Time flies-August 31, 2015

Where is the time going? Without a calendar we would not know what day it is.

We kept the girls Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week. We tried to recuperate on Sunday but there was not enough time in the day. Then we had Hannah dropped off here at 8:15 this morning. I am sorry but we just don't do early mornings very well these days. We did, however, survive.

I have only one picture to post. On Saturday we took Hannah to a new park. It was so hot we were not sure we were going to survive. This park has no swings so I pushed Zoey around in her stroller. Trees are so few and far between that she was as hot as I was by the time we were ready to go.

Her mew-mews go everywhere she goes.

They all did get a bath at our house. Kittens and Hannah!

 

It was only 99 degrees here yesterday. Today the temperature was not as high but the sun is as hot as any sun I ever felt in Orange Beach. It is truly unbelievable. They keep saying fall is on its way. But I suspect we will have 90 degree temps one day and snow the next. I think I will be ready for it this time.

 

Smoke update: Last Thursday we saw blue sky for the first time in a very long time. It was so nice to get to breathe fresh air. The smoke moved back in on Friday and stayed until this afternoon. We have some blue sky showing with thunderstorms building. One this is certain: the weather is never boring here. And it is impossible to predict, no matter how fancy the equipment.

The Park-August 24, 2015

When we picked the girls up on Saturday morning, Hannah started insisting we take her to a park to swing. Bear in mind, she has a very nice play set in her backyard. We spent a number of days repairing and painting the set so the girls could enjoy it. Now we wish we hadn't worked so hard. We took them to a nearby park. I stayed with Zoey who loves to swing and would do so all day long if she could. Hannah was close by. She climbed up and came sailing down a spiral slide all by herself. That was a first. She did that repeatedly until we began to wonder where her energy was coming from.

I lost track of the number of trips she made down this slide.

After this she went down a tube slide by herself also.

She was an adventurous girl on Saturday.

 

We were much more tired than either of the girls but we survived! It is fun to watch them having fun. Just wish we had a special source of endless energy. 

 

 

Smoke-August 23, 2015

The smoke from the fires in Washington have reached critical level. We are under a health alert. You can't really smell it but it will surely burn your eyes and make you cough. It's following the jet stream so smoke will remain until Wednesday when the jet stream moves. In a place accustomed to seeing for miles and miles we can only see about 3 miles ahead of us. It's almost a suffocating feeling.

See the lovely mountains? No, you don't. They're hidden in the smoke.

 

I feel badly for all that's being lost in the fires. Lives, homes and trees. It's really very sad.

 

 

 

Zoey, the Show-Off-August 22, 2015

Thursday was one of the most exhausting days we have had. First of all, it is hard to let Zoey and Hannah be together very much. Hannah gets really rough with the little one. So, Jerry tends to race cars with Hannah and I push Zoey to walk or crawl. I was able to get some pictures of Zoey when we kept them Thursday.

ZoZo loves cantaloupe. She is hamming it up for the camera.

 

 

She also loves to put on Hannah's Crocs. Most of the time she

gets them on the correct foot, too.

 

I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best, so you got both.

 

For a reason I don't know I am Zoey's best friend. She will squeal for me the moment she hears my voice. I call her "my buddy". She is the most pleasant and loving baby I have ever been around. We are very blessed to be able to spend so much time with Hannah and Zoey.

 

 

Still here-August 18, 2015

I realized today after we took Hannah home that I had not posted this blog in a while. So I wanted you to know we are still alive and kicking!

We took Hannah to a game arcade today, called The Summit. School has started so we knew it would not be busy. Many of the games are too advanced for her but she still had a good time. I was so busy trying to help her I could not take any pictures. Her favorite game was "shooting" ducks with water guns. The problem is that she kept sending them into the wrong garage so she didn't get very many points. But that didn't matter. We enjoyed it, too.

We finally got a little rain tonight. We had 5 minutes of hail and rain last night. We need about 3 days of a slow rain to settle the dust.

Hope all is going well with you. We'll have both girls on Thursday. We'll see what we can do for pictures then.

Another year older-August 12, 2015

When Hannah and Zoey came over here on Monday one of the projects we did was to have Hannah paint us a big picture. She didn't know what we planned to do. Her birthday gift from us was big and I didn't have a ton of wrapping paper, so we used her drawing to cover one side of the gift.

When we arrived at their house for her party on

Tuesday, she was surprised to see this on her gift.

 

 

Hannah wanted mew-mews in red, green and purple

for her birthday. We went everywhere and found only a pink

one. Fortunately there was a green one on her cake.

 

I cannot believe I did not get a picture of Hannah blowing out her candle. But I was beside her helping her blow it out without her knowing. She just doesn't have the hang of birthdays yet. We will coach her before Christmas so she can rip into those presents. We had a fun time watching her with all her energy. Oh, to have only 10% of that energy!

 

 

 

 

Hops-August 9, 2015

I have been meaning to give you and update on Derrick's hops. They are doing very well.

Obviously they don't all grow at the same rate.

 

The big one is 18 feet tall.

 

The hops actually look like little miniature bunches of grapes.

These will be harvested after the first freeze.

 

This is a labor intensive crop that neither Jerry or I would ever want to get involved with even if it is all the rage right now.

 

 

Please let me add one more picture that surprised us this afternoon.

This was a thunderstorm occurring far out on the Eastern plains.

 

 

We will have both girls all day tomorrow so I knew I would not have time to post on this blog. And we will need Tuesday to recover! They are a handful but still fun.

 

 

 

Black Hawk-August 6, 2015

You know we had a slumber party here on Sunday night and were completely wiped out, but still we got up on Tuesday, drove to Denver and picked up Jerry's sister, Judy and headed to the mountains. Wow was it ever beautiful there. I only took a couple of pictures and they were not thought out but I'll share them anyway.

That's a bronze eagle across the street. Can you grasp the size of

it just by looking at the people? It's ginormous!

 

This is my favorite thing about Colorado. The sky is bluer than

any place else in the country. I just love it.

 

It was a gorgeous perfect day in Black Hawk. We had lunch at The Lodge and really had a great time. We hope to go back very soon.

 

Today is our 39th Anniversary. So, to celebrate we went to the doctor's office at 8:00 AM sharp to have blood drawn for our annual check up. That meant we fasted starting last night. So we were starved by the time we were done. We headed straight for the Egg & I in Windsor and had a wonderful late breakfast. That was our celebration meal. We knew we'd be too tired to go out tonight. Maybe next year we will have a party?

 

One thing I forgot to tell you: when Hannah and Zoey were here, we showed Zoey her image in a mirror. She had never seen her reflection but knew immediately who she was. She just grinned and leaned over and gave herself a kiss! So cute. We are giving Hannah a mirror for her birthday so she and Zoey can see themselves. How can any lady get ready without a mirror?

 

 

WE SURVIVED!-August 3, 2015

We survived the duo sleep over last night. However, we don't know our names, what day it is and whether we will be able to walk to the bedroom when bedtime rolls around. Oh my goodness, if we get this bright idea again, call somebody and have us committed! It was an unbelievable experience. They must have had fun because neither one of them wanted to go home today. It bothered me to leave them there.

However, they have a trip coming up tomorrow they don't understand. Their parents are taking them to Sturgis for the Bike Rally. If you know us, you know how unhappy we are about this. However, we are not part of the decision. I'll just be praying constantly.

For most of the time they were here, if Zoey touched anything of Hannah's, Hannah went absolutely bonkers. The screaming got so bad, the people next to us left their condo in the middle of the day. I'm not kidding. But there was one time Hannah did not even acknowledge what Zoey was doing and that was when she was playing with Hannah's toy kitchen. Zoey just loves that thing.

Zoey especially loves the "eggs" which are orange ping pong balls.

And she loves the K-cup coffee pot. It has three flavors of coffee.

 

What treasured memories we are making. They are such a blessing, too.

 

 

Big plans today-August 2, 2015

As we try to get ready to have two overnight guests, we have little time, but I wanted to share a picture or two.

We have been very concerned about Zoey's slow motor skill development. We allow for the fact that the first three months of her life she was on oxygen and could only lie in a bassinette. We have done everything we could think of to get her to crawl. So, part of the game plan on their last visit was to put a bright toy across the room and have her go for it. The toy was this cute little frog with lights, music and three balls that roll through it. Lucked into the find in Wal Mart's clearance aisle. So, we put it across the room, came up the stairs and saw Zoey's face light up just as Hannah swooped it up and ran away with it. Not part of the game plan. We had two items for Hannah on the other side of the room. After the dust settled and we convinced Hannah that Zoey had to learn to crawl, they played together for a short time.

Zoey really likes the frog, so we hope today that

Hannah will leave it alone.

 



For the record, Zoey did a very odd type of movement that could be called a crawl. We've never seen anything like it, but at least she is using her legs. And she moves across the room. We'll keep working on her. Walking and speech come next.

 

 

This is Zoey in the new car seat we bought her. By

state law she is allowed to face forward. Her parents

say she must ride facing back until she is 3. Not in our car!

This car seat totally changed her personality. She loves it.

 

While we fear and dread having two little ones spending the night we know it will be a treasured time. We will make good memories in one manner or another. Derrick is taking them to Sturgis on Tuesday, a fact that does not please us at all. So today we will just have fun and do what the girls want to do. We will catch up on our sleep on Monday afternoon!