Busy weekend.  Why does Monday always follow when the weekend about knock your socks off?
We had an amazing day yesterday at the Botanic Gardens in Denver while we were vacating the house for another Open House.   I must admit that I'm sore (even after taking some alleve), with the walking (and the teetering in Gramma's case til we got a wheelchair) all over the gardens. We took Amie, Sophie and Grayson with us and  Heather and Keva met us there, so you'd think it would be difficult to lose track of one another, with 2 strollers, 3 kids, a wheelchair and 3 adults, but NO!  Brad and Gramma took off on a different route and it took some doing to locate them. I took so many pictures that it's a chore to pick out a few.

 

 

 

 Such a beautiful exhibit and a perfect day with a mid seventy degree temperature.  I think Gramma enjoyed it although as we were wheeling around she made some comments like, "Look at all the tall buildings and look at that hedge", both backgrounds to the gorgeous gardens!
Saturday began with breakfast out with the Frosts, followed by making a choice between: 1.) Corbin's football game, 2.) Sophie's soccer game 3.) Sophie's Children's Chorale performing at Lincoln Park and don't forget Gramma's standing P.I.T.A. shampoo/set at 10:00- smack in the middle of things! Brad volunteered to take Gramma and immediately backed our car into Carrie and Spencers' car, causing significant damage to both.  Not so great way to start the weekend....Anyway, he went to Corbin's game and I went to watch Sophie sing, taking Gabi with me.

 We attended a BBQ at Tony and Erin's house Saturday afternoon, celebrating their new landscaping being completed as well as the news of their pregnancy (BTW, she looks cute with her baby bump).
Friday....not so bueno....Spencer was on his way to pick Brad up to go to Denver to help Curt with a job and thankfully, (timing wise) lost a wheel on his pickup, midway from Eaton to Greeley. Yikes! Meahwhile, I went to went to my support group meeting at MCR, followed by an appointment to discuss hearing aids for Brad, followed by a little afternoon wine with Anne.  Gotta have variety, huh?

another 2 weeks.....and Fall has arrived!

Ok, so there was very little to get the camera out for last week, besides a quick trip to Estes Park Sunday (while the house was being shown), and so few pictures since the photographer was also the driver!  We took Gramma as she hadn't been up the canyon in years and made a quick detour by her Mom's old house in Loveland on the way.  Amazingly, Brad was able to direct me there when neither one of them remembered the street name. Brad said it was " near that place where they take those red things out of the ground and make them into that stuff." (yes, that would be the sugar beet factory).  Anyway, Gramma enjoyed the ride and we did as well, having not seen the results of the flooding from a year ago.  It certainly looks like a different place on our drive, with nature's new placement of rocks and trees.  The view from afar, thankfully, remains as majestic as ever.

 I think I'm going to have to rename this blog for now to "Sunday at the Frosts", due to our relocation of the Sunday meal while our house is on the market.  Carrie told me that she had a new appreciation for me, having hosted this weekly event lately.  "It's a lot of work", she said.
So now, another week has passed with a few more pictures taken than last week, although not much real news.  Both Carrie and Meredith are looking seriously at changing jobs, which is certainly stressful and only a few lookers at our house, after lowering the price.  Everyone who has seen it loves it, but no offers..... And that helps us HOW?  (Oh yeah, we keep the house much cleaner!)
My last of 4 support group members (including me) lost her husband this month and we attended his service this week.  Just a year ago there were the four of us with 4 husbands fighting brain cancer, meeting for coffee every Friday morning, and now Brad is the sole survivor.

And although he is surviving, I question the quality of his life at times.  This morning, as I was preparing to get groceries and asked if he could think of anything else we needed.  "Yeah, some of that orange fruit we like (carrots), and some of those things you put stuff in. (???) Those things that go in the (points to refrigerator) that we save stuff in (sandwich bags).  Yesterday, we were going to Corbin's flag football game and I asked him if he knew of a ball field behind Home Depot.  "Maybe, if I knew what Home Depot was". I seriously can't tell you how many times he's asked me that question and if I mentioned it right now, he'd ask again. He generally goes there on a daily basis, too. Oy!
Corbin's game was fun and made even more interesting as his team was playing against Arynn Clark's son's team.  It's crazy to see my childrens' children with their friends kids!

Brandyn Clark

Arynn Clark

Arynn's son J.J. in the blue

Corbin as QB

 

 Saturday night we were invited to the Field's house for Brayden's birthday.  The farm is great for the city kids (and their parents and grandparents!).  We went on a hayride, roasted hot dogs on the fire, watched frog races and saw some amazing BUNNIES.  Gabi was obsessed with the bunnies and probably asked her parents 50 times if she could get one. (They WERE pretty cute!)

 

 

 

 

We decided early Sunday that we would not do the usual family dinner....it made for a long day!  I called and asked Rory if he wanted to go to a movie "The Maze Runner" (also asking Meredith who replied, "Not particularly" (kudos to her!)) and after seeing the movie, Rory's comment was "Guess we should've read the book first" (referring to making sense of what it was about!)
Anyway, happy Monday everyone and enjoy FALL...my favorite season.

Two week catch up....Celebrations galore!

It's hard writing a 2 week family blog trying to encompass 14 days of busy schedules.  Luckily, I have some snapshots of our lives to remind me when time emerges as the winner.  Last weekend was Labor Day and we celebrated with an extra day to enjoy friends and family.  The Yaws family came from Omaha and a barbecue ensued at Carrie and Spencer's house. The plan was to have a Mexican potluck,so Brad, with his "unusual" way of explaining things, confided in Carrie that he had purchased some "green potatoes", (aka, avocados,) so we renamed guacamole  "green potato ole".  His terminology cracks us up!  Anyway, we had a great gathering with all of us, in addition to the Yaws, the Yarnells, Steve and Tracy and Kristi and her boys.  The kids played outside and the window well containing frogs was very popular.

 

Another momentous thing that happened that weekend was revisiting the first townhouse (that I had too quickly assumed would work for us) and wondering where my mind had been the day I said "I'll take it".  We were, thankfully able to get out of that contract and found another that will be much more suitable (as well as much more $$$$). Now we await the sale of ours......

I took this picture of the main living area....

 Moving on along, the second weekend was celebrated with Corbin's 6th birthday, and Brad's and my 45th anniversary.  On Saturday, our realtor scheduled an Open House, so you can imagine how relaxing our Saturday morning was!  We made it through the clean-up, both inside and out.
We began the birthday with a party at Laser Tag, where they've added a rock climbing wall and a rope course.  Corbin was definitely a super star, even unafraid of the heights of the rope course. (I apologize for the crummy pictures....somebody forgot her camera....)

 

 After the party, Brad and I had our anniversary dinner at Bonefish and were surprised to get a table in a timely manner, enjoying some swordfish (and of course, a little Kendall Jackson chardonnay) while Brad dined on crab cakes and steak.  A nice treat!
On Sunday, we got together at Carrie and Spencer's (AGAIN! and btw, thank you for hosting our Sunday dinners until we are relocated!) for a family birthday party meal before the boys (Brad, Curt and Spencer) left to go to the Bronco game that evening.

 

 
He really enjoyed his gifts this year, with his set of talking parakeets at the top of the list (they repeat what you say in a "bird voice"), as well as his Ninja warrior costume, his boxing gloves and "wheelies" given to him by Meredith and family.

 

 After a dinner of grilled burgers, homemade mac-n-cheese, (Rory commented to me on that with, "Woman, you just blew my mind" (on how delicious it was) chip and dip and corn on the cob, we enjoyed birthday cake.  After the departure for the Bronco game, the activities included a puzzle (Meredith and Carrie's favorite), a trip to the park by the kids, followed by a soccer game (where Sophie commented about her Moms' ability to play goalie with "She's such an awesome soccer player. I just can't keep up with that woman!") and a discussion of  "What- I -got- into- the -most -trouble- for- so -far- in -my- life".  Interestingly, Gabi came up with answers quickly and won for the most answers, headed by "1. locking my babysitter out of the house for an hour, 2. spilling a whole bottle of baby shampoo on my carpet and ruining it, and 3. burning a hole in my carpet with my lamp." (AND, to date has never been allowed to have a lamp in her bedroom!)
Rory claimed that sneaking out of the house at a slumber party got him in the most trouble.  Elijah decided that his attempt to "push a baby down the stairs" (he was only a toddler himself at the time) earned him the most trouble with a trip to the Police Station with his dad.  Sophie declared that she didn't have anything BIG, just a lot of little things, like screaming while her mom was on the phone. Emma really had trouble with this, coming up with some pretty insignificant things.  This whole conversation developed right after Grayson took off running down the block, only running faster when we yelled "stop!". Good thing his Mom is a runner or he could easily have been halfway to Cheyenne!  She proceeded to spank him for it, upon which he laughed. Tried the time-out. Laughed again...Oh boy, he may someday top Gabi!
Happy Monday, everyone!