October Photo Dump

 Not sure if I'm more upset by October being over OR by daylight savings time starting!!!  I do LOVE the sun coming up earlier - that's a plus - but dark by 5:30, no way.......

As you can tell, life has really slowed down lately and I'm enjoying the relaxing days and lovely weather!  

So here's a few photos from October!

The last time Gary and Jessi were down, Kona's frisbee landed on the roof!!  It took a LONG time for the wind to finally get it to the edge and it finally fell off!

Glenn grows carrots in his garden and brought this one in - HA HA!!

The beautiful sunrises have started!!!!

I thought this was a cool picture of the beautiful flowers on our deck (which JUST got taken to the greenhouse) along with Pikes Peak with snow on it!

Went to another musical a week ago with Amy - the show was fantastic and I sang along with "Sunrise, Sunset" as I sang it in high school!!

THIS is what I've been doing during November - relaxing in front of the fireplace with hot apple cider - complete with butterscotch schnapps, whip cream and caramel topping!!!

I was so excited when Jill FINALLY had a weekend to come down - her life has been super busy all summer - we never left the house - just relaxed and ate and talked and read!!

Another gorgeous sunrise!

And the years just keep passing by - our youngest granddaughter Gwyn is in 6th grade and probably the only one that went trick or treating!!

And that's a wrap for October!

FALL

 Just a few pretty pictures of the fabulous fall we're having here in Colorado!!

The next 3 pictures were taken of our aspen grove behind the house!

And this picture was taken off Edlowe Rd, where we used to live many years ago!  Yes, we have SNOW on the peak!

Pre-Season Wrestling/Come From Away

 I did take a picture of the two kids BEFORE Aleah left on Saturday night as she was spending the night with friends!

Sunday morning came EARLY!!  I was originally planning on following Jill and Parker with my car as the meet was on my way home BUT when I found out the time she was leaving, I decided not to - I just don't drive in the dark anymore and I knew their entire journey south at that time of the morning would be in total darkness!  SO I left at 7:00am when there was plenty of light!

I stopped at Ziggys to get a coffee to go - it was delicious BUT the lid didn't fit at all and there was no time to get back in line to get another one - so everytime I picked it up, the lid would pop off - what a mess!!!  As soon as I drank it down a little bit, then I could just take the lid off and not worry about it!

Traffic of course but I made it just fine to the high school that was sponsoring it!  I even got in free because of my age!!

It was a VERY nice school - and once it got started, the matches go fast!  Parker lost his first match!

But then he did great on the next match and won by points!  He's had some knee issues and shoulder issues this last year so hopefully no injuries this next season!

It was fun to watch him wrestle - in between times, Jill and I would walk around the school and then ate a packed lunch before I headed out!  It was a wonderful but BUSY weekend at the Savages!

I drove on down to Colorado Springs and parked at Amy's place - she just lives a block from the Fine Arts Center and we walked over to see the play "Come From Away"!

The musical was EXCELLENT!!!  Probably one of my favorite that I've ever seen!!  And of course it was quite emotional also as the musical was about the planes that were flying from Europe during 9/11 that had to be rerouted to Canada.  Well written and well executed!!  I would see it again in a heartbeat!

So all in all a great but packed 3 days!!  But it always feels good to get home...........

Fort Collins Bound

 We don't normally have much going on during Saturday and Sunday - but last weekend was quite busy!!  Jill had let me know about 1 1/2 months before that Aleah's Senior Softball Day was Oct. 3rd so to put it on my calendar!  Unfortunately, that was our "Dumpster Days" for our neighborhood and not only was Glenn working it, he had 3 loads himself to take over to the roll-offs - so there was no way he could come to Ft. Collins with me!

I left by noon on Friday to miss the traffic - yea, right - you NEVER miss the traffic anymore heading up that way - but I was in no hurry so didn't let the crazy drivers affect me!!  It was sure great to see Robby up and around and he definitely looks better now than he did on his accident day with the motorcycle!  

Aleah was already home from school and Jill came shortly after - it seemed like it had been forever since I've seen them as they never made it down during the summer!

Aleah, Jill and I played cards after we ate dinner - and talked a mile a minute it seemed!!  But all 3 of us went to bed early that night as we had a big day ahead - and yes, Parker sneaked in there somewhere too after working the concession stand at a game!

Jill and Aleah both left early Saturday morning and the other 3 of us left at 7:00am!!!  Yup, early morning for all of us!!  And what a day it was for the Softball Seniors!!

WOW the Bootster Club really goes all out on this day!!  Love the huge posters of the girls and their gifts - the stands were all decorated along with their numbers spray painted on the field!  And check out these cute decorations that we saw first thing when we walked in!

There were 9 seniors this year - all the families went out on the field and as your names were called, each family walked over to home base while the announcer talked about the player!  Then there were speeches and pictures and dads playing catch with their daughters and lots more going on!

It was really quite the program and I was so glad I was there!!!  It was quite chilly when we got there but by the time the game started at 10, we were all sweating in the sun!!

All 9 seniors played the entire game and even won by the 10 run rule which was a blessing because it was so hot!!  Next up was the barbeque for the girls and any families that wanted to eat!!

After helping undecorate the stands, Jill and I headed home and collapsed for a little while!!  Then we were off to a movie called "Verity" - Jill and I had both read the book and wanted to see it - it was really good and we enjoyed it and the popcorn!

Jill fixed a yummy pot pie for dinner and we had another early evening since Jill and Parker were leaving about 5:30 am the next morning to get him to a Denver pre-season wrestling match in south Denver!!!

To Be Cont'd.....

September Photo Dump

 I'm sad that September went SO DARN FAST!!!  Fall has been around a few weeks now and will be on the downhill side soon........

A few pictures that didn't make the blog!

Glenn put some more blacktop on the driveway - it turned out really nice!

Pumpkin bread!!!  And 3 PERFECT loaves - that rarely happens!

Jessi let me know when the "pumpkin spice" English Muffins arrived in her store - I looked for 2 weeks in all 3 of our stores and there were NONE!!!  So depressing!!!  When we went to Denver, our first stop was at King Soopers and they had them so I bought 4 packages!!!  HOORAY!!

The aspens are beautiful on our morning walk!

I worked Food Pantry last week and this was the ONLY water they offered in the cooler - yikes!!!!  So I tried a can of it and decided I DESPISE drinking water out of a can - it has a metallic taste to it!!  And what's with the NAME of this water - oh my!!!  No wonder it's sitting at the food pantry - nobody wants to buy it at the store!!!  HA!!

Our neighbors from OK. were in town so we had our get together!!  Always a fun time - and all 4 of us were rocking Fall shirts so we had to show off!!

What a crazy bunch!!

And that's a wrap for September - on to October whether I like it or not!!

Pueblo Camping and Fishing

 Although our fall trip is ONE of my FAVORITE trips of the year, I decided we weren't going to do it this fall - I'm not really sure why, except for the fact that I didn't think anything could match the beautiful pictures I took last year AND the leaves were not expected to be as brilliant this year due to the drought last winter and into spring!

But now I wish we would have as the leaves ARE beautiful, at least around here!!  But that's OK - something to look forward to next fall!!

So Glenn decided he wanted to go to Eagles Nest, NM to fish - but that didn't work because the campground was booked solid until October........so Pueblo was the next best thing!

And we had never plugged into a campground with electricity since we always wilderness camp so this was a good trial run before we head to Texas next year!

MY GOSH we were long when hooked up to the boat - it's almost a little scary to look at this picture and know we'll be on interstates and such.....WOW!!

Fortunately, the trip to Pueblo was unexciting and I admire that Glenn can drive this tripled up caravan!!

We found our campsite and got all set up - it was GREAT to have electricity and I could turn on as many lights as I wanted to AND use the microwave!!!  We're always very cautious in the wilderness that we don't run out of battery so this was nice!!  Everything worked fine and it was also nice to be able to plug in our phones!!

Glenn headed out to fish as soon as we got set up - I organized a few things and started my book!!

It was cloudy both days we were there - but it didn't bother either one of us!  I would take walks during the day!

The water was pretty but without sunshine it looks pretty dull!

We went to watch Netflix that evening but realized it wouldn't work because we were NOT hooked up to wifi and the campground didn't have it - hmmmmmmm - I'll need to get with Robby and see about using a personal hotspot in case a Texas campground we stay in doesn't have wifi - so many things to think about!!  But I had brought DVD's so we DID have movies to watch!

I was taking a walk when I saw something black scurrying along on an unoccupied campsite and when I got up there, oh my gosh - a tarantula!!!!  The dang thing kept scurrying toward me as I was trying to get a picture - sure wouldn't want one of those in my camper!!!!

There was a pretty sunset the 2nd evening after it rained a little bit!

And the fishing?   Nothing to speak of - Glenn did catch a few small crappie and bluegill - we ate them after we got home and I had forgotten how many bones there are in bluegill - YIKES!!!

All in all, a successful trip!

Gwyn's Track Meet

 Gwyn is in 6th grade this year and went out for track!!  She found out she doesn't LOVE running BUT she really enjoys being on the track team and loves doing the triple jump!!  They let this age group try a lot of the different events so next year they can really concentrate on what they want and like to do!

The track meet was local so that was nice - we headed up early on an afternoon and met Jessi and Gary at the house before we all headed over!

Here's Gwyn standing by the Triple Jump!   She did great!!

The mandatory picture with Nana and Papa!

She also ran in the 800 yard dash - she doesn't particularly like this event but it's sure better than the mile which she had to run a couple of times!!

These two are ALWAYS doing something strange!!!!

Cam joined us a little later!

We enjoyed our picnic dinner we had packed and by the time our sweatshirts were put on, it was almost over!!  Back to the house for ice cream after an enjoyable afternoon!

Jessi and I headed out for an early coffee together at Black Rock and then it was time for Glenn and I to hit the road for home!!