The Greats

I have been blessed to have all four grandparents for most of my life. My paternal grandma passed away shortly after we moved back to Denver and the other three have continued to be a big part of our lives.  FFM is particularly close to his great-grandparents, or greats, and we try to see them as often as our schedule allows. We recently celebrated Great Grandpa Moore's 90th birthday.

My Uncle captured this picture, I love that they are deep in conversation and not paying any attention to the rest of us at the table.

 Soon after the party we heard my Great Grandpa Minnick wasn't as sprightly as he usually is. FFM and I both had a couple of days off mid-October and took advantage of some frequent flier miles to fly out to Kansas to visit my maternal grandparents.

The flight out and back was on a good sized prop plane. We walked on the tarmac once (a huge thrill), sat next to the propeller once (explodes your mind kind of thrill), and directly in front of it once (a tiny let down after sitting right next to it). I never knew a window seat could be so entertaining.

The Greats with FFM. He's so excited to be nearly as tall as Great Ma. It was a nice quiet visit, he taught them all about Lego Technic and Perler beads.

 Another highlight of the visit was staying with Katie and her parents. These two kiddos both have SO much personality and love each other SO much that it's like electrifying the room when they are together. Trying to take this picture FFM would squat down to be closer to Katie's height, Katie would immediately squat down, too. F would stand up to get her to stand, and she'd stand up, too. It was a comic scene with lots of photographic outtakes. FFM was busy watching Katie, Katie was busy watching FFM and I finally had to ask them to point at the camera to get their attention.

When you are nearly two you call people by their name and identifier. Thus "Cousin Finn." Although it very quickly got shortened to "CuFinn" or "CuzFinn." And never just once, always multiple times in rapid succession. You can tell exactly what she means by the way she changes the emphasis!

13

Emily Bronte said it perfectly,

     Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same

So the traditional and modern gifts for the 13th anniversary are lace and "textile furs." Try as I might I just couldn't find anything for Travis this year. Next year is animals or gold jewelry. I'm hoping I do better next year.

Pawnee National Grasslands

The final camping trip of the summer is behind us. We waved farewell to our new toy and this weekend Travis hauled it to the camper store for winterizing and warranty work. We made our last trip to the hot part of the state, AKA the eastern plains.

It turned out to be a glorious time of year to be there, the days were warm but not hot and the nights were comfortable. On the way to the campground we watched a massive lightening storm light up the east and in our rear view mirror we watched the sun set over the purple mountains.

Pawnee National Grasslands are a haven for birders, and I think we were the only ones in the campground that 1) Slept past dawn and 2) Didn't walk around with binoculars and a camera around our neck all day.  We opted for some light duty hiking instead.

The Pawnee Buttes. The Pawnee Indians were present in this area of the state as were some of our earliest settlers.

Very comfortable campsite with a dry stream bed / hiking trail just behind us.

We went on an evening hike through the grass land and watched the sun set behind the grasses.

F remarked that the grass was taller than him, and Travis remarked that some of the grass was just as tall as him!

Camping often lures me to bed early, but fall camping means night falls sooner so I could stay up to enjoy a twilight camp fire.

SAHM?

I'm back to work again and for the last few weeks I've felt like I just can't catch up. Laundry, chores, errands, and cleaning (hah!) all seem to be extra hard to get done. It finally dawned on me that I'm trying to maintain our family's stay at home mom lifestyle without actually really being a SAHM.
I work a few, very few, more hours this year than I did last year and the hours I work shifted a little in the day.  Those two things in conjunction have altered my daily schedule enough that my efforts to preserve the family SAHM lifestyle are slipping. So, I'm letting it slip. Dinners are simpler so I'm not in the kitchen all night and FFM can get to bed in time. Travis is pitching in on laundry duty and FFM has picked up a few extra chores, too. The house is perpetually dusty and I'm working on letting that not bother me so much.
If you've seen me lately and are thinking all this work has made me a little grayer you'd be part right. Mid summer, after nearly twenty years, I decided to stop coloring my hair. I'll try going gray for a few months with a few low lights tossed in to help things blend. So far I'm much happier, for the last couple of years my hair has shown roots about ten days after my monthly coloring. If all else fails and the gray drives me nuts I'll go back to full color, but for now I'm sticking with it!

Fall and Fibers

It seems like summer is almost over, the light is shifting to the south, the days are getting shorter, and it SNOWED! Early, it seems, and not very much, but in between our 80F days we had two days of near freezing temperatures and a little flurry.

Having a camper has extended our camping season. When it dips down into chilly temperatures at night at 10,000' in elevation we can hangout somewhere warmer than around the (legal this year!) campfire. Last weekend we headed to the back side of Pike's Peak and camped at a State Park full of great hiking trails. The view from our campsite was breathtaking. We had some unsettled weather and watching the peak change with the clouds and light was mesmerizing.

The garden and yard are slowing down, tomatoes are almost done producing and with the shorter days and near freeze last week most of our veggie plants are shutting down. That means more time for knitting! FFM loves home made stuff. This spring he picked out some blue chenille yarn that I thought would make great snuggley mittens.

 And on the way back from an earlier camping trip we had a lunch stop that included a parking spot right in front of a yarn store having a sidewalk sale. I picked up some soft red yarn with reflective tape wound into it for half price. The request this time, a soft fuzzy hat with flaps and a pom pom on top.

This weekend was the 3rd Annual Yarn Along the Rockies yarn crawl. I picked up some good additions to my stash and will have to get knitting more!