September Photo Dump

 I'm sad because my favorite month has already passed by - yup, I blinked and it was gone!  So here's to an AWESOME September!!

Aleah got her braces off the end of August!!  She looks beautiful!!

Hooray - the pumpkin spice English muffins are out!  My Favorite!!

Septembers' Full Moon - gorgeous!

What a beautiful sunrise among the clouds and the aspens - this was on our early morning walk!

WOW - I've NEVER had all 3 coffee cans of pumpkin bread NOT come out of the cans - I was almost in tears until I looked at the picture and noticed the front left one looks like a gnomes face!!  HA!  That brought a smile to my face - the next 3 loaves were better - just one that came out like this!  It still tastes good but really?????

And finally the aspen grove below our house - one of the best years ever for the aspens!

And that's a wrap for September!

Fall Trip - Back Home

 It's hard to sleep in when you're used to getting up early!  I woke up quite early so got up and showered and put on my coat and walked around the grounds, just to get some exercise!  Since "The Diner" was going to be open today and it served breakfast starting at 7:00, we were out the door early to go eat.  And of course, guess what - it was NOT open, even though their website said it was........

We decided we were NOT going to wait around for the other one to open at 8:00 so we quickly packed up and left with plans to eat in Gunnison - yes, it would be much later than normal but I had plenty of snacks in the car to eat until we arrived!

The drive back home was beautiful - a different way of course!!  I loved this back way of going into Gunnison!

Thought this was a unique picture with the dead tree surrounded by all the gold leaves!

We made it into Gunnison - very hungry by this time and there was a line at the W which is the restaurant Glenn loves - it's a locals place!!  We split an omlette which was excellent and also ordered a HUGE cinnamon roll to split!!  Even had 2 different people come up to our table and ask us if the cinnamon roll was good as they were going to order one to take home - YES IT WAS!!!!

 We were on gravel for a while - I kept snapping and snapping!  This was on Black Sage Pass.

Once we got down on the flat land, it's always fun to look back at the mountain - lots of gold in those hills!

And finally Monarch Pass which is always gorgeous in the fall - sometimes it only last a few days but the weather was very nice so hopefully the leaves will stay on for a while!

And eventually we made it home - even the colors around home had changed in a few days and were beautiful - what a great fall trip!!

Fall Trip - Day 2

 At our age you never know if you're going to get a good nights' sleep but we both slept great so that was a plus!  I knew exactly where we were going to eat breakfast because only one place was open - so we got dressed and headed to town and were there by about 8:15!  OH MY GOSH!  With it being the ONLY place to eat breakfast, the line was almost out the door - AND they were short of help! We waited and waited and waited and finally got up to the register to order - the gal was making a latte as she took my order (and all I could think of is she is NEVER going to remember what we ordered for coffee).  Breakfast sandwiches with regular coffee for Glenn and a mocha for me - $38.00 (what did I expect???  HA)

Unfortunately there was NO place to sit inside as it's VERY small so the only alternative was outside - they had a nice deck with lots of tables and chairs but it was all shaded - Glenn had worn his coat, I hadn't as I knew we would be sitting inside - RIGHT!!!  SO I would stand in front of the place for awhile and get warm and then go and sit with Glenn!

We FINALLY got our breakfast sandwiches and they were delicious!  I kept watching the gal that took our order bring coffee out to other people outside and then I realized she was serving people that had ordered after us - GRRRRRR - by this time we're 1/2 way done with our sandwiches!!  I walked in and told her we didn't have our coffee and I was right, because she hadn't written it down, she had forgot it.  In her defense she was SUPER busy and I was very nice about it - she apologized and soon brought out both of our coffees along with a paper bag with a strudel in it - so very nice of her to give us that!

So we went back to our place and had another cup of coffee and split the strudel before we headed out!

We headed over McClure Pass - a beautiful place but some of the trees weren't quite turned yet - still majestic!

The view of the entire valley was amazing!

Then we dropped down into the town of Marble - (that tiny picture above is an error - Blogger printed the same picture twice so I made one very tiny!) Marble is a small town but it leads to the trail that has the most photographed mill in Colorado - Crystal Mill - we ATV'd there a few years ago and it's WELL worth the trip there in the fall!   We made a swing through the tiny town - it has quite the business at probably the only place to eat in town - BBQ - but we were still full from breakfast so didn't stop!

Stopped at this pretty place to grab a picture!

Then it was back up the pass!

Back to our place for a photo op on the swing!!!

Dinner - I felt like we were batting zero!!  There was a Mexican place open that just had an OK menu so we decided to head back to Big B's where we had eaten a few years ago - you just order inside and then sit outside to eat in this huge area - it's a fruit farm with a campground and just a cool place!  Hamburgers and fries were great and we were back home before dark!  Glenn and the owner sat around and talked quite a while - his girlfriend showed up later so we visited before we all headed in for the night!

Fall Trip - Day 1

 It's my favorite time of year and one of my favorite trips of the year - leaf peeping in Colorado!!  Because we were STILL having issues with the razor, we decided to not take the ATV - we would just drive the car and stay in a cabin or hotel.  By the time we figured all of this out, there wasn't a lot of choices of where to book so Glenn suggested we stay in Paonia, driving a couple of passes that first day!  So that's where I booked!

We headed out early Tuesday morning and ate at Jan's in Buena Vista for breakfast - always good food!  And then it was over Cottonwood Pass and over to Kebler Pass, one of my favorite places for leaves!  There's always traffic on Kebler but since it was a week day it wasn't too bad!

The colors were gorgeous and the picture below is MY favorite of the entire trip!  I love taking photos when there's a little bit of snow on the mountains!

We drove up to Lost Lake - there's a campground up there and it's a beautiful spot!

We headed to Paonia mid-afternoon and it was a lovely drive!  I had NO IDEA where I had booked a place to stay - only that it was located on a fruit farm and it was to the side of a house!  But I had no service whatsoever - and later found out that Verizon does NOT work at all around there - interesting!

SO we went into town and I got enough service sitting outside a restaurant that I could google the address and figure out where it was!  Of course we had driven right by it so we didn't have far to go out of town to find it!   I was so surprised when we pulled in to discover there were several small cabins too!

It was beautiful there - the owner met us as soon as we pulled in and he was very nice!  We found our place just to the side of the large house (which actually turned out to be common area for everyone but since we were only 1 of 2 couples staying there, we had it all to ourselves!  Inside was a complete kitchen and living room and game room)  

Our place was so cute and very nice - with a living room that looked out onto the large deck in front and a little galley kitchen and a bedroom with a window seat - I was thrilled!

We walked out to the center of the property where there is a great place for a campfire and sitting at picnic tables, etc!  It was beautiful!

The owner had given us a list of places to eat in town and I had looked up some before we came - but unfortunately, getting food in this town isn't easy!!!!  Besides a restaurant that had NOTHING that looked appetizing to eat, the only other open place for dinner was a pizza place - and then we found out it was closed for remodeling!   OH MY!!  But we knew there was a food truck in town and we DID find it - it was a pizza place- wonderful!!!  We ordered just a medium supreme - I was aghast at the price of $28.00 for it!  OH well!!   And Glenn wanted a beer so we found the liquor store and got him beer and me a Mike's - since they had told us 1/2 hour to 45 min on the pizza, Glenn took me home so I could get the drinks nice and cold and he went back and picked up the pizza!   Dinner on the front deck was VERY nice - the pizza was delicious - but the drinks were not very cold!    The owner joined us for drinks and lots of talking!

So a very nice first day of our trip!!!

Time With Family

 So next up was Ft. Collins!  After dropping off the Keppy kids, we headed to Ft. Collins early enough to miss rush hour Friday traffic!  Jill was still at work and Aleah had softball practice but Robby was home and Parker came in not too much later!  And Penny is ALWAYS excited to see us!

After dinner that evening, Jill and I decided to go out by the fire pit and enjoy a glass of wine - so relaxing!

Saturday morning I suggested we stop and get coffee ( and hot chocolate for Jill) and head to the Sculpture Park in Loveland to walk around - it was a beautiful day and I always enjoy walking around!

Parker didn't have any activities that weekend so I just took a picture of him in his room gaming!

Late morning we packed a lunch and headed to Aleahs' softball game - unfortunately they lost but Aleah played great and it was fun to watch her at 3rd base!

There's a new Krispy Kreme donut place nearby so Robby kept us supplied with donuts all weekend - gosh they are good!

We just played some games and hung out Saturday afternoon and evening - Jill and I finished a movie that we had started Friday night - the guys were glued to football all weekend!

Woke up to rain on Sunday morning but it soon cleared up and the day was beautiful!  Jill had purchased tickets to the Chocolate and Cheese Extravaganza in Loveland along with taste tickets - I was so excited to go as I hadn't been to anything like that!  Jill's friend Christiana and her daughter came along too!  A nice picture of the 3 of us before we head out!

The chocolate place was great - crowded, even though you had a timed ticket and you just walked around and if you wanted a sample, you gave the different places a ticket or two!  We LOVED the chocolate places and had a couple of favorites - some of the cheese was a little strange tasting but it was sure nice to have some cheese inbetween all that chocolate!

My favorite was a chocolate raspberry brownie AND a coffee chocolate bar - all in all a wonderful time and I'm so glad we got to do it!

Glenn and I headed out when we got back to Jill's - the traffic was not bad at all so we made awesome time getting back home - a great time in Ft. Collins!

Just How Much Can We Do In ONE Day?

 If it's us, we can jam pack a lot of things in one day!  Take last week for instance - we were headed to Denver and then Ft Collins for a total of 4 days! So we headed out about 9:00am with our first stop in Co. Springs to visit Dick and Arlyne at the Morning Star Assisted Living - it was fun to catch up with them and then it was on to Denver, after stopping for lunch!

We arrived at Jessi's with enough time to visit a little bit with Jessi and Gary and then we walked to Gwyns' school for Grandparents Day/Ice Cream Social!

It was bright and sunny at the school - they had chairs set up outside so we moved 3 of them into the shade which was perfect!  Popsicles for the kids and vanilla or chocolate for the adults - and bonus, a cute Grandparents mug!

Then we headed back to the house to change clothes and pack warmer clothes for later - we headed to Kenzies' volleyball game which was a ways away and it was rush hour - always interesting to get through the traffic! Jessi and Gary both came but we drove 2 cars as Gary and Jessi left before the game got over!  Kenzie played SO WELL and we both love watching her play!

They went to 3 sets but unfortunately they lost!  We ended up eating our dinner during the last set so we didn't have to eat in the car!  Glenn and I headed out after the game to go to the Homecoming Football Game where Evan would play in the pep band AND do the 1/2 time show!  I changed in the car and Glenn changed what he needed to as soon as we got there!  Luckily there was still parking spots and the game started just as we arrived!

The half time show was amazing!!  This band does such a great job with their playing and their movements!!

It was chilly at the game but not as bad as sometimes!!  I had plenty of clothes on so stayed warm!

Evan joined us for a picture before he went back to the pep band!

Jessi, Gwyn and I decided to leave during the 3rd quarter - we're not that interested in football so we headed home and after that LONG day, I was tired!!!!

Friday morning I woke up in time to join Gary and Jessi on their walk with Kona - Gary captured the sunrise perfectly!

Jessi and I headed to an early coffee before she had to go to work -then I headed back to the house and hung out with the kids before we took them to Slim Chickens for lunch - what a fun time! (they were out of school for the day!)

After dropping them back at the house, we headed to Ft Collins - what a fun and eventful time at the Keppys!!!!!

Camping Trip To Pitkin

 I can't believe I have only been camping ONCE this summer!!!  It was an extremely busy summer having grandkids down, a trip to Iowa, a trip to Michigan and other activities, including some of the grandkids!

And of course Covid slowed me down also so it was FINALLY time to take a trip and I decided I wanted to go to Pitkin - we have one special spot we love to wilderness camp in, although it is usually taken.  But I absolutely love their campground!  Glenn and I rarely camp in a campgrounds but this one is nice because the spaces are so far apart and it's covered in trees, surrounded by mountains!

We left on a Wednesday morning - and BONUS - the leaves on Monarch Pass were starting to turn - I was thrilled!  After arriving (and taking a little shortcut which Glenn had found ) we unloaded the razor and drove over to the wilderness spot - yes, it was taken.  No problem - we drove up to the campground and the first spot we came to was empty and perfect!

After getting set up, Glenn needed a nap so I read awhile.  Then it started to rain - so no ATVing that day - we grilled up some yummy hamburgers and played a game in the toy hauler - a nice evening!

The next day we were up and going and headed out to the razor by 8:00am!!  BRRRRRR - it was darn cold out and I'm so glad there's a heater in it!

I love the mountains over that way - these aspens were just turning light green!

But going up a hill, the aspens were starting to turn!

I must have been slacking since I only took a couple of pics that first day riding - it was beautiful late afternoon and we had a fire and roasted hot dogs!  YUMMY!  Everything always tastes better over the grill!

We were only planning on staying 2 nights but since we didn't get to atv the first day and checkout is at 1:00pm on Friday, we decided to ride all day and spend another night!  And I DID take pics on Friday!

We tried to get up to the Alpine Tunnel on this extremely narrow road but you could only go so far as a huge boulder was in the road - there was a larger ATV ahead of us and he sure had problems trying to turn around - luckily we are small and had no issues!  But it was a great drive up there!

Lunch at a favorite spot!

But of course there's ALWAYS an issue with the razor it seems - we were making a huge loop and were out in the "bare" country by Wuanita Hot Springs (it's about 9 miles off the highway to Gunnison and is known for hosting private events so isn't open very often).  Anyway, the razor starts making horrible sounds - we stopped and Glenn checked the oil and it needs it!  But there's only like a cup in the huge jug - what I DIDN'T know at the time was that Glenn had already put a pint in that morning!!  So he put the little bit in but said he had to have more or it would ruin the engine - so let's go to the hot springs and see if they have any oil!  REALLY???  I know they also run some horses at the hot springs and there's a huge barn and corral but I didn't think they were going to have oil!

We turn around and head to their gate - oh my gosh - it's closed for a WEDDING!!!  And of course he has to choice but to drive in - the razor is extremely loud - and we're covered in dust and dirt with old clothes on - and I'm SO embarrassed!!  The wedding had not started but there were quite a few people around the grounds and the hotel part - I stayed in the razor - Glenn got out and eventually found the owner who took him in HIS UTV somewhere while I'm sitting there hiding my head - HA!  Anyway, they come back with a quart of oil - all I can say is I'm glad Glenn had his billfold so he could pay the guy for the oil!  He gets it put in and we head out, having to drive by all the people standing around !  OH MY!  Not my favorite part of the day!!!!

We made it back to camp just fine!  I had no food for the evening meal as just had packed for 2 dinners so we went downtown to eat - this is a really cute sculpture that I hadn't seen before right across from where we ate.

We ate at the Stumbling Moose!  Food was just fine!

We headed back to camp but stopped so I could take a picture of the stream!  It's always so pretty there!

It was a great 3 days of camping - and our fall trip is right around the corner!!