I came up!  I so enjoy watching her play!

Gary had taken her early that morning to catch a ride since she had to be there so early!  Jessi and I left early too since it was a 40 minute drive to her game, stopping to get coffee to drink on the way!

We were told to bring lawn chairs since the gym was small and no bleachers would be available!  So we took camp chairs inside but it was so packed, there was no place to put them up!  But they pulled out 2 rows of the bleachers so we sat on the bottom one - not a great place to sit at all since when the girl went to serve, she was RIGHT in front of you!  So we ended up scooting up to the 2nd row which worked a lot better!  BUT our butts sure got sore from sitting on those hard bleachers!

Kenzie's team won the first game in 2 sets!  But she hardly got to play so that was depressing!  But then later she started and played the entire first set!  She did awesome and is on the left jumping up in this picture!

I enjoyed watching the games and inbetween them, Jessi and I would go outside and walk around the college campus!  There was a lot of down time and we ate lunch in the car!  In the end, I think they ended up in 4th place!  So glad I got to see her play!

By the time we got back home, it was too late to drive on home as it would be dark soon!  We ate some leftovers for dinner!  And we played with Kona!

Did some puzzles with Gwyn and played some cards too!

I was one tired Nana that night from sitting on those hard benches and walking all over campus!  The heating pad felt great and Kona jumped up in my lap, ready for snuggles!

I was up early and hit the road home by 7:15!  Thanks for a great stay Keppys!

Denver Bound

 After returning from Estes Park, it was a busy week and 1/2 with Food Pantry, a cortizone shot in my back, a massage (hooray!), coffee with the choir girls, another Dr. appt, and a homeowners association meeting!  

Glenn had left for 4 days with Brad to go ice fishing in KS.  I decided when he was gone I was going to go through closets and drawers and sort stuff - by the time we get back from Mexico, there's always so much to catch up on that I rarely get started on my spring cleaning - so why not do some of it before we go!

I actually got the entire downstairs done (along with washing all the blankets and quilts in the linen closet downstairs) AND the office (which took FOREVER) and laundry room done!  Hooray for me!  Lots of stuff had went to Goodwill and the girls wanted a few items - my house feels lighter - HA!

ANYWAY - after all of that I headed to Denver on an early Saturday morning as I wanted to see the grandkids one more time before we left!  Jill had offered to come to Denver with Aleah and Parker and since Jaime had the day off, she came up too!!  What fun we had all going to coffee together - that doesn't happen very often!

We also got to meet Kona, the Keppys' new puppy who is just darling and cute as can be!

We celebrated early birthdays for the two boys - Evan turns 17 and Parker turns 13, both in Feb.!  They're growing up WAY TOO FAST!

Mid-afternoon we headed to Dairy Queen so I could treat everyone to ice cream!

Evan headed to a concert in Thorton so he wasn't with us!  We all enjoyed our choice of ice cream!

We played Sketch It once again, that hilarious game of drawing and guessing - and yes, once again my pictures were not great but Kenzie did her best to guess them and most of the time she was right!

Me and my girls!!

Jaime had books made of "Smile Pictures".  I received one too but had opened it at home as at that time, she didn't know she was coming up to Denver!  Whenever anyone sees anything that somewhat resembles a smile, they send it to the group sight!  Jaime went back through hundreds and hundreds of pictures and picked them all out to make this book - it's so cute!

I slept in the bottom bunk of Gwyn's bunkbed - and slept pretty darn good1

Estes Park #3 Cont'd

 And the day just continued with activities!  Glenn and Robby streamed a football game and enjoyed watching that in front of the fire!

Jaime and Jessi were in charge of dinner Sunday evening!  Green Enchilada Soup and Southwestern Chile!  It was excellent!!

After dinner, the adult kids cleaned up and then it was time for the minute-to win it games!!  I had brought lots of supplies and the girls helped me figure out how to do all of them in our small space!  It was an absolute riot!!  Lots of laughs!

Here they're trying to stack 3 large marshmallows with their hands behind their backs!  Jessi was the designated person to tell us who went next and who would partner up with another person when needed!

In this game, you put a dice on your forehead and had to stand up!  Most of us accomplished it!

Papa's head was perfect for stacking 5 dice!!  But then he had to hold it till the timer went off!  

Here they are stacking miniature marshmallows!  (yes, I had TOO many marshmallow games - ha!)

This game got absolutely crazy!  The object was to put a spoon in your mouth, hands behind your back and scoop mini mashmallows into your own bowl from a big bowl in the center  The first batch to do it discovered it was much easier to scoop  or should I say TOSS the marshamallows into someone else's dish and then they would help you out!

I was exhausted when the games were over as we did 10 of them!!

A family photo - hooray!!!  I always love these!!

After the games were over, some of the kids went back down to the gym.  A bunch of us stayed in the big cabin and tried out a new game that was given in the grab bag called Sketch It.   OMG!!  Talk about laughter!  You have to draw and I'm a complete failure at this!!  Once you draw, you pass your tablet all the way around the tablet for others to guess and it's hilarious!  Since I couldn't draw worth a darn, all of my drawings were hideous and we all laughed and laughed!!  What a night!

But all good things must come to an end - we packed up the next morning!  So will leave you with this cute picture of Gwyn eating her lunch one day at the big cabin!  She sure enjoyed her time, as did all of us!!

We all assumed that this year would be our last year to do this - but we say this every year and everyone STILL wants to go back!  So will we go again???  Only time will tell!

Estes Park #3

 It's Sunday - no big plans in the morning so most slept in!  Glenn got a nice crackling fire going in our cabin and we enjoyed Jill's breakfast casserole that she had brought!

Mid-morning we headed over with our coffee and enjoyed cinnamon rolls again - yummy!!  Then the adults and adult kids had our grab bag gift exchange - always a great time!

Next up was our predictions!!  That's always fun to read the answers after an entire year!!  I was shocked that Glenn and I actually won this year!!  HOORAY!!  We'll use the money for a nice meal out on our way way to Mexico!

The kids all scattered after lunch - a bunch went swimming and Jaime's bunch plus Gwyn went to the craft center!

Jessi, Jill and I decided to take a walk!  We walked UP the hill from our place - so pretty!!  And we always enjoy peeking into cabins if there are no cars there to see the floor plans!!  BUT we got caught this year - peeked into one place (no car) and there's people sitting right there in the living room - GEESH!!  We high tailed it right out of that driveway!

These 3 girls plus Evan wanted to go roller skating so we drove down to the pond!  It was SO COLD!  But the kids had a fun time, even though the ice was kind of bumpy!

Gary came down a little later and took our picture!

Next up was tye-dyeing!  I didn't bring anything to tye dye so I played photographer!

Trying to figure out a design was the hardest part!

But the kids (and adults) all enjoyed it and had a fun time!  Most of them turned out great!

To Be cont'd....

Estes Park - #2

 It's our "Christmas With The Grandkids Day"!!  Always one of my favorite days of the year to watch the kids open the gifts that Glenn and I give them!

We ate breakfast at our cabin and I baked the cinnamon rolls I had laid out the night before - they always make the cabin smell SO GOOD!  Then we all walked across the street to the big cabin for the gift opening!

Jaime and Jessi were already starting on their tea and coffee when we arrived!

The younger kids all got hooded blankets and they loved them!!

Robby, Gary and Brad enjoying the opening of the gifts!

They also all got hats with different things printed on them!

The drivers all got wind proof and water proof emergency blankets to put in their vehicles along with a personalied license plate!  Didn't get a picture of them all together!

We stopped for cinnamon rolls and coffee about 1/2 way through - once again Jessi outdid herself with a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls (mine were NOT!) and then finished up!

Here are the girls with their Tulum, Mexico books that I did for them!

And here are the grandkids that I made the books for - once a grandchild has graduated, they no longer receive the books!

The line up - from oldest to youngest - WHAT A CREW!!

And the calendars that I make for the girls and their spouses!  Yes, I spent many, many hours on the computer in the fall doing all of the books!

It was free time after lunch - some went to the craft center and here's Aleah and Kenzie with their paintings - they are both SO GOOD!

Gwyn enjoyed this gift and spent a lot of time using the markers to finish the pictures!

Jill and I did dinner that evening - Italian - Jill made lasagna and I did manicotti - paired with garlic bread and ceasar salad it was a great meal!  We had the kids clean up each evening and the boys were in charge this night!

After dinner, we played Bunco Lightning Round - I had brought dollar bills for everyone - each got $3 and after rolling, either got to keep the money, hand $1 to your left OR $1 to your right OR put $1 in the center!!  Eventually all the money ended up in the center and Kenzie was the winner for the kids!

It ended up being so much fun!!  Then the adults played the game and Glenn was the winner!

We will definitely do this game again next year!

Then it was off to the gym, all piled in 2 different vehicles!  Most of them played volleyball or basketball for a while - and then some went in to roller skate!  

It was ONE FANTSTIC DAY AND EVENING!!!  

Estes Park #1

 FINALLY it was time to celebrate with the entire family!!  17 of us headed up to Estes Park YMCA for a 3 night stay!  The school kids were all still out and the working kids took 3 days off so we could all be together!  We rented a 4 bedroom and a 3 bedroom cabin for all of us!

Glenn and I headed out Friday morning and picked up Rayna along the way - we were jam packed with all the gifts and a lot of food but made room for Rayna and headed up north!

Once you get off the interstate, it's such a pretty drive!

 We enjoyed Subway lunch before we got to the YMCA and got checked in!  I picked up all the keys for both cabins since we were the first to arrive!  And was quite surprised when we didn't get the cabins we requested!  

We were a lot further up this time which made for some fantastic views!  First we checked out the 4 bedroom cabin so we could unload all the gifts there!  We were a little disappointed with the arrangement of the cabin since it didn't have the huge kitchen like before, nor was the living room really large - oh well.

The 3 bedroom cabin that we stayed in with Jill and Robby, Gwyn, Aleah and Kenzie was very nice - our kitchen was actually bigger than theirs but since most of them were staying in the big cabin, it was still easier to do the evening meals over there!

We had taco night the first night - it was interesting getting all 17 of us around to eat dinner but it all worked out great!

Some of us headed over to play Bingo but the room was FULL and there was no room to sit!  So we went down to the game room and played for a while before they shut it down!

Then it was off to the gym and roller skating rink - I always enjoy watching the kids skate!

Later on, the girls played cards in OUR cabin while the guys all played poker in the bigger cabin!  I guess they were SUPER LOUD so I was sure glad I wasn't sleeping over there!!   Gwyn slept on a mattress on our floor since the 2 teenagers stay up much later than Gwyn does!!  It worked out just fine although since we had the small bedroom, it made for not a lot of room!!  

Glenn had brought wood for our cabin so did have a nice fire going that day!!  I always love a pretty fire!

And next up is our Christmas!