Picture this....

 Last Monday morning might have given me reason for suspect .  This was the first thing I saw after the storm last week.  Not a big thing, but the postage machine and fax machine under a pile of wet ceiling tiles wasn't the best start! ( Later that day, I picked up the fax machine and dumped about a half a cup of water out of it.)

But then, as the week progressed we know that my silly little ceiling fiasco was NOTHING in comparison to what transpired Friday in Manitou.  Mud, mud, and more mud everywhere peppered with cars, trees, chairs and everything else that could roll down the muddy river.

the restaurant where we enjoyed wine and tapas (see patio with the yellow tape)

 What a disaster!  Thankfully, everyone survived and the whole town pitched in to start the cleanup.  The news reports that there could be more of the same with rain in the forecast this week again.  Keeping all of our fingers crossed and grateful that Pam's place was still intact.   Thursday night we celebrated Brad's birthday with dinner at a new fish restaurant, Lucky Fin.  I'm thinking maybe Gabi enjoyed it more than anyone, loving the mussels and clams. 
Afterwards, we had frozen yogurt with all of those "healthy choice" toppings!

Friday, Brad and I headed to Central City to celebrate his birthday.  Not much to say about THAT, other than we could've saved our money and stayed home!  Friday also brought the departure to California of  Carrie and Corbin, following Spencer's return home on Tuesday.  Maybe the "Bickersons" will have some good times after their "separation"!  Corbin was very excited to go and play with Trent and to spend ALONE time with Mommy.  Carrie registered the kids for school before leaving that morning and was able to stop by the building site of their new home.  Wow!  It's really going fast!

 Friday night, Amie and the kids spent the night in Denver, with Amie ready to run a half marathon in the mountains.  She was happy with her time of just under two hours!

Saturday night, we were invited to a 60th birthday party for Anne Masterson.  Since the theme was "Aloha, etc.", Brad and I decided to lighten things up, showing up in our much loved ? costumes from several Halloweens ago.

We had a great time and visited with lots of party-goers!  They had an amazing spread of sliced beef and shredded pork, salads, cake and ice cream and of course wine and beer.
Sunday, Amie took Sophie and Grayson to the water park where they about froze going down water slides...summer is definitely on it's way out!  Brad spent the majority of the day on a ladder (yikes) again scraping the paint off of our "lifetime guaranteed" vinyl trim on the eaves.  (Surprisingly, we were never able to locate the contractor or his product line)

Meanwhile, our Ogallala peeps were enjoyed the lake again, learning to paddle board from Kelly's son, Skyler.  They had a great time and Meredith reports that Elijah would make a great surfer!  The kids were in a Banner parade on Sunday, and late last night I got pictures!  Yay!  It makes it just a teeny bit easier having them gone when we can see them in photos.

 

And speaking of alone time, Spencer and Gabi had some real quality time while Carrie and Corbin were gone.  They had a "date" Saturday night to see a movie and then Spencer took her horseback riding in Estes yesterday AND took pictures!

Gabi had us all guess the name of her horse with the clue- "it's the same name as the most famous Bronco player"- and was amazed that everyone guessed correctly!  Later, our somewhat reduced clan, gathered for Sunday dinner, a chicken, broccoli and rice crock pot meal and some delicious apple pie that Spencer picked up on the way home from Estes.  I guess we all needed a little "comfort food", because there wasn't a crumb left!