Reflections

 Memories of a friend who passed away 13 years ago - a celebration of his life - that was the agenda on Saturday as we met at Joleen's home to scatter the remaining ashes of Norm.

One of my favorite memories is the picture in my mind of Norm sitting outside the rental cottage at Kino Bay, Mexico, visiting with the ironwood vendors!  Norm was a woodworker and loved the ironwood carvings that he purchased in Mexico - and that was the memory I wrote down and put in the memory canister, amidst the ironwood carvings above.

Mexico memories were talked about and we all toasted with a shot of tequila!

 Because we were having a spring blizzard at the time, the plans to hike up to the top of the property were not feasible so we climbed into a couple of vehicles and drove to the top - each of us spread a baggie of Norm's ashes and laughed about the trees that Joleen and Norm had planted on the property when they first purchased it - the trees were still not even knee high!!

 And then it was back to Joleen's house where we all ate a huge spread of Mexican food and drank margaritas!!  A special day with friends - and I know Norm was looking down from above with a smile on his face!!

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

This year I decided to do things a little different for the kids' birthdays - it's really hard to think up something cute and unique - especially hard to think of something they don't already have!!  So for the 5 older ones, I decided to get them all the same thing:  a craft, money to be put towards books at the local book store OR to order books from the school (we used to call them tab books) and a coupon towards a movie and popcorn!!

And since I was heading back from Jill's on Sunday, I had checked the movies in Denver and thought it would be a great time to take Rayna and Evan to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman - when I talked to Jaime, she said Kylan really wanted to see it too so I included him for his EARLY birthday present!!

Rayna is looking like a teenager, even though she just turned 12 - they're all growing up way too fast!!

Anyway, the movie I chose was in 3-D which I thought would be really cool - so after getting a large popcorn to share and drinks, we headed in!!

The little ones got the kids' green glasses and Rayna and I got the black adult ones - it was great seeing this movie in 3-D and I even enjoyed it!!

Do they look engrossed in this movie or what?

All in all, a great time with the grand kids!!

A Trip Up North

I can only stay away so long from the grand kids and then it's time to take a trip!!  Glenn had decided he wanted to go fishing in Pueblo over the weekend so I took the opportunity to head up to Jill's!  It was nice leaving on Friday around 1:00 to avoid the worst of the traffic and I even beat Jill home from work!! 

It was beautiful outside and the kids were excited to be out without coats - I of course was dressed for winter and by the time we came in, I was sweating!!

Jill fixed an excellent seafood lasagna for dinner that night and after baths and getting the kids to bed, I helped her put together 10 frozen crockpot meals!!  I decided it's a lot more fun to make these with another person - along with some dance music and wine coolers!!

Saturday was kind of a lazy day - we took the kids out for ice cream (late Valentine's Day present) and I actually took a picture on my phone but it turned out kind of lousy so I didn't post it - it was cool and windy out so no outside play that day!!  And then Jill and I went back out to run a couple of errands while Robby was home to watch the kids!

I think the remainder of the day was spent playing "Princesses" with Aleah -  you know, the game where there is a little castle and each of us has a princess in our hand and we make up what is happening???  And we have to talk back and forth to each other and bounce the little princesses around and use OUR IMAGINATION!!!  Jill kept reminding me it's an excellent way to expand the mind and I kept reminding myself it was MUCH better than watching her play games on the electronics!!!  Seriously, I didn't mind it at all, and I hope that she will remember in the future that I took the time to play and play and play..............

Jill and I went to the A Capella Choir Concert from Concordia University that evening at her church - it was a great concert and as I read the bulletin of all the places the choir has toured over the years, it brought back memories of the choir tour I did in Europe during college.  So Jill patiently listened to my "Europe" stories during pie and coffee after the concert!!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids riding their bikes outside!

Sunday arrived way too fast - I bribed Jill to run out and get coffee and bagels for us while I played Princesses with Aleah - yummy coffee and even better bagels and cream cheese!!

After an early lunch, I headed out to Denver for an afternoon with the rest of the bunch!!  What a great weekend!!

It Doesn't Get Any Cuter............

My all time favorite photo from last summer finally was printed to an 8 x 10 and put in this darling frame I picked up at Target on Sunday afternoon!!  The photographer told all the kids to walk forward and I absolutely love their expressions! 

Granddaughter #1 Turns 12!!

This is what all the trees looked like in Co. Springs when we arrived for Rayna's one day tournament at Colorado College!  It was 29 degrees when we left Woodland Park and by the time we got down the pass, it was 8 degrees and quite frosty!!

I really didn't enjoy the alarm going off at 6:15am on a Sunday morning but we wanted to go out for breakfast before the tournament................we had eaten at a great place last fall and I was anxious to eat there again - it was not to be - the place was all closed up and I later researched it on the internet and found out they closed last Sept. when their lease was up - it was just too expensive to keep the place open.............so we settled on The Village Inn which was OK with me because they serve crepes!!

We headed to the tournament and were greeted with warm hugs from Rayna - and it was actually her b'day on Sunday so how special to see her!!

We spent the day at the tournament and Rayna's team took 4th place - they played good though and it's always fun to watch the games!!  Late morning we walked over to the college commons to get some coffee and it was still really cold out!!

Happy Birthday Rayna - I can't believe you're already 12 years old!!!

Cold Characters!

WELCOME!  WELCOME!  It's the annual ice sculptures display in Cripple Creek with the theme this year being "characters".  We met up with friends Jan and Jan and headed over late Sunday morning to see the displays!!

I took this picture for Kenzie and Aleah - it's Alice In Wonderland!

It was fun seeing the guys carve and make these magnificent statues out of ice!!

Batman anyone?

And at the end of the street is a slide made out of ice for the kids!!  All of the grand kids would have loved this!  Maybe a bit cold though!

As we walked towards the vendors, this cute frog was reminding all of us that St. Patrick's Day isn't that far away!  He sure would look cute on my deck!

After I posted this pic I realized Glenn's eyes were closed - oh well, he probably slept through the meal anyway................We ate at Baja Billy's and had some great Mexican food!

What a great way to spend a Sunday!

Almost Time To Say Good-Bye

It's happening way too fast - my best friend Joleen will be moving to Kansas at the end of this week................She's been waiting a long time for her house to sell so she can move by her daughter and grandkids - I can't blame her a bit as she makes that journey to KS. about every 6 weeks to see them and it's a 7 hour drive one way!!  I'm excited that she FINALLY gets to be by her grand kids and be involved in all they do but I'm sad to think that she will be gone............

Joleen and I really became close friends when our daughters (Jessi and Becca) started clogging together!  They clogged a lot locally at events and then it was the big trip to Salt Lake City for clogging camp and before we knew it, they were clogging at Disneyland - what a trip that was!!

And that was the starting point of a lasting and wonderful friendship!!

Joleen is a nurse and also is very active in the local Farmers Market as she loves to garden so all of her friends joined her for a going away party on Saturday - check out the brunch we enjoyed!

We attempted a group picture and I guess it didn't turn out too bad!!

I saved my gift till the end and she was overjoyed with it - I did a photo book of all of our memories together!!  Usually I can put together these books in a couple of hours but because older pictures were involved, it took a whole lot longer!!  I did go digital in 2005 so the pictures after that were easy since they were on the computer - but anything before that I had to dig out of photo albums and scrapbooks, take pictures of the pictures with my camera and then download them to the computer - it was quite the task but I knew it would be appreciated!!  We laughed and laughed at many of the old pictures when we looked SO YOUNG!!!

It was a great get together and one that Joleen will never forget!!

Although we'll be 7 hours away from each other after this weekend, I know we'll still see each other often - it's easy in this age of technology to stay in touch and after talking to each other almost daily for the last few years, I can't see that changing too darn much!!