Fun Weekend in Casper

Caylee had two days off of school due to individualized testing so she and I headed to Casper to visit with Dave, Cara and family.

Jade had been asking her mom to go out for lunch after preschool so our visit was a perfect time to fulfill her wish.  She picked good old Micky D's.

 Caylee and I walked to Layla's school to pick her up at the end of the school day.

After an early dinner, Layla, Jade and I headed to the local theater to watch the "Paddington" movie.  We love it!!

The next morning, Cara made a gourmet breakfast.  Over-easy egg on a bed of gently sauteed spinach and garlic, garnished with salsa and avocado with fresh pear slices!  Delish!

Sledding in the neighboring park!

 Layla enjoys playing with Dave's great Lego Collection.

Hiking with Cami on my birthday

 Cami and I went hiking today for my birthday in Falcon Park. We hiked in the same park last week but started in a parking lot just outside of Morrison.  As we were finishing that hike, two young women hikers asked if we could give them a ride back to their car.  Turns out they parked in the other parking lot, took the wrong trail and ended up on the other side of the mountain at our trail head.  So we of course gave them a ride back to their car.  They told us about the ruins of a big house close to the other parking lot.  Cami and I did not have time to go see the ruins on that day.  We decided today was the day.

After our fun hike we headed to Colorado Mills for lunch.  Mod Market intrigued Cami and I have been wanting to take her there ever since Rod and I had tried it out.  I was delighted to see they had a fresh corn and bacon pizza.  I think I died and went to heaven.  It was sooooooooo good!!

Cassy's Baby Shower

Callie wanted to throw a baby shower for Cassy's new baby daughter.  She recruited her sisters to help. Celeste hosted the party, supplied the paper goods, coconut muffins and a strawberry shortcake dessert. Callie brought oatmeal, chocolate chip muffins and breakfast casserole. She also put together the supplies for the games Cara provided.  Caylee made fruit Kabobs.  Kathy made poppy seed muffins.  Cami and Cara coated pretzel rods with pink chocolate and white candies.  Cami put together the invitations, the party favors and the rain cloud backdrop.  Kathy, Caylee and Cara helped with with these projects as well.  We even made Cassy work a little bit, she picked up the balloons Celeste had ordered from King Soopers and of course she had to put together the guest list.  We were happy she all ready had enough friends that we could throw a party!  Rod did not want to miss out on a time when the girls were all together so he came down and joined the festivities as well.  Rod, all six girls and I went to Wendy's for lunch afterwards.  There is a picture of that but it is on Cami's phone and she is off on her grand adventure to Disney World right now.

We crowded into Caylee's "selfie" picture.

Running from the camera!

Mini Family Vacation in Glenwood

Cara, Dave and family are spending a week in Colorado during Layla's spring break from kindergarten. Wanting to spend a little time in the beautiful Colorado mountains they planned a two-day excursion to Glenwood Colorado.  The whole family was invited.  Suzy, Quenton, Callie, Jordan, Drake, Emmie, Kathy and Caylee decided to join the adventure.  We all met at McDonald's in Grandby Co.  To kill time before heading to the  train station in Grandby.  The train was two hours late.  Kathy brought orgami paper and stickers to make paper airplanes with the kids.  No one else was waiting at the station so we took over the waiting room.  We danced, held races, sang song and goofed around.  The adults played around on the tracks, balancing on the tracks and copying Duddly Do Right and his evil counterpart Snidley Whiplash.

We loved hanging out in the lounge during the train ride, watching the scenery out the large double windows.

Once in Glenwood, we walked to our hotels, checked in and hightailed it back to the Glenwood Hot Springs pool.  Little Emmie and Adam did not do well in the pool.  The outside air was too cold for them.  So a lot of tag-teaming went on to cover the little ones in the building while the rest of the group played in the pools. Drake, Layla, Jade and Caylee loved the big pools.  Caylee tried to get someone to jump of the diving boards with her but no one wanted to brave the cold air.  So she put on the diving show by herself.  We all tried to cheer loud while lounging in the warm water.  "Go Caylee!"

We returned to Grandby the following day.  A family was waiting to board the train as we exited.  As soon as the train was out of sight, we discovered the family had left their dinner of subway sandwiches sitting on the bench outside of the station.  Quentin and Suzy said their goodbyes, jumped in the car to race the train to Fraiser where they had another stop.  They arrived just in time as the conductor was closing the door.  We all smiled inside as we imagined the sad hungry families joy at having their dinner restored to them.  Way to go Quentin and Suzy!

Very fun trip.  We should do it again and have the whole family this time!