Happy Thanksgiving from Colorado (Thursday, November 23rd, 2017)

We had the most leisurely day today.  We started out this morning in our PJ's watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live from New York City and drinking coffee in the comfort of Steve's parents house.  Steve's parents left yesterday to visit our niece in Wichita for Thanksgiving, so we have the house to ourselves.  

I don't think that in our entire married life we have ever worn our pajamas past 9:00, unless we were sick, but we chose Steve's parents house to change our ways.  We milled around the house all morning, making our bacon wrapped dates, our amaretto fruit dip and cleaning up the kitchen, all from the comfort of our pajamas.  We were feeling a little bit guilty, but we didn't let that stop us.

Once all of our morning work was done, we finally showered and got dressed for our Thanksgiving festivities.  Our oldest daughter's in-laws, Shanda and Greg, invited us to join them for their family Thanksgiving, which was so nice!  So we headed over to their house at about 2:30.  Their house is always so beautiful for the holidays, and is always open to anyone who needs a place to be.

Our always dramatic daughter.

We sat in the dining room at the "Adults Table" with Shanda's mom Alice and her friend Marilyn, and the other in-laws Bruce and Karen.  We talked a lot about travels, which was fun for all of us.

Shanda and Greg sat with all the kids in the breakfast nook, where it sounded like a lot of fun was being had.

We really enjoyed our time at Shanda and Greg's house.  It was so nice to see everyone and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal that everyone meticulously contributed to.

When we got back home, we swapped out our holiday attire for...you guessed it...our pajamas.  We hung out all evening in our PJ's doing absolutely nothing, except for binge watching a great show that Steve's dad had recorded called "Life Below Zero", about people that live near or above the Arctic Circle.  Since I am a warm weather person, the show truly freaked me out, so I just couldn't quit watching.  I could never live like that!!!

We stayed up till about 1:30, doing nothing but watching prerecorded shows.  We don't really watch TV at home, so aside from our time at Greg and Shanda's, this was quite the crazy Thanksgiving for us!

Fun in Colorado Springs (Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017)

Our oldest daughter was working from home today, so we had a great opportunity to meet her for lunch.  We picked up some sushi and headed down to Colorado Springs.  Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend were going to meet us there so we could all be together, even if it was for just a short time, during this family time of year.

It was a gorgeous day, with the sun shining, no wind, and temperatures in the 60's.  You certainly can't beat that in November in Colorado.  So while our daughter continued to work, the rest of us set up lunch in the back yard.

When she got to a good stopping point our oldest daughter came down and joined us, although we somehow didn't get her in any pictures at all.  And her husband was at work today, so we only got to see him for a few minutes too.  But we'll take any time with these kids that we can get!

Here's our sushi platters.  Super yummy, and nice to have a light meal the day before Thanksgiving.

After lunch our oldest daughter went back to work and our youngest daughter decided to take Albert the Adventure Cat out for a little walk, but he wasn't having any of that!

She finally decided to help him walk.  Maybe he forgot how...  He's so stubborn!

We only got to see our oldest daughter for a short while today, and her husband for an even shorter time, but we were so happy to have this time, and we will see them again tomorrow at our son (in-law's) parent's house.  They were kind enough to include us in their Thanksgiving celebration even though it is their year with the kids for Thanksgiving!  We are so lucky to have such great people in our family!

As we drove back to Denver, we enjoyed this beautiful sunset near Larkspur, Colorado.  We don't get to see beautiful sunsets like this in Colorado very often because we are so close to the mountains, but this one was spectacular!

We didn't expect to get all four of the kids together this trip, so this was a very special day!

Heading to Colorado for Thanksgiving (Monday, November 20th, 2017)

We left the house early this morning to head back to Colorado for Thanksgiving.  We took a route that goes through Las Vegas, NV and then up through Utah and into Colorado.  

By sunrise, we had already been in four states.  We left Arizona, drove through the corner of California, through Nevada and into Utah.  This is a beautiful drive, and one that we really enjoy.

The Virgin River Gorge is in Utah, and is a gorgeous area with steep canyons and jagged rock faces.

Then as we got further into Utah, we enjoyed the plateaus and arches.

Our first glimpse of snow was also in Utah.

I always love the humor they use on the holiday anti-DUI signs, but I think this is one of my favorites.

There was snow on the ground most of the way through Utah, but none on the roads.

Then as we approached the western Colorado border, it all dried out again.

As we made our way through the Colorado Rockies, it really became beautiful.  The scenery from our Rovey's Needle ride yesterday to the snowy mountains of  Colorado today is such a drastic change.

We stopped at our favorite rest stop on the top of Vail Pass, and of course we weren't dressed quite right for the weather, but that's how we operate.  I love my sandals in any type of weather!

Copper Mountain Ski Resort

Dillon Reservoir

Silverthorne

We made our way through five states today working our way toward our destination.  Now we're in Colorado and so ready to see our family and riends that are waiting here for us!

Christmas Tree Skirt...My Latest Project (Tuesday, August 29th, 2017)

I have been working on a Christmas tree skirt for our oldest daughter and her husband for about a year and a half now.  I'm not a very creative person, so I stick to things with patterns rather than trying to freestyle anything. 

Our daughter picked out this cross stitch pattern back in early 2016. I was hoping to finish it for them by Christmas of that same year, but I had definitely under estimated how much time it would take to finish the cross stitch portion it.

Cross stitch is done using a series of x's and straight stitches to make a pattern.  I believe that in this particular cross stitch that there were 256 stitches per square inch!  I didn't think to take pictures as I worked on it, but here is a close up of the stitches to give you an idea of how it's done.  When all of the stitches are done, you go back and outline using straight stitches, which is what really makes the finished product pop!

Once I finished the cross stitch itself, to had to turn it into a Christmas tree skirt.  To do this, you find the center of the cross stitch fabric, and using a string, mark an arc around half the perimeter of the cloth with pins.  Then fold the fabric in half and cut along the pins.







When you're done cutting you have a perfect circle.

I bought a light weight silver material for the lining.  I wasn't sure how my Sailrite sewing machine would handle it since it is a very heavy duty machine.  But here I go cutting it out.  Let's hope it works!

  

Once I had both pieces cut out for the Christmas tree skirt, I measured the perimeter and bought a trim that I thought would look good with the stitching.  When you put something like this together, you have to do it all backwards.  The outsides face each other, and the trim goes inside out between them.  That way when you turn it inside out, it looks the way you want it to.

Then you sew it all up, inside out.  It's not easy.  You have to watch the trim carefully to make sure that the bottom of it is getting sewn in, but that the tassels don't get sewn into your seam.

I think the finished product was well worth my year and a half of work, plus it was a lot of fun doing it!

I gave them their Christmas tree skirt when we were in Colorado this month, so they will have it for their tree this year.  Maybe I can get them to send me a picture of it in their house.  

My Sailrite machine handled the light weight fabric beautifully!  I really can't believe what that machine is capable of!

Now I'll have to figure out what my next project will be!  

Velorama Festival (Friday, August 11th, 2017)

Velorama is a street fair associated with the Colorado Classic Bike Race.  It is held in the RiNo Art District of Denver hosts over 200 vendors, food trucks, and live concerts each night.  I had the chance to go with all of the kids on Friday night, and I certainly wasn't going to pass up that opportunity.

We looked at a few vendor booths, but then realized that we were really hungry, so we headed out to find some dinner at one of the many food trucks at the festival.

Since our youngest daughter has to eat gluten free, it's always fun to see what we can find at an event like this.  Often it ends up being a salad or a sandwich with out the bread, but today, we were fortunate enough to find a quinoa food truck.


We did a southwest quinoa with mango salsa served on a bed of lettuce.  It was really good. 

 And we even found a place to sit while we ate.  

Then back to the vendors for some more fun.

Of course there were a lot of bicycle vendors since it was associated with the Colorado Classic Bicycle Race.  We all entered to win several free bikes, but no luck.  We were never called.

Arrow Electronics was there with their Indy car, but we were sad to find out that it would be unveiled until noon tomorrow.  I wanted to see it so bad!!!

Our oldest daughter signed up for the Maven (car share) app to get some free food.

So we let our youngest daughter pick out dessert.

and oh did she do well!  So yummy!

So we found another place to sit and watched the Colorado Classic Bike Race events while we ate.

Our final stop of the night was the photo booth. 

I love these kids so much!  They make me so happy!