Glenn's SURPRISE 60th Party

Can it be possible that Glenn is turning 60 years old???? ABSOLUTELY!!! But technically not till May 22...............

The girls and I started talking a long time ago about what to do for his birthday - he had already told me he did NOT want a big party!!! HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM - I thought and thought and then decided on 2 things - a limo and a fishing trip to Mexico!!!

Because Glenn has to know his schedule a ways in advance to get all his jobs lined up, I KNEW I couldn't wait till his birthday to surprise him with a trip - so we decided to celebrate the night before Easter - mainly because that would give him plenty of time to get his business in order for the trip AND because all 3 girls and their spouses would be around for Easter!!

Saturday late afternoon I FINALLY pulled Glenn into Jaime's dining room (where the decorations were hanging and HAD been hanging for quite a while - yes, men ARE clueless!!) and said, "Guess what we're celebrating tonight!" and he looked at me and said "our anniversary????" And I said no, look around!!! He FINALLY noticed the "60" decorations hanging from the light fixture and was thrilled that we were going to have a nice steak dinner and go dancing!!! (Only we WEREN'T going dancing at all.............)

I got my bag of goodies out and dressed up Glenn in some of his 60 decorations!

We enjoyed a great steak, baked potato and Caesar salad dinner with JUST the adults as we had fed the kids earlier!! Brad did a great job of smoking and grilling the steaks!!

And then it was a rush to get ready as the limo was arriving 15 minutes earlier than planned!!!

At 7:15 sharp, the doorbell rang and I opened the door to see the limo driver and was shocked to see what was in the background!!! I had ordered a black stretch limo that seats 8 to 10 people - what was parked outside the house was a white (which I originally wanted until I saw the price!) stretch Cadillac Escalade that holds up to 14 people - WOW!!!

I told the driver to wait a minute, shut the door and called Glenn over - told him we weren't REALLY going dancing and opened the door - he was TOTALLY shocked!!! It was SO much fun to surprise him!!!

We got the grand kids put in the limo - Rayna, Evan, Kenzie, Kylan and Aleah - and took them for a ride first!!! I think they were so shocked at riding in such a large car that they didn't even know what to do!!! It was fun riding with them for about 15 minutes!!! The company had even put a bunch of balloons in the limo that said "Happy 60th Birthday" and each child received one as they got out!!

And then the adults were off!!!

The limo was amazing!! There were 4 flat screen TV's, a 1500 watt stereo with an IPOD attachment (that Jessi and I could NOT get figured out but no matter, I had brought CD's) and of course the LONG bar along the one side that had the prettiest colored napkins in each glass, soft drinks, water and a decanter each of vodka and whiskey!! We had brought an ice chest full of beer and wine coolers so we were set for the evening!!

Our first stop was to go get yogurt at Zookie's!!! It's one of those cool ice cream places with different flavors of soft serve and EVERY imaginable topping you could think of!!! The owners were fun and got right into the birthday celebration!!!

Here's Glenn eating his ice cream!!!

I was originally going to give him his gift and cards in the limo but because it was so dark in there, I decided we better do it in the light of the yogurt place - our "old" eyes just aren't what they used to be!!

First Glenn opened the 3 cards from the kids - and because we were doing a "Mexican" theme, they all gave him money for his birthday with instructions to use it for a bottle of tequila, fishing equipment for Mexico and a nice Mexican meal!!! Unfortunately we were NOT in the limo to have the Mexico music playing in the background!!!

Then I handed him my card and inside I had written the words from the chorus of his favorite song: "Women are made to love, money is made to spend. Life is something buddy, you will never live again. Oh I've got to admit it, GLENN sure knows how to live".

And then I reached in my bag and gave him his gift!

He was quite surprised to say the least!!! Inside his billfold was a travel itinerary for a fishing trip to Loreto, Mexico in June!!

Back into the limo for a trip up Lookout Mountain which is located in Golden!! It was HIGH as my ears kept popping!! A couple of times the limo driver had to stop on the switchbacks to let the oncoming car go by as the limo was so long, it could hardly make the corner!!! It was BEAUTIFUL at the top, looking at the lights of Golden and Denver along with a beautiful almost full orange moon!!! WOW - it was spectacular!!!

One last toast - a few more songs and then it was back to Jaime's house!!! What a fun, fun night to celebrate Glenn's birthday!!! And I believe it's one that he's going to remember for a long time!! Happy Early Birthday!!!

Easter Egg Hunting & Decorating Cookies

I often feel that Easter weekend is sometimes more busy than Christmas!! This Easter was no exception as we not only had all the Easter festivities but we also had a surprise 60th birthday party for Glenn - but that will be in the next blog!!

Saturday morning we headed to Peace of Christ Lutheran Church for breakfast and the Easter Egg Hunt!! Since Jaime had to work and Brad had to take Rayna to a volleyball game, Kylan came with us!! Even though Kylan and Mackenzie are only cousins, they could be twins in this picture - check out their same facial features!!

Of course the Easter bunny was there!

And leave it to Glenn to be looking fashionable!!!

The kids enjoyed the egg hunt and of course had baskets full of eggs and candy!!

We headed back to Jessi's house where Robby, Jill and the kids joined us to color Easter eggs!! I'm not sure who enjoys that more, the adults or the kids!!

Soon Rayna arrived and she was happy we had saved the dye so she could do her eggs!

After coloring the eggs, the kids decorated Easter cookies - I took a great picture of the frosted cookies but somehow it didn't make it in this blog so I'll have to post it in another one!!

It was a fun day with all the kids but nap time is always appreciated while we prepare the food for Easter day - and for the surprise party that night.........To be Cont'd

The Hunger Games

It's pretty rare that I EVER see a movie twice in the theater ( although I think I saw Mama Mia 3 times!!) but when I walked in the door Sunday late afternoon and started telling Glenn about The Hunger Games, he said he wanted to go see it!!

I said I'd love to see it again - that's how much I enjoyed the movie!!! It was playing in Woodland Park so we didn't have far to go!

So what's my take on this movie???? It was dark, thought provoking and imaginative! It was the type of adventure thriller that had a lot of dramatic violence, raw emotion and was often brutal in parts where it needed to be!! But it was purely captivating..............I wanted it to go on and on - I wanted to know how the districts came to be - I wanted to know what each district did for a living - and the list of questions went on and on!!

Luckily, Jill had read all 3 of the books so answered many of my questions but I couldn't wait to get my hands on the books!!! I am now reading The Hunger Games and just today purchased the other 2 - I'll have plenty of time to read next week while I'm recuperating from my surgery next Monday!

Friends have asked me how I could love a movie like this when the theme is actually 24 teenagers, fighting and killing to be the last one standing! It's not the killing that pulls you into this movie - it's the "story telling" of how this came to be and the everyday lives of people in the future - it's the expressions on the teenagers who are thrown into this bizarre game, not because they wanted to be there but because they were chosen to be there! It's the thought that because this takes place in the future, could something like this actually happen?

If you haven't seen The Hunger Games, I recommend it - and if you love to read, I'm already going to give a recommendation on these 3 books - right now I can't WAIT to get home and read some more............

It's DEFINITELY Spring In Ft. Collins!

After getting out of the hot tub Thursday night with Jaime and the kids, I hurriedly packed my bag for the next couple of nights as I was heading to Ft. Collins at noon on Friday to babysit!

And after I arrived, I realized that I had totally packed wrong!!! Even though it's been very seasonal in Woodland Park, it's not quite time for shorts and sandals - but it IS in Ft. Collins as I soon found out.............and when Jill asked me which church service I wanted to go to on Sunday since it was Palm Sunday, it dawned on me that I hadn't even packed church clothes - duh!!!

But anyway, Jill and Robby were headed out for an afternoon wedding so I got there just in time to babysit - the kids were excellent! Neither one cried - they ate a great dinner with me - and bedtime was a breeze!!!!

And then Saturday morning came...........the kids certainly knew their mom was around then because they both were out of sorts!!! Funny how kids can be SO good for grandma but then when mom is around, look out!! We did go out shopping for a little while and the kids were just fine doing that!

We dropped the kids back at the house for Robby to watch while Jill and I left to go see a movie!! We both wanted to see "The Hunger Games" and we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie - more on that in another post...........

Did I forget to say it was HOT out in Ft. Collins??? Luckily I had brought t-shirts to wear with my jeans but didn't have sandals and my t. shoes were downright hot!!! The kids had a ball playing outside!!
Parker is toddling all over the place now and brings you his shoes when he wants to go outside!!

I borrowed some capris and sandals from Jill so I would look presentable in church on Sunday and by 2:00 was back on the road home!! But first I stopped at Target to buy the book "The Hunger Games" - I knew after seeing the movie that I wanted to read the book!!!

The long drive home was just that - LONG!!!

Spring Break

I remember spring break - but it sure wasn't a week long and it always fell over Easter! And then my kids had spring break and that did turn out to be a week and usually did NOT fall over Easter!! And now the grand kids are going through spring break............and the cycle continues!!

Because Jaime and Kylan had not been to our house since last June (can you believe it????) we tried to find a time for them to come down on a weekend but that just wasn't happening. Between Kylan's t-ball and Rayna's volleyball, weekends are OUT!!! So they decided to come down during the middle of the week and I took a day and 1/2 off to be with them!

I met Jaime and the kids for lunch at Wines of Colorado on Wednesday! It was SO nice out that we actually sat on the patio - gosh that sun felt nice!!! I had a $40 groupon to spend so we enjoyed our hamburgers and grilled chicken sandwiches plus the 2 desserts we ordered - yum!!!

Jaime had never been to Glenn's workshop either!! So we toured that next and finally ended up back at the house! Rayna and I made cookies!!!

The weather was perfect again on Thursday and we went to the play park for awhile and the kids got in the hot tub and "fished" for a LONG time!!! I played the good Nana and let Jaime take a long nap while I played with the kids!!!

They were SO excited when the deer came!! I grabbed some deer food and told Rayna to hold out the container to see if they would eat out of it and sure enough they did!!!

Then it was Kylan's turn and he was all smiles!!!

After a nice manicotti dinner, we ALL hit the hot tub!!! Glenn, as usual, was goofing off so ignore the weird expression on his face!!!

It was a great time and hopefully Jaime won't wait almost another year to spend some time at our place!!!

Some Days Are Better Than Others......

Not ALL days are great days - although I'm sure everyone wishes that each day would bring no problems, no surprises. We had one of those not so great days this last week!

Wednesday morning Glenn and his 2 employees left for a granite install which was around 90 miles away - and just as they were reaching their destination, the transmission went out of our truck - bummer!!!! I always try to look at the bright side of everything though and I guess the good thing was they DID get to do the granite install. After a hefty tow bill getting the truck back up to the shop, the next step will be to either rebuild the transmission or buy a new one!

Glenn and I did end up finding a used truck that we bought on Friday night - it's in pretty good shape and will solely be used as a work truck after a few minor repairs - and once we get the transmission back in our other truck, it can be used more for our camping and ATVing, and just used as a backup for work!

Wednesday afternoon I received a call from my dermatologist - I'd had a complete body scan to check out my moles and one larger one was burned off and sent off for a biopsy. Unfortunately the news on it was not what I wanted to hear - it was a melanoma. But it was caught early and only in stage one so that's the upside!!

I will be heading in for a consultation on April 2nd to talk with the surgeon and am looking at April 9th for the actual surgery to have it cut out. Hopefully I'll only be out of commission for a couple of weeks while it heals...............

And Thursday I went in for a massage and saw a For Sale sign in my massage therapists yard - yes, she is selling her house and moving to Colorado Springs!!! I dearly love her massages and will sure miss her when she leaves - but maybe her house won't sell for a while and I can still use her for the summer!!

THIS WEEK will be better! I guarantee it!!!

St Patrick's Day Weekend

What a whirlwind weekend in Denver!! They just seem to go so fast with so many things to do once we get up there!!

Friday evening was SUPPOSED to be an evening of dancing at the Stampede for the adults but then we found out it was closed to the public that evening - bummer - but we decided to have "adult game night" at Jaime's house and there was even free child care at the church for 3 hours!!! Alas, Glenn and I hit horrible traffic on our way up there and an extra long blind appointment repair on the way also made us late...............But we still arrived in good spirits and ate yummy nachos and played part of a game before it was time to pick the kiddos up!!

Saturday morning found Jessi, Jaime and I at Caribou Coffee drinking our FAVORITE drinks with green whipped cream for an hour and a half!!! Now that's unheard of for us to get to have coffee for that long!!

It was beautiful outside and Jaime, Rayna, Kylan and I walked to their park to play for a while - don't you just love their green????

And then it was a mad dash to make green pancakes and green scrambled eggs for lunch!!

After lunch, Jaime and I left for our "laser" appointments - these poor appointments have been booked and re booked I don't know HOW many times!!! It's actually a birthday present from Jaime to me and she was going to have the same thing done - the hair removed above our upper lips!! So we headed to Simplicity Laser and had the first of 8 procedures done!! Yes, it hurt a little bit but wasn't bad at all!! I'm sure the results will be well worth it!!

Next I headed over to Jessi's to spend some time with Evan and Kenzie!! I had found bib snow pants at Walmart for $3.00 apiece so bought them each a pair for next winter - they HAD to try them on of course!!

Rayna had an afternoon birthday party to attend and the guys went fishing and we all ended up at Jessi's house late afternoon for our chicken and guacamole pizza!!! YUM!! The kids sure had the green food planned out well!!

The munchkins were all so cute in their shades of green!!

And FINALLY, it was time to celebrate Rayna's belated 10th birthday and Jaime's upcoming 34th birthday (today!!!) Jessi made a batch of her awesome homemade cinnamon rolls and they were better than any cake we could have made!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYNA AND JAIME!!!

After church on Sunday, we had a fish fry at Jaime's house - Glenn and Brad had went fishing at night and Glenn caught a large catfish!!

So we all pigged out on fish and homemade french fries!!

After a trip to Sprouts, Kohl's and Jessi's work, the day was gone and it was time to head home! Gosh, I wonder what it would be like if we EVER went to Denver without an agenda!!!