City Wide Garage Sale

 Do you think we need a new office chair for the house?   I'm trying to think how old this chair is - it belonged to a dining room set and we had that set in Arizona - and let's see, we moved to Arizona right after we were married in 1985...............gosh, is it REALLY that old??????  YES!!

Since Glenn and I had no plans for the weekend, of course we had to MAKE plans!!!  First stop - the city wide garage sale!!  I met a friend there and we all walked around to see the goodies!  The ONLY thing I had on my list was books - so of course since I had a list, there were hardly any there!!  I did manage to find 4 of them but that was disappointing...........

As we walked by a place, we saw several office chairs and then I remembered that we really did need a new chair - the price was good but I offered $10 less and they said yes!!  HOORAY - a new chair!!

The same people also had a 2 drawer filing cabinet for sale - which I had just told Glenn the week before that I needed as the one at work was FULL!  So a deal was made on that and we loaded up our things and headed over to grab coffee before we headed to Colorado Springs.

The next several hours were spent in car lots looking at trucks - and it was hot out in the Springs to the tune of 92 degrees!!!  I don't sweat much up here in the mountains but you can bet I was sweating down there..............we looked and looked and of course didn't buy anything but did get a good idea of what we WANT to buy so that was good!!

We did swing down to Camping World after lunch and looked at a few 5th Wheels - Glenn gets to pick out the truck he wants and I get to pick out the 5th wheel!!!  It was fun to peek in a lot of them but there wasn't exactly what I was looking for so that meant I wasn't tempted!!

And then it was back to looking at trucks again until 5:00 hit and I told Glenn - I'M DONE!!!  NO MORE - TAKE ME OUT FOR DINNER!!!  We ended up at Salt Grass Steak House and after a wonderful yummy drink, we had a nice dinner and lots to discuss!!

August Back-Up

 

What happened in August?  PLENTY!!

 

First of all, we did the granite in a new home in Colorado Springs that was featured in the Parade of Homes - this was a home that had burned in the Waldo Canyon fire and was a rebuild.  The house is absolutely gorgeous!! 

 

The construction company asked if all of the sub-contractors could help man the house during the Parade of Homes (which lasted for 16 days) and since Glenn couldn't get away during the week, I was chosen to help.  I worked 3 days there and was actually in the lower level where the beautiful bar was located - even though the granite in the kitchen was pretty, most people had questions about the bar granite since it was leathered, kind of a new concept!  I handed out cards and talked to many, many people during those days. 

 

Glenn and I both worked all day on a Saturday - it was constant people as 1000 people went through between 10:00 and 6:00 - we were sure beat at the end of that day!!

 

 The granite turned out beautiful all over the house but the next prettiest was the laundry room - wouldn't you like to have your laundry room look like this?

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I FINALLY, FINALLY beat Jessi at Ruzzle - this is an IPhone game that I play with her - I have played probably hundreds of games and never won because as we all know, Jessi is FANTASTIC at word games.  So I'm not sure if she just LET me beat her or if she was having a bad day - needless to say, I was VERY EXCITED that I beat her.  Probably will never happen again...........

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Work has been very busy!  We're booking about 3 months in advance and I have taken on a lot more responsibility to free Glenn up!  We have 4 full time employees now and things have finally settled down to a happy medium.  The organizational skills that I have implemented to the business are working out great and things are running smoothly - which is always a plus!  Many days I bring home files for Glenn to get quotes ready so I can email them out the next day but all in all, we've happy with the business and are thrilled we have this much work!

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I finished one of my projects that has been looming in the back of my mind for a while!  Because I'm so organized, I think every picture I have ever taken since high school was in a photo album - which meant that every time we have to pack up to be ready for evacuation during wildfire season, I had 15 boxes of just photo albums - heavy boxes!!  And of course the albums were old, some were those sticky ones with the plastic covers, etc. - and I just decided it was time to downsize!  So I bought those nice perfect boxes from Hobby Lobby, pulled pictures out for hours (and also made piles to give to Teri and Patty of pictures of them and their kids) and then placed them in the boxes according to years.  I now have 4 boxes full of pictures placed right along with my scrapbooks so they are not only all in one place, but 4 boxes will fit into one box when and if we have to evacuate.  A project that I can now cross off my list!

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The 2 businesses on each side of us are gone.  The auction house has moved to a new location and the Hydroponics store went out of business.  It feels rather desolate around here now -  but the parking is wonderful since it's only us!!

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Glenn FINALLY got the fuel pump back in the explorer - he drove it a couple of days and then it died at the bottom of the driveway.  I guess the good news is that he was almost home when it did that - but so far he hasn't been able to locate the problem - good thing we have kept that old explorer for him to drive when we need 2 vehicles. 

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And the exciting news of the day:  we are HOME this weekend with NO PLANS.  That doesn't happen very often around our house!!  Glenn has already informed me that he wants to go pickup shopping and I think I'll tell him I want to go 5th wheel shopping (I should say looking) and he actually said we might go to a movie!!!  WOW - I have been out of the loop looking at movies for ages so guess I better see what's even around and read some reviews!  I'm already excited!

Labor Day Weekend 2013

Did I miss the last two weeks of August?  I'm getting as bad as my two girls who always have to "catch up" on their blogs!  And they have KIDS along with jobs - what's my excuse??  WORK - more on that in my catch up blog!

 

Labor Day weekend arrived and we were heading to Buffalo Peaks again - but the other side!  The camper was packed the night before except for the last minute stuff - and when we arrived at work that Friday morning, Glenn told me we were closing it down at noon!!!  WOW - of course I had to SEE that to believe it!!

 

We did manage to get out of there at 12:30 - a record I'm sure - and raced home and finished packing up!!  As we were heading through Florissant, I reminded Glenn that gas was MUCH cheaper there than in Hartsel but he drove on by anyway.

 

We arrive in Hartsel and guess what???  THEY'RE OUT OF GAS!!!!  So the next 40 minutes was spent driving out of our way to another town to get gas for the ATV!!! 

 

We found a lovely place to camp and I would love to show you a picture of that perfect spot but my camera conveniently forgot to take that picture........sigh..........Just know it was off the road around a bend all by itself, surrounded by aspen and fir trees!! 

 

After setting up and then going for a quick ride on the ATV, Glenn started a nice campfire and we roasted hot dogs and ate with a yummy salad I had picked up at the store - and then it was on to marshmallows - yum!!!  And it was a good thing we enjoyed that campfire!!

 

Glenn headed to bed early and I read till my normal bedtime and then was too lazy to go back outside and bring in my night light, a solar light...........which means I did NOT sleep well - because of the close ceiling in a camper, I get quite claustrophobic, hence the solar light!  I won't forget it again, trust me!!

 

It's always fun cooking breakfast and enjoying coffee before heading out on the ATV - we hit some nice trails and even though it was clouding up, we decided to head for Weston Pass!!  Funny thing is, once we started up it, we realized we HAD been on it before!!

 

We stopped for a quick picnic and by this time, it was really getting dark out - we were just packing up when the thunder, lightning and rain started!!  WOW can that thunder reverberate in the mountains!!  We sat under a couple of trees for a while but it continued to rain and we KNOW how it can rain at Buffalo Peaks (remember the family camp out????) so Glenn donned his rain pants and coat and I put on my wonderful $1 disposable poncho and we headed out!!

Of course Glenn had the raw end of the deal as I huddled behind him!!  BUT at least he was covered in rain gear where my poncho only hit to my knees - by the time we made it back to the camper, the bottom 1/2 of my jeans was soaked, along with my tennis shoes...........and yes, that's the only pair of jeans and shoes I brought!!  We had to turn on the furnace in the camper to get warm and hung wet clothes up to dry - only they wouldn't dry because the rain went on and on and on and on..........

Glenn grilled in the rain - and then when it stopped for a little bit, he started a fire and put my shoes by it to dry them a little - but it didn't stop enough to enjoy the campfire so we were basically stuck in the camper the rest of the afternoon and evening!!

It rained most of the night - (I slept much better!!!) but by then the canvas on the pop up part of the camper was saturated and the end of our bed was wet, including the sleeping bag and sheet!!  I laid it all back so it would dry while we were gone!!

Sunday we ATV'd the other direction - it was beautiful weather as usual in the morning but pretty chilly riding and I wore 3 layers both days!!  We drove by this huge pile of what I thought was sawdust but it was actually chipped wood!!  The grand kids would have had fun playing in that!!

We saw some beautiful territory that day!!

And this is what Glenn does every so often - stops and looks through his binoculars at the mountain to see if he can see any wildlife!

We made it back to the camper just as it started to sprinkle around 2:00 - (I forgot to mention that my jeans never dried because it was SO damp inside the camper so we turned the furnace on in the morning and I held my jeans in front of it till they dried!!) -  and it never stopped raining the rest of the day............Glenn took a nap - I read - we played a game of Scrabble (and yes, he beat me by one point!!) he grilled in the rain again and I don't think I left the camper because of the rain!!  By late afternoon I was getting cabin fever!!

The sleeping bags and sheets were wet again but we just had to use them anyway and we fell asleep to the lovely sound of rain!!  By Monday morning, everything was saturated and there was no hope of it drying out before we packed up so we cooked breakfast, had our coffee and packed up all that lovely outside wet stuff and headed to the other side of the mountain!

We parked just off the highway and unloaded the ATV to head over to where son in law Brad was hunting to see if he had gotten anything yet - but he was already gone - he'd had enough of the rain too................so after another ride, we packed up and headed back home.

It was still a fun weekend but we're sure tired of camping in the rain - I guess we should be thankful we have a camper though and not a tent - because I KNOW I wouldn't have lasted long then!!

Ft Collins Music Fest

Sunday morning we all headed out to breakfast at The Village Inn -  I DO enjoy this chain because they have strawberry crepes - my absolute favorite!!  The kids behaved well and ate ALL of their pancakes which really surprised me as they're not normally great eaters!!

 

In the middle of the meal, we heard this loud PLOP but couldn't figure out what it was till we looked at the ceiling - an entire ceiling tile had become saturated with water and fell - water was dripping out of the hole at a pretty good rate - luckily a customer was NOT walking by when it fell!!

 

The guys headed to Home Depot and we went home and packed sandwiches to take to the Ft. Collins Music Fest!!  Unfortunately the parking was not great so we had to park several blocks away and walk over but the kids were real troopers!!

 

There were some "free" booth giveaways for the kids which they enjoyed and then it was on the "music" portion!!  The kids could go into these different cabins and play different instruments!!  I think their favorite was this drum!!

 

Although Aleah doesn't look it, she was happy since they had just received balloons!

Shake Shake Shake!!  I didn't feel inclined to do the Mexican Hat Dance - maybe I should have?

We walked around for a while amidst all the eating places and carnival attractions and finally decided to head to a park for our picnic!  Don't the kids look cute?

About the time we were done eating, it started to sprinkle so we knew it was time to head back to the house!  Nap time was in order!!  And more blueberry cobbler for us!!

Glenn got his templates done for their new granite bathroom vanities and soon it was time to hit the road for the LONG drive home!!  I'll leave you with this darling picture - Aleah seems to be ecstatic!!

Thanks for a great weekend Jill and Robby!!

Double Time Up North

We were Denver AND Ft. Collins bound this last weekend!!  My friend asks me all the time if we EVER stay home and I always answer the same thing - NO!!

 

Friday night we spent the night with Jessi and Gary - it was fun to talk to Evan about being in the 1st grade and he seems to love it!!  Jessi and I talked the night away and again at coffee early the next morning - she had to work and we were heading out anyway - I'm really liking the new coffee place and now it seems like "our coffee place"!!

 

Glenn and I headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and History - I had bought Groupons for the museum, IMAX and planetarium a while back and realized they were going to expire soon so that 's part of the reason the weekend was planned!!

 

Glenn hadn't been there in many years - I had taken grand kids a year or so ago - but it was fun to have just the 2 of us as you certainly see different things when it's just adults instead of with kids!!

 

One of Glenn's favorite sections (and mine too) is the wildlife!!

That's what Glenn intends to get in a few weeks when he goes hunting.......we shall see.............

And there was a small section on mushrooms and sure enough, they had the ones that we saw ATVing the weekend before - now at least I know their name AND that they're poisonous!!

Also in the rocks and gems department, I actually READ some of the signs and many rocks and gems were actually from our area - Crystal Peak here in Florissant and several from Lake George!! 

We saw an Ice Age documentary in the IMAX portion and it was very good - but both Glenn and I were a little lost with the planetarium documentary - just too deep I guess!!  We're not space people!

After lunch at the museum, we walked around for another hour or so and then headed up to Jill and Robby's for the remainder of the weekend!!

The kids were excited to show us their new playset - it's cute as can be and they love playing on it!!

Jill and I ran to her book store as I had brought up 4 bags of used books!!  We looked around for quite a while and of course I found plenty to buy!!!  But boy was I disappointed when they told me they were only buying back 7 of my books!!!  ARE YOU KIDDING????  I must have brought it 50 or so!!  Oh well...........

We had a yummy dinner early evening - and an even more amazing dessert later on!!  It was made with fresh blueberries and I'm eating a piece as I'm writing this as she sent some home with us!!

As in any household, bedtime is always a fiasco!!  I wanted a picture of Parker in his cute pj's with a cape but he wouldn't cooperate!!!

Until................how sweet is that!!!

Both kids had new beds - Parker had Aleah's old toddler bed and she had a new white one!!  And her room was decorated with new things too and it's just darling!!

After the kiddos were in bed, Jill and I worked on our family photos!  What a job deciding which picture is best and what background - but we made progress -  now to get a 4 way phone call going between the 4 of us so we can get them ordered!!

And before we knew it, it was time for bed.............To be cont'd.........

New Trails

Camping and ATVing weekend - you just gotta take those weekends before the weather gets too cold!!  We could have easily worked all weekend at the shop as there is so much to do but........

 

Because it rained Thursday night, I did not get to pack all the stuff in the camper but I had it all ready by the door!  We had hoped to get out of work by 3:00 but that time eventually changed into 4:00 before we were headed home!!  I actually ran between the camper and the house to get everything packed up because the weather looked like it was going to start raining any minute!!  I had just taken the last load and all we had left was the ice chest when the storm broke - oh my gosh - heavy, heavy rain, thunder and lightning and hail - even though we were willing to get wet, there was no way we could even get to the truck during this storm!!

 

When it finally subsided enough to make a run for it, we left!!  And not long after we left, I got the text that HWY 24 was closed due to flooding!!

 

We headed over Monarch Pass into Black Sage Pass where we were planning on camping - and the little campground that we had thought about camping in was pretty full - so we went on past and through the little village of Whitepine - now it was dusk by this time and the road was narrow going through this small town and I just didn't get a good feeling about it for some reason!  So right past the town, Glenn decided to turn around as it was so narrow and there was a spot wide enough to do that - we went back through the town, up Black Sage Pass and NOTHING - nada - no place to camp!!

 

So we ended up driving across this pasture and parking very close to this huge, huge electrical tower!!  The grass was up to my knees and it was NOT a great spot but by this time it's totally dark out so we decided to just spend the night there!!  I really don't like eating dinner at 9:00 but that's what we did - but luckily I had gotten a chicken and a salad so we didn't have to cook!!

 

It was during the night that it started to rain.............not heavy but just a constant rain - Glenn woke me up and said he thought we should move because we were in a low spot in all this grass and yes, it could get QUITE muddy!!  But I told him he was CRAZY for wanting to pack up in the dark and the rain and move - to where?????  The next morning he told me that he was more concerned about the lightning since we were sitting RIGHT by that tower - in fact, you could hear the current running through it!!  

 

The next morning we packed up and moved to another spot over by Tomichi Pass - a much better place - and before we knew it, we were out to ATV - with 4 layers on I might add - the sun was warm but the air was COLD!!

 

We rode our ATV's into Pitkin, a cute little town that I was surprised we had never been through before - it's at the base of Tomichi Pass and hooks up with other passes that we have been on before.  I loved this little town!!  And I loved this town hall building - it's not really crooked - blame it on the photographer!!

 

Glenn needed some more coffee so we stopped at the gas station/souvenir shop/coffee place to get him some and enjoyed just relaxing on their front porch!!

Did I mention it has rained a LOT in the past few weeks?  Which means the mushrooms were in full bloom!!!  I saw these red/orange mushrooms and for some reason, immediately thought of The Wizard of Oz - Munchkinland - now were their mushrooms in the movie???  I have no idea but that's what came to mind!!

Even though Tomichi Pass was rated difficult, it wasn't bad at all on the ATV - there were a couple of spots where you had to pull to the side if you met someone but at least we didn't have to back up!!

Looking out at the countryside at the top of somewhere?

We ended up coming BACK into Whitepine as we finished the pass - and guess what - there were several camping spots just over a short hill from where we had turned around the night before!!  DARN!!  And after driving back through Whitepine in the daylight, I had an entire different feeling about it - it was cute and many places were run down but it looked SO much better in the day than at dusk!!  Later I found out it was a ghost town but people inhabit it!!

Double mushrooms - how cute is that???

We had a full day's ride and were stiff and sore when we came back to the camper - rest time - happy hour - a nice meal - reading - Glenn hit the sack at 8:30!!  I, of course, read!!

Sunday was pretty cold out again in the morning but we rode till noon and saw some beautiful country!!  I'll leave you with one last picture which is kind of neat because we're at the top of a pass, looking at another pass that we had done last summer. Kind of puts it in perspective of how steep and rugged some of the trails are!!    We'll come back over here as there are even more trails to discover!!

Family Camping AKA RAIN RAIN GO AWAY (just for 2 days!)

Calling Nana and Papa, daughters, son in laws and grand kids - it's time for our first annual camping trip!

 

We had decided that since Parker was now 2, that we could all handle a camping trip since there are no more babies!!  Not that you can't take a baby camping but it's a whole lot easier when they're a little older!!

 

Glenn and I had scouted out a couple of places earlier and then on the last camping trip, Brad and Glenn had found a couple more spots they liked!  Our wish list included a space large enough for a pickup with a camper and trailer with ATV, a truck with a large camping trailer, and space for 2 tents!  But the biggest thing on the wish list was a place where we could have a campfire and that wish came true because the fire ban was rescinded mid-July!!

 

The Smiths and Keppys headed over on Thursday and picked out the spot and set up - Glenn and I arrived later than night and the Savages got in around noon on Friday!

 

It was great fun having a campfire that first night!  The kids loved it and we roasted marshmallows and s'mores!!

 

I think this was lunch on Friday before Jill's got there as the guys were all out ATVing.

 

I LOVE this picture of Parker - he seems to be saying, Really Dad, you're NOT taking me fishing today?

Evan and Kylan loved the fire - let me repeat that - they LOVED the fire!!!  They would virtually stand there for hours and throw little sticks or pine cones in - an old tin can got thrown in and of course we scolded them for that - and the next thing we knew Evan came running with burnt fingers - he had tried to pick up the can out of the fire!  His fingers blistered but I never heard him complain once!

And what's this???  HAPPY HOUR???  Of course - you can't go camping without 4:00 Happy Hour!

Jill brought bubble cups that she had made - oh my gosh, they were SO CUTE and the kids loved blowing bubbles out of them!!  What a great idea!

Did I catch Robby actually dancing here?  I have no idea but Jessi and Gary sure look excited!

It's sometimes hard to catch Parker with a smile but he was sure happy here!!  I had bought each child $1 items from the Dollar Store so we had little contests and each time they did what they were supposed to do, I handed them a prize - they loved it - Parker is holding the butterfly catcher!

Jessi - did you get too close to the fire in this picture?  Nah - just a little sunburn!!  Now check out the size of these marshmallows that we're roasting!!  THEY ARE HUGE!!!  Jaime brought them and they fit perfectly in a graham cracker for a s'more! 

Yes, they were excited to eat those huge marshmallows!!  Me - I'm not fond of s'mores so I just roast the marshmallow and then eat the chocolate separately!

It was COLD at night - yes - pretty cold!!  We decided that Aleah and Kenzie needed to sleep in the camper with us so we folded down the table to make their bed - Kenzie had a full sized SLICK sleeping bag that just wouldn't stay on the cushions so we ended up putting both girls inside of it and that worked out just great!!  This is what they looked like when they woke up the next morning!

What did we do?  Sometimes we girls got to read!!  Other times we just hung out and talked, took the ATV's out for a ride, of course cooked meals but it worked out great as each family either did a breakfast or dinner and then did the clean up!  The guys did some scouting and riding the ATV's.  I guess we took a walk too!  AND showed the kids how to make their own "houses" by arranging long branches from the trees on the ground for an outline - we used to do that when we were kids!!  Brad and Rayna shot their bows - and the kids played and played!!

It was one fun time EXCEPT for the rain and the mud - let me emphasize the MUD!!  The first night it rained most of the night - lovely to sleep by but horrible to walk in the next morning - all our tennis shoes had 2 inches of caked mud on them - and of course it's pretty messy trying to get in and out of campers and tents with kids and muddy shoes!  Luckily the sun came out soon and of course dried everything out!  But what a mess!

There were a couple of quick showers the next day too but they didn't last long - unfortunately that wasn't the case on Saturday.................it started raining - hard - right after Happy Hour - all the kids went into Jaime's large trailer and played some cards for a while but that interest didn't hold long!!!  It just kept raining and it was COLD out!!  Jill was up for dinner that night so Robby grilled the hot dogs on a grill under the awning and we fed all the kids in the trailer - it worked out fine - I handed plates out to the guys and they were kind enough to sit under the awning and eat as there just wasn't room in the trailer!

And it CONTINUED to rain - no campfire Saturday night!!!  By this time the kids were getting REALLY restless and we resorted to putting in a movie in Jaime's DVD player in the trailer - they loved it of course and we could keep our sanity that way!!

Jill and Robby decided to just pack up in the rain and head home that night - we all tried to get them to stay but Robby assumed it would rain all night - and he was right - IT DID - if we thought it was muddy the day before, oh my - you should have seen it Sunday morning!!

Glenn and I were on duty for breakfast - he cooked bacon outside in the rain under our awning and I cooked French toast in the camper and fed everyone in shifts!!!  It was miserable outside!  The Keppys packed up in the rain and left along with Jaime and Kylan (she had driven a separate car over) as Kylan had a reading program to attend.  The road out was super muddy and slick but they all made it out just fine!!

So that left Brad and Rayna, Glenn and I - we all wanted to go ATVing together and to wait and pack up after the sun came out so it would all dry!  We waited for the rain to stop - and then we waited some more - and then finally at 11:00 we decided it was not going to stop so we started packing up all the wet muddy stuff!!  By the time we loaded the ATV's, the sun came out - but we were too tired to unpack them by this point so we all headed home!!

All in all, one great camping trip!!  I'll leave you with a cute picture of Rayna and also one of all the kids watching the movie in the trailer - what a lifesaver that movie was!!