Fall

The last few weeks have whizzed by, here are some highlights.

We visited the Denver Botanic Gardens one last time before it moves on, this time at night for the illuminated experience. We loved it. I was glad FFM and I know the paths well, between sculptures it was pretty dark.

 Travis had a business trip so we asked Granny Annie to come with us to our symphony season opener, Spooktacular! F's costume this year was a mad scientist. The dangley bits on his hat lit up and flashed and his test tube full of "molecules" glowed.

 The symphony runs a low key costume contest, winners get to go on stage during the performance. See our little mad scientist on the right side of the photo. He was not shy at all and had plenty to say about his costume and molecules.

under the green arrow

 Trick or treating with old and new friends was extra fun this year. I couldn't keep up and ended up taking a short cut home.

We went to a bowling birthday party, got there half an hour early, and killed time in a photo booth.

 I had surprise surgery on my foot in early November. It required 2 weeks of zero weight bearing. That's HARD. I switched couches periodically for a change of scenery. I'm starting to walk this week, should be out of the boot in about two more weeks.

 A good friend kindly loaned me her knee scooter. I would have gone crazy without it. Crutches work OK but it's hard to carry much when your hands are full of handles. I scooted my tiny path and only spilled a couple glasses of water.

 Our most recent symphony was Symphonic ComicCon. We've been before and knew that wearing a costume was encouraged. Darth Vader was thrilled to walk in to the lobby to find his troops waiting for him. They asked for some time off and raise.

Now we're in the throes of a very low key Thanksgiving week. Being hobbled makes it easy to justify doing little to no prep. When I explained to F that we were having a traditional dinner this year he got upset and told us quite clearly he wanted fondue again. Fondue is now on the menu for Wednesday night with turkey to follow on Thursday. We also had to explain why people camp out in front of Best Buy and he remarked that he still didn't get it, why anyone would want to buy something that badly. Hard to argue with that.

Sharing Neighborhood Thanks

We live in an established neighborhood, most houses are +/- 30 years old. However, a couple years ago the one stray empty lot sold and a new house was built. While a huge surprise to our entire neighborhood and HOA, the new house was built as an assisted living home. It looks just like a regular house on the outside, complete with garage doors, and the main area looks just like a regular kitchen, dining, and family room, but instead of huge bedrooms there are lots of small ones.

This was the first Halloween for trick or treating at the new house, and the kids ended up with bountiful treats, some lovingly hand decorated and wrapped by the residents. The kids asked if they could visit again and we parental units thought that was a great idea.

With a few days off from school, F and Emma both had large chunks of free time, at the same time, and we made today a craft day. The kids made Thanksgiving goodies to hand deliver to the "new house" residents (we also had several discussions about how they should not refer to them as such).

Emma's handprint turkey cards in progress

F's cards, also in progress

It takes 2 to stir a batch of pumpkin muffins

 The staff and residents were a little confused why we were there at first. I kept explaining, emphasizing we were neighbors, and the kids just started handing out stuff. It suddenly clicked, smiles all around, and invitations to come back soon. I warned the staff the kids would likely be back before Christmas.

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.