Grandchildren, Camping again!, Riding and more...

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Bonnie left on Tuesday with our grandchildren and headed home. She turned the trip home into a 2 day adventure, instead of the 3 days coming down here, with few stops by the sound of it. But they all arrived safely to family anxious to have them all back! We, of course, miss them terribly and are looking forward to their next visit already.

Finally got the bike back from Joe's. The alternator is new and the 20K has been done. So off I went with Kristina in tow and a couple of other friends to Canon City for "The Abbey" and a bit of wine tasting. I ended up purchasing a lovely bottle of "American Reisling" that won a Double Gold award this year. I did taste multiple wines with my favorites being the "American Reisling", "Vineyard Sunset" and "Merlot Divinity". The "Apple Blossom" was quite nice but would fall behind the 3 afore mentioned wines in my opinion. I also purchased a nice bottle of Balsamic Vinegar that we got to taste between wine tastings. Frankly its the best Balsamic vinegar that I've ever tasted. I'm anxious to get a nice loaf of bread from the bakery and dig in!

Well the 51st birthday and 33rd Anniversary are coming up and we've been trying to decide just what to do to celebrate without breaking the bank. So the family voted and its another camping trip! I've contacted Carrie and made her and Cole aware that we'd love to come back for another visit. So on the 13th and 14th we'll be out enjoying ourselves on our 2nd camping adventure at their campgrounds. We've also made sure that they set aside one of the evenings to come and visit with us and have S'Mores! yummmmm....

Speaking of "breaking the bank" a warning to those of you who use your bank cards as debit cards. On the 15th of July our bank contacted us to let us know that my bank card had been compromised and the card shut off. Luckily no money had been taken from the account and I was able to remember that I had only used the card recently on two occasions, once at Dillards and once at the gas station. Typically I use cash for all my purchases. So I waited almost 10 days for a new card. The card finally arrived and I took it with me on the day trip to Canon City, yesterday. When I got home last night with Kristina, David came out to the garage to inform me that my card had once again been compromised! This time "they" got $500 out of the account! Thankfully David caught it and was able to shut down the card before anymore was taken. So this time I used the card at the gas station and at "The Abbey" for my wine purchase. We deduced that the problem is probably at the gas station, it being the common denominator on these two occasions. So we're taking the appropriate steps with the gas station, police, bank, etc. What a pain!

A Park to Camping...

Just an afternoon at the park. The kids had a great time and a small herd of young bucks wandered by. We all loved seeing them...
Our Campsite! We looked out onto the 2 fishing lakes and Canadian Geese that inhabit the area. We got two spots so as to have a place to park the cars behind us all. David, the boys and girls, dogs and I slept in our tent (red one). Bonnie, her girls and Kristina slept in the blue tent (borrowed from Jan!).
Unfortunately the two fishing poles the boys got were both broken. So no fishing this trip. But next time we'll be better prepared. The kids did get to feed the geese and run all over the campground, which of course kept them all entertained and busy for quite some time.

Last night shortly after we all went to bed a cold front moved in and the winds started up. I woke up to our tent whipping back and forth but still left the windows open so as to keep cool. Sometime after that the temps dropped and the winds whipped up into a fury at which point I closed the windows. Believe it or not the tents held and we all stayed warm. Not necessarily rested, but warm. We did sleep off and on after getting used to the sound of the tents whipping around. I guess around 5:30 a.m. I headed off to the bathrooms with Kristina and got to see other tents in the same condition as our own. Battered... but still standing. We loved it all! Everything about this adventure was a plus in our minds. Now as for really camping out in the wilds of Colorado? Well I don't know about that. But I sure did enjoy the campground with its amenities and scenery. Thank you to Carrie, Cole and everyone out at the "Golden Eagle Campground" for a great experience.

Olivia checking out the tents again. She was so impressed that we had tents to sleep in. Of course....... so was I! Everyone seemed to like the fact that they had somewhere to hide for time out or just to relax. See Max in the tent?

Some of the neighbors...

Bonnie attempting to show me how to start a fire for cooking. Please remember that I said attempting...

Carrie and Anika joined us for S'Mores last night. We so enjoyed seeing them and getting to see Anika and how much she has grown. This is Carrie getting ready to enjoy her S'More.

Celebrations, arrivals, and more...

Birthdays! July holds 2 for us. First was Parker's on the 8th. Grammie and Papa sent a card with a check and it took me a while to figure out just what to pick out for him this year. But I finally came up with a great idea and boy was he excited to see these items. A new sleeping bag! and his very first Fishing Pole! Wow! Just a little ripple of excitement ran through the house with the unveiling of these two items.
Bonnie and the girls arrived and then it was time to play dress-up! Yeah!

Kristina's "Sweet 16" birthday on the 16th! She and Bonnie decided to make her cake, this of course didn't surprise any of us, knowing what bakers they both are. White chocolate dipped vanilla wafers with white chocolate shavings over the buttercream frosting sprinkled with pink sprinkles that covered a carrot spiced double layer cake. Sweet enough even for all the kids.



Kristina's birthday dinner consisted of brats, salad and chips.

The wedding ended up occuring on the 13th instead of the 16th since they couldn't find a judge who would perform the ceremony on Friday. So we had to wait until Saturday to celebrate Ivan and Kaitlyn's wedding since they had school to attend to and David was out of town. We decided to celebrate here at home.

Remember having to line up for the ice cream man?