The First Annual Boys Adventure

I had been telling the boys (or maybe it was the moms?) that they could come down and spend a couple of nights at our house once they got a little older!  HMMMM - seems like they really aged these past couple of years because they're both now 5 years old and it definitely was time to make good on my promise!

Since we were already going to be in Denver for the weekend, I thought it would be a good time to bring them back with us and then meet Brad in Co Springs a couple days later to take them back home!

The boys were so excited they could hardly contain themselves and all weekend kept asking if THIS was the day they would get to come home with us and FINALLY it was the day!!

Nana and Papa DO NOT have movies in their car - a real change from their cars so they had to spend the next 2 hours talking between themselves, eating snacks and looking out the window!  The drive wasn't bad at all and before we knew it, we were home!

I told Glenn that I was sure the boys would be too old to play in the little sand box - as you can see, I was wrong!

Because there was rain in the forecast, Papa put some boards and tarps across the open area of the unfinished clubhouse and the boys thought that was great!!!  Their first comment was - What do we sit on?  So I got the little chairs out of the closet and they thought those were perfect!  They wore their camo jackets and carried their walkie talkies every chance they could!

I decided to teach them how to play Crazy 8 (child's version) and Go Fish with a deck of cards and they loved both of those games!  But they mostly enjoyed the game of Sorry!  I have the old, old version that the girls had growing up and it's getting pretty beat up!  The boys didn't care at all and we enjoyed playing it after dinner!

After snacks, (I gave the boys 4 choices of snacks - Evan promptly asked if HE could choose the 4 items for snacks the next day - I don't think so!  I allowed the boys to watch a movie in the evening but it was the only time the tv was on during their stay - I gave myself a pat on the back for that!

The boys slept on their blowup beds on the floor of the loft where I could keep an eye on them!  It was an interesting night as Kylan talks in his sleep - not just a little bit - a LOT!!  And he's perfectly coherent when he talks, just like he's carrying on a conversation!  Of course each time he started talking, I sat up in bed thinking there was a problem but there wasn't!  And after all of that talking, you would have thought he would have slept in a little bit - NOT - at 5:45 he walked over to the bed and said "RISE AND SHINE" - I just moaned and rolled over but the day had already started!

Happy Birthday Jessi!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jessi who turns 31 today!!  I hope you have a wonderful birthday and enjoy your day to the fullest!! One of my favorite pictures is below taken at 11 Mile Canyon with little Evan - it was a great day and full of lots of memories!!!

Aurora Resorvoir

Saturday morning we woke up to WHAT????  CLOUDS?????  OVERCAST SKIES?????  VERY COOL WEATHER?????  Oh well, it's called go with the flow!!!

Jessi's family headed to the reservoir early in order to get one of the canopies with picnic tables underneath since we didn't want to be out in the hot sun all the time!!  Trust me, the sun was NOT a problem that day!!

The rest of us made sandwiches and packed the cooler and headed out about 9:00am!  One thing about the cloud cover is you didn't have to worry about taking pictures!  Here's Robby and Jaime before heading over to the volleyball court!

Kenzie found her favorite person and had fun playing in the sand!

And the cool weather didn't stop the boys!!  They found a bug in the sand so of course had to cover it with sand and drown it - typical boys!

Rayna's our volleyball gal and persuaded several of the gang to play - I opted to sit in the sand covered up with a blanket!

It just wouldn't be a picnic without miami vices!!!  I made them before I left and froze them - by the time we were ready to drink them, the consistency was perfect (note the pina colada is in the bottom 1/2)

Jill made cupcakes for Aleah's birthday - we had candles but no matches - it was a little windy anyway by this time so she "pretended" to blow out the candle!

And little Parker - he could NOT get that cupcake in his mouth fast enough - it was hilarious watching him eat it!

We had an extra set of friends there with us so it made it easy to get a family picture taken!  It actually didn't turn out TOO bad  - I'm not sure what Kylan has in his mouth - or maybe he's sticking his tongue out????

We headed home about noon, just as the sun comes out - figures..............But it was nap time for the kids and us 4 girls were heading to a movie - yes we went and saw "Magic Mike".  Yes, it was a fun movie to see with the "girls" but I'm not really going to recommend it because it wasn't all that great and the language was horrible - am I just getting old??????

We grilled hamburgers in the storm that followed later that afternoon but nobody complained because the rain was WONDERFUL!!!!  The guys opted to go fishing a little later but not much luck after the rain.  However they did go out the next morning about 5:00am and the results are below!!  Brad was certainly all smiles after his catch!!!  And Glenn and I headed home with 2 little boys in tow who were so excited all weekend that all we heard was "Is it time to go your house yet?" 

July Birthday Celebration

It's the BIG celebration month where we celebrate 4 birthdays - Aleah, Jessi, Jill and me!  So it's a great time for all of us to get together!!

Rayna had been at Lutheran Valley Retreat Camp all week so I picked her up Friday afternoon and she hung out with Papa and I at work until it was time to head up to Denver for the weekend!  Unfortuantely, the traffic was horrible but we finally made it up there for a delicious taco dinner and yummy strawberry pretzel dessert!

Aleah was up first to open her presents!

 Boy, these two little girls look awful serious!!

 Parker just sat in the midst of it all and smiled!

 Jill is all smiles as she opens a frosting kit and Parker - well, he's eating the banana holder she got!

 Jessi got some new decorative plates for her plate holder!

 And even though Jaime's birthday is in March, I always wait and give her, her birthday gift with the other 2 girls since it's always the same thing!!

 And me, well I received a head scratcher which we all used over and over again that evening AND a new set of wind chimes which I've already hung up at home - they look and sound beautiful!!!

I made mango/berry dacquiris later that evening and before long it was time to hit the sack so we'd all be in good spirits for our fun filled Saturday!

Symphony Under The Clouds

Woodland Park has a tradition of having an outdoor concert presented by the Colorado Springs Symphony the night after the 4th.  Glenn and I haven't been to the concert for quite a few years now so were excited when friends called and invited us to sit with them!

It's a great social event - everybody brings their lawn chairs, blankets, sweatshirts, and a cooler packed with drinks and food!  They have live music till the actual symphony starts and there are always a ton of people there!

It was a gorgeous evening - it had clouded up during the afternoon so we didn't have the bright sun shining on us and later on, we were sure glad we had our jackets!

The concert was amazing!  The first song they did was a collaboration of the armed force songs and any active or retired servicemen or women were to stand when their branch song was played!  WOW - I don't think there was a dry eye in the place by the time the song was finished!  And then the fire chief for our county talked a minute about our recent fire and informed us it was 90% contained!  A few of our firemen came forward and we all clapped and cheered for them!

A few of the songs were war songs from World War II but we still recognized them!  Later on they had a fantastic trumpet player play a Louie Armstrong song and then sing it - he was amazing!

Their final number is always the 1812 Overture - and in years past Ft. Carson always brings up the cannons to fire during that piece - unfortunately we had no cannons this year and no fireworks due to the fire - but we were all OK with that!

As we walked to our cars after the concert was over, the thunder and lightning started up - a perfect end to a perfect evening! And as far as pictures go, alas, my camera was left at work............

Happy 4th of July

I love red, white and blue!!  I think the colors are my favorite part of the 4th of July - of course along with wishing Robby and Jill a Happy Anniversary AND wishing Happy Birthday to Aleah who turned 3 years old!  I always reminisce about Aleah's birth since none of us made it up to Ft. Collins in time to witness it!!  She'll continually be our little firecracker!  We'll be celebrating her birthday this weekend along with the other July birthdays so pictures to follow!

The 4th just doesn't seem like the 4th when it falls on a Wednesday!  Now any other day of the week is OK because if it lands on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday, you can easily pull off a 3 or 4 day weekend!  But when it's right, smack dab in the middle of the week, it's a little hard to justify taking a 5 day weekend!!

Our day was jam-packed and downright FUN!!  We needed that after all the stress of the fire the week before!  So we packed up a lunch, grabbed the sunscreen and hooked up the boat to go fishing over at 11 Mile Reservoir!  I, of course, took a book!

The water was like glass and there were hardly any other boats around so it made for a nice, peaceful day!  Glenn had fun fishing and even caught a nice trout and I read an entire book!  We had sun till about noon when it clouded up but no rain, just coolness and I was glad I had a beach towel to wrap up in!

After loading up the boat mid-afternoon, we headed over to Martin and Joleen's for a BBQ - they had their neighbors over and some relatives so we stuffed ourselves and had a great time!

And if that wasn't enough for the day, after we got home, our neighbors came over with a delicious Mexican cake (a very dense white cake with all types of fresh fruit on the top) and we celebrated Stan's 60th birthday!  I was so exhausted afterwards that it was all I could do to make my way to the couch and watch a little TV before bedtime!

Happy Birthday to America - Happy Birthday to Aleah- Happy Anniversary Robby & Jill!

Feelings

The Colorado Springs people whose streets are being listed on the TV, are starting to gather at UCCS to hear about the 346 homes that were lost  - I can't imagine what they are feeling right now.  Maybe some of them have already accepted the fact that their home is gone - others I'm sure are holding onto the hope that their home is still standing.

Being in the insurance business most of my life, I have to admit that I'm glad I'm not working there now - it's a tough place to work during a wildfire and I remember vividly the calls I took while working at Farmers during the Hayman Fire.

I had grand plans (since we weren't working) today of deep cleaning the kitchen - I can assure you, that didn't get done and was probably the furthest thing from my mind!  We did drive into W. Pk this morning and after we got there, I couldn't wait to get back home again - I was irritable, agitated and depressed after we arrived.  And back here at the house, it's calm and you can actually forget about it for a while.

My friend Joleen stopped by after she got off of work today and we went into Florissant to have coffee together - now that was fun - and it took our minds off of the fire for a while.

It just seems you can't turn the continuous coverage off of the TV - you watch and watch and watch - and most of it is a repeat - yet you still stay glued to it.  About 8:00 each evening though we do watch either a movie or a taped show, just to get away from it!

It's after 6:00 now and it's 60 degrees out - we didn't get any rain, just a few sprinkles but the humidity has risen and that made for a good day for the firefighters.  Let's hope we have more of these days ahead!

I'm praying that by next Monday they will have a large containment on the fire and we will be able to get back to business. Until then.................