All birthdayed out-August 30, 2014

The Thursday birthday celebration was delicious as I knew it would be. Derrick created a masterful dinner. And it was Mexican as I requested. We were too late getting home that night to post my blog.

Here's 3 month old Zoey, affectionately nicknamed

"Pork Chop".

We have tried for quite a while to get a picture of Zoey. Finally we made it!

 

Friday night we had another birthday celebration and once again we were late getting home. Today started out shoe shopping for Hannah. And this afternoon I was finally able to get to this blog. I think we never planned for our retirement to be so busy. We always thought it would be quiet and lazy. How could we have been so wrong?

 

The weather here is definitely changing. The days are not as hot and the nights are quite a bit cooler. We even had to have heat one night. Snow will be flying before we know it.

 

In spite of being busy, we still plan a day of rest for tomorrow. I hope you can have one, too.

 

Monday starts yet another month. Have a safe and Happy Labor Day!

 

Busy week-August 27, 2014

I had typed this entire blog and it just went away. That's so frustrating. Instead of repeating it all I will post a picture with only a few comments. We had to get up very early to babysit with both Hannah and Zoey. During the morning we walked across the street to visit a minute with the Clarks. They are great neighbors and friends. While there Hannah went out and picked apples off of their heavily laden apple trees. She enjoyed it but she also enjoyed jumping in the puddles left after a brief rain. That girl loves water and mud puddles.

We are loving every minute of seeing the world through Hannah's eyes.

 

I will comment on our issue with our vacuum cleaner. This one was bought less than 7 months ago. It was to replace one we had had only a year but the motor burned up. The carpet brush motor quit on this one. That's two Hoover vacuum cleaners that have had to be replaced/repaired in a year. I can assure you we will never own another Hoover. They are not worth the money. It is very hard to live in this coach without a vacuum cleaner. However, it's not the end of the world so we'll get through it. Thank you for letting me express my disgust at Hoover products.

 

Tomorrow evening Derrick is cooking for us. I requested Mexican. We'll see what he cooks. He is a fabulous cook so we anticipate an excellent meal.

 

 

Can't believe we missed it-August 24, 2014

Do you remember that Lion's Share slot machine at MGM Grand in LV? The one that had never paid a jackpot in the 21 years it had been on the floor? Well, it paid it all out yesterday to a couple from New Hampshire. They walked away with $2.4 million. When we checked on May 1st, it was $2.371 million so in 4 months it had not increased very much. I am sure the couple is very excited. And MGM Grand must be happy to have that machine off the floor. We can't believe we missed it!! We just knew it was waiting on us to return!
You know that is a joke, but we have had fun making jokes about what we would do with the money. Now we don't have to think about it anymore. Congrats to them.

A friend in the park-August 21, 2014

It was such a pretty day today that we decided to take Hannah to the park again. Since school started in Eaton today the park was empty except for a little boy and his grandmother. Gabriel and Maria are their names. Gabriel and Hannah just sort of drifted toward each other. His siblings started school so he was a bit lonely. Gabriel is 3 but smaller than Hannah. He was a very nice and polite little boy. Jerry and I both enjoyed talking to Maria. Gabriel brought toys with him, something we have never done. He was so generous in sharing all of his loaders and bulldozers with Hannah. That's right up her alley. Part of the time they chased squirrels up trees. Both of them ran and ran and squealed. It was so much fun to watch.

Chasing squirrels

 

 

Digging in the dirt.

 

Since Gabriel is a year older, he will be a ahead of Hannah but they will still be in school together. I think it's kind of cute they met in the park when they were 2 and 3 years old. No, I am not match making. I just think it's a fun thing to happen. We will go back to the park tomorrow and take some of Hannah's shovels and buckets.

 

Please pardon me for failing to mention that Zoey is off of the oxygen permanently. It was removed on Aug. 13th. She is doing well. It is so much easier for her to be active without those tubes in her nose. Bless her heart. And she smiled at me for the first time today. She's a cute little girl. She is behind on growth milestones but suspect she will catch up in time. Thank you for all of your prayers.

 

 

 

Mountains-August 20, 2014

We had our annual doctor appointments this morning. (We're good for another year, thankfully). Then we made a side trip to Ault for krautburgers. We had to wait 15 minutes for them to finish cooking. That's about as fresh as you can buy. Then I dropped Jerry at the coach to get some repair tasks done. I headed west to visit Ed and Mary K in Loveland. As I was driving toward Loveland I noticed that the Rockies were unusually magnificent today. Some days they are just mountains. Some days they are huge piles of rock. But every once in a while it is clear just how majestic they really are. Today was one of those days.

I do not talk on my cell phone while driving, but I do put the camera in

the window and take pictures. I wish this picture had turned out

as pretty as they really were. Very, very nice.

 

Looks like you could just drive straight into the mountains.

Not possible, however. The clouds had covered the tallest mountain peaks.

 

We will have Hannah for the next three days, so I may not have time to post to this blog as much as I would like. I know you understand.

 

Thanks, Mary K, for the delicious peanut butter cookies. And I really thank you for sharing that recipe!

 

Sunday-August 17, 2014

Just checking in.

We babysat both girls Friday night. Hannah is so used to having our undivided attention that when I had to hold and feed Zoey, a side of Hannah came out that we did not care for. It was a bad evening. But we still love her!

Yesterday was spent at Derrick's watching Hannah try out her little swimming pool she got for her birthday. The water was just too cold to do that. Then we had a big meal of nothing but veggies from Derrick's garden. Fabulous. I made a key lime pie which we all inhaled. Judy joined us for the afternoon. What a great time we had.

Tomorrow begins one of the busiest weeks we have had since we have arrived here. We'll get it all done and still spend time with Hannah.

I wish you all a wonderful Sunday. Relax and enjoy a blessed day.

North Lake Park again-August 14, 2014

I did not realize it has been so long since I posted on this blog. I have lost all track of time.

We started the morning with a phone call telling us of the death of a guy who farmed when Jerry did. We knew he had been ill but still he was only 60. That made us late picking up Hannah. She was sitting on ready when we got there. Off we went to North Lake Park again. It is a very long drive over there but Hannah managed to sing most of the way. Sometimes we don't know what's she singing and sometimes we do, but it is still such a joyous sound. We cheer and applaud so she won't stop. Please indulge me while I post more pictures of Hannah having fun.

This chair seat is like a Tilt-a-Whirl. Remember those? When it

paused at the top Hannah was quiet. And when it rolled down to

the bottom she squealed. I had a hard time taking pictures while

listening to her get so excited.

 

We were a bit surprised that she knew to put one foot in front of

the other on this balance beam. Is that a normal reaction? We don't

know but we figured she would fall off anyway. She didn't.

She really liked this device.

 

The engine of the cute train we rode twice. This is a fund raiser

for the Loveland Lions Club. Hannah would have ridden a third

time but we thought we needed to take her for a nice lunch.

 

This is one of several sculptures in the park. This one appears to

be a homeless man talking with a little girl in Bibb overalls.

It is a nice piece of work but seems strange to me to put in a park.

But then artists think differently from the way I think.

 

While in the park we ran across a turtle trying to make his way from point A to point B. When he saw us he withdrew into his shell. Hannah was intrigued by its behavior. We spent a lot of time with it and she finally gathered the courage to pet its shell. Then a lady walking a 7 month old puppy stopped so we could pet the shy little dog. Hannah liked that. She likes cats, too. There's something special about a person who has love in their heart for a dog or cat. Next we were finishing our snack when both a Canada goose and a female Mallard duck approached us looking for food. Hannah put her hand out and said "STOP!". It was so funny. Next we got in the way and a squirrel had to scoot up a tree. As we headed to the train we once again encountered the turtle. And once again, it withdrew into its shell. Hannah bent down and shouted at the turtle, "Come out!" To see such small things through her eyes just makes the world seem brighter even on a cloudy day. This was quite a day of wildlife for Hannah to enjoy.

 

We stopped at Smashburger for lunch. The kids meal came with a choice of drinks, so we chose 2% chocolate milk. Wow, was that a mistake. It was an odd carton that the straw stuck in and could not be moved. That in itself is a good point but Hannah picked it up and put it sharply down on the table. Milk went everywhere. My white shirt took on the look of giraffe print. Not a pretty sight. She did not care for the grilled hot dog though she insisted it had to have ketchup and mustard on it, but she inhaled the French fries. We agree that we will gladly take Hannah to a park or take her to lunch but we need a wait a very long time before doing both on the same day!

Birthday-August 10, 2014

While Monday is Hannah's actual 2nd birthday, we decided to celebrate it on Saturday. We had planned to go to Denver to the Aquarium, but discovered how much the prices had increased and decided she is too young to spend that kind of money for a birthday celebration. She won't remember it. Next year will be better and hopefully we can get discount tickets before we go. Instead we went to an enclosed bouncy castle place in Loveland. If you're inside there is no danger of the wind blowing the castle away as has happened several times recently.

This was Hannah's first time in a bouncy castle. When we put her in the first one, she crawled and would not even attempt walking. She learned quickly and almost got the hang of it completely.

Our little "prisoner".

 

 

Derrick volunteered to go into the second castle with her to help

her learn how to play. She caught on very quickly. Derrick enjoyed it, too.

 

We left the jumping place and went to Pizza Ranch for lunch. The last time we ate at a Pizza Ranch was in Rapid City so it has been a while. It was very good and a great place to take a kid for her big day. We all enjoyed it. The Cactus bread is fabulous.

 

Later, back at the house, we had a wonderful meal of Eggplant Parmigiana cooked by Derrick. He did a great job with that meal. Then we had birthday cake.  

 

 

Blowing out the candle.  To prevent spitting on the cake, she got

a little help with the candle.

 

I would have to say Hannah's favorite gift was a bunch of balloons. Her face lit up with excitement when she saw them. Sometimes it's the simple things in life that mean the most. Her second favorite gift was a set of Duplo building blocks that build a train. I told you we were going to encourage her strengths. She also got some living sand. We fell in love with that stuff in Las Vegas. This is a cheaper version of what we saw there, but will serve the purpose in letting her build castles.

 

It was a long day but it was a wonderful day. We are so glad we were here to share this day with Hurricane Hannah. It is doubtful she will remember any of it but we certainly will.

 

It goes without saying that we are having a day of rest today. We need to rest to get ready to spend more time with Hannah tomorrow. Another active week is on tap.

 

 

 

We survived!-August 7, 2014

We survived the 8 hour babysitting marathon last night. We managed to crawl into bed about 2:00 AM this morning. To say we are tired is an understatement. However, everybody is still alive and kicking today.

More later..................

A long day-August 5, 2014

We had to pick up Hannah at 5:45 this morning. Truthfully, we had forgotten the world even turns at that hour. We felt like we were getting up in the middle of the night. Little Zoey had to go to a doctor at Children's Hospital in Denver, so everybody had to get up early. We took Hannah back home at 2:00 this afternoon, so we had a long day. That's not a complaint, just a fact. We won't be staying up late tonight. That's for sure.

I did forget to post pictures from Sunday afternoon. We were at Derrick's as was Josh. He is like a second son to us and is now called "Uncle Josh". He and Jerry decided to build things with Hannah and her pretty pink blocks. As soon as they could build something tall, she'd yell "Boom!" and knock it down with her hands. Then she would laugh so hard it made us all laugh, too.

She is not only playing with the boys, she is wearing little

boy coveralls. I'm not going to be able to turn her into a little lady.

 

Here's that "Boom!" moment.

 

That's all for today. I need a nap. I never take naps, but I need one today.

 

Butterfly Pavilion-August 4, 2014

We did successfully make it to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver today. Traffic was not bad and the weather was good. Hannah behaved very well in an environment that she had never experienced. We have seen other butterfly habitats that were actually better, but it was still fun to share this with Hannah. And to make it better, Jerry's sister, Judy, joined us at the Pavilion and also bought our lunch. You can't beat that!

I'll post a few pictures with as little comment as possible.

The flowers are beautiful.

 

Sorry, the butterfly is hard to see.

 

 

The butterflies were not really too people friendly, so it was hard to take pictures of them.

This is an owl butterfly.

 

The highlight of the visit was to meet Rosie the Tarantula whom we've heard so much about.

Hannah was too young to hold her. The minimum age is 3 years. Judy was too chicken! So, Jerry and I both held her. She was remarkably gentle and so very soft. It was just fascinating. We would not have wanted to miss that. We both received stickers to wear.

 

 

 

It was a delightful day. Hannah slept all the way home. I wanted to, but I was driving!

We are happy to have shared this day with Hannah and Judy.

 

 

 

 

Still here-August 1, 2014

This has been a very busy week babysitting. I have not bothered to take any pictures. I'll keep this brief and let you know we are still alive and kicking. Next week will be even busier. We'll probably be with Hannah for most or all of the week plus one night we will have both little girls. So, grant me some leeway if I don't post a daily blog.

I think I did fail to post one recent picture. Good friends in Birmingham, James and Gloria, gave Hannah a dollhouse that their granddaughter played with when she was young. It was so well taken care of it looked brand new. We have had it onboard with us for quite a while. Finally we felt like Hannah's playing was taking on the imagination needed to play with a doll house. So, we took it out and put it on the floor for her to inspect.

She took to it like a duck to water. And she loves it.

We so appreciate James and Gloria sharing such a nice toy with us.

Please overlook how the coach looks. Since Hannah plays here so much

we have taken on the appearance of hoarders.

Whatever it takes to have fun is fine with us.

 

We do hope next week to be able to take Hannah to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver, but it is going to be such a busy week we might have to put it off. If we take her before she turns 2 (on the 11th) she gets in for free. That's a great incentive. We hope they have an old folks rate for us!