And Once Again, School Has Started

 It's always fun to post photos of the grandkids going back to school and college!!  So here goes!

First up are the Colorado kids!  Gwyn is headed to middle school in the 6th grade at Eaglecrest Middle School in Centennial.

Parker is a sophomore at Fossil Ridge High School in Ft. Collins.

Aleah is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School in Ft. Collins.

Kenzie is a senior at Eaglecrest High School in Centennial.

Kylan is a freshman at the University of Wyoming, Laramie.

Evan is a sophomore at Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

Rayna is a junior at UCCS, Colorado Springs.

Matias is a junior at UCCS, Colorado Springs.

And now for the Iowa kids!  Maggie is an 8th grader at West Monona, Onawa, Iowa

Chance is a freshman at West Monona, Onawa, Iowa.

Nedelle is attending Northeastern Community College at Norfolk, NE.

So proud of each and every one of these kids!!!

A Trip to Laramie

 Jaime and Brad were supposed to head up to Laramie, WY (where Kylan and Irene now live as Kylan will be attending college up there) on Friday, the day before the wedding - but the other pharmacist had a very sick boy and couldn't work for a couple of days so Jaime had to stay and fill in - which meant they weren't leaving till Sunday morning!!  And that meant I could ride up with them to see where the kids were staying and see the college!

Our first stop though was Denver - I was desperately in need of an adjustment from Jessi!  And she offered BLT's with tomatos from Iowa!!!  Now who can pass that up??????

Now I realize that the bacon is covering the tomato BUT that's OK - I took the picture so I wouldn't forget to write about the BLT!!  They were AMAZING!!

Evan had just returned from Tanzania the week before and look what he brought me - a hand painted coffee mug with NANA on it - SO special!!  This cup will definitely need to be hand washed!!

A group shot before we left - and yes, Kenzie is standing on her tip toes to make sure I look extra short - HA!!!!

The drive to Laramie was pleasant - it's amazing how little traffic there is once you get out of Ft. Collins!  The sky was beautiful that day and I took this picture to remind everyone that the wind doesn't always blow in Wyoming!

The kids' place is cute as can be with plenty of room!  Irene fixed a delicious dinner for us and then we went to take a tour of the college - it is such a nice campus!  Here's the building where Kylan will have most of his classes!

Just a cute place for a picture of the two of them!

There were bunches of these beautiful flowers  -  so well maintained!

I'm sure this picture will be even more beautiful in a few weeks when fall arrives and these aspens turn gold!

Irene's first day of work was on Monday - she is a pharmacy tech and was transferred to the Safeway in Laramie from Jaime's place of work in Woodland Park!

Oops - this picture should have been above  - I took everyone out for blizzards after the college campus tour!

Monday morning we went to the courthouse so Kylan could get Wyoming plates for the vehicles and we ran a couple of errands before eating pizza for lunch!  And then it was time to head back home through all the crazy Denver and Co. Springs traffic during rush hour - YIKES!

But a fun trip and I know Kylan will enjoy going to college there!

A Perfect Wedding

 We don't get invited to many weddings at this point of our lives so were thrilled to get an invite to our neighbors' son, Curtis and his fiance Megan!  Curtis is a police detective in Colorado Springs and him and Glenn had hunted together before and we spend a lot of time at Alan and Debra's place when his kids are there so we knew both of them!

This western themed wedding was held at Pikes Peak Ranch, about a 45 minute drive from our house so left in plenty of time to get there!  The place is absolutely breathtaking for an outdoor wedding!

Alan's late wife Peggy was honored with her saddle and a picture!  She would have loved to dress up in her finest western wear for this occasion!

Even though it rained on the way out there, the sun was shining by the time we arrived and the weather was gorgeous!

It was an emotional service as the bride and groom wrote their own vows - very special!
And Megan's dress was so pretty!

After the outdoor service, we walked down to the event center - there was a huge outdoor area with a few tall tables and lots of stone benches to sit on - open bar so we got our drinks and enjoyed them, along with a beautiful display of appetizers to eat - the shrimp was amazing!

A blue grass band played outside until it was time for the meal which was served inside - Megan had went to many Goodwills, Arc's and other 2nd hand stores and had bought different place settings of china for every seat - they were all different which made it so unique!  Here's proud dad Alan and Debra whom we sat with!

The happy couple!  The guy to the left is Colt who is also a detective but was transferred  to NE a couple years ago - Glenn has hunted with him also and they reminisced about the fun times together!

The DJ got things going after the speeches and toasts!  One of the first "fun" dances was the anniversary dance - all married couples on the floor and when your number of years married is called out you leave the floor as they're looking for the longest married couple!  Believe me, Glenn and I were totally shocked when we were the last couple dancing!!  HOW FUN!!

We danced and danced - took pictures in the photo booth - laughed a lot and just had an amazing time!  Also, met a lot of new people as the ONLY people we knew there were Curtis's family!

We waved the happy couple off with glow sticks and I know they'll have a wonderful marriage!

Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas Company

 It was DEFINITELY company week this last week!  Sister Patty and her daughter Cheri from Omaha arrived for a Monday and Tuesday night stay and Joleen came for a 3 night stay on Wednesday!

We were excited to see Patty and Cheri Monday afternoon - they were headed to the Estes Park area as one of Cheri's kids was there with some friends!  Cheri had never been to our house so we were excited to have her here in Colorado!  We all talked a mile a minute and just enjoyed our time together!

Tuesday morning we met Jaime over at Wild Horse for coffee EXCEPT it wasn't open - Jaime had gotten there first and texted that her car was the ONLY car in the parking lot - but we headed over and walked to the cafe and sure enough it is closed on Monday and Tuesday - darn!  So I ended up calling Lake George and they were open so we headed there and enjoyed coffee!

It was hazy outside and almost cool out as we sat outside!   Jaime joined us for lunch also and part of the afternoon - so fun to visit!

The mandatory sister picture!!

And one last picture before they headed out on Wednesday morning!

In the meantime, Joleen had come in on Monday with some of her family - but had to tell her to stay with another friend for 2 nights until my beds were empty!  She came to the house on Wednesday and spent the next 3 days between my house and her sons' house!

We celebrated our July birthdays!!

We spent many hours catching up and just spending time together - coffee again over at Lake George where another friend was to meet us but unfortunately she forget so it was just the two of us!

So a busy busy week with company - but it's always great to see relatives and friends!

July Photo Dump

 Hello August - you sneaked up on us pretty darn fast!!  But that just makes it THAT much closer to my favorite month of September!!

Just a few pics for the July photo dump!!

Glenn decided he wanted to insulate a portion of the shop so Aaron helped him do it!

Lots of showers in July (HOORAY!!!) which means rainbows!!

Next door neighbors Debra and Al's house - Debra had a surprise birthday party for Alan (we share a birthday!) so helped her out!!  Shown are Alan's 2 sons Curtis and Coty (who is the one that bought our toy hauler) - Glenn has hunted with both of them in prior years!

And the bride to be Meghan who is getting married to Curtis in just a little over a week - she's in the middle!

Twin fawns that I FINALLY got a picture of - they're so cute prancing around!

When Gwyn was here, I had her help me sort out all the toys that were taking up most of the guest room closet - this is the pile to go to Goodwill - we did save a box of books and a few items!

And that's a wrap for July!!

A Weekend With Gwyn

 I didn't think it was going to work out for Gwyn to come down this summer as the Keppys just had SO much going on!  BUT IT HAPPENED!!

Jessi, Kenzie, Jill and Aleah were heading out on a cruise last weekend - and Glenn had planned a "boys trip" to go camping and ATVing with the son in laws and grandsons!  (That didn't turn out so well as only Gary ended up going!!  Not sure what happened with Brad and Kylan but Robby wasn't feeling well so that took him and Parker out of the mix and of course Evan was still in Africa!)

But since Gary was coming down, I told him to bring Gwyn and the dog Kona down to stay with me and it worked out perfectly!!!  Gwyn is an absolute gem to be around and we have so much fun together!

Gary dropped her off EARLY on Friday morning and him and Glenn headed out to Sargents to camp!  Gwyn and I headed over to Wild Horse - she had her smoothie and I had my coffee - yum!

Kona did pretty darn good most of the time - of course she LOVES to explore and we've had such a bear presence in the subdivision lately that I was worried she would run off and try to make friends with a bear - ha!  We did put the leash on her when we walked her but otherwise she just ran around when we were outside playing!

We played LOTS of games and cards - it's not quite as much fun with just the two of us but we make it work!

It was sad to think Gwyn couldn't swing any more as the swing is not only broke, but she's just too tall for it now - but it's still fun to walk down by the firepit!

I fixed her favorite for dinner on Friday night - cheeseburger soup!

Since it was kind of cloudly on Saturday morning, we headed out early to play clicker ball!  I'm sure that's not the name for it but we play indiviually, clicking the apparatus which shoots the ball up in the air and we try to catch it in the cup - harder than what it looks!!!  Our goal is to see how many times we can consecutively catch it - well Gwyn certainly showed me up that day - 85 catches in a row - WOW!!!!

I also taught Gwyn how to play Upwords, one of my favorite games!!  She did pretty darn well for only being 11 years old!!  But I forgot to take a pic!

That evening we had fresh strawberries over vanilla bean ice cream - SO GOOD!

Saturday we headed into town late morning - stopped and saw Jaime at Safeway and got a few things and then stopped at Goodwill but didn't find anything!  And then we were off to the show "Moana" at our local theater!  We enjoyed the movie along with popcorn and not so good lemonade!

We stopped and got a pizza from Papa Murphys to cook that evening!  More outside games and cards and before we knew it, it was bedtime!  

Sunday morning after breakfast, we split a special coffee - yes, this girl drinks coffee just like her mom!

Gary and Glenn got home around noon, just as we were starting lunch!  I sent some cheeseburger soup home with Gwyn and of course Kona was REALLY excited to go home!!  Such a fun time with our youngest granddaughter!!

Texas Company

 Our good friend Cindy has been coming to Pagosa Springs (where her daughter Erica and family now live) for the last 3 years to help with the grandkids over the summer!  I was hoping to see her again this summer and sure enough, she called and said her and Erica were heading to Cheryl's place (another daughter who lives in Firestone) and could they stop and spend a night with us?  ABSOLUTELY!!

We were excited to see them - Erica's kids had flown to WI to be with their other grandparents  - Glenn was disappointed as he enjoys playing with those 3!  Anyway, it was so fun to have them arrive where we talked and talked and talked as you can imagine!!  Mango daiquiris were on the menu for happy hour!

Even taught them to play the Swoop card game and they enjoyed that too - 

I made Erica one of my special coffees the next morning and she sure enjoyed it!  And if you're noticing her glasses look different today - well I asked the same question and she has the type of glasses where there are different colors and patterns on the frames and they are metallic and snap right on - I LOVED them!!

Jaime came over for coffee that morning also and we all had a great time!!!

Here's to GREAT friends and SO many fantastic memories of times spent together!