Belize Bound!

I can almost feel the sand between my toes - see that beautiful blue water - hear the crashing surf at night, lulling me to sleep! Yes, it's time for another adventure - time to check another place off my bucket list!!

We're heading to Belize with good friends, Martin and Joleen! The bags are packed, the last day of work is almost 1/2 way done and soon we'll be flying those friendly skies!

Yesterday Glenn and I both received air brush tans - a first but certainly not a last!! My beautiful tan is so even and pretty that I feel like I've been sunbathing for weeks (minus the suns rays and the lotion and the sweat.........) This is DEFINITELY the way to go if you want to get a base tan BEFORE vacation!!

We're heading to 2 islands: 2 nights on Tobacco Caye and 7 nights on Ambergris Caye - my camera and laptop are going with me so I might even post a blog or two since we'll be gone for so long.................

I'll leave you with a picture from Ambergris Caye - a picture that I hope will be on my camera SOON!!!

Our First Snow!!

.....and we weren't even home to enjoy it!! But there was still plenty left when we got home on Saturday!! Probably about 4 to 5 inches covering the driveway and it was heavy and wet to scoop off!!

The peak was gorgeous when the clouds moved enough to show it!! Unfortunately, the aspen trees will for SURE start dropping their leaves now - we always hope for a late fall but Mother Nature is in control!!

No Pumpkin Patch - Boo Hoo

For some reason, the weather just doesn't seem to cooperate on Pumpkin Patch weekend in Denver - we knew there was snow in the forecast so packed some warmer clothes when we headed to Denver after work on Friday but we had no idea it would be such lousy weather!!

Friday night was fun though - Jaime and Brad, Jessi and Gary and Glenn and I all met at the Stampede for an evening of dancing!! Glenn and I had been practicing all week for the country cha-cha. The people at the Stampede do it differently than what Glenn and I had learned years ago but I found a video on YouTube that showed a couple doing it that way so we spent several nights trying to watch the video and teach ourselves - not an easy process when you've worked all day and are tired, the video keeps stopping AND trying to watch a computer screen while you're dancing.........BUT our practicing paid off because we had that dance down almost perfect and they played several songs over the course of the night that we got to dance too!!

And then Saturday morning arrived - rain, then a mixture of snow and rain and finally SNOW!!! It was coming down pretty heavy so there was no way we could go to the Pumpkin Patch - in fact, we're not sure they even still had it that day!! Jessi and I went out for coffee together and then all of us headed over to Jaime's house and soon Jill, Aleah and Parker arrived!!

The kids were were excited to play in the snow - all of us had forgotten of course how much work it is to bundle them up for their few minutes of play outside!!

Evan and Kenzie were decked out in cute Halloween shirts!!

And little Parker - not only smiling up a storm but pretty much crawling now - he's so cute!!

Our 3 cuties!!

I just had to put in this picture of Kylan - he has become a REAL Indiana Jones fan - they have all the movies and it's all he ever wants to watch, along with the Indiana Jones game for their WII. Jaime got him the cute hat and a whip and he looks so cute with it!! Yes, he will be Indiana Jones for Halloween!!

Glenn and I left by 1:00 to head back home as he was hunting with a friend and we had heard that our mountains did receive quite a bit of snow - the drive was long and miserable with the snow and rain mix coming down!! Woodland Park had around 9" of the pretty white stuff and there was a lot of snow to get off Glenn's car which was parked at his work!! But oh, the snow was sure pretty!!!

Rayna's Excellent Adventure - Part #2

I didn't want to get out of bed on Sunday morning because I slept SO GOOD!!! One of those lazy mornings............

But the laundry was waiting to get started and I knew we had a full day ahead with Rayna!! Next on our adventure list was another craft - but one I can't tell you about because it's a Christmas surprise for certain people!! All I can say is that Rayna enjoyed it and the project turned out rather cute!!

An early lunch was in order before we headed into town and I caught this cute pic of Glenn and Rayna brushing their teeth, looking out at the aspens...........

We headed down the pass to Cave of the Winds - Rayna had been wanting to go here the last couple of years so today was the day!!

I was SO disappointed when we walked in the door and saw that "The Discovery Tour" was NOT operating that day - so the only other choice that I considered was "The Eco Tour" - each person carries a flashlight as the tour is done in the dark. I talked to Rayna and she thought it would be fine so that's what we did!! And I'm SO glad we took that tour because it was great!! Walking through that dark cave with your little flashlight was pretty neat and of course you could shine it around and look at what YOU wanted to!!

After the customary t-shirt buying and rock buying, we headed down to the Citadel Mall for Rayna's LAST surprise!! As we walked out of Penney's, there was a little merry go round that had animals you sit in - I looked at Rayna and told her THAT was the surprise - she said "Really???" and I said yes, was that OK - she kind of looked funny but of course was polite and said, "Yea, I guess...........". I started laughing and told her of course that wasn't it, look to the side and there it was - "Miniature Glo Golf". It was a really cute place where they had 2 sets of 18 hole miniature golf - everything was kind of dark with glo light stuff all over the place!!

They had these machines all over the courses where you could stick your golf balls in and hit a button and they would "GLOW" really bright!! We all had a blast playing golf - didn't keep score but we were probably all pretty equal!!

After golf, Rayna decided she wanted to play the "reflex" game!! You stood in this cubicle type place with mitts on and there were 3 different poles - once the game started, a light would light up and you had to punch it with your mitt or stomp with your foot if the light was on the ground - she was running around like crazy but did fantastic!!! AND got her name in the Top 10!!

After all of this, we were starving - so it was off to the pretzel place for hot pretzels - butter and salt for Rayna, sugar and cinnamon for Glenn and I!!

And then Rayna's Excellent Adventure was over - it had come to an end and it was time to meet her dad and head back to Denver!!

Thanks Rayna for spending the weekend with us - I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having you - and we'll look forward to NEXT year for our weekend together!

Rayna's Excellent Adventure - Part #1

AND what an adventure it was!! Nana and Papa were DARN tired by the time the weekend was over - but we sure had smiles on our faces!!

Rayna's adventure started Friday evening when we met Brad in Colorado Springs after her volleyball game (and yes, her team won!!). Glenn and I had eaten at Texas Roadhouse ( a delicious margarita, smothered grilled chicken with jack cheese and grilled onions and mushrooms, loaded baked potato and baked beans!) and then it was shopping time at Hobby Lobby and Walmart before picking up Rayna!!

So it was bedtime by the time we hit home and I slept poorly that night - maybe too much rich food to eat?? You suppose???

But the 3 of us were raring to go on Saturday morning as we packed up a backpack with snacks and fishing poles!! First stop was Papa's work as he had to load some granite so I headed back up to Gold Hill Java to pick up smoothies for Rayna and I and a coffee for Glenn!! Rayna LOVED the little umbrella they put on her mango peach smoothie!!

Papa and Rayna decided they better catch some live grasshoppers to fish with - they brought one of our water bottles from the house and I don't think I'll be using it for water anytime soon!

And then it was off to Catamount Reservoir, where the parking lot to hike in just happens to be on Edlowe Rd where our old house is - my, I had forgotten how pretty the aspens were on that road!! The parking lot was FULL of hikers and one bunch offered to take our photo!

We hiked in about a mile and a half - the water was really low and we walked on places where water used to be!! Rayna had her sunglasses on and ran on ahead of us - big mistake - she sunk in this black, clay-lake mud and couldn't move!! She tried to step up and of course her shoe came off in the mud and she walked forward on her white socks - then tried to step with the other foot and the same thing happened!! Papa ended up pulling her shoes out of the mud and the white socks? Well, I ended up throwing them away when we got home because they were NOT going to come clean!!

Rayna ended up just putting her tennis shoes (caked with mud) back on without socks and luckily she didn't get any blisters!!

Her tears from that episode turned to one big smile when she immediately caught a fish!!

I had brought a blanket out and spent my time reading while Glenn and Rayna fished - he reeled in another nice one so at least we had two to cook for dinner that night!! We hiked back to the car and I couldn't help but take a picture of these gorgeous aspen trees!

Then it was off to the movie "The Dolphin Tale" - an excellent movie and we all loved it, along with the popcorn and pop which is a must when taking in a movie!! And if THAT wasn't enough, Glenn decided we needed ice cream and we went up to the new ice cream shop "Mountain Scoops" which features soft serve ice cream and gelato - yummy!!!

After arriving back home, we put Rayna to work picking tomatoes - tough job, huh??

Next on the list was crafts!! I pulled out a bunch of my scrap booking supplies and we made the place cards for Thanksgiving Day! Can you tell Rayna was having fun???

One of the things I bought at Hobby Lobby was the cardboard folder where you put in the quarters for the different states!! I not only had a nice cardboard folder, but also did the smaller yearly ones for the states where you collect 4 per state!! I have been at this project ever since they started producing the quarters but still had 4 slots left to fill!! I knew Rayna would enjoy this project since we have a huge glass jug we put our change in and it's almost full!! So the NEXT project was to start through the jug................

I couldn't believe all the quarters we had for the corresponding states!! We kept at it and before long, the folder was ALMOST full and I had completely finished MY OWN folders!! But we couldn't find Florida - we were to the bottom of the jar and had exactly 10 quarters left to look at when lo and behold, Rayna found a Florida one!! HOORAY - we FILLED her folder!!

Glenn grilled up some yummy fish for dinner that evening and we checked in with Jaime to make sure "mom" wasn't missing Rayna too much!! She wasn't!!

Even though it was 8:00, we still had ONE more thing to do and that was to get in the hot tub - a relaxing end to a fun-filled day!!

But wait, we still have ONE MORE DAY for Rayna's Excellent Adventure..................

The View From My Kitchen Window................

is none other than orange aspens this year!! I sure didn't need to look too far did I????

Lake City - #2

Saturday morning came WAY too early as I woke up about 4:30 with a headache and had trouble going back to sleep!! But the thought of riding through all those beautiful colors had me up and going before too long!!

Glenn cooked breakfast while I donned my long underwear and packed the ATV for the day - we left about 8:45am and returned at 5:00pm - ONE LONG DAY!!

Because my jeans wouldn't fit over the long underwear, I had brought a pair of sweat pants to put over them - I figured they would be nice and comfy all day long - and comfy they were - but I hadn't thought about the slipping and sliding on the seat!! Sweat pants JUST don't work I discovered and before next year I'll be heading to the store to buy a pair of jeans a size or two larger than I normally wear - they SURE stick to the seat better!!

It was cold out but not near as cold as last year and the sun was shining so it was perfect weather and it got warmer and warmer during the day!! Most of the aspens we saw were gold but there were a few that were orange and the picture below shows a few tucked away on our way to the pass.

The first part of the journey is my favorite - in fact, I probably stopped at the exact same places on this route and took the same pictures I did last year but you just can't help but wanting to snap pictures constantly!!

We sat for awhile on the TOP so Glenn could use the binoculars to look for wildlife - it's way above treeline and pretty in its' own way!!

Traveling through streams is always part of the fun riding the ATV - here's one of the streams we went through! This year though, the BIG stream was just a trickle - that didn't hurt my feelings at all!!

The sun was shining so brightly that it was hard to capture this old footpath bridge but it was in sad shape and even if it would have been intact, I can't say I would have crossed over the deep canyon!

I love this picture that captures the blue sky, the mountain with snow on it and the gold aspen trees - course the guy in the picture is pretty special too!!!

I took this picture only so you could guess why the fence posts have another fence post tied to it to make it tall - any guesses??? These are placed at intervals along the passes and in fact, we went by the truck with a couple of guys that were replacing ones that had fallen down or were gone! The TALL fence posts are used when the snow gets SO deep, the snowmobile riders can tell where the road is!! Cool, huh?

This picture shows a little bit of some of the trails we encounter - only some are MUCH worse!! A lot of times you are on a small narrow trail with the mountain on the upper side and the canyon on the opposite side so there is NO place to pull off if you meet someone!! That's when somebody has to back up - not an easy thing to do either!!

We had a great day - lots of riding - lots of stops at old mines with equipment lying around - lots of good food - and lots of enjoying the beautiful outdoors!! And yes, if you recall from last year's blog - We Ran Out Of Gas On Cinnamon Pass - the same thing happened this year on the SAME part of the road!! Only this time we didn't have to coast as we had our extra gallon tied on the front of the ATV!!

Two tired people finally pulled into the cabin late afternoon and the rest of the evening was spent grilling hamburgers and watching a couple of movies!! Too bad Sunday came so fast and it was homeward bound time - but there's always next year to look forward to!!