August Photo Dump

 It's time to move on from one of my least favorite months and head into MY FAVORITE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER!

I'm definitely an "ad" shopper when I go for groceries and was amazed how much I saved at City Market one day - $53.05!!!

I had never been to the Florissant Cemetary, even though it's only a couple miles from our house - so when Joleen was here, we drove over to it - we were both amazed how big it was!!

Caught this beautiful rainbow one day!

I LOVE the wildflowers that Glenn planted around this tree!

I enjoy my coffee on the front deck every day that I'm home!  And on this particular day, I caught a hummingbird in flight!

Good friend Cindy from Tx. was in Co. Springs with daughter Erica and her 3 kids so we all met for a Mexican meal together - other daughter Cheryl and hubby Jeremy also were there from Firestone, CO which is close to Ft. Collins - we sure enjoyed seeing all of them!

And that's a wrap for August!

Lake Michigan and Cherry Point Farm and Market

 I enjoyed watching the birds at the feeder Friday morning!  Took a quick walk around the property for some exercise and then it was time to pack up and head out early afternoon!  I had never seen Lake Michigan so we headed to Ludington!

What a cute town!  And was I ever surprised to see this huge sandy beach!!  Guess I always think of Michigan as a northern state with no beaches and cold water!  HA - shows you how much I know!  Anyway, there were quite a few people enjoying the beach and even in the water!

Patty slept in the back seat of the car while Teri and I walked out to the lighthouse - a nice walk!

And here's me standing by the lighthouse and I love that Teri caught the sailboat going by! We went into the little gift shop  but the top of the lighthouse was not open.

We went into downtown and parked so we could shop a little bit!  My Christmas ornament was bought along with a nice coffee mug with Michigan on it!

Next we headed to Cherry Point Farm and Market - gosh was this place nice!  Besides having lavender plants most of the way around this huge garden,  you could actually walk around most of these sections that were marked with what kind of plants were there!

This was the flower section - so pretty!

The bridge that takes you over to the gardens.

And me standing by the lavendar plants!

Their gift shop was quite busy and Teri picked up some lavendar products.  I bought 3 cherry turnovers to have with coffee the next morning! (and yes, they were excellent!!)

We headed back to Teri's GR house and spent the evening visiting.  Saturday was travel day and Patty and I both had flights to Denver and from there, she was headed back to Omaha!  I stopped at Jessi's place on the way home to get an adjustment but didn't stay long as wasn't feeling the best and I wanted to get home!  (Little did I know at the time that I actually had Covid as I tested Sunday night - darn - both girls tested also and we all 3 had it!!)

What a wonderful SISTERS trip - spent with the best 2 sisters ever!!

The River House

 Teri and Jay own 2 homes - one in the city of Grand Rapids and one outside of Baldwin which sits on a stream.  They have done so much work on the inside of the GR house and it's so lovely inside - I especially loved their wine bar and their coffee bar!

We headed out to their river house on Wednesday afternoon - it's a nice drive there and their 6 acres plus their house is so nice!  They have again done a lot of work around their acreage and also to the house so it was fun to see everything that has kept them so busy this last year!

This picture shows a lot of their property and the house in the distance!

Jay had found a car that he had always wanted so he took me for a ride - it was LOUD!   But fun to ride in!

We had a fantastic dinner prepared by Jay - I'm not sure what it's called but it was chicken and a sauce which had tomatoes and mushrooms in it over pasta and it was excellent!!  Later that evening Patty was so impressed when she found out Jay had made tiramisu!!  (And I was impressed that Teri had made me a rhubarb cake that we had been eating on at the GR house!!)

We drove into Baldwin the next day so I could take this picture of the fish statue!

Teri made me special coffee!!  Patty was NOT feeling well at all on Thursday and Friday so she slept a lot while Teri and I talked and talked and did some reading!

Teri and Jay have put out many bird feeders and it was so fun to watch the different birds come in to eat!  

We sure enjoyed staying at the river house!

Three For Tea

 Teri had the three of us booked for tea on Wednesday!  What a lovely place it was and we enjoyed every minute!  The table setitngs were lovely!

Check out the timer on the table - quite British!!  The menu was very nice with different choices!

Patty and I shared from this set and Teri had her own set!  I'm not sure which I enjoyed most - the yummy sandwiches, the delicious scones with clotted cream or jelly or lemon, or the fantastic desserts!

We each had 2 pots of tea - I'm not a big fan of tea so I always get a fruit flavor and both pots were great!

We spent a leisurely 1 1/2 hours here and enjoyed every moment eating, drinking and talking!

This is the display case of many tea sets - interesting to see!

We were all quite full by the time we left - Thanks Teri for a wonderful time at the tea!

Concert Time

 After  Mejier Gardens, we headed home to change and get back into the car to meet Emily for appetizers and drinks! It was a cute place with $5 appeitizers so we ordered 4 or 5 of them along with drinks and it was PLENTY!  The deviled eggs were the BEST!

Then we had the drive to Kalamazoo which is a little over an hour drive - naturally we hit some rush hour traffic but Teri's a pro at driving!  We met Emily (who had driven herself down there as she had to leave after the concert to go to a training session a couple of hours south), Jay and friend Sue for the concert!  And who were we seeing?  Graham Nash from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young!

A quick photo of the 4 of us before the other 2 arrived!

Our balcony seats were perfect to admire the gorgeous theater that the concert was held in!  The place was packed and I think Emily was the youngest one there - HA!  Most of us were in our 60's, 70's and I would dare to say even 80's!

Check out this theater - gosh it was pretty!!   The concert was amazing - I loved the stories he told about each song he sang and did NOT remember that he was part of the Hollies group back in the 60's!  We all sang along to "Marrakesh Express", "Our House"," Teach Your Children", and "Just A Song Before I Go."  It was a great concert!

The only tough part was poor Teri had to drive home in the dark - but she rocked driving and we made it home in record time!

Sisters' Trip - Michigan

 It's Sisters Trip Time!!  Between all of our busy summer schedules, mid August was the best time to head to Teri's so Patty and I booked flights and we all met in Grand Rapids, MI!  Luckily Teri lives close to the airport as Patty got in around noon and I didn't get in till 6:30!  Teri had lasagna and garlic bread all ready to eat after she picked me up along with wine so we were set for the evening!

Teri had a packed schedule for the next couple of days!!  Tuesday morning we headed "downtown" to have brunch - quite a different place (as the original place she had picked didn't open until  11:00!)  This restaurant was long and narrow and to me, on the "yuppie" scale!!  Only about 6 breakfast items to choose from so we chose 2 and split them - one is a french omlette and the other was french toast with peaches - all very good - definitely pricey for the small portions!

Since we didn't order coffee there, we headed across the street to a "coffee" place - it was very busy and we were surprised when we went to order that they had no whip cream or caramel as everything is made "in house".  I kind of thought I was in NYC!!

Then we were off to Meijer Sculpture Gardens - we had been there years ago when it was extremely hot so were excited to go back as the weather was gorgeous!  This wall was amazing to look at inside the main building!!      And below that, was inside the botanical garden - since it was even a bit chilly out, this place definitely warmed us up and we enjoyed the birds inside!

Since there is so much to look at with all the outside sculptures, we decided to ride the tram around - it was very interesting to see all of the sculptures and the story behind them!  This is a picture of just one of the strange ones!!

We loved the Japanese Gardens - we walked up a small hill and could see for a long ways how beautiful the gardens were!

Patty and Teri at the top!

Patty and I in front of the fountain in the desert garden.

And a selfie of the 3 of us!

This horse is HUGE and I remembered it from the the last time we were here!!  There's quite the story behind it concerning Leonardo Da Vinci!

A lovely day spent together - but we still had more to do!!

School Days

 It's that time of the year again - school has begun for all of the grandkids and now their crazy schedules will start up again!  But I enjoy the school year - I love seeing the kids in their various sports and other activities - and of course when school starts, I know that fall is right around the corner!

Our youngest grandchild Gwyn is in 4th grade!

Kenzie is a sophomore!

Evan is a senior!

Kylan is a junior and attending Merit Academy this year!

Parker is in 8th grade!

Aleah is a sophomore!

Matias is enrolled in UCCS in Colorado Springs and Irene will be attending Colorado Technical University!

Nedelle is a junior at Wayne State College in NE - Chance is in 7th grade and Maggie is in 6th grade in Onawa, Iowa!

After a great summer for all of them, it's nice to see them back in school!