Pet store-February 25, 2016

It was a nice day today so we went to the pet store before coming to our condo. Zoey did not remember she had been before, but Hannah certainly did. She felt way too comfortable in that store. We had a hard time keeping up with her.

Zoey is talking to the fish.

 

Hannah likes fish, too, but not as much as Zoey.

 

Zoey had so much fun she was squealing all over the store even in front of the birds where the sign reads "These birds prefer quiet". Sorry. We did our best.

 

The next time we go to this store I am going to try to take a picture of the glow-in-the-dark fish. They are absolutely beautiful. It always reminds of the episode of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon raises just such a fish. At the end of the segment he turns off the light and the fish is glowing. It's really neat.

 

There was only one cat in the store today. A black one and it was really friendly. Hannah liked it so much I had to take her back in after we were all in the car so she could see it one last time. She truly loves cats.

 

Reading time-February 24, 2016

We had both girls yesterday for longer than usual. It's always a challenge to keep them entertained with something other than watching television. We don't even turn it on until later in the day. We all like Franklin and Friends so we stop to watch that. It's a Nick, Jr show.

Hannah crawled up in the chair and proceeded to read a book

to Jerry. Bear in mind, if you look closely, the book is a 2 inch

square of plastic with tiny pictures that belongs to the doll house

given to us by friends, James and Gloria. That tiny little piece of

plastic provided a 10 minute long story. What a vivid imagination

Hannah has.

 

It was such an interesting story, Zoey had to stop and listen, too.

 

Then we played "Ring Around the Rosie". Zoey loves this as much

as Hannah used to. Here Zoey is rounding the corner with Rosie,

the Mew Mew in her right hand and Fifi, the poodle in her left hand.

All of these little animals are such a part of our entertainment. But

there are so many now we are in need of a suitcase with wheels to

transport them from house to house!

 

We will have them again tomorrow and hope the weather is nice enough to go to the pet store. It's always fun and entertaining.

 

Dominoes-February 18, 2016

Today was Domino Day at our house. They are such a sturdy toy. It helps teach colors, numbers and how to match things. The girls spent two hours playing with a double 15 set and enjoyed every minute. It was nice to have them be quiet and play together.

I'm not sure who was the most intense in this picture.

Big Dog is always close by.

 

Today was a really peaceful day and we don't know why. However, we are grateful.

 

Hannah has a preschool interview/screening tomorrow morning. I remember years ago when you signed up, paid the fee and took your child to preschool. Now they have to be screened.  We will have little Zoey by herself. We are not too sure they will be happy to be separated but we'll figure something out.

 

The wind is so strong tonight, I might be posting pictures from Kansas tomorrow morning!!

Lenticulars-February 17, 2016

Yesterday, after we took the girls home, there appeared in front of us one spectacular lenticular cloud. You know I love clouds. So I will share this one.

This is an almost perfect text book lenticular cloud with the sun

moving west behind it. Such a pretty sight.

 

We had spent the previous 24 hours battening down the hatches against the strong winds so this would indicate we were going to get more. Thankfully the bad winds did not materialize here and we had a peaceful night. Still, I love looking at clouds. That means I spend more time looking up than down.

 

 

Days Run Together-February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

I hope you are having a fun day. We are overcast and still very cold though they say we will warm up later this week. I baked a red velvet cake in celebration of this day. We shared half of it with Derrick and family.

 

We had the girls over on Thursday and it was not quite nice enough to play outside so we found things to do inside. One thing Hannah loves is dancing. If the song has a beat she can dance to it. We need some new music but now that CDs are out of style we are somewhat restricted on what we can play for them. (I can't believe we still have some old record albums in the storage unit. Kids now don't even know what they are). Right before we took them home we let them dance. I could not get a picture of both of them without one jumping up and down. But I wanted to show you their dancing.

 

This was a time of real joy for us since our little she-devils were

not head butting each other or knocking each other down. And

neither was crying because the other one hit her. Just dancing and

enjoying the music. We loved it.

 

 

Yesterday we went over to Derrick's to share the cake and then we decided to take the girls to get a bite while their mother worked in the greenhouse. For the most part they were pretty good but eating in places with lots of adults is not really their cup of tea. The table next to us was having a birthday party and the lady who was being celebrated decided to share her cupcakes with Hannah and Zoey. It was a mistake but it was not a time to decline her offer.

 

Who eats blue frosting on cupcakes? Obviously Zoey does.

But blue stains as bad as red. We had a mess. I even had blue

color on my fingernails from trying to clean the girls up.

 

Here's little Miss Hannah trying to look innocent.

Please note the blue color on her mouth!

 

Blue or not we still had a good time. When we got back to their house and walked them to the door, they still had evidence of blue cupcakes on their faces.  

 

We are hoping warmer weather coming up this week will allow us a chance to take the girls somewhere to play. We all need the sunshine and fresh air. It only takes 10 minutes of sunshine per day to get your required dose of vitamin D.

 

 

 

Ah, the mountains-February 8, 2016

While having coffee this morning we decided, just the two of us, to head to the mountains. We knew it would be a beautiful day up there. Traffic was not too terribly bad so it was a pleasant trip.

The snow was not too deep but it was still a clean pure white.

I love it when it's like this. And it's not on the road either.

That's even better.

 

I was trying to get a picture of the snow capped mountains with

a mountain wave cloud moving over. I did not realize I was seeing

the winding road (I-70 West). This is about where the 6% grade of

highway begins. It's easy in a car but white knuckle time in a coach.

Been there, done that.

 

This little creek is docile and frozen in the winter, pretty and clear

in the summer and a raging torrent during spring run-off.

 

We had lunch at The Buffet in Black Hawk. It was fabulous.

These orchids are at the entrance. The rock wall behind them is a

waterfall. And the Aspen tree trunks are real. This was just

stunning and created a warm welcome.

 

The weather in the mountains was just fabulous. We did not need jackets. The sky was clear and the sun was brilliant. It could not have been a more perfect day to go. We would feel really bad not taking Judy with us but she is in Las Vegas, so we are the ones being left out!!

 

Tomorrow we are back to reality and will have both girls with us all day. We have new puzzles to work on. It will be a fun day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cold-February 4, 2015

It is brutally cold and there's no other word for it. Even Derrick, the hardiest soul in our family remarked tonight that today was really bad. Indeed.

We kept the girls today and yesterday both. That borders on being too much but we thought it was wise this week to babysit two days in a row. We started yesterday with this:

I remarked that this was a really beautiful sunrise yesterday.

The sad part is that we were up that early!!!

 

 

Yesterday for lunch I had a helper.

Zoey loves to put pasta in the boiler. Hannah used to like to

do that, too, but not as much as Zoey does.

 

As a grandmother there is nothing better than having some help in the kitchen. It slows me down but in the long run that will not matter at all.

 

We understand we now have four days off. We won't babysit until next Tuesday. We will use the free time wisely and catch up on things that need to be done here. The girls have reached the age where a full day with them is really exhausting. We are determined to hang in there as long as we can. There are real treasures.

 

They were right-February 2, 2016

If there is one thing I have learned for sure after living in Colorado for 29 years it is that the weather people here are no better than any place else in the country. And if they are wrong they have a boat load of excuses. Having said that, I must say the weather forecasters got it right this time though not the right amount or time frame. The predicted snow arrived later than predicted and they did not account for horrendous wind. We have drifts this morning that are shocking including in front of our garage door. We could not go anywhere if we wanted to. But we don't want to! Stay in and stay warm is the game plan for today.

A car did drive through here this morning but it was taking a chance.

You cannot see where the curbs are. Public roads are worse.

 

Today is trash day. What are the odds we will have trash trucks in here? Slim to none. They have been trying to clear snow across the street at the high school but one of the plows broke down. They hauled it off on a wrecker and gave up.

 

See how the wind makes the snow depth vary.

 

Now the big issue is the cold temps. We will be only in the 20s during the day for the next 10 days. Night temps are single digits and below zero tomorrow night. I can quickly name two people who will be thrilled to see Spring arrive. It's a long way away from now but we still look forward to it.

 

At least Derrick got another snow day today. He can spend the day clearing his driveway instead of working inside an office.

 

So friends on the Gulf coast, do have a good warm day for us!!