August Photo Dump

 IT'S SEPTEMBER - MY FAVORITE MONTH OF THE YEAR!  So time to wrap up August!

This little bear has made the rounds this summer - here he is over by the mailboxes, but loves to hang out on our neighbors' deck!!

We got a new hot tub cover!!  FINALLY!!!  Our old one was just getting to be ridiculously heavy and not doing its' job - it seemed to take forever to finally get one ordered and then to receive it 6 weeks later!  But it is SO NICE and well worth the money!

I love watching the little fawns walk by - they are hard to catch on a photo though!

August is peach season - Palisade peaches  - and they were extra good this year!  I froze about 8 bags for peach crisp and we ate a lot!!  It was an excellent year for them along with the Olathe sweet corn and the Rocky Ford cantaloupe!

Glenn is tackling redoing the cement out front and the borders where the solar lights are - for some reason, most of it cracked and crumbled and it really did look bad!  It's a LONG process though - hard, heavy work mixing the cement himself AND almost 2 weeks of daily rain put a huge damper in the process!  He is hoping to finish up this week!

The Smiths invitied us over for dinner one evening - Hez made shrimp scampi for us since he found out it was my favorite!  He IS an excellent cook!

As I was sitting on the front porch, I noticed this spider - and what a beautiful web he had - just had to take a photo!

Glenn's flowers on the front porch look nice and healthy this year!

We went to the Springs one day and I believe this person just didn't park correctly!!  HA!

Gary and Evan went motorcycle riding on Labor Day - they stopped over at the Smiths for dinner and then came over, along with Hez, for dessert and lots of talking!!  We were so glad they came!

And that's a wrap for August!!  

Coffee Tasting

 Beth and I usually go out for coffee at least once a month - and because she's outside of Divide we end up going to Lake George OR Dawn of Hope which is by our place.  But we wanted to head to the cemetery to see Arlyne's headstone so it was Woodland Park this time!

Just inside of town my tire light came on and the one tire pressure wouldn't show so we pulled into Big O and a guy checked the tire, added just a little bit of air and we were on our way!  I was glad it wasn't a tire problem again.....

Arlyne's headstone is absolutely beautiful!

We had heard there was a new coffee place in town - but also read it was a "European" type coffee place so they didn't have the lattes and cappuccinos, etc.  But we're adventurous so decided to stop in and see what it was like!

CUTE PLACE!  And the 2 guys working there were nice as can be - they started telling us all about their coffee that they roast there and asked if we would do a free coffee tasting to see which one we liked!  Of course!

We tried 3 different kinds and liked the last one best, which was from Costa Rica - that brought back memories of when Glenn and I were there with Cindy and Rene and we did a coffee tour and tasting!

Even though we didn't end up buying coffee there, it was a fun experience and we will go back to just drink a regular cup of coffee with great looking cookies that were home baked!

We walked on down to the other coffee place and had our coffee along with free donuts!!  YAY!

And just had to take pictures beside these beautiful flowers that grace main street!

Camping at Poncha Springs

 Time to camp again - YAY!  I told Glenn to pick a spot so he chose past Poncha Springs to a place we've camped several times!  It's a great spot because there's a lot of ATVing of different routes to do!

We left early on the Tuesday of Labor Day Weekend - hoping to spend 3 nights and get home before the horrible traffic would start on Friday - but did end up only spending 2 nights, although we did ATV on Thursday before heading home!

Every time we drive past this hardware store at the light at Poncha Springs, I always love to see all the colors of chairs they have setting out!  This time I snapped a picture!

There were a LOT of campers surprisingly enough - but I do believe some of them were just brought out and set up with a couple of chairs outside, all ready for the Labor Day Weekend because they looked deserted!   As we all know here in Colorado, it's one of the MAJOR camping weekends and even though it's wilderness camping, there are only SO many spots!

We found a spot - it's not my favorite one which is on top of a hill, BUT there was a NO CAMPFIRE in that section and Glenn wanted to be on this particular road which was in another national forest that DIDN'T have a campfire ban!  We were lucky to grab it!

It started raining about the time we got set up, so Glenn napped and I read and then we went for a ride before dinner - still cool and rainy looking out!

It poured hard during the night - but we woke up to sunshine and had a full day planned to ATV!  We headed over to Marshall Pass, one of my favorite spots and took the side road that has lots of aspens on it!  Check out the yellow leaves in the middle of the picture - yes, fall is about to arrive!

I LOVE this ride through the aspens - this particular area has the really white trees !

It was nice and sunny with a lot of billowing clouds!

This was our campsite and Glenn was happy to be able to build his campfire!

The next day we headed to Bonanza - everytime we drive into this little tiny town, we marvel at the antlers on this building so this time I snapped a picture (although it sure isn't centered because we were on the ATV and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!)

Amazing views - I never tire of this!  And note all of the dead trees - there are sure a lot of them!

We packed up and headed home later that afternoon after an excellent camping trip!

And So It Begins.....

  Summer is over - it's back to the classroom for all of the grandkids!  And what a crew we have going this year!  There's no doubt it will be an exciting year for all of them!

Kylan Smith will be a junior at Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park.

Kenzie Keppy will be a junior at Eaglecrest High School in Centennial.

Aleah Savage will be a junior at Fossil Ridge High School in Ft. Collins.

Parker Savage will be a freshman at Fossil Ridge High School in Ft. Collins.

Chance Raymond will be an 8th grader at West Monona in Onawa, Iowa

Maggie Raymond will be a 7th grader at West Monona in Onawa, Iowa.

Gwyn Keppy will be a 5th grader at Timberline in Centennial.

And now for the college kids!

Matias Lopez is attending UCCS in Colorado Springs, 

Rayna Smith is attending UCCS in Colorado Springs.

Nedelle Smartt is attending NE Community College in Norfolk, NE.

Evan Keppy is attending Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

What a great crew of kids!!  

Iowa #2

 Was it hot in Iowa - OH MY!!!  The heat wasn't actually that bad but the humidity was!  I did manage to walk early a couple of days but the one day when I opened the door and felt the air, I decided it was a no go - just too humid!

Thursday morning we picked up Brenda and went to coffee in Mapleton - always GREAT coffee and we talked and talked!  We had fresh peach fizzies that afternoon from Colorado peaches - YUM!

We headed out to the South Church - always one of my favorite spots to go!  They have a new sign in the front and I love reading the history here!  Of course I always enjoy seeing that old pump organ that I used to play on Sunday mornings!  MEMORIES!

Late morning the 3 sisters ventured over to Tekamah to go to Masters' Hand - we had done this before and always enjoyed it so it was a pleasure to go again!  Your lunch includes a drink, appetizer, entree and dessert!  I started with strawberry lemonade which was excellent - next up was herbed cottage cheese (or you could have soup) and now I have a new way to eat cottage cheese - my lunch was chicken salad while the other two had quiche!  The homemade rolls were excellent and I loved the pretty butter setting on a rose petal!  The salad was plentiful with the dressing in a little swan dish!  Both of our main dishes were great!

We're all smiles in this picture as we're about to eat!

Dessert was hard to pick!  Patty had bread pudding with ice cream, Teri had triple chocolate cake and I had peach crisp with ice cream - all wonderful!

We were SO full driving back home!  Jim and Brenda came a little later and we headed out to the farm - Teri hadn't seen the old house gone yet and it IS a shock to not see it there any more!  Across the road is Jim's garden - cantaloupe, watermelons and pumpkins!  The pumpkins are doing the best and Jim's going to have plenty for his grandkids - I liked this huge white one!

That evening we took 2 cars over to Woodbine to eat at Good Fellas, always a great place to eat!  We split shrimp dinners because we were all so full and even opted to NOT take dessert to go since we still had the cherry cobbler and special bakery items that Cheri had brought up !

Glenn and I said our goodbyes to Jim and Brenda and I got packed up that evening!  5:45 came early the next morning as we loaded up to head out about 6:30 with a box of Iowa tomatoes - YUM!  What a fun and busy time in Iowa this year - thanks to Patty and Leonard for hosting!

And then it was hugs and time to say goodbye!!

We had hoped to make better time going home since construction wasn't going on (it was Saturday) but of course some of the construction zones were still down to one lane - things were going great till we got outside of Limon and Glenn said one of the tires was going down - fast!  We limped into the edge of Limon and there was a huge spot by a car wash so we pulled in there - Glenn finally got the spare tire on in 91 degree heat and said it must have been a nail as it was a perfect hole - we were going to find a tire shop but Glenn knew there was a NAPA there and he said he could patch the good tire and get it blown up to put back on.  Luckily NAPA was only 1/2 mile away and when we pulled in, they actually had a repair shop right there and the bay was open!  15 minutes later the guy had fixed the tire for $20 and put it back on and we were back on the road!  A rain storm had just moved through and it was 59 degrees when we pulled into home - now that felt great!!

Iowa Bound

 We don't usually drive to Iowa during August - in fact, I have a note in my day-timer that reads:  Don't go to Iowa in August - it's hot and humid and there are chiggers!   HA!  SO what do we do this year?  Of course, we drive to Iowa in August!

But there was a reason behind this - Teri was flying in from Michigan and what better way to get the 3 sisters together than to head to Iowa so we could spend time with them!  We left on a Tuesday morning - hit 8 different construction zones on the way out - and the decision was made that we MUST be getting older doing this drive as it gets harder every year!  I even brought lunch so we could eat at a rest area and not take the time to get fast food, hoping it wouldn't take us 11 1/2 hours to get there - no luck - it STILL took us that long with all the construction!

But everything was nice and green out and we had some cloud cover so that always helps!  AND I located a Scooters Coffee in Ogallala so I didn't have to wait until Kearney to get my coffee - that was a plus!  Anyway, we rolled into Patty's and it was great to see everyone!

After a couple of wonderful tasting dips and drinks, Jim and Brenda stopped by so we visited with them and almost forgot to eat dinner!!  Leonard and Patty have been working on finishing off their basement and had one bedroom almost completely done and that's where Glenn and I slept - it was nice and cool down there and we slept great!

Wednesday was busy!  We all headed up to Don and Nadine's that morning - it's always so good to see them and they're both doing well in their 90's!  We talked and talked!

Patty had brought a cherry coffeecake up and Nadine had her yummy oatmeal cookies so we enjoyed more visiting during coffee time!  It's always fun to hear their stories!

We relaxed back at Patty's house for a while before Glenn and I left to head to Onawa - we went to Geri and Carl's house for dinner with the local relatives and were surprised as ever when we walked in and saw Dusty, Glenn's brother whom we hadn't seen for 15 years!!  Glenn and him talk on the phone but just hadn't seen each other!  Dusty has a new wife, Janis.

It was fun to catch up with Nedelle who is switching colleges and now has a boyfriend!!  Neal's were there and Chance and Maggie are BOTH taller than me and already into sports for the fall season!  Sherry and her guy Gary were there - I sat with them at dinner and enjoyed visiting with them!

Love this picture of Nedelle, Chance, Glenn and Maggie!!

And the whole crew!  Carl and Geri, Sherry and Gary, Becky and Glenn, Janis and Dusty!

After saying our goodbyes to Nedelle and Neals' family, we headed over to the local nursing home where Glenns' sister Deanna is - she is doing fairly well and we enjoyed visiting and hearing stories from all of them growing up - always fun to reminisce about those memories!

We were both exhausted by the time we got back home so we didn't stay up very late that night!

To be cont'd...

Girls Weekend #2

 Pancake time for the girls - Glenn always enjoys making strange pancakes for the girls - even the adults couldn't figure some of them out - HA!  And I even took these pics BEFORE they were dressed and had their make-up on!!  They are BOTH beautiful just like this!

I guess this pic is from Saturday - I made them special coffee that morning and Sunday morning I made Jessi and I special coffee - Jill is a cocoa drinker so she joined the coffee drinkers on the porch with her drink!       Jessi had brought me a 6 pack of small coffee flavors - what a fun surprise!

While the moms packed up late morning, the girls made smoothies and I took the "annual" picture of sitting on the front porch - usually it's with cocoa or coffee but today it was smoothies!  We played a couple of more card games before it was lunch time and by 2:00, it was time for them to hit the road!

Yes, both girls are taller than their Nana!

Jill must have snapped this picture on the way home - teenagers who can never seem to get enough sleep!

It was a great "girls" weekend - and maybe next year we can do separate ones!